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Brant's bold predictions for Week 9 of the 2026 college football season, including picks for Ohio State, Georgia, Oklahoma, Iowa, and more.
The greatest sport in the world just keeps on giving. We saw a week with the most historic upset day in recent memory; we saw shocking losses from BYU, Texas Tech, Tennessee, USC, and Iowa, further muddying the playoff waters.
This week, we are bound to see even more chaos despite the lack of marquee matchups. It's always a week like this where "College GameDay" heads to Bloomington for a Minnesota-Indiana matchup when we see the craziest of results across the scoreboard.
Read on to see my six bold calls for this week's college football slate (and beyond, with my first pick).
No Bowl Game for Mississippi State
The Mississippi State Bulldogs were one of the great surprises early on in the 2026 college football season, but they’ve gone downhill quickly after their hot start. They’ve been outscored 110-38 over their past three games, suffering losses at the hands of Alabama, LSU, and Oklahoma.
A major reason for the fall of the Bulldogs has been the health of star quarterback Kamario Taylor. Taylor has been in and out of the past three games with a toe injury, and is now set to miss the remainder of the season due to the injury.
Sources: Mississippi State star QB Kamario Taylor will miss the rest of the season, as he faces surgery on his injured toe. Taylor has an appointment today to get his toe checked out by a specialist and could have surgery as early as tomorrow. He’s expected to make a full recovery.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 27, 2026
Mississippi State plays at Texas under the lights this week in a game that will likely get ugly fast with Taylor ruled out. If it can’t win that, it will be its fourth straight loss.
Backup quarterback Parker Puckett has struggled, and while they only need two wins in their last five games, I’m not seeing a path to a bowl game for the Bulldogs.
In coming weeks, they host Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Tennessee Tech before playing at Ole Miss to close the season out.
Auburn has been up and down, and Vanderbilt has not yet won an SEC game this year. However, with Puckett under center, I’m predicting that those are both losses despite the home-field advantage.
On top of that, I’ll throw in one more bold prediction that Taylor will transfer from Mississippi State at the conclusion of the season. Taylor is a Mississippi guy through and through, but will command a massive payday on the open market. It will take a lot to keep him in town, and allowing his season to be ended by turf toe signals that he may be on the way out.
Tavien St. Clair Draws the Start in Narrow Win
Ohio State is gearing up for its first game without Julian Sayin under center since the 2024 national championship. With Sayin likely done for the season, Ryan Day has yet to name a starting quarterback for this weekend’s matchup with USC.
Ryan Day said there’s no reason to keep Ohio State’s starting quarterback a secret, but he’ll decide whether to name the starter publicly or privately before the Buckeyes play USC this weekend. Day said it’s possible both could play against the Trojans.
— Chase Brown (@chaseabrown__) October 27, 2026
True freshman Luke Fahey won the backup job and has been operating as Sayin’s backup this season. He was thrust into the Indiana game before the bye, but did not complete a pass.
Former five-star recruit Tavien St. Clair is also an option, but it appeared that he was potentially on his way out of Columbus after losing the backup job to Fahey. However, both quarterbacks have taken reps with the first team in practice this week, and Day seems to be undecided on who will take the first snap on Saturday.
I’m going with the bold call that St. Clair gets the nod over Fahey, and leads the Buckeyes to a hard-fought road win over the Trojans in SoCal on Saturday night.
There’s no better defense in the Big Ten (outside of Rutgers) for a young quarterback to make their first career start against, and whoever does earn the role will be forced to learn quickly. Give me St. Clair in a hard-fought road win.
Hank Brown Leads Hawkeyes to Win with Zero Touchdowns
Iowa’s quarterback situation has been fascinating this season. Kirk Ferentz has rotated between Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski all season, and it’s become clear that Hecklinski brings more upside to the table than Brown.
Hecklinski drew the start against Minnesota last week, but was yanked in favor of Brown after a few turnover-worthy throws. The offense then sputtered, and Iowa lost.
Ferentz announced on Tuesday that Brown would likely draw the start this Saturday against Wisconsin but that the quarterback situation would be played by ear as the game goes on.
