Photo: The Birmingam News
Every week Brett Harmon will bring you his NCAA Fottball Top 25. Harmon is one of the 324 voters for the reddit.com College Football Top 25 poll. You can find the rankings here.
This was a week of few upsets, save one, Washington over Stanford. Sure Michigan State lost as well, but that was to Ohio State and no one was really that surprised by that one. But with four games between teams in the top 25 this week expect to see a lot of movement next week.
1 (1) Alabama
The Crimson Tide looked mortal for about a quarter versus Ole Miss last week, being held to only six points. They then exploded for 21 in the second quarter. Now sitting comfortably at 5-0 does Bama really need the bye week?
2 (2) Oregon
Oregon travel to Seattle to take on Washington State, and while the Cougars keep the game close for while, the Ducks pulled away in the end. They are back home this week against Washington; don’t expect the Ducks to take them lightly after Huskies upset of Stanford last week.
3 (4) Florida State
Florida State looked just fine against South Florida taking care of business. That is really what the Seminoles season is now until Florida in the last week, one long Bachman Turner Overdrive song.
4 (3) LSU
The Tigers keep falling in the rankings because they have just not looked like a top five team. A two point win over Auburn and then a close game versus Towson does not look good on the resume. LSU has a chance to prove the doubters wrong with Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi St, and Alabama all coming up.
5 (5) West Virginia
70 points again from WVU is impressive, very impressive. And Geno Smith is the runaway front runner for the Heisman. But giving up 63 to Baylor is not good. It will be very interesting to see what happens when the Mountaineers go up against a true defense, you know like Texas.
6 (6) South Carolina
South Carolina is lying in wait for a chance to jump up over LSU and Alabama right now; they have looked pretty good getting to 5-0. Now with Georgia coming to town they have a chance to put themselves to the front of SEC when either LSU or Bama loses.
7 (7) Georgia
The Bulldogs were given everything they could handle by Tennessee. Using last week performance to galvanize them, they can go into Columbia with a lot of confidence. Look at the South Carolina entry for what this game means to Georgia as well.
8 (9) Notre Dame
Now back firmly in the top 10 the Irish are looking to get some warm up in before Stanford and USC for they maligned offense. Miami comes to South Bend lacking any of the swagger of the past. If the Irish offense can’t get going this week it might be cause for concern.
9 (8) Ohio State
Overrated? Possibly, but the Buckeyes have shown some great fortitude so far this season, rising to the challenge that both Cal and Michigan State gave to them. Braxton Miller is looking fantastic, and the whole team appears as if it has bought into Urban Myer’s system. They might not go to the post season next year, but in the meantime enjoy the dress rehearsal for next season.
10 (11) Kansas State
Coming off of a bye week Kansas State will get in state rival Kansas, followed by Iowa State. Should be smooth sailing until they play offensive juggernaut West Virginia.
11 (13) Texas
The Longhorns defense is going to have its work cut out for it this week, West Virginia is coming to town, and all the defense is going to need to do is give the offense two or three stops and Texas is going to have a fighting chance because their offense will be able to do the work from there.
12 (12) USC
Going to Utah for the first time this week, there is going to be a lot of buzz about this game. Just not as much as there was going to be, Utah is one of the more disappointing teams in the Pac-12 south, and this was going to be a game for the division preseason. Now it’s just another game that the Trojans should win.
13 (14) Florida
The Gators have a chance to shake up the SEC race this week, as well as launch themselves into the top ten. LSU is coming into the Swamp in a big game for both teams.
14 (15) TCU
TCU should be able to extend their conference winning streak another week, with the Horned Frogs playing Iowa State this week. But next week is going to be the interesting week for TCU, on the road at Baylor, we’ll see then what TCU is really made of.
15 (17) Oregon State
A late touchdown got the victory for Oregon State over Arizona, keeping the Beavers from being a one and done in the top 25. They welcome Washington State this week, so they should be staying put this week.
16 (16) Clemson
Clemson is showing that their offensive performance versus Florida State was no fluke putting up 45 points on Boston College. At this point all Clemson can do is keep winning and hope that Florida State has a last season collapse like they did last year.
17 (18) Oklahoma
There is a chance that Oklahoma is looking past Texas Tech this week, with the Red River Shootout coming up in two weeks. But they should not take Texas Tech so lightly lest they fall again and completely out of the Big 12 title race.
18 (10) Stanford
Stanford is going to be looking for redemption after falling to Washington last Thursday. Head Coach David Shaw is going to be sticking with Josh Nunes as his quarterback with Arizona in town this week, and presumably for the foreseeable future.
19 (22) Nebraska
Having to rally against Wisconsin is not boding well for the Huskers, who should have taken it to what we now know to be a not so good Wisconsin team. Now a trip to Ohio State is on the docket, we’ll see if Nebraska can rise to the challenge.
20 (20) Louisville
It really is hard to know what you have in Louisville as they really have not played anyone, but yet they are undefeated. They will have two weeks to prepare for Pitt, which shouldn’t be an issue, but don’t forget Pitt blew out Virginia Tech a few weeks ago so anything is possible.
21 (21) Mississippi State
No more rest for Mississippi State, the SEC schedule starts now with Kentucky and there is no rest until after Ole Miss in late November.
22 (UR) Northwestern
Northwestern is undefeated and when you look at their schedule it’s not full of complete push overs. On the road for the next two weeks now at Penn St, and Minnesota. October 20th versus Nebraska will be the game circled on the calendar right now.
23 (23) Boise State
Boise State beat New Mexico by three and now travel to face Southern Miss this weekend. This is not the same Bronco team that has been a BCS buster in recent years.
24 (25) UCLA
Beating Colorado at this point is not impressive; it’s kind of like kicking someone when they are down. Just no sport in it. Now the Bruins play Cal who are on a run of losses that UCLA should be able to add to.
25 (UR) Washington
Back into the top 25 with a win over Stanford, this also put Washington right into the thick of the Pac-12 north division race. They can put themselves above all others by taking down Oregon at Autzen this week. But that is far easier said than done right now.
Dropped from Rankings: (19) Michigan State, (24) Rutgers
Others Receiving Consideration: Arizona State, Rutgers
Biggest Rise: Northwestern (UR) – (22)
Biggest Fall: Michigan State (19) – (UR)
Top 25 Games this week:
(25) Washington @ (2) Oregon
(4) LSU @ (13) Florida
(7) Georgia @ (6) South Carolina
(5) West Virginia @ (11) Texas
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