NMP Week 2
1 Georgia
2 Miami
3 Ohio St
4 Alabama
5 Indiana
6 Notre Dame
7 Texas
8 BYU
9 Ole Miss
10 Missouri
11 Utah
12 Mississippi St
13 UCLA
14 Iowa
15 Kentucky
16 Texas Tech
17 USC
18 Arizona
19 Boise St
20 Wake Forest
21 Oklahoma St
22 Houston
23 Nebraska
24 LSU
25 Northwestern
Others Getting Votes: Tennessee, Florida, SMU
Added: Kentucky, Wake Forest, Houston
Dropped: Oregon, Pitt, Florida
Biggest Winners: UCLA (5), Arizona (5), Missouri (3), Iowa (3)
Biggest Losers: LSU (14), Texas (6), Boise St (2)
Season is finally starting to heat up with some pretty unexpected results in games. First, Georgia is the best team in the nation right now. It was definitely a losable game vs Bama but they took the game over in the second half and in crucial periods. Miami looks dominant, same as last week. Ohio St slides up just over Alabama. Both have similar enough losses, bama probably has a better resume, but Ohio St looks just slightly better right now. Indiana wins a close over Nebraska, which follows a close one over Northwestern. Wins are wins I guess. Notre Dame I am still just not impressed with, maybe they can change that vs BYU this week. Texas loses an awful offensive team… Oklahoma needs 2 defensive touchdowns to win. Just can’t do it when you have already looked unimpressive. BYU, opinion unchanged, meets Notre Dame this weekend. Ole Miss thrashes Vandy. Mizzou thrashes Texas A&M, exciting matchup brewing between them. Utah keeps humming, Mississippi St gets a bye week to get healthy so no move there. UCLA gets a huge road win over Oregon in a game that featured 4 quarterbacks and 10 turnovers, sucks they lose Nico likely for the year. Iowa goes on the road and gets a very impressive win over a solid Washington team. Kentucky wins again in OT on a 2 point conversion. have looked good basically all year except against 2nd half bama. USC wins the Penn St whiteout game, just too inconsistent, would not surprised if this is their ceiling. Arizona again looks impressive, just missing a comparative win to USC or Texas Tech that is keeping them behind. Boise St stands pat. Welcome to the NMP for the first time ever Wake Forest! Wake dominates again, similar to Arizona, they are just missing a big win to hang their hat on right now. Oklahoma St has the big win, which is now looking worse, but also the awful loss. They need another couple performances to prove to me that the Tulsa game was a fluke. Nebraska actually moves up with a loss, they looked very solid and competitive vs Indiana, just had it slip out of their hands at the end. LSU takes another loss, this time to Kentucky, I would’ve thought they would be gelling better by now but they aren’t and its costing them. Northwestern plays a gimme game vs Ball St so nothing gained there so they stay put.
Heisman Race:
Keelon Russell, Alabama
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Kamario Taylor, Mississippi St
Jeremiah Smith, Ohio St
Key Games:
3 Ohio St @ 5 Indiana
Florida @ 7 Texas
12 Mississippis St @ 24 LSU
10 Mizzou @ 9 Ole Miss
6 Notre Dame @ 8 BYU
21 Oklahoma St @ 22 Houston
23 Nebraska @ Oregon
NMP 5th Annual Week 1 Release
1 Texas
2 Georgia
3 Miami
4 Alabama
5 Ohio St
6 Indiana
7 Notre Dame
8 BYU
9 Ole Miss
10 LSU
11 Utah
12 Mississippi St
13 Missouri
14 Florida
15 Texas Tech
16 Oregon
17 Iowa
18 UCLA
19 USC
20 Oklahoma St
21 Boise St
22 Pittsburgh
23 Arizona
24 Northwestern
25 Nebraska
Others receiving votes: Wake Forest, Kentucky, Houston, SMU, Tennessee
Welcome to year 5! Time has flown by! Refresher: weekly rankings coming out every Sunday or Monday until playoffs begin. I go by eye test, resume, and ultimately who do I just think is better. We are finally a full month into the season so now its time to start ranking!
