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Brant's bold predictions for Week 11 of the 2026 college football season, including picks for UCLA, Tennessee, Ohio State, Texas, and more.
Week 10 was billed as the regular-season slate of the year, and it delivered. Notre Dame knocked off top-ranked Miami 31-24 in South Bend, Oregon scored 38 straight points to stun Ohio State in the Horseshoe, and Alabama walked out of Death Valley with a 31-13 win over LSU.
It was also a good week for this column. Oklahoma State hung 66 on Kansas State, and Tennessee held Kentucky to six points in a 34-6 rout. I’ll own the Minnesota call, though, as UCLA pulled away late for a 34-20 win to move to 9-0. Bob Chesney’s group made me pay for doubting it, and I’m going right back to the well this week anyway.
Week 11 doesn’t have quite the top-to-bottom star power of last weekend, but there are plenty of spots ripe for chaos, starting with a loaded Friday night. Read on to see my top five bold calls for Week 11.
Oklahoma State Beats Texas Tech by Multiple Scores
Oklahoma State lived up to my bold call from last week, hanging a season-high 66 points on Kansas State in Manhattan. Drew Mestemaker accounted for six touchdowns (four passing, one rushing, and one receiving on a double reverse), while Caleb Hawkins ran for 175 yards and three scores.
Passing touchdown ✅
Rushing touchdown ✅
Receiving touchdown ✅What can't he do? @DrewMestemaker
📺: TNT https://t.co/wrlRH8eDeV
— OSU Cowboy Football (@CowboyFB) November 7, 2026
Mestemaker and Hawkins have looked virtually unstoppable in recent weeks. Mestemaker is up to 2,962 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, and eight interceptions on the year, and Texas Tech HC Joey McGuire said this week that he’d be surprised if Mestemaker isn’t the first overall pick in next year’s draft.
Texas Tech comes to town at 8-1, but this defense has taken a major step back from last season. The Red Raiders have given up 37 points per game over their last three, including a 37-24 loss at Cincinnati and 582 yards allowed in a 53-48 escape against West Virginia last week.
I’ll give Tech its due. Thomas Castellanos has given the offense a real boost and is coming off a career-high 362 yards and five touchdowns. The Red Raiders still control their own destiny in the Big 12, but that changes if they can’t escape from Stillwater with a win.
The Cowboys went 1-21 over the previous two seasons, and Eric Morris already has them bowl-eligible in Year 1. This matchup is an 8:30 p.m. local kickoff in Stillwater, and this fan base has been waiting a long time to be relevant again.
This has all the makings of a signature win. Give me the Cowboys to keep the scoreboard spinning, beating Texas Tech by multiple scores under the lights.
Northwestern Hands Ohio State Three Straight Losses
Ohio State’s season is coming off the rails. The Buckeyes led Oregon by two touchdowns at home last Saturday before the Ducks rattled off 38 straight points in a 41-28 rout, and a good chunk of the 103,551 in attendance had headed for the exits by the middle of the fourth quarter. That came one week after a 30-18 loss at USC. At 6-3, the Buckeyes are suddenly in danger of watching their season slip away in November.
Next up is Northwestern at noon ET on Fox, and the man calling plays on the other sideline knows this Ohio State staff in and out. Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator on the Buckeyes’ 2024 national championship team, and now he’s running the best offense Northwestern has had in years.
This prediction hinges on the return of Aidan Chiles. The star quarterback missed last week’s loss to Iowa with an upper-body injury, and his timeline remains uncertain. Chiles has been a perfect fit in Kelly’s system, throwing for 1,898 yards with 13 touchdowns and just one interception. The Wildcats will need him active and healthy to pull off this seismic upset.
Even if Chiles can’t go, Nicco Marchiol played solid in the loss to Iowa, completing 24 of 32 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown while adding 52 yards on the ground. The offense around him sputtered, going 1-of-11 on third down, but that was against Phil Parker’s tough Iowa defense. Ohio State just gave up 38 straight points.
History is not on the Wildcats’ side. Ohio State has won 11 straight in the series, and Northwestern hasn’t won in Ohio Stadium since 1971. But this is a defeated and deflated Buckeyes team. Give me Kelly to outscheme his old boss and the Wildcats to hand Ohio State its third straight loss for the first time since 2011.
Texas A&M Earns First Signature Win of Season
Tennessee picked up a massive 34-6 win over Kentucky last weekend, as I called in this column, but it came at a steep price. Tyree Weathersby suffered a season-ending knee injury late in the third quarter. Weathersby leads the Vols with seven sacks, tied for third in the SEC, and losing him is a major blow to a Jim Knowles defense that has carried this team.
