Four teams tumble out of our latest top 20 rankings as a fun week 4 mixes up the back half of our poll. The top 3 show no signs of letting up but the Beavers near-upset of USC, Tennessee finally getting Florida, and Texas definitely not being back were some of the highlights across the country as we get ready for October action.
Notre Dame heads into a bye week for week 5, so sit back and enjoy what’s to come.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | 4-0 | 39-22 W vs. Kent State |
| 2 | Ohio State | 4-0 | 52-21 W vs. Wisconsin |
| 3 | Alabama | 4-0 | 55-3 W vs. Vanderbilt |
| 4 | Clemson (+1) | 4-0 | 51-45 W at Wake Forest (OT) |
| 5 | Tennessee (+1) | 4-0 | 38-33 W vs. Florida |
| 6 | USC (-2) | 4-0 | 17-14 W at Oregon State |
| 7 | Kentucky (+2) | 4-0 | 31-23 W vs. N. Illinois |
| 8 | Michigan (+2) | 4-0 | 34-27 W vs. Maryland |
| 9 | Utah (+3) | 3-1 | 34-13 W at Arizona State |
| 10 | Penn State (+4) | 4-0 | 33-14 W vs. Central Michigan |
| 11 | Oklahoma State (+4) | 3-0 | BYE |
| 12 | Oregon (+5) | 3-1 | 44-41 W at Washington State |
| 13 | Washington (+6) | 4-0 | 40-22 W vs. Stanford |
| 14 | Ole Miss (+2) | 4-0 | 35-27 W vs. Tulsa |
| 15 | Minnesota (NR) | 4-0 | 34-7 W at Michigan State |
| 16 | Arkansas (-8) | 3-1 | 23-21 L vs. Texas A&M |
| 17 | NC State (NR) | 4-0 | 41-10 W vs. UConn |
| 18 | Oklahoma (-11) | 3-1 | 41-34 L vs. Kansas State |
| 19 | Baylor (NR) | 3-1 | 31-24 W at Iowa State |
| 20 | Florida State (NR) | 4-0 | 44-14 W vs. Boston College |
National Storylines
Georgia wasn’t super dominant (still +248 in total yards) in a weird game allowing 22 points to…Kent State.
Vanderbilt’s last two meetings with Alabama led to combined 93-0 scores so I guess Clark Lea is making some progress picking up a field goal this past weekend.
An absolute absurd game between Arkansas and Texas A&M was played highlighted by a 99-yard fumble/lateral touchdown return by Texas A&M as well as this late field goal miss by the Hogs that bounced off the very top of the right upright. That’s so much pain. You could argue Arkansas still deserves to be the top ranked 1-loss team, I guess.
The first loss of the Brent Venables era at Oklahoma is upon us. Both teams went over 500 yards with Kansas State controlling the game late to bounce back from a loss to Tulane. That’s college football for you.
Lance Leipold surely leads the national coach of the year award as Kansas wins again, this time taking out Duke 35-27. Now the Jayhawks start Big 12 play and maybe 3 more wins seals the award for Leipold?
Don’t look now but they are rowing the boats with zest once again at Minnesota. The Gophers dominated Michigan State, and while that is their first stiff opponent of the season, Minnesota is already +159 in point differential this year.
Oregon had 629 total yards and needed 29 points in the 4th quarter (including a late pick 6) to get past Washington State.
Baylor and Iowa State opened up league play this past weekend with the Bears taking a close victory. That’s 5 straight Big 12 wins for Baylor stretching back to last year as well as wins in 9 out of their last 11 in league play.
Auburn scored 14 points in the 1st quarter and not again until overtime to beat Missouri 17-14 in a wild one. Auburn totaled just 217 yards and escaped after failing a 4th & 1 at the Missouri 30-yard line, then Mizzou missing a 26-yard field goal as time expired, then Auburn missed a field goal in OT that was flagged for offsides only to hit the 2nd attempt. Missouri was running in a touchdown when the player fumbled needlessly reaching out at the goal line, you know what, just watch the video.
