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College Football's Best and Worst of 2025: Games, plays, comebacks, divorces and more

Screenshot 2025-08-29 at 11.28.07 AMby: Chris Low01/23/26clowfb

On the heels of a historic college football season, let’s make a pact.

No more griping, grumbling and bitching (yes, I said it) about everything that’s wrong with college football. At the very least, let’s take a sabbatical from it.

So as we await the next meeting to inform us that there will be additional meetings to decide the future format of the College Football Playoff, a little analysis, reminiscing and celebration are very much in order.

We at On3 take a look back at the best (and worst) of everything related to the 2025 college football season. We’ll skip the obvious – best team, player and coach. Indiana won its first national championship in school history. Quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy, and Curt Cignetti led the Hoosiers to a 16-0 record, capping the greatest two-year turnaround in college football history.

A cream and crimson toast to Hoosiers everywhere as we revisit a season that still has most of us rubbing our eyes.

Best game: Miami 31, Ole Miss 27

It came down to the final play, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss heaving a pass to the left corner of the end zone with De’Zhaun Stribling tussling with Miami defensive back Ethan O’Connor. Stribling, falling down (or being dragged down), could only get a left hand on the ball, capping a classic back-and-forth game in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. The final five minutes were pure Cinema with clutch third-down conversions, costly penalties, key audibles and explosive plays. Miami had two 75-yard touchdown drives, sandwiched around an Ole Miss 75-yard touchdown drive that gave the Rebels a 27-24 lead with 3:13 to play. But Miami quarterback Carson Beck scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds remaining, and after Chambliss’ Hail Mary fell incomplete, the Hurricanes were on their way to the national championship game.

Best play: Omar Cooper Jr.’s catch

Not to diminish the other memorable plays this season, but Cooper’s toe-tapping 7-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone with 36 seconds to play was as good a catch, and equally impactful, as you’re ever going to see. Indiana escaped 27-24 at Penn State, and without Cooper’s artistry, who knows how the season turns out for the Hoosiers? The slow-motion clips of the catch are incredible. He went skyward to make the grab and then peeked down after securing the ball to see where he was. Somehow, he had the body control to get his left toe down within inches of the end line before his right foot hit out of bounds.

Best moment: “Hurts So Good”

Thousands of Indiana fans joined in singing Indiana native John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good” as the Hoosiers’ players and coaches celebrated their national championship at Hard Rock Stadium. In the middle of it all, Fernando Mendoza and his mother, Elsa, shared a teary-eyed hug while surrounded by family. Elsa, confined to a wheelchair, is battling multiple sclerosis. Mendoza called her his “inspiration” and his “light.”

Best individual performance: Trinidad Chambliss

The legend of Trinidad Chambliss was already alive and well, and then came the second half against Georgia in Ole Miss’ thrilling 39-34 win over the Bulldogs in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Chambliss was a magician. Over and over again, he scrambled out of trouble to make big plays and hit receivers with pinpoint passes. He finished with a season-high 362 passing yards and two touchdowns and completed his first 12 passes of the third quarter after Ole Miss fell behind 21-12 at the half. Georgia had no answers for the Ferris State transfer, and it was Chambliss’ 40-yard strike to De’Zhaun Stribling on third-and-5 from the Ole Miss 30 in the final seconds that set up Lucas Carneiro’s game-winning 47-yard field goal. Opposing defenses might not agree, but watching Chambliss play for another season would be a treat.

Best defender: Jacob Rodriquez

What a story and what a journey for Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who started his career as a situational quarterback at Virginia in 2021 and finished this season fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting as the country’s premier defensive player. The 6-1, 235-pound linebacker led all FBS players with seven forced fumbles, tied for first nationally among linebackers with four interceptions and finished fifth nationally among Power Four defenders with 128 total tackles, including 11 for loss. Rodriguez was one of the cornerstones of a Texas Tech defense that finished third nationally in scoring and total yards allowed and helped the Red Raiders advance to their first playoff.

Best team that didn’t make the playoff: Notre Dame

The Irish didn’t play a menacing schedule, but they were playing menacing football at the end of the regular season. They would have been a tough out for anybody they faced in the playoff. But come on, you don’t take your ball and go home just because you’re left out of the playoff. The first thing they teach you when you start playing the game is that no matter what happens, you line up and play the next play. Notre Dame stuck out its lip, thumbed its nose up at the Pop-Tarts Bowl and called it a season. Good thing Rudy never quit.

Best freshman: Malachi Toney

From the time he was an 8-year-old kid dazzling in the South Florida neighborhood park youth games with the Washington Park Buccaneers, Malachi Toney was known as “Baby Jesus.” Nobody could tackle him then, and they still can’t. Not in the open field anyway. Toney was a blur in his first season at Miami and will be even better as a sophomore. The Hurricanes found different ways to get him the ball. He was lights out against Indiana in the national championship game, with 10 catches for 122 yards, and scored touchdowns in three of the Hurricanes’ four playoff games. He also set a Miami record with 109 receptions for 1,211 yards.

