Week 9 could have been the most upsetting week of the 2025 college football season so far but, thanks to late-game mishaps and heroics, the favourites prevailed. We wrap up the best of a tumultuous week below:

 

Alabama 29 @ 22 South Carolina
Crimson Tide avoid upset thanks to late Sellers fumble.

Alabama couldn’t and wouldn’t believe they were going to lose the game when they found themselves trailing South Carolina by two scores late in the fourth quarter.

The belief that they could overcome the deficit drove them over the finish line, as quarterback and Heisman hopeful Ty Simpson explained after the game: “We knew that this was going to be a dogfight coming in, right?… But there was not one ounce of non-belief. We knew what we had to do and we made sure that we were going to be unbreakable with everything that we had — and that’s what we did.”

These sentiments were echoed by head coach Kalen DeBoer, who noted: “If you play with confidence, you give yourself a chance.”

Simpson finished the day with 253 yards and two touchdowns, but it was Germie Bernard’s two scores in the last two-and-a-half minutes that saw them over the line. After Bernard’s first touchdown, a four-yard reception followed by a two-point conversion to Josh Cuevas, there was still a mountain to climb in stopping the Gamecocks from scoring and getting the ball back, but the defense stepped up as Deontae Lawson stripped the ball from QB LaNorris Sellers’ grasp for the pivotal turnover.

“I had two hands on it because I knew they were trying to strip it,” Sellers said. “I was thinking the ref was going to blow the whistle and that is when I started to fall down. When I was going to catch myself that’s when I took my other hand off the ball and I guess that is when he got under it.”

The Tide capitalised on the turnover when Bernard took a direct snap 25 yards to the house, but could, and maybe should, have gone down inbounds to salt away the clock before a game-winning field goal attempt.

“Coach gave me the green light to go ahead and score, so that’s what I did,” Bernard said after the game.

Ahead of the fourth quarter comeback, the student section swelled towards the barriers in anticipation of flooding the field after achieving a monumental upset. However, it was the Crimson Tide that washed over the turf instead of a wave of Gamecocks come the end of the game. South Carolina coach Shane Beamer was understandably deflated after what could have been a massive uplift following a string of disappointing results.

“It’s hard — as the coach, I feel like I’m letting a lot of people down,” Beamer said. “I know today let a lot of people down. I wish I had something to say to make it better.”

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Texas 45 @ 38 Mississippi State (OT)
Manning leaves game injured as Longhorns rally for overtime win.

Another upset was very much on the cards as Texas trailed Mississippi State 31-14 at the end of the third quarter and 38-31 with five minutes left, before a 79-yard punt return from Ryan Niblett tied the game with just under two minutes to play.

Arch Manning, who had one of his better games of the season with 346 yards, three passing and one rushing touchdown along with a single interception, had to leave the game early in overtime with an apparent injury, leaving the heroics to backup Matthew Caldwell. Caldwell’s touchdown pass to Emmett Mosley prevented the upset and extended the Bulldogs’ now 16-game SEC losing streak.

Despite a career-best performance from Mississippi State QB Blake Shapen (381-yards, 4 TDs), it wasn’t enough to propel them to a much-needed victory against a conference opponent.

“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to be able to close games out better,” Shapen reflected after the game. “It comes down to who wants it more. I think our team does want it more, but we’ve got to be able to show that.”

Bulldogs coach Jeff Lebby spoke on the disappointment, but also the need to look forward. “We’re going to find out what kind of foundation we have as we go on the road and play another really good football team,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to knock that door down. Incredibly disappointing, frustrating to say the least. We’ve got to finish the game and go win it and our guys understand that.”

Texas have now put together back-to-back gritty wins after last week’s close victory over Kentucky. Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian explained what these games mean to the culture of the team: “Once a year, you have culture wins and that was our culture win (vs. Kentucky). I think we got a mulligan because this was our culture win. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of a group of guys. Our toughness was going to have to be the best it’s ever been for our programme.”

