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Each Saturday night throughout the season, I’ll rank the 10 best teams in the country. The order will fluctuate week to week based on new results, player availability and whatever else impacts this chaotic sport. This is obviously a subjective process, and I look forward to the arguments, especially when we have such few data points early in the year. The final spot each week will go to a team that may not actually be the 10th best team in the country but still deserves a little shine.
1.Georgia (3-0)
For a couple of hours on Saturday, I thought we might be looking at a world in which the Bulldogs were no longer sitting atop these rankings. They did not look good at all on offense or defense early on, heading to the locker room down 14-3 to a South Carolina team that entered the game as a four-touchdown underdog. Gamecocks quarterback Spencer Rattler carved up the Georgia defense in the first half, starting out 16-of-18 passing for 152 yards and a touchdown.
But everything shifted after halftime, as Georgia reeled off 21 unanswered points in large part by relying on its run game. Daijun Edwards, who missed the first two games of the season with a knee injury, finished with 20 carries for 118 yards and a touchdown, shouldering the load on a day when the Bulldogs were depleted by injuries elsewhere on offense. Quarterback Carson Beck played efficiently and well enough to build and maintain a lead in the second half, and the Georgia defense held firm as Rattler tried to claw the Gamecocks back into the game late. It was a rather uninspiring win, but very few top-10 teams played objectively well this weekend.
“My expectation is we go out and dominate and create a nightmare and make people never want to play you again,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Saturday. “We didn’t do that.”
No, they didn’t. But they’ll stay at No. 1 because no one else stepped up to take it away from them.
GO DEEPER
Georgia might be ranked No. 1, but it looks like an average team
2.Michigan (3-0)
The Wolverines navigated a weird first half and a turnover-heavy game to remain undefeated with a 31-6 win against Bowling Green. They’ve survived their three nonconference games against inferior competition without suspended head coach Jim Harbaugh, and four different assistants got some head-coaching experience. That’s all well and good. But Saturday’s win was not nearly as straightforward as the score would indicate and does not project the vibe Michigan wants heading into conference play.
Quarterback J.J. McCarthy had basically been perfect through the first two games, but he threw three picks against the Falcons. That’s the same number of interceptions he had through 13 games last year. Of course, that didn’t doom the Wolverines, and McCarthy had two nice touchdown throws as well. Plus, running back Blake Corum looked good, with 12 carries for 101 yards — and he finally broke off a long one, a 54-yard score on his first touch. Donovan Edwards got a few more carries than he had a week ago and posted his best yards per carry average of the season (5.6).
On a day when hardly any of the best teams lived up to the billing, Michigan survived and advanced. The season gets tougher from here, and the Wolverines know they’ll need to play much better than what they showed on Saturday to reach their goals this year.
GO DEEPER
J.J. McCarthy stumbles in Michigan win against Bowling Green: First thoughts
3.Texas (3-0)
It’s hard to see the Longhorns in the same light we did a week ago considering the ugly performance Alabama turned in in Tampa on Saturday. The Crimson Tide benched quarterback Jalen Milroe after his rough outing against Texas, but neither Tyler Buchner nor Ty Simpson looked any good against USF, either. The myriad issues holding back the Crimson Tide offense — you can take your pick, but I’d say the offensive line/pass protection is the biggest problem — make me a bit less impressed with what Texas did in Tuscaloosa a week ago. Maybe it’s less about the Longhorns’ strengths and more about the Alabama weaknesses.
Setting all that aside, there was plenty to be concerned about just from Texas’s performance in a 31-10 win over Wyoming on Saturday. We’ve seen Steve Sarkisian’s teams get up for big games but fall flat against opponents they should beat handily, and for three quarters on Saturday, it looked like the Longhorns might be following that script. Quinn Ewers’s stat line was rather pedestrian, salvaged by a 44-yard Xavier Worthy catch-and-run for a touchdown that broke the game open early in the fourth quarter. Ewers ran it in himself for another touchdown, and a pick-six helped give Texas the cushion it needed to eventually put the game away. It was an ugly and frustrating follow-up to such an impressive showing, and that kind of effort won’t cut it in Big 12 play, even if the league doesn’t appear to be super strong at the top.