Best under-the-radar player: Kaelon Black

Roman Hemby was Indiana’s starting running back and had a terrific season with 1,120 rushing yards. But the other half of the Hoosiers’ one-two punch in the backfield, Kaelon Black, didn’t get nearly the love he deserved. He also topped the 1,000-yard mark (1,040 yards) and averaged 5.6 yards per carry. In 186 rushing attempts, the 5-11, 211-pound redshirt senior lost just 17 yards and didn’t lose a fumble all season. He led the Hoosiers with 10 rushing touchdowns and was rated among the top 30 run-blocking running backs in the country by Pro Football Focus. Don’t bother looking for his name on the All-Big Ten lists. He didn’t even receive honorable mention.

Best kicking exhibition: Lucas Carneiro

Oklahoma’s Tate Sandell was the leader in the clubhouse after making four field goals in the 33-27 win over Tennessee in the regular season, including two 55-yarders and a 51-yarder. But then Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro upstaged Sandell on an even bigger stage. He booted field goals from 56 and 55 yards in Ole Miss’ 39-34 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and then won it with a 47-yarder with six seconds left. Just to show off, Carneiro hammered home a 58-yarder a week later against Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.

Best comeback: Texas A&M 31, South Carolina 30

The Aggies saw their season flash before their eyes after falling behind 30-3 at the half against the Gamecocks in a Nov. 15 game at home. South Carolina coach Shane Beamer left the field at halftime waving his arms and hyping up the Gamecocks’ fans. But it was Texas A&M that came alive in the second half with the largest comeback in school history. Quarterback Marcel Reed recovered from a dreadful first half and threw for a career-high 439 yards, and Texas A&M’s defense held South Carolina scoreless in the second half. How unlikely was it that the Aggies would rally from a 27-point halftime deficit? Entering the game, teams were 0-286 in SEC play since 2004 when trailing by 27 points or more.

Best quote: Deion Sanders

“The smell of weed in the second quarter. That surprised the heck out of me. Every game, I’m like, ‘Dang, it seems like it’s like a light-up quarter.’ You know what I’m saying.” – Deion Sanders on what surprised him about playing at Colorado’s Folsom Field. Sanders went on to say that he’d never been high a day in his life. “That’s kind of new to me.” For the record, recreational marijuana use has long been legal in Colorado, but the University of Colorado is a non-smoking campus.

Worst quote: Dabo Swinney

“Hey, listen, if Clemson’s tired of winning, they can send me on my way, but I’m going to go somewhere else and coach. I ain’t going to the beach. Hell, I’m 55. I’ve got a long way to go. Y’all are gonna have to deal with me for a while.” – Dabo Swinney after Clemson started the season 1-2 with a 34-21 home loss to Syracuse. The Tigers finished 7-6, the six losses being more than Clemson suffered in their 2015 to 2019 seasons combined.

Worst divorce: Lane Kiffin/Ole Miss

Is there really any reason to rehash it? Nasty, messy, ugly – you name it. Lane Kiffin took the LSU job with Ole Miss streaking toward its first playoff appearance. He wanted to coach the team the rest of the way through the playoff. The Ole Miss administration said no way. The players on the leadership council said no way, and Kiffin didn’t exactly go quietly. The Ole Miss fans will never forgive him, even though he’s the one that built the program. The rivalry between Ole Miss and LSU just went to another level, and even though Kiffin recently called for peace and for the personal attacks to stop, good luck with that. The LSU-Ole Miss game on Sept. 19 in Oxford will make the Egg Bowl, Iron Bowl, Red River Showdown, Michigan-Ohio State (any of those bitter rivalries) look like a Sunday School ice cream social.

Worst prediction: My Clemson pick

It’s still out there for anybody to track down. I wrote it. I own it. Before the season, I predicted this would be the best and most talented Clemson team since that 2015-19 run, which included two national championships and two national championship game appearances. The moral of the story: Don’t take betting tips from me.

Biggest surprise: Vanderbilt

Picked to finish 13th in the SEC, Vanderbilt won 10 games overall and six in the SEC, each for the first time in school history, and Clark Lea won the 2025 FWAA Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award. The Commodores finished 15th in the final AP poll, their highest final ranking since 1948. Lotta firsts on West End, and Lea has the program pointed in a direction where football success shouldn’t come as a surprise any longer.

Biggest disappointment: Clemson/Penn State

Take your pick. Both teams were ranked in the top 5 of the AP preseason poll, and they combined to lose 12 games. Perhaps fittingly, they met in the Pinstripe Bowl with Penn State winning 22-10.

