Utah takes lead for good on late Devon Dampier TD (0:37)Devon Dampier gets the go-ahead TD to put the Utah Utes up for good in the final minute. (0:37)
USC averaged 190.8 rushing yards across its first 10 games this fall. On Saturday, an Oregon defense that struggled to stop the run in the early parts of this fall stifled the No. 15 Trojans’ ground game, limiting USC to 52 rushing yards as the No. 7 Ducks improved to 10-1.
“I think it’s huge when you can take away a team’s strength,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said after the 42-27 win. “I think they’ve been able to run the ball really well this season, and for us to be able to stop it was big.”
The in-season turnaround of the Ducks’ run defense, which has held each of its past four opponents to less than 125 yards rushing, is powering the program toward a second straight College Football Playoff appearance. Across the country, vastly improved units like Oregon’s and individual players surging in the back half of the 2025 season shined in Week 13.
As we enter the final week of the regular season, this week’s Power Rankings focus on the biggest improvement each of the nation’s top programs has made since Week 1. — Eli Lederman
The Buckeyes have gotten their running game going just in time for Michigan and the postseason. Before November, Ohio State ranked 51st nationally averaging 4.58 yards per rush and 71st with 151.7 rushing yards per game. Since Nov. 1, Ohio State ranks 15th with 5.55 yards per rush and 24th with 202.5 rushing yards per game. In Saturday’s 42-9 win over Rutgers, freshman Bo Jackson led the way with 110 rushing yards and two touchdowns as the Buckeyes racked up 254 yards on the ground. With star receivers Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate continuing to battle nagging injuries, Ohio State’s budding running game figures to be key next weekend at Michigan. — Jake Trotter
Once upon a time, Fernando Mendoza and the Indiana offense weren’t as efficient in their ability to score, especially in the red zone. Mendoza’s Hoosiers debut against Old Dominion featured only 27 points and four scores on seven red zone trips. Indiana finished with 502 yards, but it was highly inefficient with scoring. Things have improved considerably as Mendoza, a top Heisman Trophy contender, directs a Hoosiers offense that has scored touchdowns on 74% of its red zone trips (42-of-57) and averages 43.3 points per game. Mendoza entered Saturday with a nation-leading 20 passing touchdowns in the red zone, five rushing touchdowns, no interceptions and only one sack taken. IU leads the nation in total red zone passing touchdowns with 23. — Adam Rittenberg
A game without any drama was a welcome respite for the Aggies, who followed a 28-point comeback, the biggest in school history, against South Carolina two weeks ago, with a 48-0 win over Samford that allowed Mike Elko to rest many of his starters. The No. 3 Aggies, who began the season eighth in the SEC preseason media poll, have learned how to win this season, leaning on Elko’s emphasis on finishing games. Marcel Reed leads the SEC in touchdown passes with 25, and receivers KC Concepcion and Mario Craver added speed to an offense that could already wear teams down with its offensive line. The defense continues to harass quarterbacks behind star edge rusher Cashius Howell. Now, Texas A&M turns its attention to Austin, where it will face No. 17 Texas with a chance to complete a 12-0 regular season for the first time since 1992. Last year, the Longhorns went on the road and clinched an SEC championship spot by winning the renewed rivalry game at Kyle Field on their way to the playoff. This year, the Aggies would love nothing more than to return the favor in their stadium. — Dave Wilson
Special teams might have won the day in Eugene as Oregon’s unit dominated USC’s on its way to a 42-27 win. But the bedrock for its victory was its run defense, which held the Trojans’ rushing attack to only 52 yards — before this game, USC had averaged over 190 rushing yards per game. This has been a key part of Oregon’s second half. Even in wins over Oklahoma State, Northwestern and Penn State in the early part of the season, the Ducks were allowing an average of 150 rushing yards. Since the loss against Indiana, Oregon’s rush defense has only allowed over 110 rushing yards once, and over the past two games, it has allowed 114 yards total. There’s a reason coach Dan Lanning praised his team’s effort in that part of the game Saturday night. Come playoff time, it will be a crucial part of its chances. — Paolo Uggetti
The Red Raiders are one win away from their first Big 12 championship game appearance and had a week off to recover and prepare for their road finale at West Virginia. While the health of QB Behren Morton has garnered a lot of attention throughout the year, the emergence of sophomores Cameron Dickey and J’Koby Williams at running back has been a critical development over this team’s 10-1 start. Texas Tech had to replace all-time leading rusher Tahj Brooks entering 2025 and lost touted USC transfer Quinten Joyner to a season-ending injury in preseason camp. Dickey and Williams have combined for a whopping 2,364 all-purpose yards and 22 touchdowns, and they have absolutely exceeded expectations under first-year OC Mack Leftwich. — Max Olson