Maryland went toe-to-toe with Michigan for a while but -2 in turnovers plus an inability to stop running back Blake Corum (243 yards, 2 TD) let the Wolverines take the home victory.
UCLA is quietly 4-0 on the season. Things are getting dark in Colorado as they drop to 0-4 and according to SP+ have the best odds of anyone to finish the season 0-12.
Georgia Tech is looking for a new coach now as the Yellow Jackets out-gain UCF over the weekend and still lose 27-10. RIP to all of the thin vests worn by Geoff Collins.
The peaks and valleys of the Pat Fitzgerald career continues as this dude is currently in a deep, deep valley with the fighting Chuck Martin’s executing a late field goal to beat Northwestern 17-14 in Evanston. They were feeling themselves after that win in Ireland but could be staring at a 1-11 season, you hate to see it.
OUT:
No. 11 Florida
Florida played pretty good (nearly 600 yards of offense!) at Tennessee in a very entertaining game. Unfortunately, this is their 2nd loss in the SEC already and they are unlikely to finish higher than 4th in the SEC East now.
No. 13 Texas
There was some buzz that Quinn Ewers might play this past weekend. He remained out and Texas needed a late field goal to send things against Texas Tech into overtime. Bijan Robinson fumbled on the first play from scrimmage in the extra time as Texas Tech kicked a field goal to win it.
No. 18 Miami
The Tyler Van Dyke Heisman campaign is on life support as he was benched during an embarrassing 45-31 loss to Middle Tennessee State at home in front of the Hard Rock faithful. Let’s not allow Miami’s defense off the hook as they allowed 507 total yards and 408 through the air.
No. 20 Wake Forest
It feels harsh to drop the Demon Deacons as they nearly upset Clemson. I have them right in the mix of teams outside our top 20, though.
Opponent Watch
Ohio State (4-0): The Buckeyes jumped out to a 28-0 lead on Wisconsin as C.J. Stroud throws 5 touchdown passes.
Marshall (2-2): The Herd slide continues as they fall again this time to Troy 16-7 with just 174 total yards of offense woof.
California (3-1): The Golden Bears hadn’t beat Arizona since 2009 and come out with a 49-31 win against the Wildcats.
North Carolina (3-1): Does Gene Chizik still have a job?
BYU (3-1): Weird statistical game as Wyoming totals 3 more first downs but BYU almost doubles the Cowboys up in yardage with a 38-24 win.
Stanford (1-2): Stanford is averaging 30.3 points per game on offense and exactly that same average on defense, too.
UNLV (3-1): Utah State out-gained UNLV but coughed the ball up 6(!) times in a 34-24 loss. The Rebels didn’t turn the ball over and now have more wins than 2020-21 combined.
Syracuse (4-0): The Orange held on Friday night to get past Virginia 22-20 and are closing in on being ranked.
Clemson (3-0): This looked like it could be the year that Clemson couldn’t beat Wake Forest but in double overtime the Tigers survive.
Navy (1-2): Another game to go to double overtime saw Navy outlast East Carolina 23-20 with neither team surpassing 400 yards.
Boston College (1-3): Florida State led 37-0 on their way to a 44-14 blowout win while entering our rankings. Boston College has scored 45 combined points in their 3 games against Power 5 opponents as the bloom is off the Jeff Hafley rose.
USC (4-0): The Corvallis Curse nearly came through and then fell short. Despite Oregon State coughing the ball up 4 times it remained a low-scoring affair as USC needed a late Caleb Williams touchdown pass to escape 17-14.
Week 5 Games to Watch
Now featuring dates, channels, and times eastern!
Washington (-2.5) at UCLA
Friday, ESPN, 10:30 PM
Here’s sneaky 4-0 UCLA finally entering the spotlight on national television with a super late one for us in the eastern time zone. What I would give to be able to watch this live with zero repercussions the next morning.
