Texas-Georgia, Zombieland celebration and more

Week 8 is here as we look toward multiple exciting conference matchups on Saturday’s slate of games. With how this season’s matchups have been panning out, these are ones you won’t want to miss.

No. 5 Georgia takes on No. 1 Texas in Austin as the Bulldogs look to hand the Longhorns their first loss of the season. The Bulldogs know it’ll take a complete effort to take down their top-ranked opponent, especially in Longhorns territory, but what exactly does Georgia need to focus on to win Saturday?

No. 11 Alabama will take a trip to Neyland Stadium as the Crimson Tide play No. 7 Tennessee in another exciting SEC matchup. Both teams are 5-1 (2-1 in SEC play) on the season, and as we’re at the midseason point, the stakes are even higher with the playoff not too far away. Could this game determine who might be out of the playoff picture?

It’s a touchdown celebration that you might have seen throughout college football and in the NFL this season. It gained national attention when Miami QB Cam Ward hit the celebration after a touchdown, but it didn’t start with Ward. So where did it come from?

Our college football experts preview storylines and big matchups to know about ahead of Week 8.

What each team needs to capitalize on to win

Texas: The Longhorns’ passing game will need to keep Georgia off balance. Quinn Ewers returned last Saturday vs. Oklahoma, his first game since getting injured against UTSA on Sept. 14. He threw for 199 yards and struggled early, with Texas gaining just 13 first-quarter yards before the Longhorns started chipping away. The difference was when Ewers had time. The Sooners got pressure on 12 of his 32 dropbacks, and he went 3-of-9 with an interception on those attempts. But when he wasn’t pressured, he was 17-of-20 for 191 yards and a touchdown. Oklahoma also shortened the field: 18 of his 29 pass attempts were thrown within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, and he averaged a career-low 1.7 air yards on his completions, according to ESPN Research. By keeping the chains moving, the Longhorns were able to get production at running back from Quintrevion Wisner, who ran 19 times for 72 yards (3.8 yards per carry) in the Longhorns’ first three games but has averaged 7.9 yards per carry and totaled 206 yards over the past two games, including a career-high 118 against Oklahoma. — Dave Wilson

Georgia: Kirby Smart talked this week about his desire for the No. 5 Bulldogs to play a complete game, which they haven’t done since their 34-3 rout of Clemson in the season opener. Georgia got off to slow starts at Kentucky and Alabama, then struggled to put away Mississippi State in the second half at home last week. There’s no question it’s going to require a complete effort to take down No. 1 Texas on the road on Saturday. The Bulldogs need to generate turnovers (five in six games, second fewest in the SEC) and cut down penalties (71.5 yards per game, third most in the league). The defense needs to tackle well — the Bulldogs are averaging 9.6 missed tackles per contest — and do a better job on 50-50 balls. Offensively, Georgia has struggled to get its running game going, which won’t be easy against a Texas defense that is allowing only 103.7 yards rushing per game. Quarterback Carson Beck has played well at times but needs to cut down on his interceptions and not force throws into tight windows. Georgia has already played on the road twice and might be more battle-tested than Texas. It’s probably not a CFP elimination game given the Bulldogs’ schedule strength, but losing in Austin would surely leave them no margin for error the rest of the way. — Mark Schlabach

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Zombieland celebration

For weeks, the touchdown celebration that Cam Ward ushered into the national spotlight was surrounded with so much mystery, even he demurred when asked for a deeper meaning.

“I don’t know if the world’s ready for that right now,” he said with a laugh a few weeks ago.

After some gentle prodding, though, he relented.

“You have to ask my old OC, Ben Arbuckle, at Washington State,” Ward explained.

Challenge accepted.

Arbuckle chuckles when asked about the celebration that Ward has brought to life — across college football and into the NFL.

“The Zombieland,” Arbuckle says. “It’s a national treasure now.”

Arbuckle arrived as the offensive coordinator at Washington State in 2023 after serving as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Western Kentucky. In order to familiarize Ward with the offense he wanted to run, Arbuckle showed him cut-ups from his time with the Hilltoppers.

It was during one of those sessions that Ward noticed a player doing a unique celebration after scoring a touchdown. He placed his left hand over his face mask and flopped his right arm straight in front of him. Intrigued, Ward asked Arbuckle, “What is he doing?”

Arbuckle told him about Zombieland. Ward said simply, “I’m going to start doing it.”

That player Ward noticed? Western Kentucky receiver Daewood Davis. But what exactly does Zombieland mean? Arbuckle said his players told him it meant they were telling their opponents, “You stink like a zombie.”

In a phone interview with ESPN, Davis explained the original meaning. During fall camp in 2022, Davis said one of his teammates, a defensive back named Upton Stout, first did the celebration after a pass breakup. “It came out of nowhere,” Davis said. Then he decided to do it after scoring a touchdown. He remembers defensive back Kahlef Hailassie doing it, too. Before long, the entire team used it as its signature celebration.

Now it needed a name. The players came up with “Zombieland” because zombies are unstoppable and hard to kill. Davis proudly proclaimed he was the first player to do the celebration on national television, when he did it following a touchdown catch against Indiana in 2022.

Soon, the Hilltoppers started attaching different meanings to Zombieland, including a jab at their opponents for well, stinking like a zombie. Davis said they tried hard to make the celebration go viral in 2022 but had no luck. The first time he saw Ward do it, he was so shocked, he turned to his wife and said, “He’s doing our celebration!”

“I didn’t even know how he knew about it,” Davis said. “I forgot our old OC went to Wazzu.”

Ward actually started doing it at Washington State in 2023, as he promised Arbuckle he would. The first time he did it in a game was against Oregon State last September. Ward threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Williams on the second play of the game.

