Ranking the 3 Biggest Winners and Losers of Week Eight of the College Football Season

This weekend had a few massive matchups headlined by Texas Vs Georgia and Alabama Vs Tennessee. While there were massive games headlining the slate, the week as a whole was one of the better weekends of games as we learned a ton about several teams as they start to look like Contenders while others look like pretenders.

With Week Eight of the College Football Season in the books, here are the three biggest winners and losers of the Week.

Winner - Indiana Hoosiers

The reason most coaches lose at middle tier College Football programs is because they accept the fact that they aren't one of the best teams in the sport. Curt Cignetti has done nothing but utter that this team will win and compete against the Big Ten teams and all he's done is prove himself right.

Nebraska was a team that nearly everyone thought would spoil Indiana's perfect season yet, Indiana dismantled the Cornhuskers. Against a Nebraska defense that has been impressive this season, Indiana scored 56 points as the Hoosiers rushed for five touchdowns. On defense, Indiana forced five turnovers picking off Dylan Raiola three times while recovering two fumbles.

The Hoosiers are now 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big Ten and will find themselves in the conversation for the College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers will have some tough games down the stretch but, if they can finish with just one loss it'll be hard to keep them out of the Playoff.

After their massive win, the Hoosiers will get to host College Gameday but, quarterback Kurtis Rourke will be out indefinitely with an injury.

Loser - Kalen DeBoer

This week, all Kalen DeBoer will hear is Nick Saban never did this or Nick Saban never did that as the Tide took their second loss of the season. The fanbase has already gotten after DeBoer for his attire choices and now they're going to attack him over his coaching ability.

At Washington, Kalen DeBoer got a ton of credit for how great his offense was and for his work turning Michael Penix Jr into a top-ten pick after he was an afterthought. The Alabama offense couldn't do anything on Saturday and Jalen Milroe is regressing after all of the progress he made at the end of last season.

Kalen DeBoer took on the impossible challenge of replacing the greatest coach in College Football history. DeBoer did inherit Saban's resources but, he also inherits Alabama's expectations and losing two games before the start of November won't go over well in Tuscaloosa.

Under Nick Saban, the Alabama teams were well-oiled machines while Kalen DeBoer's teams do things that rightfully drive fans insane.

Winner - The Military Academies

The most under talked about storyline in College Football right now is the fact that Army and Navy are both undefeated and ranked inside the top 25. This weekend, both schools dismantled American Athletic Conference opponents scoring 51 and 45 points respectively. This streak may come to an end as Navy faces Notre Dame next weekend but, both schools have been incredible.

The expanded College Football Playoff has given both teams the chance of making the College Football Playoff as one Non-Power Conference Champion is guaranteed a bid to the playoffs while these teams could find their way in as at-large teams if things get chaotic. The College Football Playoff committee unveils their playoff rankings before the Army Navy game which may be an issue if both teams are in contention.

Loser - Lincoln Riley and Brent Venables

When Lincoln Riley packed his bags for Southern California everyone imagined that the Trojans program was coming back to its former glory while Oklahoma fans had a new mortal enemy. We're three seasons in and the Trojans are going in the wrong direction as they're currently 3-4 in year one in the Big Ten.

This weekend, USC blew a 14 point halftime lead allowing 22 second half points while scoring just seven points which is far too low for a Lincoln Riley led team. The only thing that is keeping Oklahoma fans from relishing in their former coaches failures is the failure of their own team.

This weekend was an outright disaster for the Oklahoma Sooners as three early turnovers put Oklahoma in a 21 point hole before five minutes even ran off of the clock. The Sooners have no offense as their top receivers are all injured, their offensive line has massive issues, and their quarterbacks have been bad as a result of both issues.

The two former powers paid a massive amount to each respective coach and neither school is seeing any success. For USC, you went out and made the superstar hire luring Riley to USC and that clearly isn't working so what would be the next move if you chose to fire Riley? For Oklahoma, the decision to extend Brent Venables this offseason is head-scratching and now makes it much harder to move on to find a new coach.

Winner - Texas A&M and LSU

The LSU Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies both lost in the opening week of the season to ranked opponents and everyone wrote them off. Since that opening week all these teams have done is rattle off wins while everyone around them in the SEC has taken losses. Now, Texas A&M and LSU will faceoff on Saturday Night with the winner gaining sole possession of first place in the SEC which would've seemed impossible after the opening game.

If LSU wins, they'll have ranked matchups against Alabama and Vanderbilt left as the biggest roadblocks but, Alabama has looked beatable this season. For Texas A&M, they'd have tough games left against South Carolina and Texas but, if the winning team splits their two toughest games they'll most likely earn a bid to the College Football Playoff.

Loser - Steve Sarkisian and Texas

The Texas Longhorns got it all this weekend as they hosted College Gameday and had a chance to prove that they're the power of the SEC as the Longhorns got to face Georgia at Home. The game started off slow but, quickly it was shown that the Longhorns couldn't keep up with Georgia.

The Bulldogs dominated the line of scrimmage holding Georgia to just 29 yards on 27 carries for a total of just 1.1 yards per carry. The defensive line got after the quarterback all night and Texas should be concerned as their offensive line didn't look good enough to compete against the SEC's best.

This game also created a quarterback controversy as Steve Sarkisian panicked pulling Quinn Ewers for Arch Manning before pulling Arch Manning for Ewers. Now every time Quinn Ewers starts to struggle, we're going to reporters and fans clamoring for Manning. Texas still has a great chance

More College Football News: