If Week 12 of the 2025 college football season had a theme song, it would be Comeback, baby comeback!. As per usual with college ‘ball, some very big upsets were very much on the table before some of the wildest swings you have ever seen took place. We round up the best of a wild week, along with the latest AP rankings, below:

 

South Carolina 30 @ 31 Texas A&M
Greatest comeback in school history preserves Aggies’ unbeaten record.

The fraud alarms were blaring as SEC favourites Texas A&M entered the tunnel to the locker room after a first half that saw them trailing by a whopping 30-3 margin to a previously struggling South Carolina side.

It’s unclear what head coach Mike Elko did to motivate his team in the break, but whatever was said lit a fire that fuelled the greatest comeback the school had seen, eclipsing the Aggies’ previous biggest comeback, when Johnny Manziel led A&M to overcome a 21-point deficit against Duke in the 2013 Chick-Fil-A bowl.

Elko spoke after the game about how he didn’t know what to say to his team after the stunning turnaround, admitting “I’m not lost for words very much, but I was lost for words with the team in the locker room after the game”. Elko was able to be effusive about his team’s spirit, however.

“A lot of that emotion was just pride in who they were, how they conducted themselves,” he said. “There’s not a lot of teams that have a culture and a core that will just keep going.”

A&M QB Marcel Reed turned what was looking likely to be a career-worst into a career-best performance, with a stunning second half showing that saw him finish the day with 439 yards and three touchdowns (to go along with his brace of first half picks and fumble that was recovered for a touchdown). Reed shared the specific motivation the Aggies had for not wanting to let the Gamecocks get one over them again like last season.

“We wanted revenge on this team,” he explained. “They put us out of the question last year [knocking them out of Playoff contention after a seven-game winning streak], and they could have put us in a bad position this year… But we got this win, and it was important for us.”

It looked like the Aggies might falter near the finish line after a Jamarion Morrow fumble on a trick play gifted the ball back to the Gamecocks with three minutes left on the clock and a single point deficit to overcome. However, it was time for A&M’s defense to step up with Dalton Brooks and Cashius Howell sacking LaNorris Sellers on consecutive plays. Facing a fourth-and-16 with the game on the line, Sellers was stopped short of the line to gain and the Aggie’s unblemished record was preserved.

Amid circulating rumours that QB Sellers could be considering leaving for another school, this would have been a huge victory for the struggling Gamecocks. Head coach Shane Beamer, who had fired up the crowd as he left the field at half-time was solemn in his reflection on his team’s performance after the game.

“To say that I’m hurt for our guys is an understatement,” he said. “I know the rest of the country was surprised with what was going on in the first half, but we weren’t. And, when you’re dominating, you don’t look at the scoreboard, you just keep going and that’s what we talked about. In the second half, I’m just feeling disappointed with the way that we performed.”

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Iowa 21 @ 26 USC
Trojans weather the storm to bounce back against Hawkeyes.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was lashed with torrential rain throughout the game and, at half-time, it looked as if the Trojans’ hopes of a win had been washed away. USC found themselves having to overcome a 21-10 deficit, the largest they have faced this season, to effectively keep their Playoff hopes alive.

QB Jayden Maiava was clear after the game that this is a position they don’t want to find themselves in again, saying “we don’t want to play catch-up, but this is a really dominant group, and we’re going to go out there and get the job done ourselves”.

Receiver Ja’kobi Lane, meanwhile, was pleased with how the team stepped up to the challenge. “You can’t ask for a better response than that,” he claimed. “Both sides of the ball just jumped at that opportunity. I definitely think there were some realisations at half-time. If we were going to respond, there were some things that had to be done.”

Iowa QB Mark Gronowski and the Hawkeyes offense looked unstoppable in the first half, with Gronowski accounting for a rushing score and a touchdown reception before ultimately being shut out by a resurgent Trojans defense in the second half.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz reflected on the disparity between the halves, admitting that “certainly, we played complete team football in that first half. Went about as well as we could have hoped, and really off to a good start there. Certainly, the second half, just to flip on that a little bit, wasn’t a matter of effort or any of that stuff. It’s just USC did a good job of coming back and maximising their opportunities”.

Iowa managed to get within scoring range, needing a touchdown to win, but turned it over on downs. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the ensuing USC drive then handed a game-ending first down to the Trojans. “To me, it looked like one of our assistants ran out on the field, apparently,” Ferentz offered in explanation. “Literally stepped over the line.”

