Week 7 featured a slate loaded with compelling helmet games, but it didn't treat us to quite the feast of upsets we enjoyed in Week 6.

Two top-10 teams, Ohio State and Ole Miss, did go down. But both those losses came on the road in thrillers against teams ranked in the top 15 as No. 3 Oregon outdueled the No. 2 Buckeyes at Autzen Stadium while coach Lane Kiffin's team couldn't close out LSU at Death Valley and ultimately succumbed in overtime.

While some teams we expected to contend — such as Ole Miss — now face uphill battles to reach the College Football Playoff, the race still appears to be fairly wide open overall. As we're now around the midpoint of the 2024 season, here are the winners and losers from Week 7.

Winner: Texas riding the wake of chaos

The 2024 season is shaping up to be a potentially chaotic one. We haven't even reached the middle of October yet, and only five of the top 10 teams in college football remain unbeaten.

But amid all the chaos that has left many teams expected to contend with little margin for error the rest of the way, the Longhorns are the beneficiary. It's hard to argue any team in college football has been more impressive than Steve Sarkisian's through seven weeks.

Texas has dominant wins against Michigan on the road and over rival Oklahoma in a Red River Rivalry matchup in which it was clearly favored, but that hasn't always predicted success in a series in which anything can happen. It's also played much of the season without quarterback Quinn Ewers, who made his return from an abdominal injury on Saturday after backup Arch Manning played well in his place over the last few weeks.

Ewers looked a bit rusty and took some time to get comfortable in the win, but the defense was so dominant the Longhorns had that luxury. They're ranked No. 1 in the nation for a reason, and if they can beat Georgia at home on Saturday, prepare for this team to become the clear national title favorite.

Loser: Lincoln Riley's futility at USC

In a post-2021 hiring cycle that was about as momentous as this sport has ever seen, the most high-profile move of all saw USC hire Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, where he replaced Bob Stoops and led the Sooners to multiple College Football Playoff appearances.

It was a move that looked like a home run for a Trojans program that had spent the better part of two decades trying to recreate the success it had under Pete Carroll, an effort that was hampered by NCAA sanctions and mediocre coaching hires. With Riley, it finally seemed like the Trojans found the guy who would capitalize on the program's history, resources and location in the modern era.

And the early returns were promising. He won 11 games and earned a New Year's Six berth while coaching a Heisman winner in Caleb Williams in 2022. But the poor defense that cost that team a Pac-12 title regressed even further in 2023, and USC finished 8-5 despite returning Williams. Now, without the first-overall NFL draft pick at quarterback, the Trojans are 3-3 to start their debut Big Ten campaign.

It's hard to understand some of the issues that have led to losses against Michigan, Minnesota and, most recently, Penn State in a game in which USC squandered a 20-6 lead and lost in overtime. Miller Moss is no generational NFL prospect, but he's a solid quarterback and should be more than good enough to win games. The defense is far from good, but it's also shown at least some progress under new coordinator D'Anton Lynn.

However, the results have been middling at best, and the Trojans are effectively out of both the Big Ten title and CFP races at the midpoint of the season despite winning their opener against LSU. I don't think we're going to start talking hot seat any time soon when it comes to Riley — his buyout is likely far too big for it to even be a conversation.

But it's been a disappointing campaign, to say the least, and it seems fair to question this program's trajectory under Riley because it doesn't seem to be trending in the direction of winning championships.

Winner: Dan Lanning finally gets his signature win at Oregon

Dan Lanning is arguably the biggest rising star in the entire coaching industry. At 38, the former Georgia defensive coordinator is still one of the FBS' youngest head coaches, but his track record speaks for itself. In two-and-a-half seasons at Oregon, Lanning holds a 28-5 record.

That was good enough to make him a prime candidate for the Alabama job when Nick Saban retired, but he opted to stay and build in Eugene instead. And now, he has his signature win at Oregon.

The Ducks won an instant classic against Ohio State, outlasting the Buckeyes in a back-and-forth shootout to start 6-0 for the first time since 2013. With the win, they climbed to No. 2 in the polls.

There seemed to be a bit of a narrative developing that Lanning couldn't win the big game, a theory I rejected outright. A pair of losses to Washington last season sting, and Lanning was particularly scrutinized for his gutsy decision-making in the first of the two.

But with Lanning's aggressiveness, the process behind it has rarely been bad. Coaching to win the way he does, it was only a matter of time before it finally paid off. On Saturday, it did in a big way.

Oregon recovered a surprise onside kick in the second quarter to set up a field-goal drive, and on Ohio State's final possession, he seemed to take an intentional 12-men on the field penalty that worked out nicely, preventing a big gain for the Buckeyes and burning five seconds off the clock with a live ball penalty.

This likely won't be the last time Oregon and Ohio State face off this season, but Lanning's bold coaching style finally paid off in the form of a tenure-defining win.

