Ranking the 10 best most impressive and impactful individual performances from around college football in Week 10.
With each week moving closer to the finish line of this college football season, the stakes are mounting greater and greater for teams battling for College Football Playoff consideration, bowl game eligibility or something in between with limited remaining chances to script their narratives.
That makes the elite performances that dot the weekly “Game Balls” list all the more significant as the season moves into November.
College Football Game Balls For Week 10
As always, the Team FB7 Game Balls Selection Committee combed through the box scores and game film to spotlight the 10 most superlative individual performances from Week 10.
RELATED: Week 9 Game Balls
Here they are …
1. Texas Tech QB Thomas Castellanos
When Texas Tech added former Boston College and Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos just before the start of the season, it didn’t figure he’d be playing a major role in the College Football Playoff chase.
Castellanos went undrafted and took part in a Miami Dolphins minicamp but never signed with the team. Then a court granted him (and others) a fifth year of eligibility in the wake of the NCAA’s new eligibility parameters allowing athletes five years to play five seasons.
Castellanos was the backup to Will Hammond most of the season before Hammond was benched ahead of Week 9. Making his second start for the Red Raiders last weekend, Castellanos had the best game of his college career while completing 18 of 27 passes for 362 yards, 5 TDs and 0 INTs and rushing 23 times for 102 yards in a 53-48 win over West Virginia.
That improved Texas Tech to 8-1 and up to No. 12 in the CFP rankings.
Castellanos’ touchdown passes went for 30, 29, 1, 38 and the go-ahead 5-yard TD toss to Kenny Johnson with 2:44 left, capping a decisive 69-yard drive in which the QB passed for 44 yards and rushed for 22.
2. Notre Dame QB CJ Carr
The biggest win of the week was Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over then-No. 1, unbeaten Miami.
After the Fighting Irish were arguably slighted in the first CFP rankings at No. 11 due to their light schedule, they surged all the way up to No. 5 with the statement win while improving to 8-1.
QB CJ Carr played the starring role Saturday, completing 29 of 40 passes for 319 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs while staking Notre Dame to a 24-3 lead early in the third quarter before the Hurricanes tightened the score the rest of the way.
Carr surged in the Heisman Trophy odds — he’s second per DraftKings Sportsbook at +270 behind Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (+225) but No. 1 by other oddsmakers. Overall, he’s passed for 2,168 yards, 21 TDs and 1 INT (plus 3 rushing TDs).
3. Utah QB Devon Dampier
The second biggest headline from Week 10 was Utah topping rival BYU 28-10 in a battle of top 10 teams, as the Utes remained one of just two remaining unbeaten teams in college football and moved up a spot to No. 2 in the CFP rankings.
As usual, dual-threat QB Devon Dampier led the way with the Utes.
He completed 14 of 26 passes for 177 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs and also led the team in rushing with 20 carries for 89 yards and 2 scores.
Oh, add in a 29-yard reception on a fourth-and-1 trick play in the third quarter (that led to a missed short field goal).
Dampier staked Utah to a quick 14-0 lead with touchdown drives on its first two possessions, capping a three-play, 75-yard opening drive with his own 22-yard TD scamper and then connecting with Braden Pegan on a short reception that turned into a 46-yard TD.
But the Utes were down 20-14 in the third quarter when Dampier led a go-ahead 53-yard touchdown drive with a 14-yard scoring toss to Pegan. On Utah’s next possession, Dampier finished a 7-play, 68-yard drive with a rushing TD on third-and-goal from the 3 for a 28-20 lead, having rushed for 42 yards on that series alone.
4. UCLA WR Aidan Mizell
UCLA is the other remaining undefeated team in college football, up to 9-0 and No. 4 in the CFP rankings after a 34-20 win at Minnesota.
The game was tied at 17-17 early in the fourth quarter before Aidan Mizell delivered the two biggest plays of the day.
On the first play from scrimmage after Minnesota tied the score, Mizell hauled in a 75-yard touchdown from Ty Dieffenbach while getting loose behind the defense to immediately but UCLA back ahead.
After a Gophers field goal narrowed the margin again, Mizell AGAIN scored on a 75-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the ensuing drive.
Those were Mizell’s only receptions of the game, yet he accounted for nearly half of UCLA’s 303 passing yards as the only receiver on the team with multiple catches — and they came in the biggest moments.
Mizell, a Florida transfer, had just 7 catches for 175 yards and a TD in four games this season before this one.
5. Boise State RB Dylan Riley
Dylan Riley became just the third player across the FBS this season with 300 all-purpose yards and finished one yard short of matching the Boise State program record last Saturday in a 64-38 win at Colorado State.
