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Aranda out at Baylor. Doeren out at NC State.

Week 8 had one rule: if you were ranked, you were in trouble.

Seven ranked teams lost. Five of them lost to unranked teams, the most of any weekend this season. Then the firings started.

There are three unbeaten teams left: Miami, UCLA, and Utah.

Here are the 7 things we learned.

1. Lincoln Riley’s offense went backward. Literally.

USC ran for minus-17 yards at Wisconsin.

The Trojans scored 7 points in a 24-7 loss, the fewest any Riley team has scored. They lost to a quarterback who threw for 58 yards. Riley calls the plays, so I assume he called those too.

USC is paying for an offensive genius, and Saturday the genius couldn’t find the line of scrimmage.

Ohio State comes to the Coliseum next. I’d bring a helmet.

2. The carousel is open, and it’s spinning fast.

Three coaches have been fired in a week.

Maryland fired Mike Locksley last week. NC State fired Dave Doeren on Saturday, after 14 seasons, a 98-74 record, and a Friday night loss at Stanford that dropped the Wolfpack to 3-4. Baylor fired Dave Aranda this morning, less than a day after losing to Kansas for the first time since 2007.

Locksley, Doeren, and Aranda all made it to October.

None of them made it to November.

3. The Big 12 had the worst Saturday in its history.

For the first time in AP Top 25 history, three top-15 Big 12 teams lost on the same day.

• BYU beat Notre Dame, celebrated for a week, then lost 39-31 in double overtime at UCF.
• Texas Tech lost 37-24 at Cincinnati with three turnovers, 12 penalties, and a 3-of-15 day on third down. A defense that came in allowing 82 rushing yards a game gave up 255.
• Houston lost 21-13 at Utah, which won its 13th straight.

The conference wanted two playoff teams. Right now it would settle for one that can survive a road trip.

Texas Tech can still reach Dallas, mostly because the schedule makers left BYU and Utah off its slate. Somebody in Lubbock should send them a fruit basket.

4. The hot seats got hotter.

Aranda isn’t on the board anymore, but plenty of names are, and Saturday didn’t help them.

• Sonny Dykes (No. 6): TCU outgained West Virginia 484-265 and lost 24-20. You have to work at that.
• Deion Sanders (No. 9): Colorado gave up 57 points to Oklahoma State and lost by 33.
• Greg Schiano (No. 2): Rutgers lost 42-14 at Northwestern. Northwestern.
• Pat Narduzzi (No. 24): Pitt lost 52-23 at Miami. The backup quarterbacks explain some of it. Not 52 points of it.
• Tosh Lupoi (No. 18): SMU hung 59 points on Cal. Lupoi is a first-year head coach, and No. 18 is a high number for a rookie. Most of that number belongs to Ron Rivera, the general manager in Berkeley, whose job is to mentor the kid. Rivera should be sitting on 75% of this seat, because leaving a first-time coach on an island this long is inexcusable.

Three athletic directors have already made their call.

The rest are watching film, and some of them are watching it with a lawyer.

5. Two seats cooled off.

Not every coach on the list had a bad weekend.

Luke Fickell (No. 8) came into this season 17-21 with one win over a ranked team. Now Wisconsin is 5-2, both losses came against top-10 teams, and the defense just made USC look like a high school scout team. The touchdown that got it going came from Bryan Jackson, a USC transfer.

USC lost to Wisconsin, and it supplied the running back.

Shane Beamer (No. 7) beat Tennessee 27-24 on a field goal as time ran out, his second straight ranked win after knocking off Florida. Tennessee had bullied Alabama the week before. LaNorris Sellers accounted for three touchdowns.

Two weeks ago, Beamer’s ship was sinking. Now he’s bailing water and grinning.

6. The big brands aren’t safe either.

The names on the helmets didn’t help much this weekend.

• Oregon lost 21-10 at Illinois. That’s close to a playoff elimination for a team picked to contend.
• Michigan is 4-3. Kyle Whittingham’s offense ran 42 times for 57 yards, and Indiana won 13-6 in overtime.
• Indiana won that game with 212 total yards, its lowest since 2024. The Hoosiers have scored 28 points in two weeks. They’ll take the wins, but they’d probably like a few touchdowns to go with them.
• Clemson lost 20-16 at home to James Franklin’s Virginia Tech.
• Texas led Ole Miss 24-3 at halftime and spent the second half trying to give it back. The Longhorns held on 34-27 and avoided a third straight loss.

Texas A&M, Oregon, and Michigan all look headed toward somewhere around 6-6. At those three schools, 6-6 gets you a meeting with the president.

7. Will Stein has Kentucky alone atop the SEC.

Kentucky beat Vanderbilt 34-17.

That puts the Wildcats at 5-1 in league play, alone in first. Georgia and Alabama are looking up at Kentucky. Stein is on the shortlist for every national coach of the year award.

In a season where three coaches have been fired in a week, Stein is getting votes.

The bottom line?

Week 8 settled nothing on the field.

Three athletic directors settled things anyway.

See where every coach landed in this week’s Coaches Hot Seat Rankings.

• Category: American Athletic Conference