The Vols also have to come down from an emotional high. That was their second win over a top-6 team this season, and now they travel to Kyle Field for their first trip to College Station since 2016. This is a textbook letdown spot.
We’ve seen this movie before with Josh Heupel. In 2024, his fourth-ranked Vols lost 19-14 to an unranked Arkansas team. In 2023, they were held to seven points at Missouri. And just a few weeks ago, this very team lost on a walk-off field goal at South Carolina the week after its emotional win over Alabama.
Texas A&M has been a disappointment, no question. The Aggies made the CFP last year at 11-2, and now they sit at 4-5 and 1-5 in SEC play. Marcel Reed came into the year with Heisman hype and hasn’t come even remotely close to living up to it.
Still, this is a well-coached team with some talent. It has fought hard and just hasn’t been able to get it done over the past few weeks, including losses to Alabama and a close one to South Carolina last Saturday.
Tennessee is a short road favorite, and I understand why. But give me the Aggies to feed off the Kyle Field crowd and pick up their first signature win of the season.
Texas Rides Momentum Under the Lights in Baton Rouge
Texas went into Columbia short-handed last week and came out with one of its biggest wins of the year. Cam Coleman was ruled out with a shoulder injury, Colin Simmons was working his way back from an ankle injury on a pitch count, and the Longhorns still scored the final 21 points to beat Missouri 34-20 on the road.
Arch Manning played his most complete game of the season vs. Mizzou. His best two throws came on his final attempts to help take the lead. Most decisive that he’s been. https://t.co/5v9U8RxxfS
— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) November 9, 2026
Arch Manning really proved himself in that one, throwing for 297 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead score to Raleek Brown with just over five minutes left. Not long ago, I was predicting he’d get benched in this column. Credit where it’s due.
LSU, meanwhile, got exposed last weekend. Alabama scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to win 31-13 in Tiger Stadium; LSU fell to 6-3 and 0-3 against ranked teams, and Lane Kiffin is now 0-6 against the Crimson Tide in his career. Kiffin’s big takeaway afterward was his team’s failure to finish drives in the red zone.
Kiffin and the Tigers won’t want to lose back-to-back home games, especially in the final home game of the regular season with a 6:30 p.m. local kickoff on ABC. Death Valley at night is never an easy place to play, and Texas hasn’t visited Baton Rouge since 1953.
But is it possible that the writing is on the wall for this LSU team? I like Texas’ depth on both sides of the ball, its ability to win in big moments, and its quarterback play better than what LSU has here. Give me the Longhorns to ride the momentum and quiet Death Valley on Saturday night.
Illinois Knocks Off UCLA
Let’s give a little Friday night special to close this week’s column out. This week’s Friday slate is much stronger than it has been in recent weeks, and the headliner is undoubtedly Illinois at UCLA at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
UCLA is obviously having a great season in Bob Chesney’s first year. The Bruins play great in the trenches; they’re stout on defense, and they have a lethal run game, with Wayne Knight up to 15 rushing touchdowns this year.
Despite playing with backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach since Nico Iamaleava went down, they have found ways to keep winning. At 9-0, they’re one of two remaining unbeaten teams.
However, Illinois has played spoiler this season, as the Illini seem to do every season under Bret Bielema. The Illini drop games that they shouldn’t, but they also win games that they shouldn’t.
They beat Oregon 21-10 a few weeks ago with freshman Michael Clayton II making his first career start, putting the Ducks’ season on life support at the time. They also took care of business against Nebraska on Nov. 6, winning 24-13 to become bowl-eligible.
NFL scouts watching #illini QB Katin Houser warm up. https://t.co/w4NkXHyaO8
— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) November 6, 2026
That’s four straight wins for Illinois, and veteran Katin Houser is back under center after breaking his throwing hand in early October. Collin Dixon has also had a thrilling season, setting the program’s single-season record with his 12th touchdown catch in that Nebraska win.
I know this game is on the West Coast and that should not be overlooked, especially on a short week. The Bruins are double-digit favorites on Friday night in L.A.
But Bielema just gets feisty this time of year. UCLA has not overlooked any opponent this season, but now the Bruins have become the hunted rather than being the ones doing the hunting. Give me Bielema to coach this game fearlessly and the Illini to hand UCLA its first loss on Friday night.
