Notre Dame May Have Punched Its Ticket to the Playoff: Week 8 CFB Recap

What a week, friends. We got carnage in the Top 10, awesome rivalry games and really just another fantastic day of college football.

Here's the recap:

- Notre Dame Has the Win It Needed To Be a Playoff Team

Notre Dame had one real hurdle left this season and the Fighting Irish cleared it relatively easily, taking down USC by 10 points in South Bend — even with CJ Carr throwing one of the worst interceptions I've ever seen in the red zone.

The schedule the rest of the way is about as good as any College Football Playoff contender could hope for, and as long as ND takes care of the business it should, it will be back in the CFP for a second consecutive year. The toughest game remaining is Navy at home.

Obviously nobody wants to start 0-2, but I think this team is a real national title threat. Virtually nobody in the country is actually good outside of Ohio State and Indiana, so why can't the Irish make a run? This is not a team I'd be eager to see in the postseason.

- Georgia Is Just Going To Find a Way To Win

We don't really need to watch any Georgia games for the rest of the year. When you see that Florida is up 17-7 on the Bulldogs in a couple weeks, just don't worry about it. This team will find a way to win.

Ole Miss scored touchdowns on each of its first five possessions, had a nine-point lead going into the fourth quarter and it still wasn't enough. If you don't kill the Dawgs and truly bury them, Gunner Stockton is going to find a way to make the plays necessary to win. I'm still not even sure how good Georgia really is, but it has a winning culture and a quarterback who makes things happen when it counts.

- Carson Beck Reminds Us Why He Had To Transfer

Miami finally looked vulnerable on Friday night, as Carson Beck threw four interceptions and the Hurricanes lost to Louisville at home as a two-touchdown favorite.

I don't think the sky is falling in Coral Gables or anything, but after a very strong start to the year, this is the game we had all been waiting for from Beck. There is a reason Georgia was not upset the presumptive No. 1 pick going into last season decided to transfer.

I still really like Miami and think they're in the small group of teams I think can win the national championship, but the ring leader showed some cracks in the armor on Friday night.

- What the Fuck, Josh Heupel?

I don't remember the last time I was this frustrated after a Tennessee loss. The Vols lost by 17 on the road at Alabama, but even just one moronic coaching decision at the end of the first half made this a completely different game.

The Vols, with nine seconds left and no timeouts, decided to line up under center with two running backs and a tight end in the back field, like they were going to pull a fast one on Alabama and make the Tide think they were running the ball. Anyone with half a brain understands you literally can't run it, but Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle genuinely thought they were in their bag with this one.

So of course, Joey Aguilar's pass is intercepted, returned for a 99-yard touchdown that completely changed the game and Tennessee never really recovered, eve with a really strong start to the second half.

But somehow even more infuriating was Heupel not kicking a field goal on 4th and 10 down 17 points late in the game — the Vols went for it and turned the ball over on downs — and then getting to the goal line as the game ended and not punching it in for a touchdown. A game UT lost by 17 points should have been a seven-point deficit at an absolute minimum, which will be huge in CFP discussions if the Vols are able to finish 10-2.

Clean this shit up, Josh.

- Watch Out for Vanderbilt Again

It feels like a lot of people sort of forgot about Vanderbilt after the Commodores lost in Tuscaloosa, but these guys are back and they're going to be in the mix for a Playoff spot. The schedule the rest of the way isn't necessarily great — the Dores have Missouri, at Texas and at Tennessee left — but this team will be in every one of those games and if it can find a way to pick off one of those two road tests, you could be living in a world where the College Football Playoff features Vanderbilt and Indiana.

It's not one I particularly want to be living in, but it's the cards we've been dealt.

-Oh No, Mississippi State

Man, this is tough. Mississippi State had a chance to end Billy Napier's tenure in Gainesville by snapping their 14-game SEC losing streak with a win in The Swamp and Blake Shapen found a Florida defensive lineman with his pass at the end of the game that turned a potential game-winning field goal into a turnover.

I don't hate throwing the ball there because nobody wants to settle for a long field goal on the road, but that's just brutal. The Bulldogs are going to get one before the year is up, though.