College Football Week 8 Winners and Losers: Indiana is 7-0, and Alabama is not

Week 8 was one of the most well-structured we’ve seen all season in college football.

There were intriguing games throughout the day on Saturday, leading off with Indiana’s coming out party against Nebraska before Tennessee handed Alabama its second loss of the year to win two out of the last three in the once-lopsided rivalry series.

In the nightcap, Georgia made a statement in Austin, taking down the No. 1-ranked Texas Longhorns to create a logjam with six 6-1 teams atop the SEC.

While the weekend didn’t feature a lot of earth-shattering results, it did provide us with some more information ahead of a College Football Playoff race that could be wild over the final month of the season.

Here are the winners and losers.

Winner: Indiana is a CFP contender, and you will treat it as such

For a program with more all-time losses (712) than any other at the Division I level, moderate success has not exactly been impossible to come by in Bloomington in recent years. Tom Allen, who got the boot after the 2023 campaign, led Indiana to an 8-5 season in 2019 followed by a 6-2 campaign in the shortened COVID season.

But the Hoosiers are approaching uncharted territory here in Year 1 under coach Curt Cignetti, who came in after quickly building James Madison into one of the Group of Five’s top programs just two years removed from making the jump to the FBS. They’re 7-0 on the season, and in the biggest test so far on Saturday, they passed in as convincing fashion as they possibly could have.

Indiana’s offense could score at will against a vaunted Nebraska defense as Cignetti’s team remained unbeaten with a definitive 56-7 win. Perhaps the rapid improvement at IU shouldn’t come as a major surprise considering Cignetti portaled more than a few starters from James Madison while adding Kurtis Rourke, one of the top quarterbacks in the Group of Five.

But not even the most fully committed Indiana truther saw a start like this coming, even with a pretty backloaded schedule. Indiana is a legitimate College Football Playoff contender and will get the chance to prove itself later in the year. The Hoosiers host GameDay this upcoming Saturday against Washington and will face Michigan and Ohio State in November.

Those games will tell us exactly how real this Indiana team is, but the Hoosiers have a very good shot to win 10 games for the very first time in the program’s 137-year history.

Loser: We’re going to find out how Alabama handles a rebuild

While the Vanderbilt loss was obviously more embarrassing for new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, it was Saturday’s loss on the road against Tennessee that raised more alarm bells to me.

Against the Commodores, ‘Bama fell victim to a truly game-changing player in Diego Pavia and lost a strange game. On Saturday in Knoxville, the Crimson Tide was flat-out beaten by a Tennesse team going through its own set of struggles on the offensive side of the football (as strange as it is to say, Vanderbilt is the more potent offense at the moment).

Jalen Milroe continues to wilt against strong defenses — aside from Georgia’s, for some reason — and he threw a pair of interceptions in this game during an inefficient outing in which he totaled just 239 yards on 45 attempts. Alabama’s defense continues to be a concern, as well, after it was gashed on the ground by Dylan Sampson.

This is not a bad team, but let’s just call it like it is: Kalen DeBoer stepped into the unenviable role of replacing Nick Saban, and since then, he has started 5-2 with losses to Vanderbilt (for the first time since 1980) and Tennessee, a rivalry series so lopsided in recent years that the Tide only dropped it once during Saban’s tenure.

DeBoer is a proven winner and seems to be able to keep the recruiting operation running smoothly. On paper, everything should be fine here, and for most programs, it would be. But this has not been as turnkey as Alabama fans hoped, and a CFP berth now doesn’t look particularly likely.

To be clear, DeBoer is under no pressure and probably wouldn’t be for a while. But this season certainly hasn’t been an ideal first impression on a fanbase that demands nothing less than the absolute best.

Winner: Clemson’s quiet resurgence

Given the turbulent state of the sport in 2024, it’s a bit ridiculous that most of us wrote off Clemson after an admittedly lifeless performance in a loss to Georgia in Week 1. The Bulldogs are one of the best teams in the country, and since getting humbled to open the year, Clemson has been out for blood.

The Tigers haven’t even played a semi-competitive game in the weeks that followed with the closest win coming by 16 points on the road against FSU. This time, they beat a much more dangerous Virginia team 48-31, allowing 21 fourth-quarter points in a game that was never slightly in doubt.

