NMP Week 3
1 Miami
2 Ohio St
3 Indiana
4 Ole Miss
5 Texas A&M
6 Alabama
7 Texas Tech
8 Georgia
9 Oregon
10 Oklahoma
11 Tennessee
12 Missouri
13 LSU
14 Georgia Tech
15 Vanderbilt
16 Notre Dame
17 Memphis
18 USC
19 USF
20 Texas
21 Utah
22 Washington
23 BYU
24 Cincy
25 Nebraska
Others getting votes: Virginia, Michigan
Added: USC, Texas, Nebraska, USF
Dropped: Florida St, Michigan, Arizona St, Illinois
Biggest Winners: Indiana (8), Utah (4)
Biggest Losers: Oregon (6), Oklahoma (4)
Miami and Ohio St keep rolling, Ole Miss has their usual game where they forget how to play football vs WSU this week, and Indiana walks into Autzen and pretty much dominates Oregon. So that caused the shake up at the top this week. TAMU to Georgia is pretty standard, they all won their games so they stay put. Oregon stays in just ahead of Oklahoma after they both slip up this week, I still think Oregon is better than Oklahoma, hopefully Mateer can heal to 100% quickly. I only dropped Mizzou a couple spots, played Bama close for the whole game, no need to drop them behind many other 1 loss teams. Middle of the pack nothing really noteworthy so we’ll keep it moving. USC and USF both rocket up in the rankings, like I said last week, once you get past about 15, it gets pretty tough to rank these teams. Expect a ton of volatility in this range for the rest of the year. But, both teams absolutely dominate their competition this week, Michigan and North Texas were not easy teams to dominate. Texas falls back into their winning ways vs a hurt Mateer and Oklahoma. Utah dominates a hapless Arizona St team who didn’t have their QB, but even so, an impressive performance. Washington slots in at #22 ahead of teams that I still don’t really believe in; BYU, Cincy, and Nebraska. BYU is very much like last year, yeah they’re undefeated but they’re not a good undefeated. Cincy I just flat out think is better than Nebraska, even with the head to head loss. HUGE week this upcoming week, I’m expecting a lot of movement in the next NMP.
Heisman Race:
1 Ty Simpson, Alabama
2 Carson Beck, Miami
3 Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Midway through the year now, time to start giving a ranking to these dudes. Ty is the hottest QB in the nation right now, crazy high completion percentage, really good TD/INT ratio, and just overall playing on fire right now. Beck has also been playing pretty well, and has the performances against great teams to go along with it. Chambliss has been electric so far this season, took over for the injured Austin Simmons and never looked back, looking forward to seeing where he takes Ole Miss this year.
Key Games:
13 LSU @ 15 Vandy
10 Oklahoma @ South Carolina
4 Ole Miss @ 8 Georgia
7 Texas Tech @ Arizona St
11 Tennessee @ 6 Alabama
18 USC @ 16 Notre Dame
21 Utah @ 23 BYU
NMP Week 2
1 Miami
2 Ole Miss
3 Oregon
4 Ohio St
5 Texas A&M
6 Oklahoma
7 Alabama
8 Georgia
9 Texas Tech
10 Missouri
11 Tennessee
12 Indiana
13 LSU
14 Arizona St
15 Georgia Tech
16 Michigan
17 Vanderbilt
18 Notre Dame
19 Memphis
20 Illinois
21 Washington
22 Florida St
23 BYU
24 Cincinnati
25 Utah
Others getting votes: Virginia, Texas, USF, Nebraska
Added: Notre Dame, Illinois, Washington, BYU, Cincinnati
Dropped: Texas, Penn St, Iowa St, Mississippi St, Virginia
Biggest winners: Georgia Tech (5), Michigan (5)
Biggest losers: Florida St (9), Vanderbilt (3)
This week at the top was pretty standard, but middle to lower in the rankings it was a party. This week was a difficult one to rank after #17. But, let’s start at the top. Miami beats up on FSU, still look far and away the best team right now. TAMU dominates a surprisingly good Miss St team. OU shines with a backup QB (yes, I know it was Kent St). Bama gets revenge, UGA destroys a poor Kentucky team, and Texas Tech rolls again. #10-#15 were all on bye weeks, so no change in the order there, just slide them all up accordingly. Vandy loses to Bama to get their first loss of the season, was a great game and was closer than the score shows, no need to punish them too much for now. Notre Dame joins the party, and honestly might have been poor oversight by me last week to not rank them, but here they are. They’ve beaten the teams they’re supposed to beat how they should