A pretty hard ranking to do this week honestly. Lots of teams who look good one week then bad the next, but I think there’s a few groupings of teams and there is separation between the groups. This year’s first #1 is Texas. Georgia I think is better than Texas but it’s just too hard to ignore the comeback win over Ohio St, which edges them to #1. Georgia looks as dominant as ever against lesser competition. Miami also looks dominant, which great teams need to do. Bama slides in at 4, they had a couple of halves vs Kentucky and Florida St where they looked vulnerable, but quickly put those thoughts to bed. Keelon Russell looks great now that he has confidence. Ohio St looks like Ohio St, just slipped up vs Texas. Indiana and Notre Dame both really haven’t played anyone, but they are for the most part making the games no-doubters, Indiana just slightly more. BYU undefeated and a win over Arizona keeps them ahead of Ole Miss. Ole Miss with the head to head over LSU makes this selection easy, even with the blowout loss to Florida. Utah looks good, getting a 2 QB system to work. MS St beat Mizzou who beat Florida, they all 3 have looked dominant, even against solid teams, but have all taken a loss and in this case, I’ll honor the head to head results. Texas Tech I have not been impressed with this year so far, but they do have a win over a solid Houston team. Oregon I also have not been impressed with, close win over Boise, loss to OK St, then they get a much needed over USC. Iowa looks like Iowa but looks more competent on offense this year, but a softer defense than normal. UCLA smokes Maryland on the road and is undefeated, huge test against Oregon this week. USC beats Rutgers by 7, fights with Oregon in a loss, then struggles with Washington. A confusing team right now. Speaking of confusing, Oklahoma St. Massive win over Oregon… after getting manhandled by Tulsa. Not really sure what to make of them right now but that Oregon win is huge currently. Boise is currently on track to be in the playoffs. Tight loss to Oregon, throttles Memphis, an aspiring playoff contender, and smacks a then undefeated, yes undefeated, WMU. Pitt gets a huge Friday night win over Va Tech, but unfortunately loses a great QB in Heintschel for the season. Noah Fifita is still doing it for Arizona, looking good and has a pretty good defense with him this year too. And now we have an NMP debut, Northwestern! Fought very hard vs Indiana, runs it up on Penn St in the first game in the new stadium, and their offense is really fun to watch. And rounding it out is undefeated Nebraska, controls the games they’re supposed to control, look out Indiana, they aren’t slouches this year.
Heisman Race (no order):
Kamario Taylor, Mississippi St
Keelon Russell, Alabama
Jeremiah Smith, Ohio St
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Key Games:
2 Georgia @ 4 Alabama
6 Indiana @ 25 Nebraska
18 UCLA @ 16 Oregon
17 Iowa @ Washington
North Dakota St @ UNLV
21 Boise St @ Fresno St
2026 College Football Predictions
Conference Championship Game Predictions
MAC: Toledo beats Western Michigan
Sleeper: Bowling Green
C-USA: Western Kentucky beats Liberty
Sleeper: New Mexico St
Mountain West: New Mexico beats Hawaii
Sleeper: Air Force
Sun Belt: James Madison beats Louisiana Tech
Sleeper: Marshall
American: Memphis beats Army
Sleeper: USF
PAC-12: Boise St beats Texas St
Sleeper: Colorado St
ACC: Miami beats SMU
Sleeper: Cal
Big 12: Texas Tech beats BYU
Sleeper: Kansas St
Big 10: Oregon beats Indiana
Sleeper: Maryland
SEC: Texas beats Georgia
Sleeper: Auburn
Playoff Prediction:
Byes:
1 Texas, 2 Miami, 3 Oregon, 4 Georgia
Round One:
12 Memphis @ 5 Indiana
11 Oklahoma @ 6 Ohio St
10 Ole Miss @ 7 Texas Tech
9 USC @ 8 Notre Dame
Quarterfinals:
1 Texas vs 9 USC
2 Miami vs 10 Ole Miss
3 Oregon vs 6 Ohio St
4 Georgia vs 5 Indiana
Semifinals:
1 Texas vs 5 Indiana