Michigan (-10.5) at Iowa
Saturday, Fox, 12:00 PM
Sadly, this is Michigan’s 3rd toughest game of the regular season and I don’t think any other game even comes close. You can foresee this one getting really B1G punt-y and Michigan eventually pulling away with a fumble return touchdown or something stupid.
Kentucky (+7) at Ole Miss
Saturday, ESPN, 12:00 PM
The whole world has Kentucky ranked ahead of Ole Miss and yet the Rebels are very healthy favorites this weekend. What gives? Will Wildcat players be sneaking into the Grove for some pre-game fun?
Oklahoma (-6.5) at TCU
Saturday, ESPN, 12:00 PMÂ
I debated adding this to the viewing guide for this week, especially with Oklahoma coming off a loss. However, TCU is feeling good at 3-0 after winning the Iron Skillet and suddenly the Sooners need this game in order to stay in the battle for the conference title.
Oregon State (+10.5) at Utah
Saturday, Pac-12 Network, 2:00 PM
We have this super weird time slot courtesy of the Pac-12 Network. Oregon State looked pretty solid in nearly upsetting USC last week, can they actually do it for real in Salt Lake City in a sleepy Noon mountain time kickoff?
Alabama (-16.5) at Arkansas
Saturday, CBS, 3:30 PM
This was a close game last year decided by a touchdown. The Razorbacks have to be reeling hard after last week’s loss and as we’ve mentioned before will have to soldier through a very difficult schedule. Nick Saban has never lost to Arkansas while head coach at Alabama heading into the weekend 15-0.
Oklahoma State (+2.5) at Baylor
Saturday, Fox, 3:30 PM
Baylor was one of the programs I was selling during the pre-season and they just jumped back into our poll. I think they’ll drop back out as Oklahoma State (technically speaking) wins in an upset.
Wake Forest (+6.5) at Florida State
Saturday, ABC, 3:30 PM
This is a fascinating game for the ACC Atlantic. Wake just lost their chance to try and un-seat Clemson from the top of the division. A win here for Florida State would put them squarely in the mix to fight for the division and maybe the entire conference.
Iowa State (-3.5) at Kansas
Saturday, ESPN2, 3:30 PM
There’s so much love out there right now for Kansas and they come back as home dogs to a team that just lost their league opener. Make sure you put some respect on Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels name as he has 890 passing yards, 320 rushing yards, 15 total touchdowns, and just 1 interception through 4 games.
NC State (+6.5) at Clemson
Saturday, ABC, 7:30 PM
Four ranked teams in the ACC Atlantic and they are all playing each other this weekend, yes! A really tremendous afternoon slate of games gets capped off by this barnburner. NC State has looked really uninspiring so far, especially against expectations, but Clemson could be in line for a let down game coming off that overtime victory in Winston-Salem.
Lawrence was rocking and pleasantly shocking players with their first sold out home crowd in years. With schools firing coaches early in the year, could HCs like Leipold be stolen part way into the season? Rumors are that Big 10 moneyed Nebraska is eyeing him. Boise State’s starting QB for the past four years, Hank Bachmeier, has entered the transfer portal after their OC was fired. Brian Harsin, ex Boise State and current Auburn HC, could use. a good one to save his job. Perhaps there is a lucrative NIL deal for Bachmeier there. How college football has changed so swiftly.
As far as immediate impact of transfers, three of the top four running backs in yds per game in the Pac 12 are Xavarian Valladay (from Wyoming to Arizona St), Zach Charbonnet (from Michigan to UCLA last year) and Travis Dye (from Oregon to USC). Not much separates the top eight teams in the Pac 12. With the Pac 12 scrapping divisions and heading towards parity, it’s anyone’s guess as to the two that will play for the conference championship. In addition to Washington-UCLA and Oregon St-Utah, it should not be a surprise to see Cal beat Washington St this week. End of the year conference rivalry games – UCLA-USC, Wash-Wash St, and Oregon-Oregon St could determine who goes to the championship game. Without that win over Colgate, Stanford averages 25 points per game and gives up 40 per game.
