What a wild & whacky weekend it was in the world of college football! Welcome back everyone to another edition of the Ultimate College Football Top 25 presented by @sportsguychris. It was a busy, busy weekend across the rankings where we had some marque matchups and found out a little bit more about some of the early season "contenders" out there. We had a record-setting comeback out in the Pacific Northwest that I'm still trying to wrap my head around, and plenty of movement throughout the top 25 - especially at the backend once again. There's plenty to cover so let's get right to it:
We start with a couple of the big-time showdowns from this past Saturday, led by the surprise obliteration of the previously #7 Michigan Wolverines administered by the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. Jonathan Taylor ran wild early, and the Badgers had already put a thorough beating on the Wolverines by halftime, racing out to a 28-0 lead as the teams hit the locker-rooms. Michigan was able to scrape up a couple of garbage-time TDs to make it 35-14, but that scoreline was not indicative of how badly Jim Harbaugh's squad was out-played. It appears that the much-ballyhooed 'new offense' put in this past off-season may not be the answer for UM, as they tumbled 15 spots this week and settle in at #22. The impressive all-around showing by the Badgers shot them into the top 10, up 6 spots to #7 in this week's rankings. Michigan could prove to not be as good as everyone thought originally, but for now, the win is one of the most impressive out there of any team to date for UW.
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On to Athens, Georgia, where the #3 Dawgs had a huge showdown with the #9 Fighting Irish. Georgia held off a late rally-charge from Ian Book & Notre Dame to prevail 23-17 in an excellent game. Despite the loss, the Irish played well - good enough to win in fact, and therefore, only drop a pair of spots this week to #11. The victory gives the Bulldogs a massive early season non-conference win that could have a huge impact on the CFP committee come playoff time. The victory keeps Georgia firmly entrenched behind Alabama & Clemson at #3.
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Speaking of the Crimson Tide & Tigers, both had walk-in-the-park victories over non-conference opponents on Saturday. Bama took care of Southern Miss, 49-7, & Clemson routed Charlotte 52-10. Rounding out the top 5 once again are #4 LSU, who crushed Vandy 66-38 behind another impressive showing by QB Joe Burrow (398 yards, 6TD, 0INT) & the Florida Gators at 5, who handled a listless Tennessee squad in the Swamp, 34-3.
Rounding out the top 10 are the #6 Ohio State Buckeyes who continue to look mighty impressive in the early goings of the season. OSU destroyed poor Miami (OH) 76-5 on Saturday. The previously-mentioned Wisconsin Badgers jump into the #7 spot, followed by Oklahoma who was idle at 8, and the Auburn Tigers at #9. Auburn is into the top 10 after their impressive road victory at a quality Texas A&M squad. That gives the Tigers early-season victories over Oregon & A&M as they've established themselves as a contender in the SEC West. Rounding out the top 10 are the Texas Longhorns, up 4 spots this week after a 36-30 victory over previously 3-0 Oklahoma State on Saturday night.
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Boise State, Penn State, Oregon, and Iowa all made big leaps this week thanks to losses by previously #10 UCF & #11 Utah, coupled with Michigan's loss & subsequent drop down the rankings. The Broncos check-in at #12 after getting past a quality Air Force squad on Friday night, the Nittany Lions were idle and moved up to 13, Oregon took care of Stanford 21-6 to land at 14, and the Hawkeyes round out the top 15 after being off this past wknd ahead of their non-conference matchup at home against Middle Tennessee State.
The Cal Golden Bears went on the road to Ole Miss to take on the Rebels, and hung-on for a 28-20 victory to move to 4-0 on the season. Linebacker Evan Weaver was a one-man tackling machine, racking up 22 total tackles including a key tackle at the goal line. The Bears' D is for real & after proving they can go on the road and get quality victories (they've already won at Washington as well), this team could be a factor in the Pac-12 Title race moving forward. The victory has them up 5 spots to 16 this week. They are followed by those same Washington Huskies at 17, up 5 spots fresh off of their 45-19 blowout at BYU.
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The USC Trojans are next up at #18, back into the top 25 after their huge 30-23 victory over previously unbeaten & 11th ranked Utah on Friday night. It's been a bit of an up-and-down start to the season for the Trojans, we'll see if they can keep it on the upswing as they head to Washington this Saturday for another big showdown, this time with the #17 Huskies. Meanwhile, the Utes drop 8 spots to #19 this week. They are followed by the #20 Virginia Cavaliers, who managed to move up 4 spots despite a lackluster showing against Old Dominion this past weekend.