2 Miami vs 6 Ohio St
Championship:
1 Texas beats 6 Ohio St
Awards Prediction:
Heisman: Dante Moore beats Arch Manning, Jayden Maiava and John Mateer
Doak Walker: Mark Fletcher, Miami
Biletnikoff: Evan Stewart, Oregon
Bold Predictions:
3 or more coaches from the preseason AP top 25 will be fired by the end of the season
There will be 10 different players to rush for either 1,500 yards or 20 touchdowns
The SEC finishes with 2 teams who lose 2 games or less
NMP Week 11
1 Indiana
2 Georgia
3 Ohio St
4 Texas Tech
5 Ole Miss
6 Oregon
7 Texas A&M
8 Oklahoma
9 Notre Dame
10 Alabama
11 Vanderbilt
12 Miami
13 BYU
14 Texas
15 Utah
16 Tulane
17 USC
18 North Texas
19 Michigan
20 Arizona
21 Georgia Tech
22 Iowa
23 James Madison
24 Houston
25 Virginia
Others getting votes: Duke, Tennessee
Added: None
Dropped: None
Biggest Winners: Tulane (2), James Madison (2)
Biggest Losers: Virginia (3), Ohio St (2), Alabama (2), BYU (2)
Conference championship weekend is over, honestly not a lot of fireworks. The games went the way I thought they would for the most part. With the win, Indiana slides into #1. #2 goes to Georgia, absolutely dominated Bama, claims the SEC title and is peaking at the perfect time. Would be shocked if they don’t make a deep run. Ohio St slots into #3, I’ve thought that they have been the best team all season, but they finally play a real team and they get beat. Resume does not stand up to Georgia’s but I think they are just flat out better than #4 Texas Tech. They dominate BYU, again. They jump Ole Miss after winning the Big 12 title game. I dropped Alabama below both Oklahoma and Notre Dame this week, dropping behind Oklahoma was pretty easy this week, I thought about it last week but didn’t. Head to head speaks and then just the sheer amount of poor performances down the stretch tells me that maybe that loss at home to OU was not a fluke. They drop below Notre Dame more so for the eye test, they just look better right now after smoking folks all year, even with the weak resume. Dropped BYU behind Vandy and Miami, they got smoked twice now and have had a knack for slow starts lately, couple that with how well Miami and Vanderbilt have been playing the last month, pretty easy decision for me. Tulane and North Texas flip, self explanatory, I also have Tulane jumping USC more so based on feel. I think this Tulane team right now could beat USC so I slapped them ahead. JMU pops up to #23 after beating Troy in the Sun Belt championship, will the Committee do the right thing and put them in? UVA slides to #25, as much as I think that they are not good, it is just too hard for me to drop them below Duke with 5 losses and Tennessee who only has wins over basically nobodies. What a season this has been so far, what will the Committee do with Alabama, the ACC, and JMU and how will they seed the byes? Below, you’ll see what my personal playoff bracket looks like, as well as my official and final Heisman pick. This is the last NMP of the year, I hope y’all enjoyed reading every week, thank you for following along. Come back next year for NMP year 5!
Heisman race:
1 Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
2 Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
3 Fernando Mendoza, Indiana
4 Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
Mendoza plays his way into the race in the final hour, started off rough vs Ohio St but turned in a nice game vs a team that has not allowed over 17 points all season so far. Ty Simpson just completely played his way out of the conversation in the month of November, and sealed his fate in December, crazy good middle of the season run, pretty bad finish to the year. Pavia is my official pick to win the Heisman this year, put his team on his back all season this year, 10-2 record, dual threat, peak performances week after week to end the last 6 or so games of the year.