“Cam got hit when he threw it, but he stayed on his feet. So he drifted over to the far sideline and he gave [then-Oregon State coach] Jonathan Smith the Zombieland right in his face,” Arbuckle said. “And I was like, ‘Oh my god.'”

Ward knew he would continue doing the celebration once he transferred to Miami. “I didn’t invent it, but I’m going to blow it up. The whole country is doing it now.”

Earlier this season, Washington State faced San José State and former Wazzu quarterback Emmett Brown. “He threw like four touchdowns and he hit the celebration every single time,” Arbuckle said. “I was like, ‘Oh, we’re getting Zombied right now.'”

Davis was watching when Deebo Samuel and the San Francisco 49ers hit the celebration a few weeks ago against Seattle, and he made sure to let the world know on social media where it all began.

“It’s surreal,” Davis said. “To see NFL players hitting it, Cam hitting it, there’s some other college players hitting it, man, it’s like we really set a trend. We left our piece of us in football. When I see someone do it, I can be like, ‘That’s me right there.'” — Andrea Adelson

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Could Alabama-Tennessee be an elimination game from the playoff?

This version of the Third Saturday in October sets up as much more than just one of the SEC’s most storied rivalries, a rivalry that has been dominated by Alabama over the past two decades. The Crimson Tide have won 16 of the past 17 games in the series and reeled off 15 in a row until Tennessee won a 52-49 thriller the last time Alabama ventured to Neyland Stadium in 2022.

As we move into the second half of the college football season, the stakes get higher in terms of the playoff. The loser Saturday might not necessarily be out of the playoff picture, but it will find itself very much on the fringes. Alabama and Tennessee are both 5-1 and 2-1 in the conference, and both teams still face tough tests on the road. Alabama travels to LSU on Nov. 9, and Tennessee travels to Georgia on Nov. 16. Another way to look at it is that both teams would still have chances for marquee victories even if they were to lose this weekend. Either way, a three-loss team making the playoff in the first year of the 12-team format seems unlikely.

In a lot of ways, Alabama and Tennessee mirror each other this season. They both lost to unranked teams on the road, the Tide to Vanderbilt and the Vols to Arkansas. Alabama’s defense is trying to shore up the holes after allowing 90 points in its past 10 quarters. Tennessee’s offense is trying to find some pop after failing to score more than two touchdowns in regulation in each of its past three games. If that’s not enough, the two coaches — Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel — are both from South Dakota.

This will be DeBoer’s first taste of the rivalry after replacing Nick Saban this season. Both fan bases came into this season fully expecting to be in the playoff. It won’t be an enjoyable offseason at either locale if the season ends without a playoff appearance. But for DeBoer to miss the postseason in Year 1 after Alabama has played in either the BCS title game or the playoff in 10 of the previous 13 years would send Tide fans into a frenzy, especially if two of the losses were (gasp) to Tennessee and Vanderbilt. — Chris Low

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Five surprises from teams as we approach the midseason point

1. Vanderbilt 40, No. 1 Alabama 35

We have a long way to go in this 2024 season, but this game going down as Upset of the Year seems like a lock. Vanderbilt engineered one of the greatest upsets in SEC history on Oct. 5, stunning the top-ranked Crimson Tide one week after they’d taken down Georgia. Diego Pavia‘s squad made this game thrilling to watch from start to finish, achieved the program’s first win over Bama in 40 years and got to watch Vandy fans carry a goalpost all the way down Broadway to the Cumberland River.

2. Jeanty’s dominance

Boise State‘s Ashton Jeanty was really good last season, so his emergence as the best running back in college football isn’t totally surprising. But 1,248 rushing yards and 18 total touchdowns through six games? Legitimately challenging Barry Sanders’ single-season rushing record? Heisman Trophy front-runner? It has been a wonderful surprise to watch the Broncos back become one of the biggest stars in the sport.

3. The rise of Indiana

Curt Cignetti called his shot back in December: “It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me.” Indiana’s new head coach has done nothing but win since he arrived in Bloomington, and he’s making it look easy. He inherited a 3-9 team, flipped the roster with a ton of transfers and has rolled to a 6-0 start, climbing to No. 16 in the AP poll. He’s not the only first-year head coach who’s thriving at midseason. Texas A&M, Syracuse, Duke and UL Monroe all deserve praise as well for achieving 5-1 starts with new coaching staffs.

4. The fall of Florida State

It’s still hard to fathom that Florida State, just 10 months removed from nearly reaching the College Football Playoff, is 1-5 with little hope of becoming bowl eligible. The preseason No. 10-ranked Seminoles needed to replace 10 NFL draft picks but looked ready to reload and remain a contender in the ACC. Instead, it has been a brutal season in every way. Eight more teams from the preseason AP Top 25 are currently unranked: Utah (No. 12), Oklahoma (16), Oklahoma State (17), Arizona (21), Kansas (22), USC (23), NC State (24) and Iowa (25).

5. Unexpected QB struggles

Florida State going with DJ Uiagalelei as its new QB1 obviously did not work out, but he’s far from the only big-name quarterback who has had a tough season so far. Michigan has tried using three different QBs. Oklahoma benched former five-star recruit Jackson Arnold after four starts. UCF‘s KJ Jefferson and SMU‘s Preston Stone lost their starting jobs as well. Utah’s Cameron Rising, Florida‘s Graham Mertz, Wisconsin‘s Tyler Van Dyke and North Carolina‘s Max Johnson were all lost to season-ending injuries. Arizona’s Noah Fifita and Kansas’ Jalon Daniels have thrown more interceptions than touchdowns. At this point, the teams that haven’t gone through some hard times with their quarterback this season should feel fortunate. — Max Olson