SI:AM | It’s a Make-or-Break Week in College Football

Is this the weekend Tennessee proves it’s officially back?

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Are you as ready as I am for a big day of college football?

In today’s SI:AM:

🟠 Tennessee’s revival

👨‍🚀 Yordan Alvarez is owning the Mariners

⚾ Freddie Freeman’s personal connection

If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

It doesn’t get better than this

So-and-so “ain’t played nobody” is a common refrain for college football fans. But this weekend, a bunch of the top teams in the sport are set to play some really big somebodies.

There are six games on the schedule in which both teams are ranked in the AP Top 25. In four of those games, both teams are undefeated. It’s shaping up to be a really special Saturday. Let’s briefly take a look at four games, in increasing order of importance.

No. 8 Oklahoma State (5–0) at No. 13 TCU (5–0)

This a showdown of the two best teams in the Big 12. In a conference without divisions, every game is critical for determining who will meet in the conference title game. It’s the second crucial game in a row for Sonny Dykes and TCU, which beat Kansas last week in another showdown of unbeatens. TCU boasts one of the best offenses in the country, ranked third in points per game (46.4) and first in yards per play (8.08). It’s the Cowboys, though, who have the Big 12’s leading passer in quarterback Spencer Sanders.

No non-Oklahoma Big 12 team has ever made the College Football Playoff, but the winner of this game could put themselves in position to get there.

No. 7 USC (6–0) at No. 20 Utah (4–2)

This will be Lincoln Riley’s biggest test yet at USC. The Trojans’ best win thus far this season is probably last week’s 30–14 victory at home against a Washington State team that entered at 4–1. Don’t let the Utes’ two losses fool you—this is a really dangerous opponent. Utah, which was the preseason Pac-12 favorite, opened the season with a three-point loss at Florida and lost 42–32 to a good UCLA team on the road last week. So it isn’t a surprise that Utah is favored at home in this one (currently -3.5 at SI Sportsbook).

USC is already exceeding expectations in Riley’s first season and if the Trojans can win this one, they have a real chance to enter the Nov. 19 showdown with UCLA undefeated.

No. 10 Penn State (5–0) at No. 5 Michigan (6–0)

Along with Ohio State, these are two of the Big Ten’s three undefeated teams. But neither Penn State nor Michigan has faced a real challenge this season. The Nittany Lions beat a respectable Purdue team to open the season, which is probably their best win of the season given how many problems Auburn has had. No one is putting Penn State on the same level as Michigan or Ohio State at this point, but a victory tomorrow would change that.

Don’t count on that, though. Michigan is favored by a touchdown at home and all five of our experts are picking the Wolverines. The Michigan schedule gets really easy after this one (vs. Michigan State, at Rutgers, vs. Nebraska and vs. Illinois) before it closes out the season against Ohio State.

Michigan’s performance so far this season has to have you feeling confident about its chances of running the table going into their rivalry game. The Wolverines’ defense is allowing the fifth-fewest yards per game and fourth-fewest yards per play, while the offense is averaging the 17th-most yards per play in the nation. Running back Blake Corum is fourth in the nation with 735 rushing yards and second with 11 rushing touchdowns. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy ranks fifth in the nation in passing efficiency.

No. 3 Alabama (6–0) at No. 6 Tennessee (5–0)

This is the big one. Big bad Alabama travels to Knoxville to take on a Tennessee team that is enjoying its best season in almost two decades. The Vols haven’t been ranked this high this late in the season since the last week of the 2003 regular season. Tennessee hasn’t beaten Alabama since ’06, the Tide’s last losing season. Since Nick Saban’s arrival in ’07, Bama has won 15 in a row, including a wild one in ’09.

If that’s going to change this tear, it’ll be because of Tennessee’s top-ranked offense. Quarterback Hendon Hooker ranks seventh in the nation in passing efficiency and 18th in passing yards per game. The two-headed rushing attack of Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small is another big reason why the Vols are averaging a nation-best 547.8 total yards per game. Alabama’s stout defense will pose a challenge, though. The Tide rank sixth in the nation in yards allowed per game and second in yards allowed per play.

The game might come down to whether Alabama’s Heisman-winning quarterback, Bryce Young, is able to play. After hurting his shoulder two weeks ago against Arkansas, Young missed last week’s game against Texas A&M. Saban said on his radio show last night that Young will be a game-time decision.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Today’s Daily Cover focuses on the beautiful left-handed swing of Freddie Freeman. Jeremy Collins explains the connective power Freeman possesses.