In fact, Virginia schools might want to stop scheduling the Monarchs all-together. Who could forget last year's shocking upset of a highly-touted (to that point in the season) Virginia Tech squad? ODU managed to take a 17-7 halftime lead over the Cavaliers in their building and it felt a bit like last year all over again. This time, Virginia woke up and shutout the Monarchs in the second half 21-0 to win 28-17, but they will need to play much better against Notre Dame this weekend if they are to give the Irish any trouble. UVA is followed by Kansas State at #21 - fresh into the rankings after being idle this past week following an impressive win in Starkville over Mississippi State the week prior. As previously noted, Michigan lands at 22 after getting demolished by Wisconsin, and are followed by the UCF Knights. Central Florida drops 13 spots after blowing a late lead @ Pitt and succumbing to a trick play on 4th & goal to lose their first regular-season game since 2016, 35-34 in a highly-entertaining game. Army blew-out FCS squad Morgan State 52-21 to move up a spot to #24 and rounding out the top 25 this week are the SMU Mustangs, yes you read that correctly, Southern Methodist jumps into the rankings after a huge 41-38 upset victory @ TCU to improve to 4-0.
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Texas A&M dropped out of the rankings after falling to 2-2 with their loss at home to Auburn. The Aggies are still in the "next" group of teams just outside of the top 25 after playing both Clemson & Auburn tough in their two losses. Arizona State fell at home to Colorado a week after upsetting Sparty in East Lansing. The loss dropped the Sun Devils out of the rankings as well. Finally, previously #20 Washington State was the third and final team to drop out of this week's top 25 after a debacle for the ages.
The Cougars came into Saturday night's game with the Bruins equipped once again with one of the best passing offenses in the country, while UCLA rolled into Pullman, WA with the worst offense in the country on a yards-per-play basis at just 4.1. That's right, the WORST out of all FBS teams. Therefore, it wasn't much of a surprise when WSU jumped out to a commanding 49-17 lead at a little over the midway point of the 3rd quarter. From that point, the Bruins' once pitiful offense & special teams' units put up 50 points in the final 20 minutes of the game to overcome an incredible 32-point deficit. They got a punt return for a TD, a 94-yard catch & run for a TD, and a TD in just about any other way imaginable. After taking a late 67-63 lead, it was only fitting that the game was decided with a defensive play - UCLA got a strip-sack fumble recovery of Cougars' QB Anthony Gordon with a little over a minute to play to ensure the Bruins' first victory of the season. In one of the most amazing stats I think I've ever seen, Gordon threw 9 touchdown passes for WSU in a LOSS. This loss should go down as one of the most pitiful defensive efforts in college football history, especially considering it was at home. It will be very interesting to see how the Cougars respond from this amazing debacle & if the incredible offensive explosion finally propels Chip Kelly's offense to what everyone was expecting it to be when he first took the UCLA job.
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As always, there are a plethora of teams just outside of the top 25 after a week that saw shifting throughout the rankings. Colorado, Baylor, and Texas A&M highlight the first few teams in the "next" group and are joined by noteworthy un-beatens Wake Forest (4-0) & Appalachian State (3-0) - the ladder fresh off of their upset victory @ North Carolina. There was plenty to cover, but we made it through, and without further ado, here is this week's Ultimate College Football Top 25:
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College Football Ultimate Top 25:
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1 ALABAMA (4-0)
2 CLEMSON (4-0)
3 GEORGIA (4-0)
4 LSU (4-0)
5 FLORIDA (4-0)
6 OHIO STATE (4-0)
7 WISCONSIN (3-0)
8 OKLAHOMA (3-0)
9 AUBURN (4-0)
10 TEXAS (3-1)
11 NOTRE DAME (2-1)
12 BOISE STATE (4-0)
13 PENN STATE (3-0)
14 OREGON (3-1)
15 IOWA (3-0)
16 CAL (4-0)
17 WASHINGTON (3-1)
18 USC (3-1)*
19 UTAH (3-1)
20 VIRGINIA (4-0)
21 KANSAS STATE (3-0)*
22 MICHIGAN (2-1)
23 UCF (3-1)
24 ARMY (3-1)
25 SMU (4-0)*
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*-New to the rankings this week
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Dropped Out:
18 Texas A&M, 20 Washington State, 23 Arizona State
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Next:
Colorado (3-1), Baylor (3-0), Texas A&M (2-2), Oklahoma State (3-1), Wake Forest (4-0), Mississippi State (3-1), Arizona State (3-1), Michigan State (3-1), Appalachian State (3-0), Iowa State (2-1), TCU (2-1)
Looking ahead to this week, we get started right away on Thursday night with a better-than-it-appears matchup between Navy & Memphis. The Tigers are off to an early 3-0 start. Friday night offers a couple of big matchups - one in the Big TEN as #13 Penn State invades Maryland, and one in the Pac-12 with Arizona State @ 16 Cal. Saturday has plenty of quality games on tap as well, starting early with Texas Tech @ Oklahoma in the Big XII, Northwestern @ Wisconsin in Big TEN play, and #2 Clemson @ North Carolina a bit later. Alabama hosts Ole Miss, and #20 Virginia visits South Bend to take on the #11 Fighting Irish. #18 USC visits #17 Washington in a huge Pac-12 matchup, Mississippi State visits Auburn, and #21 Kansas State heads to Stillwater to take on Oklahoma State in what should be a heck of a game in the Big XII. As always, thanks for stopping by, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section and enjoy all of this weekend's quality matchups! See you next time.
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