An additional thought regarding the PAC12: its geographic enormity!
I was talking about it with my brother, specifically the USC, OSU game in Corvallis, that conference stretches from basically canada (Wash) to Mexico (USC, UCLA, etc) and over to Utah and colorado. That’s HUGE! Further, there are so many unique areas with their own host of issues with which to contend; playing at elevation like at Colorado or utah, playing in the dessert in arizona, playing in inclement weather in the oregon and washington schools, these are fantastically unique places. There are other conferences with large footprints, but I dont think any come close to the PAC12, my guess is the SEC square mileage is much smaller, and I’d definitely posit that Mason dixon is all analogous compared to the west coast.
The point of all this? I’m starting to think this is a major pitfall of the conference why theyve only placed one squad in the CFB playoffs, it’s just so damn hard to survive all these weird places. I dont know what USC road schedule looks like the remainder of the year, but theres got to be some bizarro locations for them to maybe slip up like they almost did last saturday.
Also, maybe I’ve been personally too harsh on the PAC12 as a conference?? Perhaps not, since they allow stanford to sport a bad LSD trip for their mascot.
Depending on how you draw the borders the Big12 gets to be pretty giant too in order to go pick up West Virginia, and once everyone shuffles conferences in the next couple years will be the only one competing in terms of square mileage with the B1G thanks to picking up BYU out west and UCF in the southeast.
Hope those athletes enjoy the plane flights.
Definitely agree, the big12 is wild, west virginia to central oklahoma and texas… sheesh!
For a counterpoint, I think most of that land mass is more similar than the pac12 region, but that could be me being uninitiated
And I totally agree, the super conferences moving forward will have an interesting “trip” dynamic. Like Illinois vs UCLA, could have VERY different outcomes depending on where and when that game gets played.
I can barely handle work travel, and it’s my only job, that’s got to be a logistical nightmare for these kids making cross county trips AND performing at an elite level every week.
The impact of travel on the athletes and increase in expenses is one of the points the Pac 12 commissioner has made to the Regents to deny UCLA move to the Big. https://www.si.com/college/ucla/news/pac-12-commissioner-george-kliavkoff-asks-uc-recents-to-stop-ucla-move-to-big-ten#:~:text=Pac%2D12%20commissioner%20George%20Kliavkoff,the%20Big%20Ten%20in%202024.
I would have preferred the Pac should have remained with Pacific Coast teams and the ACC would have kept Rutgers, West Virginia, Maryland. I’m a traditionalist, I guess, though not as far as to have the Big Eight and the Southwest Conferences.
We do accept the one offs because the smaller schools make money – $1.9 million paid by Michigan to Hawaii to fly there (that’s 600 miles more than NY to Paris). Hawaii then pays Duquesne to fly to the Islands for $400k.
Then, in addition to the wear on athletes traveling long distances for travel, college football with extend the post-season? Unfair working conditions is the phrase that comes to mind.
I think everyone is pretty clear that Kliavkoff is grasping at straws trying to keep UCLA in his conference. “Sure they’ll get $70 million more per year in athletics funding and up to $100 million more per year in research funding, but if you subtract $600 grand a year in extra flight expense is it really that much?” is an objectively stupid thing to say.
OTOH, I have no insight into how crazy the people on the UC board of regents may be, but OTOH most people in those kind of positions won’t take a stand against something that their operators are telling them is needed to remain solvent because it can possibly open them up to personal civil suits for damages and “really liking the PAC12” isn’t a compelling reason to risk that.
Before the season, I thought that one of the two new megacontracts in the B1G East — Franklin and Tucker — would prove to be a huge mistake.
I think we have our answer.
Yuuup.
Michigan State is a 7 point dog to Maryland. They could conceivably be sitting at 2-4 half way through the season and finish at 5-7 or worse.
Saying Michigan St is a stiff opponent is generous on your part but I do think Minnesota is good!
True, stiff given their schedule to date I suppose.