be beating them, and have 2 losses to 2 top 5 teams by a combined 4 points. Memphis gets bowl eligible, rolling right now behind Brendon Lewis. Illinois balls out through the air vs Purdue. Still don’t fully trust them but they have bounced back nicely from their loss. Washington comes back from a 20-0 hole to win 24-20 @Maryland, a solid team with a relatively close loss to Ohio St. FSU loses to Miami, kept them in with their win over Bama, still a tough team to play. BYU, Cincy, and Utah I am honestly not too confident in them. I think they’re all just flat out worse than FSU, so thats why they are behind them. BYU takes the first spot due to being undefeated, Cincy slots in with the win over Iowa St, and Utah still has the Texas Tech loss in my mouth due to the bye week. I don’t normally speak on unranked teams, but Texas and Penn St are embarrassing right now, I was tempted to keep Texas in purely for the quality of losses they have, but Penn St is just straight up bad right now.
Heisman:
Carson Beck, Miami
Ty Simpson, Alabama
Ahmad Hardy, Missouri
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Key Games:
Alabama @ Mizzou
4 Ohio St @ 20 Illinois
12 Indiana @ 3 Oregon
Texas vs 6 Oklahoma
Florida @ 5 Texas A&M
14 Arizona St @ 25 Utah
4th Annual NMP Week 1 Release
1 Miami
2 Ole Miss
3 Oregon
4 Ohio St
5 Texas A&M
6 Oklahoma
7 Alabama
8 Georgia
9 Texas
10 Texas Tech
11 Missouri
12 Penn St
13 Florida St
14 Vanderbilt
15 Tennessee
16 Indiana
17 LSU
18 Arizona St
19 Iowa St
20 Georgia Tech
21 Michigan
22 Mississippi St
23 Memphis
24 Virginia
25 Utah
Others getting votes: Illinois, Washington, USC
Welcome to the 4th year (2nd year on the website) of the NMP. First month of ball is now in the books, so now its time to finally get a ranking out. As a refresher, every week, normally on Sunday or Monday, I drop a new poll with my thoughts and explanations right after it. There will also be a Heisman race tracker and games to look out for for the upcoming week following the explanation. As for the Others Getting Votes teams, those are teams who I was considering and evaluating to put in the top 25, but just missed out. Just like other polls out there. Now that the refresher is done with, lets get into some football.
Lots of great games this week. The 2 big ones, Bama vs UGA and PSU vs Oregon definitely did not disappoint. Miami has been the best all around team so far to me and they also have a solid resume. Ole Miss I had to see a little more from Trinidad to really believe in them, after beating up on LSU, I’m a believer. Oregon rounds out a pretty clear cut top 3 for me. Ohio St has the win over Texas but they’ve had slow starts in every game this year, which takes them below Oregon. TAMU and Oklahoma have both been really solid this year, I’m giving A&M the nod simply because Mateer is out for about a month. Bama, I had a tonnnn of doubt after the FSU loss, now after what I have seen vs a poor, but defensively solid Wisco team and @ Georgia, they’ve gotten rid of most of that doubt… will they continue it or will it be a repeat of last year? UGA and Texas are basically the same, I’ve just seen a pulse on offense from Georgia so they get the edge. Very impressed with Mizzou and Ahmad Hardy this year, huge game vs Bama after the bye week. Penn St took a loss to Oregon in OT, otherwise, just not impressed at all with them, and they’ve played no one this year so far. Florida St gets upset by Virginia on Friday night. Vandy and Tennessee are both really solid. Indiana beat what I think to be a poor Illinois team and struggled vs Iowa. LSU has no offense right now, but have a great defense. AZ St and Iowa St, going through the Big 12 gauntlet right now, even with the loss, I think Arizona St is just better. GT avoids a scare, and their Clemson win is getting weaker by the week. Mississippi St stays in even with the OT loss to TN this week, they might be cooking something this year… good luck with the schedule the rest of the year. Memphis is best GO5 team I’ve watched this year. Legit shot of a playoff run this year. UVA sneaks in after the FSU upset. Utah gets in, the Texas Tech score is not indicative of how close that game was, still a very tough out in the Big 12 this year.