My Bracket:
Byes-
1 Indiana
2 Georgia
3 Ohio St
4 Texas Tech
12 James Madison @ 5 Ole Miss
11 Tulane @ 6 Oregon
10 Alabama @ 7 Texas A&M
9 Notre Dame @ 8 Oklahoma
NMP Week 10
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Georgia
4 Ole Miss
5 Texas Tech
6 Oregon
7 Texas A&M
8 Alabama
9 Oklahoma
10 Notre Dame
11 BYU
12 Vanderbilt
13 Miami
14 Texas
15 Utah
16 USC
17 North Texas
18 Tulane
19 Michigan
20 Arizona
21 Georgia Tech
22 Virginia
23 Iowa
24 Houston
25 James Madison
Others getting votes: Tennessee
Added: JMU, Houston, Iowa
Dropped: Pitt, SMU, Tennessee
Biggest Winners: Arizona (4), Virginia (3)
Biggest Losers: Texas A&M (4), Michigan (4)
The regular season is over! What a fun season we had this year. Ohio St looks like no one is stopping them. Indiana looks the same, they are now on a collision course this weekend. Georgia looks like the best team in the SEC right now so they take the 3 spot. Ole Miss slots in right behind them even with the loss of Lane Kiffin, not gonna penalize them for that. Texas Tech keeps rolling, play BYU for the Big 12 championship, will it be a repeat of the previous meeting? Oregon is playing very hot right now, could they make a deep run? Texas A&M takes a tumble in Austin vs Texas, they don’t have the resume to even sniff being over the other teams in front of them. Alabama does, but they also have a loss preventing them from doing that, they meet Georgia this weekend. Oklahoma continues defensive dominance but the offense is not what it was early in the year, can they get it fixed before the playoffs? Notre Dame keeps destroying awful teams, play a real team and they’ll move up. BYU keeps doing their thing also, playing for a spot in the playoffs vs TTU this weekend. Its a shame Vandy won’t get a shot at playoff glory this season, laid it on Tennessee on Saturday. Miami looks to have gotten back to their dominant selves that we saw early in the year, will they get a chance to show it off in the playoffs? Texas is the highest 3 loss team, huge wins, a bad loss, a blowout loss, and scary road games. Utah dominates the last month of the season but just not enough to overcome the sheer amount of good wins Texas has. USC gets it done vs UCLA, really solid year from them, huge defensive improvement from last year as well. North Texas is the best GO5 team to me, insane offense running and passing, they get to play the next team, Tulane, this weekend. Tulane is really solid as well with good wins. Will be a great game in the American. Michigan finally falls to Ohio St, it looked like they were going to extend the winning streak in the first quarter, but in usual Michigan fashion, they couldn’t muster up an offense. Arizona rolls over Arizona St to finish with a nice season after starting off slow. Georgia Tech keeps it close and with a chance to win it near the end vs Georgia, a great 9-3 season from them. Virginia gets a shot at an ACC title, still don’t think they are that great, but the record does speak for itself. Iowa sneaks back in, solid 8-4 season with an actual competent offense for once, kept many games close vs superior competition which pushes them back into the top 25. Houston finishes off with a respectable win over Baylor, stumbled a couple times near the end but still turned in a decent season. James Madison finally gets into the top 25, I think for the first time in NMP history. 11-1 is pretty solid, albeit not vs great competition, will the dominoes fall in their favor to reach the playoffs?
Heisman Race
1 Diego Pavia
2 Trinidad Chambliss
3 Jeremiyah Love
4 Ty Simpson
Pavia is now #1 by a pretty big margin now. Dude has been on an insane run to end the season, right when you need to to lock up the award. Chambliss keeps doing his thing vs MS St but not enough to close the gap on Diego. Love is also killing it right now, been popping off the last month and a half or so. Ty slips down to 4th, still on a decline to end the season but you can still go back to the middle of the season and say he was the best player for over a month of the season and thats what is keeping in the race in my eyes. Will certainly be interesting to see who goes to New York and who wins it.
