BYU beat Notre Dame 28-24, and the number that explains it is eight: The Cougars converted eight of 12 third downs against a defense that had allowed 66 points across its first six games.
Notre Dame entered Provo 6-0 after outscoring opponents 264-66. Nobody had scored more than North Carolina’s 26 points against the Irish.
That’s why I don’t consider this a fluke. BYU was more complete than I expected and won in repeatable situations: third down, third-and-short and the red zone.
“They're just flat-out better than I thought they were.”— Josh Pate
Start with Bear Bachmeier. He completed 23 of 36 passes for 224 yards, ran for 45 yards and two touchdowns, and caught a touchdown. With LJ Martin unavailable, Bachmeier kept solving the next problem. Notre Dame could make BYU snap it again, but it couldn’t consistently get off the field.
Perfect execution on third-and-short was central. Converting there kept the full call sheet available, extended possessions and prevented Notre Dame from turning the night into a series of short fields and quick answers.
Then came the finish. BYU made four red-zone trips and scored 28 points. Notre Dame made five and scored 18. That 10-point difference inside the 20 is larger than the four-point final margin.
Name the fluke.
Notre Dame didn’t arrive with a hollow record. The Irish had beaten Wisconsin 41-13 and Michigan State 27-10. They were No. 4 in the preseason AP poll and No. 8 in the coaches poll after going 10-2 in 2025. BYU wasn’t catching a team that had spent September wobbling. It beat one that had controlled every game on its schedule.
Provo had an incredible atmosphere. Atmosphere only carries so far. BYU paired the emotion with execution.
That gets a clean answer on Nov. 7, when Miami visits Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m. ET. Miami opened 6-0 after being ranked No. 1 in both preseason polls, and its 41-13 win at Clemson showed what it can do away from home. I’ll judge Notre Dame’s response there.
BYU beat a 6-0 team by controlling third down, owning the red zone and asking Bachmeier to produce without the conference’s reigning offensive player of the year beside him.
— JP
CONTINUED FROM THE NOTEBOOK
October 17 compressed a season’s chaos into one day
Five of the top seven lost, but Alabama’s two-game offensive reversal and Georgia’s first defeat gave a historic Saturday consequences beyond one poll.
“I think we're coming off the wildest Saturday in the modern college football era.”
Five of the top seven lost on October 17, something that had never happened in the history of the major media poll, which dates to 1936. That puts the day in the record book. The way it happened will keep it in people’s memory.
The comparison to 2007 is natural, but there’s an important distinction. That season built its reputation across weeks, as one contender after another fell. October 17 compressed the experience into three windows and a late kickoff. Texas lost after leading Florida 17–3. Georgia led Auburn 14–0 before Auburn scored 24 unanswered and won 27–24. Alabama was controlled from start to finish in a 26–10 loss at Tennessee. Notre Dame went to Provo favored by 10½ and lost to Brigham Young. Miami and Florida State went to overtime.
The sharpest example is Alabama, because the collapse wasn’t confined to October 17. The Crimson Tide opened 5–0 and scored at least 45 points in every win. They scored 248 points across those five games, then managed 27 total in consecutive losses to Georgia and Tennessee. Alabama lost 20–17 to Georgia on October 10 and 26–10 in Knoxville one week later.
That’s a two-game offensive reversal.
Georgia’s run makes it stranger. The Bulldogs entered October 17 at 6–0, one week removed from winning in Tuscaloosa. They had been No. 5 in the preseason media poll, eight places ahead of Alabama at No. 13, and reinforced that hierarchy by beating the Crimson Tide on their field. Then Georgia returned home, built a two-touchdown lead over Auburn and lost its first game.
So the SEC’s cleanest team became a one-loss team, and the league’s preseason No. 13 became a two-loss team on a two-game skid. Those developments were connected by seven days and a 27–24 Auburn win that almost disappeared from national attention when Georgia went ahead 14–0.
I don’t reduce October 17 to playoff expansion or use the larger bracket to explain away the losses. Expansion may soften the postseason cost for some teams, but it didn’t make Georgia surrender 24 unanswered points. It didn’t hold Alabama to 10 points after the Crimson Tide had averaged nearly 50 through five games.
Alabama gets the first clean answer on Saturday, October 24, when Texas A&M visits at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. A win ends the skid at two. A loss makes Alabama 5–3 after a 5–0 start and turns one chaotic Saturday into a much larger season problem.
Five of the top seven lost.
— JP
The Pate State