Ross Dellenger wrote about what’s at stake for Tennessee in tomorrow’s game against Alabama. … Pat Forde also took a look back at the big Alabama-Tennessee game from 2009. … Bob Harig is covering this week’s LIV Golf tournament in Saudi Arabia, where Phil Mickelson gave a press conference in which he issued his most forceful defense of the new tour yet. … Here’s what anonymous scouts are telling Howard Beck about every team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. … Here are the matchups, spreads and odds for SI Sportsbook’s Perfect 10 contest for Week 6.

Around the sports world

Fox won’t discuss the human rights abuses tied to the World Cup during its coverage of the tournament. … Brittney Griner reportedly believes the U.S. won’t be able to free her from Russia. … Another woman has filed a lawsuit saying she was assaulted by Deshaun Watson. … Ron Rivera had a passionate response when asked about a report that he didn’t want the Commanders to trade for Carson Wentz.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. This impressive defensive play by Jose Altuve.

4. The go-ahead home run by—who else?—Yordan Alvarez.

3. Carson Wentz’s block on Roquan Smith.

2. Al Michaels’s comments about Dan Snyder on Thursday Night Football.

1. Brian Robinson Jr.’s first NFL touchdown, six weeks after he was shot in an attempted robbery.

SIQ

The Eagles (5–0) and Cowboys (4–1) will renew their rivalry in a critical Sunday Night Football game this weekend. Which player has appeared in the most Philadelphia-Dallas games?

• Jason Witten
• David Akers
• Brian Dawkins
• L.P. Ladouceur

Yesterday’s SIQ: Who hit the only walk-off home run in Game 7 of a World Series game?

Answer: Bill Mazeroski. His home run leading off the bottom of the ninth gave the Pirates a 10–9 win over the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.

The final game of that series was already a classic before Mazeroski made history. The Yankees were leading 5–4 after seven but added two more in their half of the eighth. The Pirates responded by scoring five in the bottom of the inning to take a 9–7 lead. The Yankees then tied it up in the top of the ninth, thanks to some heads-up baserunning by Mickey Mantle, as Roy Terrell explained in that week’s issue of SI:

​​[Yogi] Berra swung and hit a hard ground ball down the first base line. [Rocky] Nelson was there; he gloved it, picked it up and stepped on first base for the out. Then he straightened up, drew back his arm to throw down to second to complete the double play—and suddenly realized there was no reason to throw, for Mantle was standing within a few feet of him. Nelson is a good ballplayer, but Mantle is younger and his reflexes are quicker. He dived safely back into first base, eluding Nelson's frantic stab, and [Gil] McDougald scored. The Yankees had tied up the game—and Pittsburgh, unable to believe that such a thing could happen, was stunned. Had Nelson tagged Mantle for the double play, the Series would have been over.

That set the stage for an epic conclusion. Here’s Terrell again:

[Mazeroski] let one of Ralph Terry’s fast balls go by. Then he hit the next one over the left field fence.

There was noise in Forbes Field then, too, and it went on for more than an hour. Mazeroski took off his cap and swung it around his head as he went leaping and frolicking around the bases. The fans spilled out of their seats and mobbed the Pirates, especially Mazeroski, who had to fight his way to home plate. A man ran out with a spade and dug up home plate, which may be hanging over some mantel in Pittsburgh right now.

From the Vault: Oct. 14, 1985

Ronald C. Modra/Sports Illustrated

Eddie Robinson could not possibly have known, when he took over as football coach at Grambling as a 22-year-old in 1941, where he would be 44 years later—on the verge of becoming the winnest coach in college football history.

Grambling’s 27–7 win over Prairie View A&M on Oct. 5, 1985, was Robinson’s 324th, one better than legendary Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. There were some, Rick Reilly wrote in his cover story, who believed the record should come with an asterisk because Robinson’s Tigers played in what was then Division I-AA. If anything, that Robinson’s success came at a small, underfunded, historically Black school in the Deep South made it even more impressive. Here’s how Reilly summed it up:

Discrimination and anorexic budgets were just two of the trapdoors the Bear didn’t encounter. Robinson recruited some 200 future NFL players—more than any other school—with a yearly budget about equal to Alabama’s outlay for stamps. He has recruited against major colleges offering prestigious scholarships, luxurious dorm rooms, plentiful training tables, big-time bowls, TV exposure and, as the NCAA is loath to find out, Lord knows what else.

Robinson’s achievement is that he worked for 44 seasons within the white system and then, on a Saturday night in Dallas, beat that system. “He has overcome the shackles,” [Grambling associate AD Fred] Hobdy says. “He won in spite of the handicaps.”

Robinson would go on to win 408 games, a record that stood until John Gagliardi of D-III St. John’s (Minn.) surpassed him in 2003. Gagliardi remains the all-time leader with 489 career wins. Only one D-I coach has surpassed Robinson’s mark: Joe Paterno with 409.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

Sports Illustrated may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.