College Football's Biggest Surprises at the Halfway Point

It's hard to believe we are halfway through the 2024 college football season.

As we've gone through the first month-and-a-half of games, there are plenty of takeaways from the various contests and storylines we've seen so far.

As we move through October and toward November, we're even closer to the College Football Playoff rankings coming out, a Heisman Trophy ceremony and seeing how the first-ever 12-team playoff field will look.

While there are still plenty of games left to be played and a lot to sort out, let's run through the biggest surprises of the 2024 college football season so far.

It's been a dream season for the Indiana Hoosiers so far.

Through six weeks, they are undefeated and ranked 16th in the country.

Equally impressive is the fact that this fast start has come under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti, who came to Bloomington after spending the last five seasons at James Madison.

Indiana isn't just winning, it's dominating teams.

Its average margin of victory is 32.6 points, and the Hoosiers are second in scoring offense in the country behind No.

6 Miami.

Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who transferred last offseason from Ohio, has thrown for 1,752 yards with 14 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

His 73.8 completion percentage ranks second in the Big Ten, too.

Don't look now, but a Big Ten conference championship berth is definitely on the table for the Hoosiers if they keep playing like this.

They are currently tied for first in the Big Ten, along with Oregon and Penn State.

Remaining on Indiana's schedule are home games against Nebraska, Washington, No.

24 Michigan and Purdue.

The road games feature Michigan State and No.

4 Ohio State.

Depending on what Penn State does against Ohio State and the rest of its Big Ten opponents, don't be surprised if we have an Indiana-Oregon matchup in Indianapolis.

How cool is this? For the first time in decades, both service academies are undefeated.

Following Week 7's AP Poll release, Army and Navy are ranked together for the first time since 1960 .

The turnaround both programs have had in a season has been remarkable.

Last year, Army finished 6-6, while Navy went 5-7 under first-year head coach Brian Newberry.

Fast-forward to 2024, though, and both programs are a combined 11-0 and tied atop the AAC standings.

Both programs have wins by an average score of 41-15, per Bill Connelly of ESPN.

Both programs have an efficient ground game, as well.

Army and Navy are ranked first and second, respectively, in the country in rushing offense, averaging a combined 332.7 yards on the ground per game.

Navy quarterback Blake Horvath has been effective in the air, throwing for 771 yards with seven touchdowns and just one interception.

Army's offense is led by quarterback Bryson Daily, who has 1,220 total yards of offense on the year and 20 touchdowns.

Both teams have to play No.

12 Notre Dame this season, which is an opportunity to get a signature win over a quality opponent for the playoff committee.

It's unclear if an AAC champion Army or Navy would be strong enough to earn a bid; assuming Boise State wins the Mountain West, the Group of Five spot would likely go to the Broncos.

But if Boise stumbles, that could open the door for either service academy to represent the AAC as a conference champion.

And the best part about this? Even if these two play each other in the AAC title game, we get a rematch the week after in the annual Army-Navy game.

This year's matchup will be played in Washington, D.C.

Speaking of surprise undefeated teams, the Pitt Panthers are 6-0 for the first time since 1982.

It's a remarkable turnaround for a team that finished 3-9 last season, and as a result, there were plenty of questions surrounding head coach Pat Narduzzi's future entering this year.

The team is led by Panthers starting quarterback Eli Holstein, who is third in the conference with 1,700 yards passing with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions.

He's also second on the team in rushing, with 266 yards and three touchdowns on the year.

But perhaps what's most impressive about Pitt's undefeated mark is that in several games, the Panthers have had to come-from-behind to stay undefeated.

Pitt won 28-27 despite trailing Cincinnati 27-6 late in the third quarter in Week 2.

Against WVU a week later, it won 38-34 even though it trailed by 10 late in the third quarter.

The Panthers were tied with North Carolina in Week 6 before winning 34-24, and they survived a fourth-quarter comeback attempt to hold off Cal last week, winning 17-15.

We'll see if Pitt can maintain this late-game magic in the back half of its schedule.

The Panthers have remaining home games against Syracuse, Virginia and No.

10 Clemson.

The road games include at No.

21 SMU, Louisville and Boston College.

Following Clemson's blowout 34-3 loss to Georgia in Week 1, plenty of folks (myself included) assumed this would be yet another down year for the Tigers.

Halfway through the season, though, they look to be firing on all cylinders and look like one of the best teams in the ACC.

Since the Georgia loss, Clemson has won each of its five games by an average of 29 points, with the outlier being the 29-13 win over Florida State.

The offense has found its groove under second-year quarterback Cade Klubnik, ranking inside the Top 15 in scoring and total offense.

He looks much more comfortable under center this season, throwing for 1,528 yards with 17 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Running back Phil Mafah gives the Tigers some balance on offense, adding 604 yards with four touchdowns, and averaging 6.9 yards per carry.

The defense hasn't had to work too hard thanks to the offense outscoring just about everyone, but the Tigers allow their opponents to convert on just 30.77 percent on third down, which is tied for 17th nationally.

Clemson's path to the ACC title game seems feasible.

It has just one ranked opponent remaining on its schedule in No.

20 Pitt, which it plays on the road on Nov.

16.

The Tigers' only other road game is Virginia Tech the week prior, with home games left vs.

Virginia, Louisville, The Citadel and South Carolina.

Per ESPN's FPI matchup predictor, they are favored to win each of their remaining games by more than 50 percent.

