College football players of the week: Week 9, 2026
Oregon quarterback Dylan Raiola, Troy safety Justin Powe and Indiana kicker Paddy McAteer are the Week 9 players of the week. Raiola threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns as Oregon came back from 20-6 down to beat No. 20 Northwestern 34-26. Powe intercepted three passes, returning one 37 yards for a touchdown, in Troy's 24-21 overtime win at James Madison. McAteer made a 60-yard field goal as time expired to tie Minnesota 16-16, and No. 4 Indiana won 23-16 in overtime.
W Oregon 34, Northwestern 26 · vs No. 20 Northwestern
22 of 31, 336 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT; touchdown passes of 10 and 75 yards to Dakorien Moore and 17 yards to Jamari Johnson
He brought Oregon back from 20-6 down against No. 20 Northwestern without throwing an interception. Just before halftime he converted a third-and-10 with a 37-yard throw to Evan Stewart, then hit Dakorien Moore for a 10-yard touchdown with 49 seconds left. His 17-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Johnson made it 23-20 in the third quarter, and Brandon Smith's fourth-down run put Oregon ahead 27-23. When Northwestern kicked a field goal to get within 27-26 with 10:31 left, Raiola hit Moore over the middle on the next snap and Moore went 75 yards for the last points of the game. South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers had more yards and five touchdowns at Oklahoma, but against an unranked team and with two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown. North Carolina's Billy Edwards Jr. threw four touchdown passes against No. 1 Miami in a 38-35 loss.
Runner-up: LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina: 19 of 24, 301 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT; 13 rushes, 96 yards, 2 TD in a 42-25 win at Oklahoma
W Troy 24, James Madison 21 (OT) · at James Madison
7 tackles (6 solo), 3 INT (37 return yards, 1 TD), 2 pass breakups; both breakups came on third and fourth down in the last 12 seconds of regulation
Three interceptions, which ties Troy's single-game record, and two pass breakups that got the game to overtime. James Madison led 21-7 at halftime. Powe had picked off Camden Coleman late in the first half, and on the second play of the third quarter he intercepted JC Evans and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. After Troy tied it 21-21, he intercepted Coleman again on James Madison's next possession. With the Dukes at the Troy 37 and 12 seconds left in regulation, he broke up throws to the 1 and the end zone on third and fourth down, and Troy won 24-21 on a field goal in overtime. Georgia's Chris Cole had the better opponent, No. 17 Florida, and scored on a 66-yard fumble return, but Georgia already led 17-0 in a 27-8 game. Washington's Alex McLaughlin sealed a 17-10 win at Nebraska with a 48-yard interception return with 1:15 left.
Runner-up: Chris Cole, Georgia: 9 tackles (7 solo), 1 sack, 66-yard fumble return TD in a 27-8 win over No. 17 Florida in Atlanta
1 of 1 field goals: 60 yards as time expired in regulation to tie it 16-16, his career long
He tied the game from 60 yards as time expired, and No. 4 Indiana won in overtime. Minnesota had just gone ahead 16-13 on Luke Drzewiecki's own 60-yarder with 19 seconds left. Grant Wilson hit Charlie Becker for 33 yards to the Minnesota 42, an incompletion left two seconds, and McAteer, who had handled kickoffs while Nico Radicic kicked field goals, came on after a Minnesota timeout and made it. Radicic had a 52-yard try blocked and missed from 31 earlier. Wilson's 25-yard touchdown pass to Becker on the first play of overtime won it 23-16. Drzewiecki was 3 of 3 from 37, 51 and 60 yards on the road against a top-five team, the bigger day by volume, but Minnesota lost. Iowa State's Kyle Konrardy beat No. 24 Oklahoma State 51-49 with a 34-yarder on the final play.
Runner-up: Luke Drzewiecki, Minnesota: 3 of 3 field goals (37, 51 and 60 yards); the 60-yarder put Minnesota ahead 16-13 with 19 seconds left in a 23-16 overtime loss at No. 4 Indiana
One player per slot, judged the way the power rankings judge teams: what happened on the field, against whom and where. Production counts, and so does the opponent. A big game against a good defense or on the road beats the same numbers at home against a bad one, and a play that decided the game beats one that padded a lead. A great game in a loss can still win if nothing else comes close.
NFL awards follow the league's format, AFC and NFC, and go up on Tuesday morning, a day before the league names its own. College awards are national and go up on Sunday morning. Where there's an official pick (the NFL's, or Walter Camp's for college offense and defense), it's listed under ours, agree or not.
The NFL page also goes position by position: a player of the week and a season top 5 at each of 14 spots, from quarterback to punter. Players are filed by the job they do, so an edge rusher is anyone who rushes from the line, whether he's called an end or an outside linebacker, and a linebacker plays off the ball. The top 5 is the whole season's body of work, not a count of weekly wins, and a player needs to have played real snaps to make it. Offensive linemen have no box score, so they're judged on pressures and sacks allowed, penalties and what the offense did around them; that's noted on those cards.