Trojans coach Lincoln Riley was jumping for joy on the sideline at the conclusion of a hard-fought game, and explained how important the scoring drive early on in the second half — which culminated in a touchdown from Makia Lemon — was for the team’s momentum.

“Getting points on that first drive (after half-time) was big, and we just got on a run from there,” Riley said. “It just felt like we were going to stop them every time. Felt like we were going to score every time. The energy in that room at half-time, I felt very strongly we were going to come back out and make a run.”

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Florida 24 @ 34 Ole Miss
Rebels run over Gators in comeback win.

Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy was the driving force behind a comeback win for the Rebels, accounting for 224 yards and three touchdowns that included his go-ahead score on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Lacy’s final score with under two minutes left sealed the deal before the Rebs forced a turnover on downs and were able to kneel it out for victory.

“That last one, the offensive line came down and my quarterback got enough of an outside block to give me a seam,” Lacy said. “It was tight, but I was able to squeeze in there. Then I started thinking, ‘Now we get a bye week’.”

Lacy now has 19 rushing touchdowns on the season, surpassing the school record previously held by Quinshon Judkins (16).

Head coach Lane Kiffin was exuberant about his running back’s performance.

“He was lights out. He made big conversions and, when we had to make plays, we did.” Kiffin said, before speaking just as positively about the team’s defensive performance. “We’re 8-0 at home. It’s really cool. We shut them out in the second half and we came away with a 10-point conference game. Really pleased.”

This was another game that saw a big swing following the half-time break, and Rebs QB Trinidad Chambliss shared some insight into what was spoken about in the break.

“At half-time, we told each other — and the coaches told us — that it was really 0-0,” he smiled. “You can see good things really happen when you get the ball in Kewan’s hands and our defense threw a shutout in the second half when we absolutely had to have it.”

After struggling in the first half, Chambliss finished with a solid stat line of 301 yards and a touchdown, but was also sacked five times.

Despite coming up short, Florida’s interim coach Billy Gonzales said his team ‘played their hearts out’.

“There’s no quit in this team,” he insisted. “They went out there on that field and defined who they are.”

Since the departure of Billy Napier earlier in the season, Florida is a much-desired landing spot for prospective head coach candidates — including Lane Kiffin. Ole Miss fans made their feelings known about the potential departure of their coach as chants of ‘We want Lane” reverberated around the stadium during the game.

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Oklahoma 23 @ 21 Alabama
Sooners hold back the Tide in Tuscaloosa.

Oklahoma secured the upset over #4 ranked Alabama with a strong defensive showing that generated 17 points from three turnovers, with Eli Bowen’s 87-yard interception return being the highlight of the evening.

The victory ended a 17-game home winning streak for the Crimson Tide and keeps the Sooners in contention for a potential Playoff berth.

Oklahoma held the lead for almost the entirety of the game until Alabama jumped in front with a one-yard rushing score from Daniel Hill. However, Tate Sandell’s field goal was enough to snatch victory back as the stout Sooners defense shut out Alabama in the fourth quarter to secure the upset.

Alabama QB Ty Simpson had a solid, if unspectacular, night with 326 yards, a touchdown and an interception, but unfortunately could not come up with the goods when his team needed them most, as his late fourth down pass to Ryan Williams fell incomplete and dashed any hopes of a win.

Tide fans will also be rueing a missed 36-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game by Conor Talty but, if anything, Oklahoma’s offensive performance was worse, accounting for only 212 total yards. QB John Mateer finished with just 138 passing yards and a rushing score, but it was enough with the dominant defensive display. Oklahoma held Alabama to just 57 yards on their final four drives. That, along with the turnovers generated by a defense that now has six across its last two games, was enough to hold back the Tide.

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AP Poll Top 25 (entering week 13):

1. Ohio State

2. Indiana

3. Texas A&M

4. Georgia

5. Ole Miss

6. Texas Tech

7. Oregon

8. Oklahoma

9. Notre Dame

10. Alabama

11. BYU

12. Vanderbilt

13. Utah

14. Miami

15. Georgia Tech

16. USC

17. Texas

18. Michigan

19. Virgina

20. Tennessee

21. James Madison

22. North Texas

23. Missouri

24. Tulane

25. Houston