Key Games
8 Alabama vs 3 Georgia
1 Ohio St vs 2 Indiana
5 Texas Tech vs 11 BYU
22 Virginia vs Duke
17 North Texas @ 18 Tulane
Troy @ 25 James Madison
Western Michigan vs Miami OH
Kennesaw st @ Jacksonville St
UNLV @ Boise St
NMP Week 9
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Texas A&M
4 Georgia
5 Ole Miss
6 Texas Tech
7 Oregon
8 Alabama
9 Oklahoma
10 Notre Dame
11 BYU
12 Vanderbilt
13 Utah
14 Miami
15 Michigan
16 Texas
17 USC
18 Tennessee
19 North Texas
20 Tulane
21 SMU
22 Pittsburgh
23 Georgia Tech
24 Arizona
25 Virginia
Others getting votes: Arizona St, JMU, Navy
Added: Pittsburgh, Arizona
Dropped: Mizzou, Houston
Biggest Winners: Michigan (2), Texas (2), North Texas (2), Tulane (2), SMU (2)
Biggest Losers: Georgia Tech (7), USC (3)
Pretty calm week last week. Top 13 is unchanged this week. Oregon beats USC pretty soundly, but not still not enough to hop Texas Tech. Oklahoma beats Mizzou at home 17-6. Comparable to the Bama @ Mizzou result, so I’ll keep them just slightly behind Bama even with the head to head win. Vandy dominates a terrible but tough Kentucky team, Utah gets literally run all over but still escapes with a win in one of the games of the year. Miami keeps rolling, very crucial game with Pitt coming up. Michigan keeps rolling as well, can they spoil another Ohio St season? Texas bounces back after getting smoked by Georgia. USC takes a hit against Oregon, worse resume than Texas, but better than Tennessee. North Texas and Tulane are on a collision course in the AAC conference championship game. SMU destroys Louisville, Pitt destroys Georgia Tech. Arizona sneaks in for the first time this year after being under the radar for the vast majority of the season. Now we enter rivalry week with essentially every conference championship slot open currently. Get your popcorn ready.
Heisman Race:
1 Diego Pavia
2 Ty Simpson
3 Trinidad Chambliss
4 Jeremiyah Love
5 Marcel Reed
Ty loses his crown this week, he’s fading at the wrong time and Pavia is rising at the right time. Could Ty hop back in with a good performance vs Auburn and potentially in the SEC Champ game? Jeremiyah Love hops into the rankings this week, as for most non QBs, late in the season is usually when they start popping up, and he’s been tearing folks up lately. Trinidad was on a bye and Marcel played Samford, so no movement from them.
Key Games:
Navy @ Memphis
5 Ole Miss @ Mississippi St
4 Georgia vs 23 Georgia Tech
3 Texas A&M @ 16 Texas
24 Arizona @ Arizona St
1 Ohio St @ 15 Michigan
14 Miami @ 22 Pitt
Western Kentucky @ Jacksonville St
7 Oregon @ Washington
12 Vandy @ 18 Tennessee
Virginia Tech @ 25 Virginia
8 Alabama @ Auburn
21 SMU @ Cal
NMP Week 8
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Texas A&M
4 Georgia
5 Ole Miss
6 Texas Tech
7 Oregon
8 Alabama
9 Oklahoma
10 Notre Dame
11 BYU
12 Vanderbilt
13 Utah
14 USC
15 Miami
16 Georgia Tech
17 Michigan
18 Texas
19 Tennessee
20 Missouri
21 North Texas
22 Tulane
23 SMU
24 Virginia
25 Houston
Others getting votes: Navy, James Madison, Pittsburgh
Added: Mizzou, Tulane, SMU, Virginia, Houston
Dropped: Louisville, Pitt, Iowa, USF, Cincinnati
Biggest Winners: USC (3), Tennessee (3)
Biggest Losers: Texas (7), Alabama (4)
Interesting week this week. Top 3 are your top 3. 4-7 slides up a spot due to Bama’s loss. Nothing this past week really did anything in my mind to change their spots or close/widen gaps. Now the fun part. I still have Bama ranked over OU even with the head to head loss. I was at the game and do believe that Alabama was the better team but had 4 critical mistakes, 3 turnovers which lead to 17 points, and a missed field goal to end the half. Both teams were pretty solid on defense all day, Bama was better on offense by a considerable margin. Both still ranked above Notre Dame, no question there. 11-13 stay the same. USC hops to 14, they beat Iowa in an Iowa type game with Iowa type weather, something I really did not see coming from them. Could run it surprisingly well against them and were hitting deep shots, too. Miami destroys NCSU. Michigan hits a walk off field goal in Wrigley vs Northwestern. Texas gets smoked vs UGA. I have them ahead of Tenn and Mizzou purely for the better resume, Tennessee and Mizzou to me right now are basically tied. North Texas is the best GO5 team to me followed closely by Tulane, interested to see how the AAC shakes out. SMU makes an entrance to the NMP, above the Virginia team that I still don’t believe in, however they did get a win over a solid Duke team on the road. And Houston gets back into the rankings for the season.