Heisman Race (no order):
Ahmad Hardy, Missouri
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
Carson Beck, Miami
Ty Simpson, Alabama
Key Games:
14 Vandy @ 7 Bama
1 Miami @ 13 FSU
22 Miss St @ 5 TAMU
9 Texas @ Florida
2025 College Football Predictions
Conference Championship Games:
Big 10- Penn St beats Ohio St
SEC- Texas beats Georgia
ACC- Clemson beats Louisville
Big 12- Utah beats Arizona St
American- Navy beats UTSA
Sun Belt- James Madison beats Texas St
MAC- Miami (OH) beats Toledo
Mountain West- Boise St beats San Jose St
CUSA- Western Kentucky beats Sam Houston St
Playoff Prediction
1 Penn St
2 Texas
3 Clemson
4 Ohio St
5 Georgia
6 Oregon
7 LSU
8 Alabama
9 Florida
10 Notre Dame
11 Utah
12 Navy
Byes- Penn St, Texas, Clemson, Ohio St
12 Navy @ 5 Georgia- Georgia wins
11 Utah @ 6 Oregon- Oregon wins
10 Notre Dame @ 7 LSU- LSU wins
9 Florida @ 8 Alabama- Florida wins
Quarterfinals:
1 Penn St vs 8 Florida- Penn St wins
2 Texas vs 7 LSU- Texas wins
3 Clemson vs 6 Oregon- Clemson wins
4 Ohio St vs 5 Georgia- Georgia wins
Semifinals:
5 Georgia vs 1 Penn St- Penn St wins
2 Texas vs 3 Clemson- Texas wins
Championship:
1 Penn St vs 2 Texas- Penn St wins
Heisman:
Jeremiah Smith, DJ Lagway, Cade Klubnik, Garrett Nussmeier
Winner: Cade Klubnik
Doak Walker: Ahmad Hardy
Biletnikoff: Jeremiah Smith
Bold Predictions:
We will have multiple undefeated teams going into the playoffs.
0 Big 12 teams finish top 15, 0 Group of 5 teams finish top 20
10 SEC teams finish in the top 25 prior to bowl season
NMP Week 11
Oregon
Notre Dame
Georgia
Texas
Penn St
Tennessee
Ohio St
Arizona St
South Carolina
Boise St
SMU
Indiana
Ole Miss
Alabama
Clemson
Miami
Iowa St
Colorado
Syracuse
Army
Memphis
Texas A&M
UNLV
Missouri
BYU
Others Getting Votes: Duke, Illinois
Added: BYU
Dropped: Tulane
Biggest Winners: Army (5), Clemson (3)
Biggest Losers: SMU (3), UNLV (3)
Conference championship weekend started with a ton of blowouts but ended with 3 incredible games. I don’t think there is clear cut #2 right now, 4 teams you could make an argument for and I wouldn’t complain. Pushed Notre Dame ahead of Texas really only because Texas lost to UGA twice and really didn’t look all that great in either game. Georgia then slots in ahead of Texas, head to head x2. Then I just don’t see any reason to flip TX and PSU, so their order stays the same. Arizona St destroys Iowa St, hops South Carolina because of it. Boise wins, SMU loses, pretty logical there, Boise also hops Indiana this week. Conference champion has to hold some weight in here and that puts them over the top. Clemson goes over Miami as the king of the ACC now, also jumps the Big 12 loser and Colorado due to their ACC crown. Army, best in American, so they get treated as such, above Memphis and kicks Tulane out of top 25. UNLV drops a little, they did not look great against Boise this weekend.
