College football Week 9 takeaways: Auburn struggles, USC upsets Ohio State

Final Week Nine Thoughts from Auburn and Across the Land

        For the second straight week, the Auburn defense could not hold up against a powerful SEC offense. A week ago, Auburn cut the LSU lead to 17-10 in the second quarter. Then, DJ Durkin’s unit surrendered 21 unanswered points. Fast forward a week later, the Auburn offense cut the Ole Miss lead to 17-15 with 6:20 to play in the third quarter. Another improbable road upset of a ranked team seemed very possible. The Rebels then scored 28 straight to polish off a 30-point route of the Tigers. The defense is not solely to blame for the outcome. Auburn’s offense could not sustain drives when it needed to. It also only managed to rush for 63 yards. That is not going to win a road game in the SEC. The offensive line again struggled to protect Byrum Brown or open up holes for the running game, surrendering four sacks and ten tackles for loss. Auburn’s defense, on the other hand, did not sack or really affect Trinidad Chambliss in any way. He finished with 328 total yards and 3 touchdowns. The Tigers must improve its play on both lines of scrimmage if they want to beat Arkansas this Saturday and snap its streak of five consecutive losing seasons.

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        Lincoln Riley finally won a big game. A week after being blown out at Wisconsin, the Trojans upset second-ranked Ohio State, who limped into the Coliseum without its quarterback, Julian Sayin. USC dominated the Buckeyes 30-18. Riley still managed to somewhat mar the moment by getting into a sniping contest with Ohio State staff on the way to the dressing room. Then, he read a prepared statement to start his press conference. Nevertheless, he did pick up his most impressive win in his thus far unimpressive tenure in Hollywood.

        Oregon showed the college football world they are not done yet. The Ducks have won two of their last three since falling from the rankings after losing to UCLA at home last month. Oregon came from behind to improbably beat Nebraska in the dying seconds two weeks ago and then upset #20 Northwestern on Saturday 34-26. In an interesting side note, former Oregon head coach Chip Kelley is now calling plays for the Wildcats. This Saturday should make for an interesting game, as Oregon travels to The Horseshoe to take on the Buckeyes. If the Ducks can win that one, a season that looked to be lost may be back on track.

        Wisconsin and Luke Fickell could not handle prosperity. The Badgers strolled into Iowa City fresh off a big upset win over USC and proceeded to get shutout 30-0 by the Hawkeyes. It was the kind of disappointing performance that has defined much of Fickell’s tenure in Madison. Iowa moved to 6-2 on the season.

        Syracuse dealt a blow to SMU's playoff chances. The Orange upset Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs 30-27 inside the Carrier Dome. Syracuse has won two in a row after starting the season 2-4. It will be an interesting matchup this weekend when Clemson comes calling. The Tigers are fresh off a 36-24 win over Florida State that sent Mike Norvell packing in Tallahassee. Don’t feel too sorry for Norvell. He will pocket over fifty million buyout dollars over the next six years.

Other headlines

· #1 Miami, #4 Indiana, and #8 BYU all avoid the upset bug, which is running rampant in 2026.

· Indiana and Minnesota incredibly exchanged 60 yard field goals in the last 19 seconds to close out regulation before the Hoosiers won it in overtime, 23-16.

· #13 Texas Tech has the inside track to the Big 12 championship game after defeating #22 Arizona. No tequila shots in Tucson this week.

· #3 Georgia once again dominated their rivals from Gainesville. Florida has lost six in a row in the boarder rivalry, as the Dawgs take it in Atlanta, 27-8.

· Colorado snaps their winless Big 12 conference record with an overtime triumph over Kansas State.

· South Carolina continues to roll as they get another impressive road win over Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners.

· Washington pulled off an improbable win. They trailed Nebraska 7-3 late in the fourth quarter. The Huskies then scored 10 points in under a minute to flip the game in its favor. This type of stunning late-game collapse has become all too common in Lincoln.

Until next week...

Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.