Few programs have defended better than the Sooners this fall. But it took Brent Venables’ unit until the back half of the regular season to start creating turnovers at a rate befitting one of the nation’s top 10 scoring defenses. After logging just two takeaways through its first six games of 2025, Oklahoma has tallied 10 in its past five, including a pair in the program’s’ 17-6 win over Missouri. Turnovers drove the Sooners’ pair of ranked road victories at Tennessee and Alabama earlier this month — 22 points off six turnovers in wins decided by a combined eight points — and they’ve finally become part of the winning formula that has Oklahoma on the cusp of the playoff entering the final week of the regular season. — Lederman
The Crimson Tide did not get off to a great start with their run defense, giving up more than 225 yards in two of their first three Power 4 games, against Florida State and Georgia. But it appears that group has turned a corner in the past month. Alabama held both LSU and Oklahoma under 100 yards rushing. In its past four Power 4 games, Alabama has not allowed more than 150 yards on the ground. Given that improvement, Alabama has put itself in position to make it to the SEC championship game and secure yet another CFP berth. A win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl would get them to Atlanta. — Andrea Adelson
Remember back when the Irish were 0-2? The sky was falling, the playoff was a near impossibility and, most shocking of all, the secondary was a mess. That feels like another lifetime. Since the losses to Miami and Texas A&M, opposing QBs are averaging just 4.9 yards-per-dropback, with a mere eight passing touchdowns and a whopping 19 interceptions. That Leonard Moore and Christian Gray reverted back to their All-America caliber form is perhaps not all that surprising. It was the first two games that felt like the outlier. But it’s not just that the Notre Dame secondary has proven to be every bit as good as we might’ve guessed before the season, but it has actually been better. Chalk that up to the emergence of Tae Johnson, who has blossomed into a star in his own right, racking up 48 tackles and four picks, taking Notre Dame’s DB room from early-season worry to one of the country’s most dominant units. — David Hale
For BYU, the path to the playoff has become quite simple: Win and you’re in. With the way the bubble is shaping up, a loss to either UCF in the regular-season finale or against Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game almost surely means the Cougars are out, barring some unexpected results elsewhere in the country. It’s a harsh reality for a team that is 10-1 in a Power 4 conference, but the rankings are what they are. The Cougars took care of business at Cincinnati on Saturday, but the Bearcats are on a three-game skid. It was an expected win that doesn’t boost the resume in a meaningful way. — Kyle Bonagura
The Hurricanes have developed more depth in their passing game in recent weeks, which is a big reason why there has been improvement in this area since the SMU loss. In the past three games, Carson Beck has thrown for 858 yards with eight touchdowns to zero interceptions and is completing more than 75% of his passes. In addition to freshman Malachi Toney emerging as his favorite receiver, Miami has seen key contributions from Keelan Marion with three of his best games of the season and tight end Elija Lofton, who caught his first two touchdowns of the season in the past two weeks. Freshmen Daylyn Upshaw and Joshua Moore have also seen their most extensive action of the season. To have any shot at an at-large berth to the CFP, Miami will have to continue with the strides it has made in its passing game at Pitt next week. — Adelson
Vanderbilt is still in the mix for a CFP at-large bid and its first 10-win season in school history, thanks in part to its improvement on defense against the run. Last season, the Commodores ranked 13th in the SEC in run defense (140.8 yards). This year, they’re fifth and surrendering 105.1 yards per contest. In Saturday’s 45-17 victory against Kentucky, the Wildcats ran for 48 yards on 19 attempts (not including sacks). It was the fifth time this season that the Commodores held an opponent under 100 yards rushing. Only two teams, Missouri (170 yards) and Auburn (210), ran for more than 150. Vanderbilt will need a similar effort in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Tennessee. — Schlabach
The maturation of true freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood and emergence of true freshman receiver Andrew Marsh has elevated the Wolverines’ overall passing attack. Since Oct. 4, when Marsh grabbed a prominent role in the receiving rotation, Michigan has ranked fifth in the Big Ten with 8.14 yards per passing attempt; before that, the Wolverines ranked 14th. Marsh now leads the Wolverines with 42 receptions for 641 yards, including five catches for 76 yards and a touchdown in Saturday’s 45-20 win at Maryland. With star running back Justice Haynes (foot) out the rest of the regular season and leading rusher Jordan Marshall battling a shoulder injury, the Wolverines will need Underwood and Marsh to make plays in the passing game for Michigan to have a chance of knocking off top-ranked Ohio State for a fifth straight victory in the series. — Trotter