Biggest upset: UCLA 42, Penn State 37

It was the beginning of the end for James Franklin, who was fired a week later after Penn State lost at home to Northwestern. The Bruins were already playing with an interim coach after DeShaun Foster’s firing three weeks into the season. They entered the game against Penn State as a 24 ½-point underdog and jumped out to a 27-7 halftime lead and then held on as Tennessee transfer Nico Iamaleava accounted for five touchdowns. UCLA became the first 0-4 or worse team to beat a top-10 team in 40 years.

Best contract bonus: Lane Kiffin/Jimmy Sexton

Kiffin, as part of the bonus structure in his seven-year, $91 million contract with LSU, earned an extra $500,000 for Ole Miss’ two playoff wins, courtesy of the deal Sexton negotiated with LSU for Kiffin to be the Tigers’ head coach. Those bonuses — $250,000 for each playoff win — were the same Kiffin would have pocketed had he been coaching the Rebels in the playoff. Not a bad gig if you can get it … or have the right agent.

Best comeback player: Bryce Steele

Lotta good candidates, but Boston College linebacker Bryce Steele’s fight against cancer going all the way back to 2019 and just getting back on the field and playing football again is a testament to his indomitable will. He was diagnosed with a rare thymoma in 2019 and underwent surgery to remove a 13-centimeter tumor near his heart during his high school recruitment process. He underwent several other surgeries during his time at Boston College, an unsuccessful round of chemotherapy and then opted for an alternative surgical path before relearning how to walk and breathe. He was cleared medically and returned for four games in 2024 and played in 10 of the 12 games this season for the Eagles. Steele entered the transfer portal earlier this month and plans to finish his career at Troy.

Best chin: Ty Simpson

Ty Simpson, in his first season as Alabama’s starting quarterback, played through a bulging disc in his back, bursitis in his elbow and had a reaction to some medication that inflamed the lining in his stomach. And then in the playoff game, he cracked the 10th rib on his left side late in the first half against Oklahoma, tried to play on the first series of the third quarter but couldn’t throw the ball past 10 yards. Simpson took a beating this season, but kept getting back up and led Alabama to the SEC championship game and a playoff berth. He declared for the NFL draft and is projected to be the second or third quarterback selected.

Worst luck: Stephen Daley

Defensive lineman Stephen Daley went from an 0-12 Kent State team in 2024 to an Indiana team that didn’t lose a game this season and won the national title. But there’s a bummer of a caveat. After leading the country with 19 tackles for loss from his edge rusher position, Daley suffered a season-ending injury while celebrating the Big Ten championship game win over Ohio State. He said he jumped up to hug family members in the stands and tore the patellar tendon when he landed. “It was hard not being out there on the field for any of the playoff games, but I wasn’t going to let it ruin a special season,” Daley said.

Worst cop-out: SEC

Enough with the excuses. Bowl games count. So do playoff games, and whether the SEC grind is or isn’t harder than other conferences, the fact is that the SEC was shut out of the national championship game for the third straight season. Yes, the game has changed with the transfer portal and NIL, but the same resources available to everybody else are also available to the SEC, which had more teams in the playoff (five) than anybody else. Curt Cignetti was dead on. There’s been a paradigm shift in college football. The SEC had better adjust or get used to it, especially moving to nine league games next season. As Bill Parcells said, you are what your record says you are, and the SEC’s record in playoff and bowl games this year (4-10) says that it doesn’t necessarily “mean more.”

Worst overreaction: SEC is toast

As pedestrian as the SEC was this postseason, any suggestion that the SEC is dead and has lost its fastball is way premature. The league isn’t as top heavy as it was when Alabama and Georgia were dominating and has more balance from top to bottom, and with nine league games next year, you’re going to see a lot more three- and four-loss teams that can play with anybody in the country. The SEC still has the best collection of talent in the country. Just check out the NFL draft numbers, although the Big Ten has made up ground in recent years. Close losses each of the past three years have kept the SEC out of the title game. They’ve been right there. Alabama lost to Michigan in overtime in 2023. Ole Miss pushed Miami to the final play this season. The SEC, with its dominance for much of the past two decades, has been an easy target with 13 of the previous 17 titles prior to the Big Ten’s recent streak. Anybody and everybody outside the SEC zip codes have been waiting for any sign of slippage. Well, here it is. But just a hunch: The SEC will be back — sooner as opposed to later.

Biggest myth: Interest in college football is declining

The chaos surrounding college football doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Who the hell knows what the rules are or aren’t? But we know this after seeing the ratings for the Indiana-Miami national championship game. People still love college football, and we’re watching in record numbers. The 30.1 million viewers who tuned in Monday night made it the second-most watched CFP title game behind only Ohio State vs. Oregon in 2015, which was the first CFP title game. Additionally, it’s the fourth-most watched national championship game ever, dating back to the BCS era. It’s still the best sport going.