Iowa is back in Kinnick this week. I had the pleasure of heading out to Iowa City a couple of weeks ago for the Ohio State game, and can verify that having the home crowd backing it will help. However, it may be extremely hard for the offense to get anything going with Brown under center.
Wisconsin’s defense has been great the past couple of weeks, surrendering just seven points to a high-flying USC offense a week ago. A Hank Brown-led Iowa offense is going to have a very hard time putting points up, especially with starting running back Kamari Moulton out for the season.
I’m making the call now that the Hawkeyes do not score a touchdown on Saturday. However, Wisconsin’s offense is nothing to write home about, either, and Ferentz’s defense has been lights out. Colton Joseph has not eclipsed 66 passing yards in each of the previous two games. He should be under 100 yards yet again on Saturday.
Give me an Iowa win without a single touchdown scored by the Hawkeyes in a true Big Ten West slugfest.
UCF Suffers Hangover Against Interim Head Coach
The UCF Knights delivered one of the upsets of the season last week, taking down then-No. 2 BYU in a thrilling double-overtime battle last Saturday.
This week, Scott Frost’s team hosts Baylor. The Bears are coming off a heartbreaking loss against Kansas, and just fired Dave Aranda. Interim head coach Joe Klanderman will be at the helm for the first time on Friday night as the Bears travel to Orlando.
The interim boost is real. It is a legitimate phenomenon that interim head coaches come out swinging in their first game. What do they have to lose?
On one sideline, you have an up-and-down team coming off one of the biggest wins in program history. On the opposing sideline, you have a team that is fired up off a bad loss with a coach calling the game unafraid.
A fearless interim coach and a quarterback like DJ Lagway may seem like a horrible match on paper, but I like the Bears to come into Orlando and leave with a win, sending the Knights back down the hill on their roller coaster of a season.
Georgia Makes a First-Quarter Statement
Georgia has not taken the field since its stunning home upset loss to Auburn. Coming off a bye, the Bulldogs will be amped up to get back on the field against a bitter rival in Florida.
Kirby Smart does not lose back-to-back games. As a matter of fact, he hasn’t done such a thing since his debut season at Georgia in 2016.
On the other sideline, this Florida team is more than capable of getting blown out. There is a quarterback controversy, as Tramell Jones played well enough in the win over Texas to warrant a longer look over initial starter Aaron Philo.
The Gators suffered back-to-back blowout losses just a handful of weeks ago, losing 45-17 to Missouri and 38-19 to South Carolina, before beating Texas on the road. Let’s not erase that from our memory.
Jon Sumrall is a good coach, but this is Year 1 in the SEC. Smart will have his team ready, the environment in Mercedes-Benz Stadium will heavily favor the Bulldogs, and I think this one will be over before the end of the first quarter as the Gators suffer their third blowout loss of the year.
Oklahoma Stifles South Carolina
This should be an intriguing matchup between two middle-of-the-pack SEC teams. Both Oklahoma and South Carolina have experienced very high highs and very low lows this year.
The Sooners offense has looked incompetent for the majority of the year, but they somehow squeaked by Texas a couple of weeks ago. As for South Carolina, the Gamecocks started SEC play 0-3 before churning out massive wins over Florida and Tennessee over the past two weeks.
LaNorris Sellers has been phenomenal, and now has the Gamecocks back in the mix at 4-3. While John Mateer has been the brunt of many jokes this season, Brent Venables is pulling out all the stops defensively.
Outside of getting pummeled by Georgia, the Sooners are surrendering just 13.8 points per game. Their defense has kept them in games this season and is the reason that they beat Texas a couple of weeks ago.
While I’m as big of a Sellers fan as anybody, I’m not immune to the fact that he had a horrible 2025 season. If anybody can bring that version of Sellers out of the woodwork, it is Venables. This feels like a game that can be won defensively, and if the Sooners can pull it off, it would put them at 3-1 since the Georgia game.
I like Oklahoma’s defense to slow down South Carolina’s offense in a low-scoring affair this week. Give me a 13-10 Sooners win in the lowest-scoring SEC game of the week.