Heisman Race:
My winner: Travis Hunter, Colorado
My runner up: Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
My Playoff Field:
1 Oregon, 2 Georgia, 3 Arizona St, 4 Boise St
5 Notre Dame vs 12 Clemson
6 Texas vs 11 SMU
7 Penn St vs 10 South Carolina
8 Tennessee vs 9 Ohio St
I will be very interested to see what the committee does with the rankings in the first year of the 12 teamer, historically they don’t drop losers of conference champ games too much, if at all. Also interested to see how close the Heisman race is this year, the media makes it out to be a near landslide for Travis, but we will see. This season was chaotic and fun to watch, ready to see what other surprises bowl season has in store. As for the playoff and the committee, SMU should get in over Bama. For the health of conf champ games, SMU should be in, for the health of the sport, I have no idea what should happen. The team that you know can beat the big dogs and has a higher ceiling is Bama. Path of least resistance is definitely SMU, but they are an unproven product and will likely bring less eyes and dollars to the NCAA, ADs, conferences, and TV networks… we will see which side wins that battle soon.
What I think the committee will do:
1 Oregon, 2 Georgia, 3 Boise St, 4 Arizona St
5 Texas vs 12 Clemson -> Arizona St
6 Penn St vs 11 SMU -> Boise St
7 Notre Dame vs 10 Indiana -> Georgia
8 Ohio St vs 9 Tennessee -> Oregon
NMP Week 10
Oregon
Texas
Notre Dame
Penn St
Georgia
Tennessee
Ohio St
SMU
South Carolina
Arizona St
Indiana
Boise St
Ole Miss
Alabama
Miami
Iowa St
Colorado
Clemson
Syracuse
UNLV
Memphis
Tulane
Texas A&M
Missouri
Army
Others Getting Votes: BYU, Duke
Added: Mizzou
Dropped: BYU
Biggest Winners: South Carolina (4), Iowa St (4)
Biggest Losers: Miami (9), Ohio St (5), Tulane (5), Texas A&M (5)
Another wild week to cap off the regular season, upsets, close games, 8!!!! overtimes. One of the wildest seasons I’ve seen in a while—finally. Oregon finishes undefeated, easy #1. Texas slides up, easy. Notre Dame and Penn St, both with an easy 11-1 record, really really close to each other, I flipped them simply because from what I’ve seen, I just think Notre Dame would beat them right now. Notre Dame has yet to be tested through the air, so Penn St is a more solid team just barely because they have been tested but I still think ND beats them. UGA, Tenn, and OSU. All 3 are really the same team, slow starts, struggle vs lower competition, moments of brilliance and dominance. UGA over Tenn is simple- head to head. Ohio St is below both, the Michigan loss at home is just too big of a blemish to overlook. SMU slots in nicely at 8. Now the 2 hottest teams in America, South Carolina and Arizona St. Gave SCar the edge because they are a more complete team, ferocious DLine. Boise St and Indiana slot in at 11 and 12. Ole Miss still above Bama, same reasons as before, both above Miami because of quality of teams beaten, Miami just simply doesn’t have the caliber of teams beaten to be that high and has now lost the benefit of the doubt with 2 losses. Iowa St gets 10 wins for the first time in school history, slides above Colorado now. Clemson once again loses to a good team, Syracuse comes back vs Miami after being down 21-0, just slightly worse than Clemson right now. UNLV slides above Tulane with their loss, above Memphis still because they are more complete. TAMU takes another L, this time to Texas. I still think they’re a top 25 team in America, above Mizzou because of head to head. I will finally acknowledge Missouri’s season, reluctantly… they finished strong, which I am honestly shocked by. Then 1 loss Army rounds out the top 25 above BYU. Just think they’re better.
