With one minute and 51 seconds to go on Saturday at Penn State, the SwampSwamiSports.com #1 Indiana Hoosiers were in deep trouble.

The 9-0 Hoosiers were on the ropes on the road as the home team Nittany Lions had just rallied from 13 points down to take a 24-20 lead.

Happy Valley (which hasn’t been happy at all this year with the team’s 3-5 record) was literally rocking the stadium.

IU quarterback Fernando Mendoza needed to guide his team 87 yards with no timeouts remaining to keep the Hoosiers unbeaten.  The Penn State crowd of 107,000 created a wall of noise cascading onto the football field urging the home team to rise up and make a final defensive stand.

Indiana was having none of it.

Fernando Mendoza completed one pinpoint pass after another to move the chains and quickly put the Hoosiers within striking distance of the Penn State end zone.

On the tenth play of this crucial last-minute drive, the Indiana quarterback lobbed the football toward the back of the end zone.

Wide receiver Omar Cooper, Jr. leaped into the air, caught the ball, and tap-danced to get both of his feet down inbounds as the Penn State crowd sat in stunned silence.  

TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” judges would have awarded Omar Cooper, Jr. with “10’s” for that incredible dance.

Indiana’s improbable 27-24 win at Penn State moved the Hoosiers to a perfect 10-0 on the year.  IU is the only FBS football team with a 10-0 record. 

They remain the SwampSwamiSports #1 FBS team for a fourth straight week.

But what about…???

Defending national champion Ohio State is 9-0, but the Buckeyes’ cupcake-laden schedule has kept them at #3 for yet another week.

Ohio State will play at home (doesn’t it seem like they play every game at home?) again on Saturday against 3-6 UCLA. The Buckeyes remain in Columbus the following weekend of November 22 to play 5-5 Rutgers.

A road game (gasp!) finds the Buckeyes playing arch-rival Michigan (7-2) on November 29 to close the regular season.

Texas A&M improved to 9-0 and claimed second place this week after its third consecutive SEC road win (at Arkansas, at LSU, and Saturday’s 38-17 drubbing at 6-3 Missouri).

A return to AggieLand awaits A&M this Saturday against struggling South Carolina (3-6).  Texas A&M feasts on a pre-Thanksgiving cupcake on November 22 as 1-9 FCS member Samford comes to College Station.  The Aggies’ final game is a road trip to Austin to play arch-rival Texas on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

What?  No football coaches were fired this weekend!

Auburn’s former head coach Hugh Freeze remains the most recent FBS-level head football coach fired this fall.  Auburn’s interim coach D.J. Durkin made a solid debut as the 4-6 Tigers forced 8-2 Vanderbilt into overtime before falling 45-38.

Some believed that the loser of Saturday’s game between floundering Florida State at clumsy Clemson would become the next high profile coach being sent to the unemployment office.

Clemson’s long-time head coach Dabo Swinney was thrilled as his under-achieving Tigers won this game 24-10. The Tigers improved to 4-5 in a season where Clemson received a #4 preseason ranking by the Associated Press (another good reason not to do preseason rankings)

Florida State coach Mike Norvell is now clinging to his job after the Seminoles dropped to 4-5 as well.

A season-opening victory over Alabama (now 8-1) launched FSU to a comfortable 3-0 start.  Since then, the Seminoles lost four straight ACC games.  They rebounded for a 42-7 victory over 6-3 Wake Forest on November 1 to provide a brief glimmer of hope to FSU fans.

Coach Norvell’s only chance to keep his job (if it’s not already too late) is for the Seminoles to win their three remaining games – at home against Virginia Tech and then on the road at NC State and in-state rival Florida.

Impressed this weekend by:

Texas Tech – The nation’s leader in NIL spending ran its record to 9-1 by thrashing formerly unbeaten Brigham Young 29-7 in Lubbock on Saturday.

The “Permian Shale” Red Raiders have legally purchased one of the nation’s finest football teams this season.

Viva Diego Pavia!

Vanderbilt’s Swiss Army knife quarterback found his mojo again in the second half to rally the Commodores over Auburn.  Pavia passed for a career high 377 yards and ran for another 112 as Vandy took a 45-38 overtime win to move its record to 8-2.

Tulane – Former BYU quarterback Jake Ratzlaff was on fire!  He finished 16-23 for 332 yards and three touchdowns as Tulane took a road win over 8-2 Memphis.

The Greenies are now 7-2 and kept their hopes alive for a College Football Playoff spot.

Sam Houston finally wins!

The winless Bearkats ran the second half kick-off at Oregon State for a 98-yard touchdown.  Sam Houston’s special teams unit would block a fourth quarter punt by the 2-8 Beavers and run it in for a 32-yard score as well. 

The Bearkats (now 1-8) were outgained in this game 474 yards to just 157.  However, the final score still reflected a Sam Houston 21-17 victory over a stunned colony of Oregon State Beavers!  

That leaves 0-9 U-Mass as the only remaining FBS team without a win this season.

Let’s review this week’s SwampSwamiSports.com College Football Top 25 rankings for the week ending November 8, 2025:

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