1 Miami
2 Ohio St
3 BYU
4 Georgia
5 Ole Miss
6 Notre Dame
7 Indiana
8 Utah
9 Kentucky
10 Texas Tech
11 UCLA
12 Alabama
13 Houston
14 Tennessee
15 Wake Forest
16 Iowa
17 Arizona
18 USC
19 Missouri
20 LSU
21 Florida
22 Boise St
23 Northwestern
24 Texas
25 Auburn
Others getting votes: Oregon St, Oklahoma St, Nebraska, Mississippi St
Added: Florida, Auburn, Tennessee
Dropped: Oklahoma St, Nebraska, Mississippi St
Biggest Winners: Houston (9), Wake Forest (6), Texas Tech (6), Kentucky (6)
Biggest Losers: Texas (17), Missouri (8), Alabama (8), Boise St (3)
What an insane week! Huge moves in the NMP this week. New number 1, Miami. Undefeated, explosive, survive a scare vs FSU but otherwise has looked dominant. Ohio St and BYU I debated, I gave the edge to Ohio St as they do look just slightly better to me. Georgia stumbles vs Auburn in a -3 turnover game, a little flukey but still a loss. The best team in the SEC to me still. Ole Miss still looks dominant, as long as Trinidad is playing they’ll be highly ranked. Notre Dame loses but does not move due to chaos. I think they are frauds but nowhere else I can really stick them with a close loss to #3. Indiana loses to OSU, they still just don’t look strong, ever so slightly behind Notre Dame. Utah, extremely fun offense to watch, best Big 12 team to me right now. Kentucky looks really good, just the 1 loss to Bama in really just a second half no show. Texas Tech finally gets a blowout win in conference, solid in the Big 12. UCLA proves they can do it with a backup QB, which was a question I had for them. Beat a sneaky decent Wisconsin team at home. Could we see them in the playoffs?? Bama lays an egg vs Tennessee, back to back losses for the first time in years. They go from smoking folks to having an anemic offense. Reminds me of last years team. Houston slides in behind them, this is more so eye test over the course of the whole season compared to the past couple of weeks. Tennessee gets a marquee win this year over Bama, I still just think they’re worse than Alabama. Wake Forest has been very under the radar this season, but they are actually kind of dominating teams, which good teams should be doing. Iowa is Iowa, on a bye this week so not much to say here. Arizona looks like Arizona from a couple years ago when they got red hot, super exciting team. USC is blah to me, not really all that impressive but still getting wins. Mizzou, LSU, and Florida are all basically the same team right now, so all these have been ranked purely off eye test of who I think has looked better so far this year. Boise is the best G6 team, I don’t really expect them to climb too much higher but still a pretty good team. Northwestern escapes over Michigan St, ugly but got it done. Really fun offense to watch as well. Texas over Auburn here is really more due to loss margin and how Texas blew huge leads, they show the top end potential that Auburn hasn’t really shown yet. Texas with I believe the biggest 1 week drop in NMP history, so, impressive by them. 17 spots…
Heisman Race:
Jeremiah Smith, Ohio St
Malachi Toney, Miami
Darian Mensah, Miami
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Key Games:
20 LSU @ 25 Auburn
5 Ole Miss @ 24 Texas
13 Houston @ 8 Utah