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Texas A&M 49 @ 25 LSU
A&M’s perfect season continues as Kelly finds himself suddenly unemployed.

Texas A&M and Marcel Reed’s stock continues to rise as the Aggies’ unbeaten run continues, with Reed’s 202 passing, 108 rushing yards and four total touchdowns securing A&M’s first win at Tiger Stadium since 1994, as well as propelling the quarterback up Heisman boards.

Aggies head coach Mike Elko spoke about the team’s success, its best start to a season since 1992, when he said, “We want to be a program that achieves things. We don’t want to be a programme that just talks about what they want to achieve, what we should achieve, what we are capable of. Right now, you are seeing the culmination of that — a group of kids who understand that there is a lot of work into being successful, and then go out there and fight for three-and-a-half hours.”

However, A&M struggled to keep pace early on in the game and found themselves trailing 18-14 at the half, with Elko having to motivate his players to overcome the deficit: “You are the better team … and if you don’t play better football, you are going to let one slip away.”.

Elko reflected on how his team were almost overwhelmed by the moment but also how their focus on fundamentals and details pulled then through the second half.

“Early on, we were a bit too much into the emotions of it all and weren’t handling our emotions the right way,” he said. “In the second half, we played clean football and played mistake-free football. When we do that, we are really good.”

Garrett Nussmeier’s season of struggle continues, as he was only able to amass 168 yards and one touchdown as he faced consistent pressure from an Aggies’ defensive front that sacked him five times. Nussmeier was eventually pulled from the game with 6:02 left on the clock in the fourth.

“We were struggling in protection and thought it would have been unfair [to leave him in]”, Kelly explained. “To have him get injured at that point would have been malpractice.”

“Nobody’s more disappointed than our football team,” Kelly continued. “Our fan base should be upset. They have every right to be. That second half was unacceptable on any level.”

However, Kelly was to be the most disappointed of all come Sunday morning, when he was informed that he was being fired. Now speculation begins around who will succeed him in one of the most coveted CFB coaching jobs of all.

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Ole Miss 34 @ 26 Oklahoma
The Chambliss fairytale continues as Sooners fall short again.

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss continues to look impressive as the Rebels bounced back from a frustrating narrow loss against Georgia last week.

There was no letting a lead slip this time, however, as coach Lane Kiffin how his team stayed calm and focused amid the echoes of last week’s game.

“Same Georgia feeling,” he conceded. “Crowd started coming alive. And then obviously, much different response by us. And I didn’t feel like they ever, you know, kind of freaked out. And they had each other’s back.”

“He’s a winner,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said of the Ole Miss quarterback. “It’s what he’s done against everybody. But we needed to play better [to] have a chance to win. We needed to do a better job against him and I didn’t have them ready to do that.”

That winning mentality led Chambliss to 315 yards and a score, as he remained elusive throughout the game, keeping the Sooners’ defensive front on their toes by amassing 53 rushing yards as well as scrambling out of the pocket to extend plays and search for targets. Chambliss was greatly supported by Lewan Lacy on the ground, with 78 yards, and Winston Watson, who reeled in 111 yards through the air.

Venables reflected on the disappointment for his players saying he was ‘hurt for our guys’, before elaborating on the team spirit they displayed.

“They fought their butts off,” he said. “They showed great toughness and resolve. Had a chance on a day where we didn’t coach them good enough and we didn’t play good enough situationally. We still had a chance with the ball to go down to tie the game against a really good football team. A lot to learn from in a really painful way.”

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AP Poll Top 25 (entering week 10):

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. Texas A&M
4. Alabama
5. Georgia
6. Oregon
7. Ole Miss
8. Georgia Tech
9. Vanderbilt
10. Miami
11. BYU
12. Notre Dame
13. Texas Tech
14. Tennessee
15. Virginia
16. Louisville
17. Cincinnati
18. Oklahoma
19. Missouri
20. Texas
21. Michigan
22. Houston
23. USC
24. Utah
25. Memphis