Quarterback Cade Klubnik has come into his own this season, tossing 20 touchdowns to just three picks at this point. Most of that has been overlooked, and this column is guilty of it too. It’s time to rectify that.

While Miami is unbeaten, the Hurricanes have looked vulnerable on defense and continue to skate by weaker opponents. There’s a compelling case to be made that Clemson should be viewed as the ACC favorite, and therefore, a strong CFP contender at this point.

This looks like the best team Dabo Swinney has had since Trevor Lawrence left for the NFL, and while no one’s arguing his program wouldn’t be better served by adding a few more transfers (or any, at all), he deserves credit for the way this team has responded since Week 1.

Loser: Texas not quite ready for primetime

Saturday’s game against Georgia was the opportunity of a lifetime for a Texas program that has been desperate to prove that it’s “back” for the better part of two decades. The first major SEC conference game at home was always going to be a big one for the Longhorns, but after an undefeated start, they entered this one ranked No. 1 and would have become a clear national title favorite with a win.

Unfortunately, Texas just wasn’t quite ready for the smoke. Georgia’s defensive front gave the Longhorns a ton of fits throughout the game but especially in the early goings with Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams combining for five Bulldog sacks.

Steve Sarkisian opted for a brief but eyebrow-raising quarterback change amid a slow start as Texas fell behind 23-0 early, but Arch Manning didn’t fare much better. Quinn Ewers returned to start the second half and found some success as Texas closed the gap but wasn’t able to erase it entirely.

It wasn’t all bad for the Longhorns — evidenced by three interceptions against Carson Beck — and it’s the kind of game Texas should learn from if these two were to face again later in the season.

The Longhorns should be able to bounce back when they hit the road to face Vanderbilt on Saturday. Surely, there’s no way that could go wrong.

Quick Hitters – Winners

• Wisconsin: The Badgers are quietly 5-2 after winning their last three games by a combined 101-point margin. With Tyler Van Dyke lost for the season early, it looked like it could have been a lost year for Luke Fickell, and that is far from the case.

• UCLA: It’s been a rough year for the Bruins in DeShaun Foster’s debut campaign, and there may not be many more wins on the slate. But UCLA won’t be going winless in the Big Ten after holding on to take down a disappointing Rutgers team on the road.

• Cincinnati: Another team that was largely written off entering the season, former Indiana quarterback Brendan Sorsby has led the Bearcats to an impressive 5-2 start, most recently beating a hot Arizona State team.

• Tennessee: The Volunteers have issues that will likely hold them back from being a national title contender, but wins against Alabama — two out of the last three, no less — are worth celebrating.

• Illinois: Illinois is having a really nice season, and it got even nicer with a fairly dominant 21-7 win over the defending national champions while wearing one of the strangest throwback uniforms you’ll ever see.

• Maryland: Sure, it’s a down year for USC. But for a Maryland fanbase that’s been desperate for a signature win under Mike Locksley, it will take a win over a blue-blood and a subsequent field-storming.

• Colorado: The Buffs continue to impress, holding Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan in check during a 34-7 beatdown win over Arizona. Colorado is clearly a significantly improved football team in Year 2 under Deion Sanders.

• Georgia Southern: The Eagles took down James Madison to assume control of the Sun Belt East and continue to have a solid year in what is a pivotal season for coach Clay Helton.

• Kansas State: Since the BYU loss, the Wildcats look like a much better team and are finding more success in the passing game with quarterback Avery Johnson after smacking West Virginia on Saturday.

• Florida: The most brutal stretch of the season has now begun, but the Gators seem to be improving after a beatdown win over Kentucky. Billy Napier is an upset win down the stretch away from potentially changing the hot-seat conversation that surrounds him.

• Georgia: If the Bulldogs hadn’t run out of time against Alabama, this would be the clear favorite to win it all once again. Georgia showed it can be prone to some ugly football as shown by the first half against the Tide and the way the offense played for much of Saturday’s win over Texas. But even with Beck throwing three picks, UGA won by 15 on the road against the top team in the country.

• Duke: The Blue Devils beat Florida State for the first time in program history on Friday night, which has to feel good even against one of the worst FSU teams in the modern era. I don’t know how good Duke is, but it’s 6-1, and even in the ACC, that counts for something.

• BYU: The Cougars continue to impress, overcoming a sloppy game to survive at home against Oklahoma State. It wasn’t pretty, but they’re still unbeaten and could be the Big 12 favorite after fellow unbeaten Iowa State also nearly escaped at home against UCF.

• Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech dominated Boston College on Thursday night to get to 4-3 on the season. It’s been a disappointing campaign, but the loss to Vanderbilt has aged about as well as losses to Vanderbilt possibly can, and the Hokies were a controversial call away from knocking off Miami. They seem to be getting better at the right time and can still impact the ACC race with just one conference loss.

Quick Hitters – Losers

• Auburn: The Tigers aren’t an awful team, but they are one that just can’t seem to find a way to win. They squandered a 17-3 road lead against Missouri, a script Auburn fans have become accustomed to this season.

• Nebraska: Someone had to be the victim of Indiana’s statement on a national stage, but if you’re the Cornhuskers, you would have ideally liked to see your team show something resembling a pulse. Still, Nebraska is one win from clinching bowl eligibility for the first time since 2016, which would make the season a success.

• Rutgers: It seemed like the schedule could be shaping up for a nice run by the Scarlet Knights, but things have completely fallen apart over the last couple of weeks. UCLA became the latest team to hand Rutgers a disappointing loss despite traveling across the country.

• Oklahoma: The Sooners are just not playing credible offensive football right now. They went back to Jackson Arnold on Saturday, but that didn’t spark much, either, in a 35-9 home loss to South Carolina.

• Michigan: Speaking of not playing credible offensive football right now, it’s just baffling how much the Wolverines have regressed. Sure, they lost a first-round quarterback, but there were certainly better options in the portal than the three signal-callers who have started games this season with very little success across the board.

• Cal: The Golden Bears suffered their latest heartbreaking loss on a missed field goal against NC State. Talk about an absolutely brutal season for a team that is more competitive than its 3-4 record shows.

• UAB: The Trent Dilfer debacle continued with a loss to a struggling USF team. The hire never really made sense in the first place, and his tenure has been an unmitigated disaster for what should be one of the G5’s better programs. Won’t someone put a stop to this?

• USC: The Trojans have just about played their way off the winners and losers column. The fact that I am no longer surprised when USC loses to middling Big Ten teams is the biggest indictment of the state of Lincoln Riley’s program I could give.

• Arizona: Perhaps the preseason ranking and Big 12 title hype were ambitious for a program that suffered a late coaching change and some subsequent portal losses. Outside of Fifita and McMillan, an electric receiving duo, this team doesn’t have much to hang its hat on.

• Texas Tech: The Red Raiders were viewed as one of the most surprising teams in the country after a 5-1 start. Then, they lost to Baylor and a likely lame-duck coach in blowout fashion.

• A quiet coaching carousel: Likely due to fears of mass player attrition, schools have been slower to fire coaches this fall. But we saw our first firings on Sunday as East Carolina opted to move on from Mike Houston while Southern Miss fired Will Hall. The former was blown out by Army, while the latter lost at home to Arkansas State as fans in the stands called for his ouster.

• UCF: It’s been a rough year for the Knights, but they nearly had a signature win against top-10 Iowa State in Ames. Losing a game in which you return two interceptions for a touchdown is absolutely brutal.

• Iowa: I’m not sure what’s going on with the Hawkeyes, but they just don’t look like themselves this season. They lost 32-20 at Michigan State on Saturday, and Iowa should never lose when it scores 20 points.

• Kentucky: Another team that doesn’t look like itself, Kentucky’s defense — statistically one of the nation’s best — was gashed by a Florida team relying on true freshmen at quarterback and running back. Not ideal for Mark Stoops.

• Utah: With Cam Rising’s season officially over, Utah will be moving forward with Isaac Wilson — brother of Zach Wilson. Wilson has started several games this season, but this offense just doesn’t look viable right now after a 13-7 home loss to TCU.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: College Football Week 8 Winners and Losers: Indiana is 7-0, and Alabama is not