Heisman Race
1 Ty Simpson
2 Diego Pavia
3 Trinidad Chambliss
4 Marcel Reed
Everyone is allowed 1 stinker per season in the chase for the Heisman. Was this Ty’s and Marcel’s? Its hard to say, Ty definitely played well enough to beat Oklahoma but made 2 crucial errors in the pick 6 and strip sack. Still threw for over 300 yards (outgained OU by himself). For Reed, was definitely a tale of 2 halves. AWFUL in the first half and then plays out of his mind in the second have to lead a 27 point comeback. Pavia had a bye week, Trinidad was his usual self vs Florida. The race definitely tightened up this week but overall unchanged.
Key Games
20 Mizzou @ 9 Oklahoma
14 USC @ 7 Oregon
22 Tulane @ Temple
Pitt @ 16 Georgia Tech
NMP Week 7
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Texas A&M
4 Alabama
5 Georgia
6 Ole Miss
7 Texas Tech
8 Oregon
9 Oklahoma
10 Notre Dame
11 Texas
12 BYU
13 Vanderbilt
14 Utah
15 Miami
16 Georgia Tech
17 USC
18 Louisville
19 Michigan
20 Pittsburgh
21 Iowa
22 Tennessee
23 North Texas
24 USF
25 Cincinnati
Others getting votes: Tulane, Houston, Virginia
Added: Pittsburgh, USF, Cincy
Dropped: Memphis, Virginia, Missouri
Biggest Winners: Michigan (2), Iowa (2), Tennessee (2), North Texas (2)
Biggest Losers: Louisville (5), BYU (3)
Pretty uneventful week from a movement standpoint. Indiana blows a lead then scores the game winning touchdown on an amazing toe-tap catch. I thought about dropping them 1 spot to #3, but decided against that. Basically tied with TAMU in my eyes at this point. Texas Tech gets a huge win over BYU to keep their Big 12 championship hopes alive and all but secures them a spot in the playoff now. I did have them hop Oregon this week, they were just too dominant while Oregon hasn’t really looked that great as of late for me to keep them behind Oregon. BYU slides in between Texas and Vandy, I do think they are just slightly better than Vandy right now, but lack the talent as a whole, coupled with the loss, to keep them above Texas. I feel as though that Vandy has hit their ceiling, will likely need a little help to get into the playoffs. Louisville losses to Cal, pretty inexcusable honestly. They were playing like the best team in the ACC up until that game, but along with the rest of the conference, they forgot how to play football this weekend. Pitt has looked pretty unstoppable since they changed quarterbacks, huge game vs Notre Dame this week to prove if they are legit or not. Iowa gets the rare lose a game but goes up in the rankings. They played Oregon very very well but just couldn’t make that very last stop to hold onto the win. North Texas is above USF, even with the head to head loss, and I think they are just playing better than USF is right now, plus, they do have 1 less loss as well.