Riley rushed for 192 yards and 2 TDs on 19 carries, averaging 10.1 yards per carry, added 2 catches for a career-high 88 receiving yards and a score and tacked on a 20-yard kick return. The all-purpose yardage trails only Louisville’s Isaac Brown (313 vs. Florida State) and James Madison’s Michael Scott (303 vs. Wagner) this season.
Riley is also one of just three players this season to have multiple games of at least 192 rushing yards (along with Iowa State Aiden Flora and Texas State’s Torrance Burgess Jr.)
Colorado State has one of the worst defenses in college football — that’s no secret — so the bar to earn a Game Ball against the Rams is pretty high. Riley cleared it by a wide margin with his stellar performance.
He leads college football with 1,241 rushing yards, averaging 6.7 YPC overall with 13 rushing/receiving TDs for an 8-1 Broncos team slotted No. 24 in the CFP rankings.
Riley steals the spotlight here, but we’ll give a shoutout to Boise State junior QB Max Cutforth, who completed 16 of 19 passes for 317 yards, 4 TDs and 0 INTs plus a rushing TD in his first start for the Broncos, filling in for injured Maddux Madsen.
6. Oklahoma State RB Caleb Hawkins
Oklahoma State sophomore Caleb Hawkins is no stranger to stuffing the stat sheet, but what he’s done the last two weeks is on another level.
After racking up 194 rushing yards, 81 receiving yards and 3 total TDs last week in a narrow 51-49 loss at Iowa State, Hawkins backed it up Saturday with 20 carries for 175 yards and 3 scores plus 6 catches for 71 yards and a TD in a 66-28 win at Kansas State.
That’s 521 combined rushing/receiving yards and 7 TDs in two games.
Hawkins had touchdown runs of 21 and 37 yards in the first quarter vs. Kansas State to stake the Cowboys to a 21-7 lead (later 28-7) and helped 6-3 Oklahoma State pull away from there.
Overall, Hawkins has 1,081 rushing yards, 424 receiving yards and 10 total TDs.
7. FIU RB Devonte Lyons
In rushing for 217 yards and 2 TDs on 9.0 YPC, Devonte Lyons became FIU’s first 200-yard rusher since 2005 while turning in the third-best rushing performance in program history and the second-best total in the FBS this week.
Oh, and it came in a narrow 23-20 win over Missouri State that snapped a three-game losing streak for the 4-5 Panthers.
Lyons, a third-year sophomore, had never rushed for more than 115 yards in a game.
He had rushes of 56, 30 and 39 yards in the game and added a 12-yard reception while his TDs of 6 and 17 yards at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth swung the game in FIU’s favor.
8. Navy QB Jackson Gutierrez
Stats from the option-oriented rushing attacks of the service academies have to be weighed in their own context, but by any standard Navy QB Jackson Gutierrez earned himself a spot on the list this week.
Gutierrez carried the ball 30 times for 180 yards and 5 TDs and threw for a season-high 178 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT, accounting for all six of the Midshipmen’s scoring plays in a 42-35 win over Temple.
That snapped a three-game losing streak for Navy (3-6).
All of Gutierrez’s touchdowns runs came in short yardage while his touchdown pass went for 49 yards. He racked up 58 of his rushing yards on a nine-play, 75-yard game-winning drive, punctuated by his final TD run with 1:14 to go to put Navy in the lead for good.
9. Buffalo WR Chance Morrow
Buffalo’s Chance Morrow was the difference in a 34-31 overtime win at Miami (Ohio) in Week 10, hauling in 12 catches for 199 yards and 2 TDs (plus a key 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter).
Morrow’s long reception was 39 yards as he consistently racked up chunk gains for the 6-3 Bulls.
It was a career-best performance for the senior and just the second 100-yard game of his four seasons of college football, with the other coming earlier this season in a similar outbreak for 11-170-2 vs. FIU.
Overall, Morrow has 54 catches for 693 yards and 9 TDs.
10. Duke RB Nate Sheppard
Duke’s Nate Sheppard has been neck-and-neck with Boise State’s Riley for the FBS rushing lead this season, and he did his best to keep pace in Week 10 with 217 yards and 3 TDs on just 18 carries in a 41-3 win at NC State.
Sheppard averaged a ridiculous 12.1 YPC, including a 69-yard touchdown scamper in the first quarter.
Overall, the Blue Devils sophomore is second nationally to Riley with 1,189 rushing yards while adding 306 receiving yards and totaling 21 TDs.
