There are five unbeaten teams left this season in college football.
No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan, No. 4 Washington and No. 5 Florida State all took care of business last Saturday.
PODCAST: Week 13 almost had all-out chaos
No. 6 Ohio State was the only undefeated team to lose its first game last weekend. The Buckeyes fell 30-24 to Michigan, and the Wolverines won the Big Ten East Division.
Here are some noteworthy quotes as focus turns from Week 13 to Week 14.
Ryan Day, Ohio State
Ryan Day and the Buckeyes suffered rivalry defeat for a third year in a row on Saturday.
No. 2 Michigan beat No. 6 Ohio State 30-24, and defensive back Rod Moore put the final nail in the coffin with a game-sealing interception with 25 seconds left.
Day and the Buckeyes are familiar with this sort of rivalry aura. They’ve not met their goals of beating Michigan, winning the Big Ten Championship and capturing a national championship, and they haven’t met the first two since 2019.
Day summarized his feelings after the game in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
“Hard to describe now, just sick,” Day said. “The fact that we came up short in this game. You work your whole year for it, and we came up short.”
Bo Nix, Oregon
Oregon finds itself with an interesting scenario this upcoming weekend.
The Ducks are in the Pac-12 Championship game for a fourth time in five seasons, and this year, they’ll compete against the same Huskies team that beat them 36-33 in Week 6.
Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will prove to be a stiff challenge for the Ducks after passing for 302 yards and four touchdowns in the first meeting between the two teams.
Fellow Heisman Trophy-contending quarterback Bo Nix is hot on Penix’s heels leading the country with 3,906 passing yards, and he said the Ducks are right in position that they wanted to be.
“That’s exactly how we wanted it because of the circumstances because we did lose the first one, and they’re going to be a great opponent,” Nix said. “They’re going to be very respected, and we just got to go out there and do our part.”
Nick Saban, Alabama
The Iron Bowl proved this year to be a classic once again.
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No. 8 Alabama held on for a 27-24 win at Auburn, and the Crimson Tide will roll into conference championship week on a 10-game winning streak.
Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe threw the game-winning touchdown pass with 32 seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter against the Tigers. He found receiver Isaiah Bond from 31 yards out, and did so on 4th and 31.
Alabama earned its fourth-straight win over Auburn, and Saban has been around to recall some of the signature moments from the rivalry series.
“So do I need to really say anything? I mean, it’s an unbelievable game,” Saban said. “I guess if you’re in this long enough, sometimes it goes against you in the last play of the game and sometimes you’re fortunate and it goes for you. And our players really stepped up, got a couple of stops when we needed to on defense, which we didn’t play great all day, but we got stops when we needed to, and offense put some drives together and we overcame adversity.”