Heisman Race:
1 Ty Simpson
2 Diego Pavia
3 Trinidad Chambliss
4 Marcel Reed
5 Haynes King
No movement in the Heisman race for me this week. Simpson and Pavia both keep doing their thing this week, clear top 2 for me right now. Marcel Reed does close the gap some this week on Trinidad, but that might just be due to the fact that he played this week and Trinidad didn’t. Haynes King was also on a bye, so nothing to report there.
Key Games:
10 Notre Dame @ 20 Pitt
24 USF @ Navy
9 Oklahoma @ 4 Bama
NC St @ 15 Miami
21 Iowa @ 17 USC
11 Texas @ 5 Georgia
NMP Week 6
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Texas A&M
4 Alabama
5 Georgia
6 Ole Miss
7 Oregon
8 Texas Tech
9 BYU
10 Oklahoma
11 Notre Dame
12 Texas
13 Louisville
14 Vanderbilt
15 Utah
16 Miami
17 Georgia Tech
18 USC
19 Missouri
20 Virginia
21 Michigan
22 Memphis
23 Iowa
24 Tennessee
25 North Texas
Others getting votes: Pittsburgh, Navy, Washington
Added: Memphis, Utah, Iowa, North Texas
Dropped: USF, Arizona St, Cincy, LSU
Biggest Winners: Texas (7), USC (6), BYU (6)
Biggest Losers: Miami (9), Mizzou (7), Tennessee (7)
Took a week off last week but we back now. Ohio St, Indiana, TAMU, Bama, and Georgia, nothing has changed. OSU, IU and TAMU have been dominant all season. Bama you could argue has the best resume in America, Georgia’s only loss is to Bama, and has the second best win out of the bunch vs Ole Miss. Ole Miss hops Oregon, they just flat out look better right now. Same to Texas Tech over BYU, although that gets settled this weekend. Oklahoma checks in as the best 2 loss team for me right now, better resume than Notre Dame and now that Mateer is looking healthier, they are playing better than Notre Dame. Texas surprisingly has a pretty good list of wins, even if they did get extremely lucky over MS St. Louisville is just an overall solid team, the path is very clear for them to make the playoffs. Vandy makes it close at Texas, still really good. Utah proves they can smoke you with the starting QB or the back up QB the past couple of weeks, interested to see how the Big 12 shakes out to see if they can avenge one of their losses this year in the Big 12 Champ game. Miami takes another tumble, ice cold right now. Georgia Tech had a loss brewing for a while now, fortunately for them, it comes against an actual decent NC St team. USC keeps chugging along and creeping in the Big 10 standings hoping one of the big dogs slips up. Missouri has brutal blow with Beau going down injured, the back up held his own, but they still take a tumble in the rankings. Virginia, not a believer at all in them, I just don’t think they are that good, but 1 loss speaks for itself. Memphis gets a huge win over USF, which is shocking after seeing what they did against UAB. They have the inside track once again on getting the G5 playoff spot. Iowa has an offense this year???? Tennessee has yet to win the big one this season, played all of them tough and close, but they are liable to get jumped from here on out in the season. Welcome North Texas I think for their first ever appearance in the NMP. They are just far too good on offense for me to pass up on ranking, took a beating vs USF but for the most part has not had really close games all year so far. Can they make a run for the playoffs too? Mestemaker, along with Heintschel of Pitt who just missed out on the rankings, are the two best young QBs in the country.
Heisman Race:
1 Ty Simpson, Alabama
2 Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
3 Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
4 Marcel Reed, Texas A&M
5 Haynes King, Georgia Tech
Ty still has a large margin over the rest. Pavia and Trinidad keep doing their thing and putting up numbers, even with the Vandy loss, Pavia had a great game. Reed hops in as he keeps pushing Texas A&M to wins and has looked great doing it. Haynes King is literally all of Georgia Tech, dude can throw it 40 times or run it 40 times in a game, lost vs NCSU but still had 400 pass yards, 100 yards, and 4 tds.
