College football Week 10 takeaways: Who’s No. 1, CFP predictions and Florida State coaching search

Week 10 did not disappoint. A loaded college football schedule featured high-octane action all day long, from Utah topping BYU to Miami falling at Notre Dame and everything in between. 

With Week 10 in the books, the end of the regular season is going to be here before we know it. This season has been crazy, to say the least, so there’s a lot to sort out. 

Biggest questions in college football following Week 10

We’re going to dive into some of our burning questions about the college football landscape with the College Football Playoff fast approaching. 

Will we see any three-loss CFP teams?

This has been a chaotic season. We’ve used two losses as the cutoff point for the College Football Playoff in recent years, but due to necessity, it seems like we may get at least one three-loss team into the field this year. 

Ohio State, Oregon, Ole Miss, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina and Northwestern are all leaving Week 10 with three losses. Would the committee consider any of these squads at 9-3?

There are notable two-loss teams like Alabama, Texas, BYU, Tennessee, Houston and Kentucky with a few weeks to go. What if one – or more – of these teams slip up? 

We’ve had pretty clear championship and CFP tiers in recent years. This season is much different. It truly feels like, at this point, any team in the CFP field has a chance to win it all, and I really don’t know who the top team in America really is right now. 

Who is the best team in the nation?

Which leads us to our next question. Undefeated Miami is now 8-1 Miami after the Hurricanes lost a close one at Notre Dame. The Canes suffered their first loss of the year after falling behind big and not being able to cap off the comeback, and the Fighting Irish got revenge for a loss that played a massive part in them missing the CFP last year. 

With Miami now having a loss on its ledger, who’s the best team in the land?

Notre Dame has a claim after beating Miami, but the Irish lost to a BYU team that has two losses. Georgia looks like the best team in the SEC, but that loss to Auburn at home is hard to overlook. Utah is unbeaten despite some very close calls. UCLA is also unbeaten but is rolling with a backup quarterback for the rest of the year. 

If I were to take any of these teams to win one game, it’d be Notre Dame or Georgia. The Bulldogs have the more proven head coach and formula, but the Irish have the better quarterback.

I think I’d peg Georgia as the top team to beat, but it’s close and I don’t feel particularly great about it. And that right there has this year’s CFP shaping up to be a potential all-timer. 

What is up with the Big Ten?

The Big Ten has a three-year CFP title streak on the line, but are any of these teams worthy of keeping that streak alive?

On one hand, the Big Ten is a bit of a mess with a lot of perceived contenders slipping up. On the other hand, it’s a chaotic conference that perfectly epitomizes the current college football landscape. 

UCLA is the lone unbeaten team in the Big Ten as Bob Chesney has done an amazing turnaround job with the Bruins. I love their defense and run game, but playing Ty Dieffenbach at quarterback due to Nico Iamaleava’s season-ending injury has me wary. 

Indiana is the reigning champs, but the Hoosiers’ offense has been a mess with Josh Hoover playing poorly – and hurt – in recent weeks. Indiana has just one loss, but the Hoosiers haven’t scored more than 23 points since Oct. 3. That defense, though, is arguably the best in the nation. 

I can’t take USC seriously as a title contender with that defense only playing well against backup quarterbacks and Big Ten bottomfeeders, regardless of how good the offense is. The Trojans almost certainly will be CFP-bound, though. 

And then the two preseason favorites – Oregon and Ohio State – each have three losses already and the Ducks just beat the Buckeyes. There are major questions with both sides, and I have a hard time seeing either get the benefit of the doubt with the CFP committee. 

It’s been a very, very weird year for the ol’ Big Ten. 

Which Group of Six team will make the CFP?

The fight for the automatic Group of Six CFP bid is awfully interesting. As of the end of Week 10, there are a lot of teams worthy of noting. 

In the AAC, North Texas, Memphis, and UTSA are all 7-2, with North Texas 7-0 in AAC play. In Conference USA, Liberty is 8-1, and Jacksonville State is 7-2. Ohio and Toledo are each 7-2 in the MAC, Air Force and North Dakota State are each 7-2 out of the Mountain West and James Madison is once again in the fight at 8-2 out of the Sun Belt. 

