Week 11 of the college football season brought us highlights galore and a number of surprises that nobody could have predicted earlier this year. While we know who won and who lost the games from the box scores, who really came out of Saturday able to hold their heads high?
Winners
Kevin Sumlin and Kyle Allen: The Aggies were left for dead following their recent slide, but Sumlin got his team ready and shocked the world against Auburn with true freshman quarterback Kyle Allen making his first-ever start in the SEC. Where was this team after that win in the opener?
Urban Meyer: Ohio State set a new conference record with its 21st straight Big Ten regular-season victory by throttling Michigan State in what was easily the best win of Meyer's tenure in Columbus and one that should quiet down the coach's critics.
Charlie Strong: The talk in Austin the past few weeks has been whether Texas can get to a bowl game in Strong's first season. The Longhorns took a big step in that direction with a massive upset of West Virginia on Homecoming weekend that was the team's best game all year. Strong enjoyed the win so much he even went crowd surfing in the locker room.
Northern Iowa:Iowa got blown out by Minnesota, and Iowa State lost to lowly Kansas. The state's savior? None other than the Panthers, who ended Division I's longest winning streak (33 games) by pulling off a massive upset of North Dakota State.
Minnesota:The Gophers destroyed Iowa to keep their Big Ten West divisional title hopes alive while also reclaiming the best trophy in all of college football, the bronzed pig known as Floyd of Rosedale. The win also gave the team victories over Iowa and Michigan for the first time in the same season since 1967.
Baylor: The Bears didn't just win in Norman for the first time in school history, they throttled Oklahoma 48-14 and sent a message to the rest of the country to not count them out of the Big 12 and College Football Playoff races.
Skip Holtz: Louisiana Tech remained undefeated in Conference USA play while picking up its seventh win of the year over a good UAB team. Holtz has led quite the turnaround in Ruston.
Clint Bowen: Kansas' interim head coach might just have shown what it takes to earn the job full time by earning as many Big 12 wins as his two predecessors had in their time in Lawrence with an upset of Iowa State.
Luke Falk: In his first career start, the Washington State freshman (a former walk-on no less) threw for 471 yards with five touchdowns in the Cougars' road win at Oregon State.
Gerod Holliman: The Louisville defensive back collected three interceptions against Boston College (he now has 13 on the season) to put him within striking distance of the FBS record (14).
Lane Kiffin: In a slugfest, it was Kiffin who scripted a masterful final drive with less than a minute left to allow Alabama to tie the game against LSU. His great playcalling helped the Tide to an overtime win, too.
Trevone Boykin: Heisman canidate? You bet. Throttling Kansas State also makes the TCU quarterback a College Football Playoff contender, too.
Losers
Auburn: The Tigers' luck in close games was bound to come to an end, but few thought that would be the case against a struggling Texas A&M team. The loss likely knocked the team out of the College Football Playoff race and ended any hopes of a repeat SEC title.
SMU: The Mustangs took their first lead of the season (!!!) against Tulsa. Unfortunately for SMU fans, they also lost the game to likely ensure the only winless season at the FBS level this year.
Big Ten afternoon games: Penn State against Indiana and Michigan against Northwestern might have set back football decades given the sloppy play involved in both contests. Unless you were covering one of those four teams or went to one of the schools, there was no reason to watch.
Iowa State: Any loss to Kansas (in football) will land you in this section.
UConn: A week after a massive upset of UCF, coach Bob Diaco's squad lost to Army thanks to a game-sealing 100-yard pick-six. Ouch.
Everett Golson: The Notre Dame quarterback's 446 yards passing on the road and a near amazing second-half comeback were the positives out of the game against Arizona State. The five turnovers were not and a big reason why he's in the losers bracket of this list.
Boise State defense: The Broncos gave up 505 rushing yards to New Mexico in a wild Boise State 60-49 win in Albuquerque. That's not a great statement when you're trying to get the Group of Five bid to a big-time bowl game at the end of the year.
*Follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter **@BryanDFischer.*