Key Games:
Tulane @ 22 Memphis
9 BYU @ 8 Texas Tech
3 Texas A&M @ 19 Mizzou
7 Oregon @ 23 Iowa
Navy @ 11 Notre Dame
San Diego St @ Hawaii
NMP Week 4
1 Ohio St
2 Indiana
3 Texas A&M
4 Alabama
5 Georgia
6 Oregon
7 Miami
8 Ole Miss
9 Oklahoma
10 Vanderbilt
11 Texas Tech
12 Missouri
13 Georgia Tech
14 Notre Dame
15 BYU
16 USF
17 Tennessee
18 Louisville
19 Texas
20 Arizona St
21 Cincinnati
22 LSU
23 Michigan
24 USC
25 Virginia
Others getting votes: Illinois, Houston, Iowa, Utah
Added: Louisville, Arizona St, Virginia, Michigan
Dropped: Memphis, Utah, Washington, Nebraska
Biggest winners: BYU (8), Vandy (5) Cincy (3)
Biggest losers: LSU (9), Tennessee (6), Miami (6), USC (6)
Lots of movement this week in the NMP, only 1 team did not change their ranking this week, Mizzou. Ohio St and Indiana are pretty self explanatory. Bama is closing the gap on TAMU, 4 ranked wins in a row is crazy to do, only thing holding them back from having an argument for #1 is that loss to FSU. Georgia gets a huge comeback win over Ole Miss, secures their spot over Oregon who destroys Rutgers. Miami and Ole Miss both fall, I am going to keep their order that I’ve had all season with them so far, Miami’s loss is worse yes, but seems a little flukey to me with the 4 INTs. Not far behind is Oklahoma, Vandy, TTU, Mizzou, and Ga Tech. Oklahoma is still the best of the bunch to me, Vandy is proving that they have a legit shot at playoffs, TTU stumbles with their backup QB, so its hard to punish them as much as normal, still a really great, dominant team. Mizzou goes to 2OT @ Auburn and Georgia Tech holds off Duke. You could put these 4 in any order and I really wouldn’t complain with any order. I just need to see Georgia Tech against a little better competition or be a little more dominant for me to push them ahead of this pack as it stands. Notre Dame keeps rolling, BYU makes me eat my words, they’re good, not great still. Tennessee takes a second loss, this time to Bama, Louisville gets a nice Friday win @ Miami, they’ve been sneaky good all year and they finally got to prove it. Texas avoids a scare to… Kentucky… Their talent on the roster is keeping them afloat right now in my rankings, very very thin ice. Arizona St gets a huge win over TTU, regardless of whos at QB its still a great win for them. 21-25 is once again hard to rank, Cincy keeps rolling, LSU tumbles again, hard to overlook the 2 losses at this point. Michigan gets a dominant win over a solid Washington team, USC gets destroyed on the ground against Notre Dame but still a pretty good team in my eyes. And then you have UVA… don’t believe in them, but here they are with only 1 loss, although that FSU win is getting worse by the week. Seems to be a pretty calm week upcoming but thats when chaos happens.
Heisman race:
1 Ty Simpson, Alabama
2 Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
3 Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
4 Julian Saiyan, Ohio St
5 Fernanado Mendoza, Indiana
Expanded to 5 this week to encompass the fight for the #2 spot in my eyes, Beck threw his way out of the race on Friday. Ty has a very large margin right now over the rest, I think its his to lose at this point. Total command of the offense, picking apart any defense he’s faced minus FSU, and has the numbers and moments to back it up. Pavia is on a Manziel run right now so I wouldn’t count him out, truly the heart and soul of Vandy right now. Trinidad’s case took a hit in the 4th vs UGA but still put up good numbers and 35 points on a Kirby Smart Georgia defense. Julian and Fernando do have decent numbers so far, I just don’t think they’ve that moment or game when it was them who stepped up and dominated.
Key games:
8 Ole Miss @ 9 Oklahoma
16 USF @ Memphis
12 Mizzou @ 10 Vandy
3 Texas A&M @ 22 LSU
Houston @ 20 Arizona St