I think this will come down to Boise State and New Mexico, however, with each side ranked in the latest AP poll. 

Jason Eck has the Lobos rolling in his second season. They’re 7-1 and are unbeaten in MWC play after going 9-4 last season. Eck is going to be a hot name on the coaching carousel.

And then there’s Boise State, which keeps doing Boise State things. Spencer Danielson’s Broncos are 8-1 and are 5-0 in Pac-12 play. Their lone loss was a close one at Oregon, which is aging better after looking weak. 

Slip-ups could open this race up for any of the aforementioned squads, but these are the two frontrunners with Boise State likely owning a slight edge. 

Are we sleeping on Wake Forest?

The Tar Heel State has gotten a lot of attention in the football department of late. And while a lot of attention has been placed on Duke, the reigning ACC champs, and North Carolina with Bill Belichick running the show, the job Jake Dickert has done at Wake Forest has the Demon Deacons sitting as the best team no one is talking about out in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Dickert is 17-5 in two years at Wake Forest after a four-year run at Washington State. The Demon Deacons went 9-4 last year, which set the tone for an 8-1 start to 2026. Wake Forest’s lone loss was to Miami by 13 points. Other than that? The Deacons have won six of eight games by at least 22 points, with many coming by 34 or more. 

Wake Forest is very balanced with an elite offense and elite defense. The Demon Deacons are efficient, don’t turn the ball over and just simply make everything difficult for their opponents. 

They’re on track to get a rematch with Miami in the ACC title game and have a great chance to end the regular season at 11-1. Wake Forest is getting national recognition, but probably not enough. This squad is really, really good. And in a year where things are so wide open, perhaps the Demon Deacons are a legit national championship contender. 

What does the Florida State search look like?

After a 3-5 start to the year, Mike Norvell is out at Florida State. 

Norvell was let go after a 41-39 overall record and going just 10-22 since 2023, when the Seminoles went 13-1. Norvell now gets the best job in America – being a fired college football head coach. His buyout was over $50 million. 

So what’s next for Florida State? 

The program will – and should – swing big. FSU will almost certainly call Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, New Mexico’s Jason Eck, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham and UCLA’s Bob Chesney, though I don’t expect any of those four to be particularly interested for a variety of reasons. 

As far as realistic candidates, we have six in mind – four who are current or former head coaches, and two who have never been a head coach before but should be very soon.

Duke head coach Manny Diaz had a lackluster (21-15) run at FSU rival Miami from 2019-21, but he’s done a great job at Duke in his second go as a head coach, going 25-11 since 2024. He’s a Florida State alum, and that’s where he began his coaching career. He likely is interested, but will his Miami tenure hurt his chances with the powers that be? 

Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert has to be on the Noles’ radar. He’s 15-5 at Wake Forest – which has hardly been a football school – and is 40-25 overall. He’s a rising star in this business and would be a massive get for the Seminoles should he be interested. 

And then there are two guys who aren’t coaching.

Former LSU and Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has publicly stated he wants the job. He’s not for everyone, but there’s no denying the Seminoles would have a stable floor with Kelly in town. He’s won over 300 games as a head coach (not counting vacated victories) in a head-coaching career dating back to 1991. 

Finally, Jimbo Fisher has to be in contention. The former FSU head man had a great run in Tallahassee before leaving for Texas A&M, which is paying him a 77M buyout, so he may not need to get top dollar, thus helping a program that is paying out Norvell’s buyout. Who knows how to win there better than Fisher? He went 83-23 with a national championship from 2010-17 at FSU before going 45-25 from 2018-23 at Texas A&M. 

As for candidates who’ve never been head coaches before, LSU DC Blake Baker and Georgia DC Glenn Schumann are sure to be hot commodities both for this job and for other openings this winter. Both are viewed as rising stars and potential next big things as head coaches whenever that time comes.