Heisman Race:
1 Travis Hunter, Colorado
2 Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
Travis is pretty locked in at number 1 for me right now, would take a massive game from Jeanty to overcome the deficit in my eyes.
Key Games:
2 Texas vs 5 Georgia
1 Oregon vs 4 Penn St
8 SMU vs 18 Clemson
10 Arizona St vs 16 Iowa St
22 Tulane @ 25 Army
20 UNLV @ 12 Boise St
Western Kentucky @ Jacksonville St
Ohio @ Miami (OH)
Marshall @ UL Lafayette
NMP Week 9
Oregon
Ohio St
Texas
Penn St
Notre Dame
Miami
Georgia
Tennessee
Indiana
SMU
Boise St
Arizona St
South Carolina
Clemson
Ole Miss
Alabama
Tulane
Texas A&M
Colorado
Iowa St
Syracuse
UNLV
Memphis
Army
BYU
Others Getting Votes: Kansas St
Added: None
Dropped: None
Biggest Winners: SMU (5), Arizona St (5), Clemson (4), Tulane (4)
Biggest Losers: Alabama (7), Ole Miss (7), Colorado (7)
Bit of a wild weekend. SEC takes a huge step back in the playoff race. 1-8 are all the same, just slid up to account for losses. Indiana did put up a fight there for a little bit, still a good body of work, currently just look slightly better than SMU to me. Arizona St is HOT right now, they keep climbing. Ditto for South Carolina. Ole Miss and Bama take a loss, Clemson looks better than both right now, the playoff race for spot 12 will be incredible. Ole Miss I have consistently had over Bama this year, that stays true here. Tulane is arguably the best GO5 team, but 2 losses holds them back in climbing much higher for me. TAMU and Colorado honestly take inexcusable losses, but real ball knowers know that they were not shocking losses at all. 20-25 once again is just tough to rank, Iowa St is self explanatory, only 2 losses and I think Colorado is better than them. Syracuse a sneaky good team. UNLV 3rd best GO5, Memphis right behind them, defense holds them back from being higher. Army gets smoked, BYU continues the fraud watch with another loss.
Heisman Race:
1 Travis Hunter, Colorado
2 Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
Key Games:
Auburn @ 16 Alabama
Michigan @ 2 Ohio St
8 Tennessee @ Vanderbilt
13 South Carolina @ 14 Clemson
5 Notre Dame @ USC
3 Texas @ 18 Texas A&M
Kansas St @ 20 Iowa St
NMP Week 8
Oregon
Ohio St
Texas
Indiana
Penn St
Notre Dame
Miami
Ole Miss
Alabama
Georgia
Tennessee
Colorado
Boise St
Texas A&M
SMU
South Carolina
Arizona St
Clemson
Army
BYU
Tulane
Iowa St
Syracuse
UNLV
Memphis
Others Getting Votes: Kansas St, Mizzou
Added: Syracuse, UNLV, Memphis
Dropped: Louisville, LSU, UL Lafayette
Biggest Winners: Arizona St (4), Tulane (3), South Carolina (3)
Biggest Losers: BYU (6), Tennessee (5)
A relatively quiet weekend honestly. The upsets at the top you could see from a mile away, while the upsets at the bottom were actually pretty shocking. Really made for a difficult ranking after 22. The top 10 are pretty much the same as last week, TN drops to 11… self explanatory there. Colorado hops Boise St, they’re just a hotter, better team right now. TAMU and SMU same as last week. South Carolina, had the game in the bag, then blew it, then won it, then blew it again, then won it again. Still no one wants to play them the rest of the year. Ditto for Arizona St, dominant first half vs K St then holds them off in the 2nd. BYU loses finally, they tumble all the way to 20. Tulane is also red hot, incredible on defense the last few games, AAC Champ Game vs Army will be a great game. Iowa St stands pat. Syracuse, UNLV, and Memphis all come into this weeks rankings. Syracuse has really been a solid team all year, they just happen to take loss right before I really want to rank them. UNLV has a 3 point loss and a 5 point loss to Boise, played both of them tough obviously, but has also been relatively dominant vs the rest of their schedule. And then you have Memphis, really good on offense, really bad on defense, and the really bad on defense has cost them 2 games this year, their game vs Tulane this week will be really interesting.