We'll see if this Clemson team can make a deep playoff run, but you have to give credit to Dabo Swinney for how his team has played so far.

Entering this season, the Big 12 was viewed as one of the more wide-open conference races in the country.

But no one really had the leaders as Iowa State, BYU and Texas Tech halfway through the season on their bingo cards.

In fact, BYU was predicted to finish 13th in the conference in the preseason poll, Texas Tech ninth and Iowa State sixth.

We'll start with the Cyclones, who have had a 6-0 start for the first time since 1938 and rank ninth in the country.

Perhaps most impressive is that Iowa State has won each of its first three Big 12 games by at least two scores.

The defense is tied for fifth nationally in scoring defense, giving up an average of just 11 points per game.

We'll see how the Cyclones play as they enter the toughest stretch of their schedule over the next month and a half.

They get Texas Tech, Cincinnati and No.

17 Kansas State at home, with road games at Kansas and Utah.

BYU is having a great season after a 5-7 finish a year ago.

The Cougars' defense is tied for 11th in the country in turnover margin, recovering 14 takeaways on the season.

They have remaining games against Oklahoma State, UCF, Utah, Kansas, Arizona State and Houston.

Texas Tech has rebounded from a 37-16 Week 2 loss to Washington State and won its last four straight.

All three of its conference wins were decided by just one score, but having an undefeated mark in conference play is all that matters for now.

The Red Raiders close out their season with games against Baylor, TCU, Iowa State, Colorado, Oklahoma State and WVU.

Alabama and USC entered 2024 as clear playoff contenders.

In Tuscaloosa, former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer was expected to continue his winning ways after inheriting a pretty loaded roster.

And USC was anticipated to compete inside an expanded Big Ten, with a major overhaul on defense led by new coordinator D'Anton Lynn.

Halfway through the season, though, neither team has lived up to the hype.

Alabama had an embarrassing loss to Vanderbilt on the road and followed it up by escaping South Carolina at home.

USC is 3-3 and out of the playoff, with back-to-back losses to Minnesota and Penn State.

For USC, the performance so far should put Lincoln Riley on the hot seat, even if the Trojans win out the rest of their schedule.

At Alabama, the Tide are by no means out of the playoff race just yet, but the schedule only gets tougher from here.

This week, it plays at No.

11 Tennessee, then gets No.

19 Missouri at home before a bye week before going to No.

8 LSU.

The Crimson Tide then close the season with a road game to Oklahoma and Auburn at home.

Depending on how the rest of the season goes, both Riley and DeBoer could be on the hot seat by the time December rolls around.

Traditionally, the Heisman Trophy is awarded to quarterbacks every year.

At the start of the 2024 season, the likes of Dillon Gabriel, Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers and Jalen Milroe sat atop the preseason odds to win the honor.

But halfway through the season, the two favorites to win it are Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty and Colorado's two-way star Travis Hunter.

Jeanty leads the nation in rushing yards and touchdowns, with 1,248 and 17 scoresthat's 311 yards and five touchdowns more than the nation's second-leading rusher, Iowa's Kalen Johnson.

Last week, Jeanty racked up 237 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns against Hawaii.

His first score of the night went 54 yards: He's averaging 9.90 yards per carry and is one of the most explosive backs in the country.

And did we mention he's on-pace to eclipse the FBS single-season rushing record of 2,628 yards set by Barry Sanders in 1988? If the 20-year-old keeps playing like this, a Heisman Trophy could become a reality.

What's even cooler is if he wins, it'll be awarded to a non-power conference player for the first time since BYU QB Ty Detmer won in 1990.

Second in the Heisman race is Hunter, whose two-way ability has been incredibly impressive to watch all season.

His best game came against Baylor, when he caught seven passes for 130 yards and had the game-winning forced fumble that gave Colorado the 38-31 overtime victory.

On the season, the 21-year-old has 49 receptions for 587 yards and six touchdowns, with another 17 total tackles and two interceptions on defense.

Perhaps most impressive is how many snaps Hunter is playing per game.

Before missing some time last week against Kansas State due to a shoulder injury, he was averaging 124 snaps per game.

Despite the injury, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that Hunter should play Saturday against Arizona.

Having the Heisman go to a quarterback every season is, for the most part, well-deserved.

But seeing two non-QBs get hype for the award is a refreshing departure.

This may be one of the most surprising facts of the season yet.

It's mid-October, and there hasn't been a coaching change at any school in the country yet.

For now, that's a change from what we've seen in recent years, as we've seen the coaching carousel start much earlier.

Last season, Michigan State fired Mel Tucker amid an investigation by the school for violating the school's sexual misconduct policy on Sept.

27.

In 2022, Nebraska fired Scott Frost on Sept.

11, and Herm Edwards was sacked by Arizona State on Sept.

18.

Three years ago represented perhaps the wildest coaching carousel yet, started by USC's firing of Clay Helton on Sept.

13.

On Oct.

19, Ed Orgeron resigned from LSU, and Nick Rolovich was fired from Washington State for failing to comply with the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

So, who is the first head coach expected to be fired in 2024? All signs point to Florida's Billy Napier, who has lost eight of his last 13 games and has a 14-17 overall record in Gainesville.

Other big names on the hot seat include Baylor's Dave Aranda, UAB's Trent Dilfer and Sam Pittman at Arkansas..

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