Tough week for A&M; Texas soars in polls; Fisher hs hottest seat; Weigman's Heisman odds

A week ago 20 of the 62 Associated Press voters thought Texas A&M was a Top 20 team. This week the Aggies didn’t get one vote after losing to Miami.

Texas was ranked 11th last week. It beat Alabama and now the Longhorns shoot up to fourth. A pair of voters had UT atop the poll, six others voted them No. 2 and 11 more had the Longhorns No. 3.

I had UT ranked seventh in my preseason poll, had it seventh the first week and moved them up to fifth this week. I didn’t rank A&M in my preseason poll and put them at 25th last week after that impressive showing against New Mexico.

One loss doesn’t ruin A&M’s season and UT will need more than one key victory to make the College Football Playoff, though the the Longhorns could be the best in the Big 12 by far. UT gets BYU, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech at home. That’s huge. Road games at Baylor, TCU and Iowa State look more than manageable after the Bears have lost twice at home, Colorado came into Fort Worth and won and Iowa State lost at home to Iowa last week.

UT making the CFP in its last year in the Big 12 would be a heck of a way to enter the SEC. The Longhorns are bucking recent history.

UT is shooting for its first 10-win season since 2018 and only the second in the last 14 years. A&M also has had only one double-digit wining season during that span.

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BetOnline.ag has Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher as the betting favorite to be the first head coach fired.

I guess it’s possible if BetOnline agrees to pick up most of the $77 million buyout.

Fisher is a 4/1 favorite followed by Arkansas State’s, New Mexico’s Danny Gonazles and Virginia’s Tony Elliott are 5/1. West Virginia’s Neal Brown is 6/1; Indiana’s Tom Allen 7/1; Boston College’s Jeff Haley 9/1; Syracuse’s Dino Babers and Cal’s Justin Wilcox 10/1; Houston’s Dana Holgerson 12/1; Oklahoma’s Brent Venables and Missouri’s Eliah Dinkwitz 16/1; and Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield 20/1.

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Texas is a 2/3 favorite to win the Big 12 by BetOnline.ag. Oklahoma is second at 3/1.

Georgia is a 2/3 favorite to win the Southeastern Conference followed by Alabama 3/1, LSU 7/1, Tennessee 10/1 and A&M 14/1.

A&M’s odds of making the College Football Playoff are 200/1, tied with Mississippi State for 27th best. A&M had been at 50/1 since early in the year, jumping to 33/1 after the opener.

Miami, which had been at 200/1 jumped to 80/1.

USC QB Caleb Williams has 4/1 odds to repeat as Heisman Trophy winner followed by Florida State QB Jordan Travis 5/1; UT QB Quinn Ewers 8/1; Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. 10/1; Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy 14/1; Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders 16/1.

A&M QB Conner Weigman is at 80/1, tied for 22nd best. He went into the season at 22/1, but slipped to 50/1 after New Mexico and slipped further after Miami. Meanwhile, Miami QB Tyler Van Dyke went from off the board to 40/1, tied for 15th best.