How do you come back from this? How is there any pathway forward for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss with this statement? Are we about to see a team play a home playoff game with an interim head coach?

Plenty of people in the college football industry have weighed in on the absurdity of this situation, but let me add one more thought:

Nick Saban is correct here, but he isn’t right. The calendar of college football creates awkward situations when people change jobs, and that’s pretty much always been true. But everyone else seems to be able to quietly go about their business until they change offices – as we speak, Tulane head coach John Sumrall probably already has the ink dry on his contract with Auburn. There’s only one guy who wants to make things about himself at the most awkward available moment.

You know who else knows that? Nick Saban, WHO FIRED LANE KIFFIN AS HIS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR A WEEK BEFORE THE NATIONAL TITLE GAME BECAUSE HE WAS TOO DISTRACTED BY THE FLORIDA ATLANTIC JOB. 

And how, as someone about to write a $90 million check, do you feel good about this being the guy depositing it? Not that the current administrations at LSU and Florida are known for decision-making, but having a coaching search play out like an audition for a new Bravo reality show (it’s a shame the BYU job isn’t open) screams red flags.

This whole mess has gotten so weird that there might be only one alternative scenario that exists, and again it only exists because this is Lane: after winning the Egg Bowl, Kiffin gives an on-field interview where he quotes that Wolf of Wall Street scene and gets the biggest crowd pop you’ve ever seen.

No. 3 Texas A&M 48, Samford 0

An update to our fun fact from The Pregame: Samford is now 2-83-3 all-time against SEC teams, with the last win coming in 1934 against Ole Miss. 

No. 8 Oklahoma 17, No. 22 Missouri 6

The Sooners might be better at winning ugly than anyone in the country. Brent Venables’ defense continues to make life miserable for opposing quarterbacks, even if the offense hasn’t found the gear it had in the early season. I don’t think Oklahoma is a serious threat in the playoffs to go far, but with enough time to plan they can beat anyone in a single game.

No. 4 Georgia 35, Charlotte 3

The only notable thing that happened in this game was Gunner Stockton participating in Senior Day festivities, which either means he’s declaring for the NFL Draft or that he’s trying to recreate some of the magic between the hedges from when Stetson Bennett did the same thing before winning the 2021 national title.

No. 10 Alabama 56, Eastern Illinois 0

Ty Simpson threw two picks, not that it mattered.

Auburn 62, Mercer 17

Auburn has now scored 100 points in two games since Hugh Freeze was fired, after putting up a total of 170 in the nine games where he called plays. Probably just a coincidence.

No. 14 Vanderbilt 45, Kentucky 17

The real story for Vanderbilt might be that the defense showed up after a few rough weeks, but the headlines will be about Diego Pavia and his career-high 484 passing yards. We’ve reached the territory where Vanderbilt is treating conference opponents like they used to treat Vanderbilt.

No. 17 Texas 52, Arkansas 37

This was only the second double-digit loss the Hogs have had all year – the other one, a 56-13 defeat to Notre Dame, got head coach Sam Pittman fired. Despite that, we’re still in the running for a 2-10 season with a positive point differential, as Arkansas has now scored three more points than it has allowed all year, with just the finale against Missouri to go.

South Carolina 51, Coastal Carolina 7

Basically just this scene from Hot Rod.

No. 20 Tennessee 31, Florida 11

Never close, never a doubt, Tennessee wins in the Swamp for the first time since 2003.

LSU 13, Western Kentucky 10

Genuinely nothing to play for here. Western Kentucky is a good CUSA team, LSU is a bad SEC team. Send me the score notification in the morning. 

No. 7 Oregon 42, No. 15 USC 27

Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq is the name to know heading into December and January games. The Ducks’ tight end picked up two touchdowns in a game that Oregon never felt like losing, and looms large as a potential gamebreaking matchup nightmare for anyone unfortunate enough to draw a road first-round game in Autzen Stadium.

No. 9 Notre Dame 70, Syracuse 7

The Fighting Irish held a 21-0 lead before taking an offensive snap, which doesn’t seem possible until you look at the drive chart.

No. 11 BYU 26, Cincinnati 14

The Cougars used a little bit of dismal kicking by Cincy and a resilient ground game to escape Nippert Stadium with a win. The committee still seems down on BYU, grouping them with the two-loss teams even though they have just one blemish (to a top-five Texas Tech on the road) so it’ll be interesting to see how this win affects their standing on Tuesday. The Cougars may only have one road to the playoff – by avenging that lone defeat in the Big 12 title game.

No. 12 Utah 51, Kansas State 47

All teams on the bubble need to win above all else, but aesthetics are going to matter to the committee as they try to untangle the logjam on two-loss teams remaining. Giving up 472 rushing yards to a team that still isn’t bowl-eligible is not going to do much for the Utes, even as they stay theoretically alive.

No. 13 Miami 34, Virginia Tech 17

The Hurricanes didn’t earn as many style points as other at-large contenders, but continue to tread water and hope for upsets to either jump in the rankings or sneak into the ACC title game.

Pitt 42, No. 16 Georgia Tech 28

At one point in the third quarter someone on the broadcast team said that the reason Georgia Tech’s offense struggled in the first half was that quarterback Haynes King hadn’t taken enough hits to get into the flow of the game yet – and it felt like that was completely correct. The Yellow Jackets made a spirited run after going down 28-0, but couldn’t quite claw back. Both teams remain alive for the ACC title game, though Tech’s path is now much more convoluted.

FCS: Brawl of the Wild No. 3 Montana State 31, No. 2 Montana 28

Montana State not only brought home the second-most dangerous rivalry trophy in the sport, the 206-pound Great Divide Trophy, but also earned the No. 2 seed in the FCS bracket – also known as the “we don't have to see NDSU until the title game” honorific.

FCS: The Game No. 25 Yale 45, No. 10 Harvard 28

The Bulldogs forced a fumble on the very first play from scrimmage and essentially never looked back, sealing the Ivy League’s first-ever auto-bid to the FCS playoffs. Harvard still got into the bracket as an at-large, which somewhat dulls the pain of a loss, though this becomes the first Crimson senior class since the 1940s to graduate without a win in The Game.

Beyond the insane immediate context of calling a fake field goal on this play – down by one in the waning minutes of a rivalry game – there’s the bonus that, as far as I can tell, this was the first successfully converted fake field goal against any Bill Belichick team. You know this eats at him more than anything else that’s happened all season.