Heisman Race:
Travis Hunter, Colorado
Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
Jeanty is just fading at the finish line while Travis is peaking at the finish line. Two man race to me for the rest of the year and don’t let other people tell you there’s more than these 2 fighting for it.
Key Games:
4 Indiana @ 2 Ohio St
8 Ole Miss @ Florida
20 BYU @ 17 Arizona St
12 Colorado @ Kansas
19 Army @ 6 Notre Dame
9 Alabama @ Oklahoma
14 Texas A&M @ Auburn
NMP Week 7
Oregon
Ohio St
Texas
Indiana
Penn St
Tennessee
Notre Dame
Miami
Ole Miss
Alabama
Georgia
Boise St
Colorado
BYU
Texas A&M
SMU
Clemson
Army
South Carolina
LSU
Arizona St
Louisville
Iowa St
Tulane
UL Lafayette
Others Getting Votes: Kansas St, Washington St
Added: Tulane, UL Lafayette
Dropped: Pitt, Kansas St
Biggest Winners: Colorado (7), South Carolina (6), Ole Miss (5)
Biggest Losers: Georgia (8), LSU (8), Iowa St (7)
Drama in the top 5! SEC double header murkies the waters even more! Oregon rolls, still looks #1. Texas closes the gap on OSU. Indiana wins a close one against a still really tough Michigan team, they just flat out look better than PSU right now. Penn St, TN, and Notre Dame all hold serve. Miami finally takes a loss, an offensive no show on Saturday, they justtttt have an edge over Ole Miss. Speaking off, another SEC cluster. Ole Miss takes 9 due to them looking more complete than Bama and UGA, Bama takes 9 because they are just playing better than UGA right now, that month long stretch is hurting Bama right now in moving above Miami or Ole Miss. Boise St runs all over a tough Nevada team, I think they have hit their ceiling unless chaos in front of them happens. Colorado is the best team in the Big 12, they are ranked as such. I had hope for BYU, I gave them a chance to impress in the top 12 and they squandered it, extreme fraud alert for BYU right now. Wouldn’t be shocked with them finishing 10-2. TAMU and SMU on a bye, Clemson slips below SMU, just looking back on it SMU is slightly better to me as it stands. Army trails for the first time all year (3-0)… absolutely shuts down a potent North Texas offense. South Carolina, no one wants to play them the rest of the year; are they this years 2023 Arizona team??? They have a good chance at it. LSU gets smoked at home… at night. Still a solid team, extremely small chance of SEC Championship Game and playoffs. Arizona St continues to look good, and this time does it without Skattebo. Louisville is solid team, looking and playing better than Iowa St at this point. Tulane rolling, 2 crucial games for them coming up vs Navy and Memphis. Welcome for the first time ever to the NMP, ULL. Wooldridge has looked really good this year, only loss to Tulane by 8, could they fight for a playoff spot??
Heisman Race:
Travis Hunter, Colorado
Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
Cam Ward, Miami
Travis puts up another impressive performance at WR and CB, Jeanty just off pace of breaking Barry’s records, Ward takes a loss. Its getting close to a 2 horse race in my eyes.