Loser: Oklahoma still searching for answers

There weren't many prognosticators who expected Oklahoma to play a major role in the SEC title race in its first season as a member of the conference, but there's no way to spin the start of the 2024 season as anything other than a disappointment for the Sooners.

They're 4-2 to start the campaign but are just 1-2 in SEC play to this point. They weren't particularly competitive in a loss to Tennessee at home, they were fortunate to survive at Auburn, and in their attempt to defend their 2023 Red River win, they were completely hapless against the Longhorns.

Oklahoma is pretty strong defensively, but the offense leaves so much to be desired. Coach Brent Venables made a quarterback change, giving Michael Hawkins Jr. the helm in the middle of the Tennessee loss. That hasn't sparked the offense much over the last two games, and it's fair to wonder whether former five-star Jackson Arnold deserves another chance at this point.

But it may not matter. Neither has led a particularly effective offensive attack this season and a decent chunk of the blame for that likely lies with new offensive coordinator Seth Littrell, who replaced Jeff Lebby during the offseason.

Venables had a nice turnaround in 2023 after a disastrous Year 1 campaign in 2022. But Year 3 looks like it's going to be a step back from a 10-win season last year, and the remaining schedule — featuring games at Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU and a home game against Alabama — doesn't look like it will offer much respite for a struggling team.

Quick Hitters - Winners

• Buffalo: The Bulls are one of the biggest surprises in the Group of Five, and they are 4-2 to start Pete Lembo's first season after a win over MAC favorite Toledo.

• Penn State: The Nittany Lions have looked impressive to start the season, and they passed their first major test of the season on the road against USC. It wasn't pretty in the first half, but Drew Allar completed multiple fourth-down conversions while leading a big-time game-tying drive in the fourth quarter before Penn State walked it off in overtime.

• LSU: The Tigers have mostly been ignored in the national conversation since a loss to USC in Week 1, but after ripping off five wins in a row, most recently against No. 9 Ole Miss in overtime at home, LSU is squarely back in playoff contention.

• Nevada: The Wolf Pack are a pretty disadvantaged program at the moment, but they're fighting in Year 1 under Jeff Choate. They got a big-time win over Oregon State on Saturday to move to 3-4, surpassing last season's win total.

• Vanderbilt: The Commodores proved that the win over Alabama wasn't lightning in a bottle, going on the road to beat a very strong Kentucky defense 20-13.

• Iowa State: Perhaps the most quietly successful team in the nation, the Cyclones are still unbeaten after turning in a two-score win on the road against a solid West Virginia squad.

• James Madison: After suffering their first setback of the season against UL-Monroe, the Dukes responded nicely with a dominant win over Coastal Carolina to stay in a strong position in the Sun Belt East.

Quick Hitters - Losers

• Washington: Year 1 was always going to be an uphill battle for Jedd Fisch given everything the Huskies lost, but under no circumstance should you be allowing 40 points in a blowout loss to Iowa.

• Purdue: Despite a brutal start to the season for the Boilermakers, they had a huge opportunity to pull off a ranked win on the road against Illinois. Unfortunately, Purdue's game-winning two-point attempt in overtime didn't work as it fell by one point.

• UCF: There was hope the Knights could be a dark-horse Big 12 contender, but after a third-straight loss — this time against Cincinnati — UCF looks like it could be one of the worst teams in the entire conference.

• Florida: The Gators had Tennessee on the ropes in Knoxville but couldn't deliver the final blow, ultimately falling in overtime as Graham Mertz was lost for the year with a torn ACL. Four first-half red-zone trips that resulted in three total points will surely haunt the Florida faithful for quite a while.

• Ohio State: The Buckeyes will probably be just fine, but it's the kind of loss that will be side-eyed by Ohio State fans if Ryan Day's team doesn't win out in the regular season and reach the CFP.

• Ole Miss: Kiffin's team was hyped as the most talented in program history entering the season, but with two losses after seven weeks, it has already been all but eliminated from the playoff race with a game against Georgia still on the schedule.

• Colorado: Credit to Colorado for nearly beating a Kansas State team it's not really built to play well against at this point. Still, scoring a go-ahead touchdown just to squander the lead in the final minute is absolutely brutal.

• Maryland: Though Mike Locksley hasn't delivered a big win at Maryland, his main selling point has been competency and consistency. The Terps didn't look competent or consistent in a blowout home loss to a bad Northwestern team on Friday night.

• Utah: Cam Rising finally made his return for Utah, but it's unfortunately clear that he's a shell of the player he once was, at least in his current state. Rising was clearly hobbled and playing through pain, resulting in a loss to an Arizona State team that Utah manhandled last season. Now, he's out again indefinitely, and the preseason Big 12 favorites don't look to be a factor in the conference race, at all.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Texas' Red River redemption and USC's futility headline Week 7 college football winners and losers