Just 11 unbeaten teams remain halfway through the season.
Week 7 represented the halfway point in the 2024 season. There are now seven weeks to go in the regular season — each team gets two bye weeks this year thanks to the way the calendar falls — ahead of conference championship weekend.
With the season at its midway mark, it’s a good time to take stock of the undefeated teams remaining. Will any of the 11 teams without a loss be able to make it through the entire season undefeated? Based on how the first seven weeks have gone, we’re not sure.
11. Liberty (5-0): Last season’s Group of Five representative in the New Year’s Six bowl games has an uphill climb to make the playoff. The Flames’ best win is a 35-24 victory at East Carolina and beat FIU 31-24 in overtime earlier in the week. Liberty has a great chance to go undefeated again during the regular season thanks to a weak Conference USA schedule, but after the Flames got blown out by Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl, it’s easy to see the playoff committee taking a team with a loss or two that played a much tougher schedule.
10. Pitt (6-0): This feels a bit harsh to have Pitt at No. 9, but it’s more about Army and Navy’s impressiveness than it is about Pitt. The Panthers beat Cal 17-15 on Saturday in a game that wasn’t too pretty to watch. Pitt had just 277 yards of offense as Eli Holstein was just 14-of-28 passing for 133 yards and two interceptions, We’ll find out just how good the Panthers are after their Week 8 bye in games against Syracuse and SMU.
9. Army (6-0): The Black Knights are blowing out every team they play. Granted, Army hasn’t played a terribly tough schedule so far, but its closest win is a 24-7 Week 2 victory over Florida Atlantic. Army blew out a reeling UAB team 44-10 on Saturday and has a real chance to be undefeated before playing Notre dame on Nov. 23.
8. Navy (5-0): The Midshipmen were off in Week 7 and already have big wins over Memphis and Air Force. QB Blake Horvath has accounted for 17 touchdowns as he’s thrown for seven and rushed for 10. Horvath has 66 carries for 565 yards already this season and is putting up the best numbers for a Navy QB since Malcolm Perry rushed for over 2,000 yards in 2019.
7. Indiana (6-0): Don’t be too surprised by the Hoosiers’ undefeated start. The hire of Curt Cignetti from James Madison was one of the best moves of the coaching cycle. Cignetti’s teams have never had a losing season since he became a college head coach in 2011. Former Ohio QB Kurtis Rourke has been fantastic in his first season in Bloomington too as he appears fully healthy from a knee injury he suffered at the end of the 2022 season.
6. BYU (6-0): BYU easily handled Arizona on Saturday in a 41-19 win. BYU forced four turnovers in the victory as the Cougars have now caused their opponents to turn the ball over 14 times through six games. That rate may be unsustainable. And can BYU really rely on QB Jake Retzlaff to do it all? We like the Cougars chances of being undefeated ahead of their renewed rivalry game vs. Utah on Nov. 9.
5. Iowa State (6-0): The Cyclones appear to be the class of the Big 12 at the moment after a 28-16 win at West Virginia. Just one team — Baylor a week ago in a blowout loss — has scored more than 20 points against the Cyclones and the offense can run and throw the ball effectively. Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins have been one of the best receiving duos in the country and Carson Hansen ran for three TDs against the Mountaineers.
4. Miami (6-0): The Hurricanes sat out Week 7 following their wild comeback win at Cal. Miami overcame a 35-10 deficit in a 39-38 win as Cam Ward has emerged as one of the midseason Heisman favorites. After a close win against Virginia Tech in Week 5, Miami would be well-served to avoid another scare against Louisville next week.
3. Penn State (6-0): A lot of college football fans got introduced to Penn State TE Tyler Warren on Saturday. He had 17 catches for 224 yards and a TD (after snapping the ball on the play!) in Penn State’s 33-30 overtime victory at USC. Even though the Trojans lost at Minnesota in Week 6 and fell out of the top 25, this was no gimme for the Nittany Lions. And they passed the test, even if Drew Allar had his first multi-interception game of the season.
2. Oregon (6-0): The Ducks won a 32-31 thriller over Ohio State on Saturday night in a game that featured six lead changes and ended as Ohio State QB Will Howard slid to the ground with the clock at 0:00. Dillon Gabriel is now the No. 2 betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy after his three-TD performance against the Buckeyes and Oregon’s receivers were able to consistently get open in the Ohio State secondary.
1. Texas (6-0): Oregon fans would like to see their team at No. 1 here and in the AP Top 25 on Sunday. But the Longhorns did nothing to show they should drop from No. 1 in their easy 34-3 win over No. 18 Oklahoma. Yes, Quinn Ewers was rusty early, but that was to be expected after his four-week absence. Once Texas got it going, Oklahoma didn’t have any answers. And the score could have been a lot worse for the Sooners had Texas not missed a field goal or failed on a fourth down attempt inside the red zone.
Here are the rest of this week’s winners and losers.
Winners
Arizona State: The Sun Devils are 5-1 after their 27-19 upset over No. 16 Utah late Friday night. Cam Skattebo rushed 22 times for 158 yards and two TDs as ASU picked off Utah QB Cam Rising three times. ASU is 2-1 in the Big 12 and just a win away from bowl eligibility after winning just six games combined over the past two seasons. Things are looking promising for second-year coach Kenny Dillingham after he inherited a mess in Tempe from predecessor Herm Edwards.
Notre Dame: The No. 11 Fighting Irish’s pass game showed life in a 49-7 win over Stanford. Riley Leonard was 16-of-22 passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers in the easy win. It was the first time all season that Leonard had thrown for more than 163 yards and he doubled his TD output through the first five games of the season. Notre Dame harbors real playoff hopes, and the passing game has to look like this more often if the Irish are going to be a part of the 12-team playoff.
Wisconsin: The Badgers played some old-school football against Rutgers. Wisconsin rushed 47 times for 309 yards in the 42-7 thrashing of the Scarlet Knights. Tawee Walker had 24 carries for 198 yards and three scores, while Cade Yacamelli rushed four times for 75 yards. The Badgers are now 4-2 and Saturday’s win is a big step towards a winning season with games against Penn State, Iowa and Oregon looming after a trip to Northwestern in Week 8.
Northwestern: Speaking of the Wildcats, they pulled away from Maryland in the second half on Friday for a 37-10 win over the Terrapins. Maryland lost three fumbles among four turnovers and also failed to convert three fourth-down attempts. Northwestern’s offensive stats were not pretty, but they didn’t need to be thanks to Maryland’s generosity.
Vanderbilt: The Commodores didn’t have a hangover from beating Alabama. Vanderbilt beat Kentucky 20-13 in Lexington on Saturday night to move to 4-2. QB Diego Pavia threw two TD passes as Kentucky couldn’t get out of its own way. Holder Wilson Berry fumbled two snaps — one on a field goal and another on an extra point — and threw an interception after one of them. The Commodores also got some great news after DE Miles Capers was taken off the field on a stretcher in the first half. Capers was able to return to the sideline on the second half.
Losers
Utah: Rising’s long-awaited return did not go as planned on Friday. He made his first start since suffering a right hand injury in Week 2 and his right leg got rolled up on early in the game. Rising did not look like himself at all and was clearly in pain throughout the game. After the loss — Utah’s second of the season — coach Kyle Whittingham said that Rising’s mobility was limited because of the early leg injury and that “it was very apparent that he’s not 100%.” Rising needs to be fully healthy if Utah is going to sniff the Big 12 title.
Washington: The Huskies followed up their big win over Michigan with an egg against Iowa. The Hawkeyes easily won 40-16 as Kaleb Johnson rushed 21 times for 166 yards and had three total touchdowns. It was Washington’s second trip across multiple time zones for a Big Ten game this season and they’ve lost both of them. Long travel is going to become the norm in the Big Ten, and Washington and Oregon will be the teams racking up the most miles.
Wyoming: It’s an ugly season in Laramie so far. The Cowboys gave up 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to lose 27-24 to San Diego State. The loss drops Wyoming to 1-5 in coach Jay Sawvel’s season succeeding longtime coach Craig Bohl. The Cowboys had seven straight full seasons with six or more wins before Bohl retired and were 9-4 in 2023.
UCF: The Knights made a QB change to no avail on Saturday as they dropped to 3-3. UCF lost 19-13 at home to Cincinnati as 17-year-old freshman EJ Colson made his first start. It didn’t last long. Colton was replaced after he was 1-of-4 passing for minus-6 yards and rushed three times for six yards. Jacurri Brown took over was was 13-of-20 passing for 207 yards and a score, but it wasn’t enough. Former Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson had been UCF’s QB over the first five games of the season.