Key Games:
17 Clemson @ Pitt
3 Texas @ Arkansas
24 Tulane @ Navy
20 LSU @ Florida
Missouri @ 19 South Carolina
21 Arizona St @ Kansas St
6 Tennessee @ 11 Georgia
Kansas @ 14 BYU
NMP Week 6
Oregon
Ohio St
Georgia
Texas
Miami
Penn St
Tennessee
Indiana
Notre Dame
Boise St
BYU
LSU
Alabama
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
Iowa St
Clemson
SMU
Army
Colorado
Pittsburgh
Kansas St
Vanderbilt
Arizona St
South Carolina
Others Getting Votes: Louisville, Washington St, Tulane, UL Lafayette
Added: South Carolina
Dropped: Memphis
Biggest Winners: Alabama (6), LSU (5), BYU (5)
Biggest Losers: Kansas St (11), Clemson (11), Pitt (6)
This weekend had its fair share of upsets and games that shook up conference and playoff races. With all the shake up and a rather large amount of teams on bye weeks this week, I figured it was a good time to take a deeper dive into teams and do a full reevaluation of the top 25. Oregon, undefeated beat OSU, simple. Ohio st beats PSU @PSU and Georgia once again looks like 2 different teams the 1st and 2nd halves. Texas still slots in at 4, pretty simple there too I think. Miami again stays undefeated after a slight scare, defense needs to carry a little more weight, but is enough to hop TN after they also start very slow again. Indiana, while they may have played rather weak competition, the games aren’t even close, what they have been able to do on O and D this season is really remarkable. Notre Dame still just chilling there at 9. Boise St continues to run Jeanty but now Madsen is really rounding into form, could be a real threat in the 1st round of the playoffs if they make it. BYU… they keep winning games, they keep moving up, just really hard to keep them behind multiple 2 loss teams now. Now you get the 4 SEC teams who can both look dominant and very beatable all in the same game, sometimes even half. Could really have them in any order and I wouldn’t really complain either way. Put A&M last purely because of the QB situation and the unknown week to week of who you’ll get. While Ole Miss is probably the most complete out of the bunch, they just can’t seem to put it all together. Alabama has the most potential and highest ceiling out of the 4, but also has the lowest floor… by a lot. LSU, thus far, has put together the best season so far, justtttt slightly, and are the least volatile. Iowa St lost to a very sneaky good Texas Tech team, could be a harsh drop, but only time will tell. Clemson, I was probably too high on them, looking back at their schedule and seeing that they really weren’t too competitive with the biggest games on their schedule, a justified huge drop (ACC Mizzou???) SMU just absolutely smokes a really good Pitt team, in the drivers seat for an ACC champ game spot. Colorado on a bye week, have a heisman front runner, arguably the best college QB, and actually a pretty solid defense too, look to see them in the Big 12 champ game if they can hold their own the rest of the year. Pitt, really sad to see them lose, especially the way they did. Holstein and the O just could not put anything together whatsoever. K St I still think is pretty good, but you just can’t be losing to this years Houston team… And to round out the top 25 this week, 3 teams no one wants to see on their schedule the rest of the season, Arizona St and Skattebo, Vanderbilt and Pavia, and South Carolina and Sellers. Very tough, very good teams, these are the type of teams you would absolutely love to play for.
Heisman Race:
Travis Hunter, Colorado
Ashton Jeanty, Boise St
Cam Ward, Miami
Jeanty is starting to slip off his blistering pace, can definitely claw it back. Travis takes my #1 spot, just barely. Ward is the only reason Miami doesn’t have 2-3 losses. Daily, from Army, falls off due to injury, no timetable on return currently. Gabriel, from Oregon, will probably end up in New York this year but I just get a sense he’s getting the Trevor Lawerence treatment and is on peoples’ boards as more of a career award than a current season award.
Key Games:
3 Georgia @ 14 Ole Miss
13 Alabama @ 12 LSU
Michigan @ 8 Indiana
20 Colorado @ Texas Tech
25 South Carolina @ 23 Vanderbilt
11 BYU @ Utah