2025 NFL Draft: College football recap, Week 10

Two QBs, star RB highlight Week 10 in college football

Week 10 of the college football season saw a multitude of ranked teams go down with losses as the landscape starts to grow more transparent. The ultimate race for positioning in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff is now taking focus.

This past weekend, No. 4 Ohio State took down No. 3 Penn State, 20-13. Despite the one-score margin, it felt like the Buckeyes controlled this game, and it never felt like Ohio State would lose. Turnovers on the goal line by each offense were story lines in the first half after Penn State came up with a very early 10-0 lead thanks to Ohio State quarterback Will Howard throwing a pick six.

Tenth-ranked Texas A&M was blown out by South Carolina, 44-20. The Aggies were simply outplayed by a Gamecocks team that’s performed extremely well at home in 2024 with competitive ball games against the likes of LSU and now a huge win over Texas A&M. The Aggies’ College Football Playoff hopes are now in doubt with a blowout loss on their resume.

Both No. 11-ranked Iowa State and Clemson (tied in votes) went down this past weekend. The Cyclones dropped their home game to Texas Tech 23-22 while Clemson was dominated at home against Louisville with a final score of 33-21. The Cardinals ran the ball with a ton of success on the evening to easily take down the Tigers. Meanwhile, Iowa State dropped a first-half lead as the Red Raiders scored with 20 seconds remaining to win.

Iowa State wasn’t the only ranked team in the Big 12 to lose to an unranked foe on Saturday. In a bit of a shocking upset, No. 17 Kansas State went down to Houston, 24-19. The Cougars quarterbacks went a perfect 12-of-12 on the night and they were able to pick off Wildcats quarterback Avery Johnson twice on the evening. One of those interceptions led to a very short-field touchdown for Houston in the second half. The Big 12 has all but assured it’s a one-bid league for the College Football Playoff with the pair of losses occurring for the conference.

Twentieth-ranked SMU destroyed No. 18 Pittsburgh in a key ACC contest with a 45-28 victory. The Mustangs were highly successful through the air and opened up a 31-3 halftime lead — a coast to victory.

With last weekend in the books, let’s talk about some prospects who upped their stock during the Week 10 slate.

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Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart explodes for massive performance against Arkansas

There was some thought that Arkansas could cause some problems for Ole Miss on Saturday in part due to the fact that the Razorbacks had played some quality defense in 2024. That coupled with Ole Miss being without star receiver Tre Harris. Jaxson Dart ended up going nuclear on Arkansas as he helped his team in dropping 63 points on the road. Dart finished the contest 25-of-31 for 515 yards and six touchdowns through the air. That’s 16.5 yards per attempt for Dart who consistently put up explosive plays on the evening. As of now, Dart feels like a mid-round pick and that projection isn’t likely to change much between now and April. But it’s good to see Dart put up a ridiculous performance like this for the purpose of having an excellent example of game tape.

Five Piece for North Carolina RB Omarion Hampton vs. Florida State

Hampton had five touchdowns against Florida State this past weekend in a game where he had 35 touches for 265 total yards. He’s been a difference maker the past couple of seasons and continues that course in 2024. Hampton has looked like a Day 2 running back dating to last season. This past game against Florida State facing a talented defense was his best overall performance of this season. Hampton doesn’t necessarily wow with incredible athletic traits, but he has very good contact balance to run through arm tackles and a good first and second gear that he gets to quickly to explode to the second level of a defense.

Hampton showed that as a runner and in the screen game this past Saturday as he consistently veered through traffic and broke through FSU arm tackles en route to his five trips to the end zone.

Miami QB Cam Ward continues dazzling performances week after week

One of the shining stars in the 2024 college football season is Miami signal caller and former Washington State/Incarnate Word product Cam Ward. He has a knack for the miraculous with plenty of highlight-reel plays on film of him creating magic — leading the Hurricanes to heroic comebacks and plenty of points on the scoreboard. Ward is one of the biggest difference makers in all of college football regardless of position.

While Ward has incredible play-making ability, he’s also a bit lackadaisical with the football which has led to silly interceptions or turnover-worthy plays to hurt his team. Certainly, some NFL teams will take the great with the bad to start and hope to coach the rough patches out of him. Ward now has three games of 400-plus passing yards in 2024 with the latest coming against Duke. While we’ve yet to see him play against an elite team this season, we’re certainly on a collision course for that to occur in short order to see where we can stack up Ward in this 2025 NFL Draft’s pecking order.