We haven’t gained complete clarity about the national landscape in the 2019 college football season, but we are getting closer to that point. Week 9 offered more definition and direction to the flow of the season, usually by exposing teams as inadequate rather than affirming them as elite. Let’s go through some of those examples:

1 – Notre Dame is not elite

The Fighting Irish weren’t just beaten by Michigan, which was enough of a surprise in its own right; they were utterly destroyed. Impotent, ineffective and paralyzed, Notre Dame became a deer-in-the-headlights team for the first time since November 11, 2017, against Miami.

If you follow Notre Dame football fairly closely, you might jump in and say, “Wait, why cite a game from 2017? Didn’t Notre Dame look like that against Clemson in last season’s College Football Playoff semifinals?”

I don’t think so. Notre Dame’s defense was terrific for most of that game against Clemson, but it received absolutely no help from an offense which was simply outclassed. Clemson was a million miles better than Notre Dame, something most people suspected going into that Cotton Bowl clash.

This game against Michigan? This was not a case of a clearly superior team bashing the Irish. This was a case in which a good-but-hardly-great Michigan team played its best game of the year, and Notre Dame folded under the onslaught instead of fighting back.

Michigan fans might counter by saying that the Wolverines found a turning point in their season late in the loss to Penn State. Down by 21 points, Michigan rallied and gained a level of fluidity on offense we hadn’t previously seen this season. The Wolverines scored 14 straight points against Penn State and might have tied the game had receiver Ronnie Bell not dropped a pass in the end zone.

It is reasonable for Michigan fans to say their team looks very different from the one seen two weeks ago. That much I can accept… but what I can’t yet trust is the idea that Michigan has permanently found the “on” switch.

I believe Michigan’s offense will struggle against both Michigan State’s defense and Ohio State’s defense. If the Wolverines can play well on offense against the Spartans and Buckeyes, I am willing to change my mind on the 2019 Wolverines.

For now, though, I will stand by the notion that this game said a lot more about Notre Dame’s weaknesses than any perceived strengths Michigan might newly possess.

2019 Michigan is nowhere close to 2018 Clemson. Notre Dame failed spectacularly… which means Georgia’s win over the Irish doesn’t seem as substantial as it once did.

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2 – Virginia has wasted an opportunity

The Atlantic Coast Conference was always going to be won by Clemson this season. The Tigers are a dynastic power in a weak conference. The big opportunity this season for the other 13 teams in the conference was to rise above the mediocrity and become a strong No. 2 in the league.

It isn’t often that Virginia or Pittsburgh or Syracuse win 10 games in a season. Syracuse, in 2018, pounced on the chance to win 10 games when the opportunity presented itself. Yes, the Orange have crashed and burned in 2019, but only a select few programs win 10 games every year. For a large portion of college football programs in the Power Five conferences, a reasonable goal is not to win 10 games all the time, but to win 10 games once every few years with a team capable of doing something special.

Syracuse hit that target last year. This year’s non-Clemson ACC team with a reasonable chance of doing that was Virginia.

After losing to Louisville this past Saturday, the Cavaliers have already lost three games. They have to win their remaining regular-season games and either the ACC Championship Game or their bowl game to hit 10 wins.

Virginia’s defense is world-class, but its offense has sputtered. The Cavaliers are one of many teams in college football which is strong on one side of the line of scrimmage, but noticeably flawed on the other.

The big reminder: You’re only as strong as your weakest point. Virginia needs to shore up its weakness if it wants to finish its season with a show of real strength.

3 – It’s Ohio State and Penn State, and then everyone else, in the Big Ten

Ohio State’s defense refuses to be mediocre. This is the big change from past Buckeye teams which could get caught sleepwalking on defense. The Buckeyes are smothering Wisconsin and everyone else in their path. The Badgers could still meet Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game, but right now, it’s Ohio State, Penn State, and then everyone else in the Big Ten. Penn State visits Ohio State in late November. That is a game with national championship implications on both sides.

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4 – Sorry, Auburn. Get a quarterback.

We were speaking earlier about Virginia and how some teams have one great unit and one flawed unit which holds them back. Auburn is probably good enough at 21 of the 22 positions on the field to be a national championship contender… but that one position is the most important one on the field.

Auburn doesn’t have a bad offense; it has a bad quarterback.

Bo Nix simply can’t make the basic throws needed to win big games. He can’t throw darts on third down and five, the situation elite offenses convert often enough to win.

Auburn has a brilliant defense. It held LSU’s supercharged offense to only 23 points and contained Heisman Trophy contender Joe Burrow. Holding LSU to 23 points ought to be enough to win a game. Yet, Auburn scored just 13 points in the game’s first 57 minutes before a late touchdown which didn’t ultimately matter.

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn has had trouble developing home-grown quarterbacks. His two best quarterbacks as Auburn head coach were Georgia transfer Nick Marshall and Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham. Not having a quarterback capable of handling big-game pressure has derailed an Auburn season which could have been special.

5 – Oklahoma lost, but Texas is the Big 12 fraud

Yes, Oklahoma did lose, but the Sooners will still make the College Football Playoff if they win the rest of their games to finish 12-1 on December 7. The Big 12 team which got exposed in Week 9 was Texas, which lost by 10 to a TCU team which had been mediocre over the past month.

Texas has now lost three games before November, when it must visit Baylor and Iowa State. The Longhorns could lose five games if they don’t regroup.

This is not how the Longhorns were supposed to perform in coach Tom Herman’s third season. They appeared to have evolved as a program last year when they beat Oklahoma and Georgia. Early this season, they challenged LSU in a big-boy game which was played at a high level. Even the loss to Oklahoma a few weeks ago was acceptable; OU is better this season than it was a year ago.

Losing to TCU, though? That is completely unacceptable, especially since the loss came on the heels of an embarrassing defensive display in a 50-48 win over Kansas.

Texas can still make the Big 12 Championship Game if it wins every November game on the schedule… but if the Horns can’t do that, this season will be a complete disaster.

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