4.Florida State (3-0)
The Seminoles haven’t played that great since their season-opening win over LSU, and it hasn’t hurt them yet. But boy, did Boston College make things interesting on Saturday, from start to finish. BC nearly climbed all the way back from a 21-point deficit, scoring the game’s final 19 points before coming up just short at the end. The Eagles’ fate was sealed by their 18th(!) penalty of the day, a facemask that turned a third-down stop into a fresh set of downs for the Seminoles. Florida State is surely happy to escape with a win, but this isn’t the kind of performance it wanted ahead of a monster matchup against Clemson next week for control of the ACC.
FSU converted just one of nine third downs, lost two fumbles (one was returned for a touchdown) and rushed for just 3.8 yards per carry. The Seminoles were outgained by 117 yards and allowed BC to convert four fourth-down attempts. These stats all match the underwhelming performance that was evident to everyone watching, with only the end of the first half and the start of the second a bright spot for the visitors. Florida State will need to play significantly better next week to take care of business against Clemson.
5.Ohio State (3-0)
This was exactly the type of performance we’ve been waiting to see from the Buckeyes. Sure, it came against an inferior opponent in Western Kentucky, but it builds confidence just the same. Ohio State’s five-touchdown second quarter was the most impressive part of a highlight-filled day, and the 75-yard touchdown pass from Kyle McCord to Marvin Harrison Jr. was a perfect reminder of how easy things can look when a Ryan Day-led offense gets rolling. Harrison finished the day with five catches for 126 yards, and TreVeyon Henderson led a rushing attack that averaged 6.2 yards per carry.
Now, attention shifts to a Notre Dame team that should give the Buckeyes all they can handle next weekend in South Bend. Sam Hartman will be by far the best quarterback Ohio State has faced this season, and the Buckeyes will be by far the most talented team that the Irish have seen. We’ll learn a lot about both teams.
GO DEEPER
Ohio State takeaways: Kyle McCord rewards Ryan Day’s QB1 trust in blowout of WKU
6.Washington (3-0)
I’m running out of words to describe what Michael Penix Jr. is doing on a weekly basis. He might be the quarterback I most look forward to seeing and the one whose highlights I watch most often. The Huskies QB completed 20 of 25 passes for 375 yards and four touchdowns … in the first half alone. Michigan State didn’t have a chance, really. And it’s hard to imagine the kind of defensive effort it’s going to take to slow or (dare we even suggest?) stop the best offense in the country. We probably won’t see the Huskies even break a sweat for another month or so until they host Oregon.
7. Notre Dame (4-0)
First, a mea culpa: The Fighting Irish should have been ranked here a week ago after their win over NC State. That was their first really good win, and it should have been enough to knock someone (LSU, in this case) out of my Top 10. I’m a believer in this Notre Dame team because I’m a believer in Hartman. It seems so quaint and foolish to think back on the criticism of Hartman as something of a system quarterback because of his time in Wake Forest’s slow mesh offense. But anyone who watched him pick apart ACC defenses knew he was capable of what he’s been doing in a Notre Dame uniform. As my colleague Pete Sampson noted after Saturday’s 41-17 win over Central Michigan, Notre Dame is now off to its most prolific scoring start in the first four games of a season since 1914 — and we can attribute so much of that offensive success to Hartman himself.
Notre Dame has posted good to great seasons with very good college quarterbacks in recent years, but the Irish have not had one of the very best quarterbacks in the country at the helm. The ceiling seems significantly higher for this team than it looked in the offseason, but we’ll know for sure next week when the Irish welcome the Buckeyes.
GO DEEPER
Notre Dame takeaways from Central Michigan: Explosive plays win the day for Irish
8.Penn State (3-0)
Saturday’s 30-13 win at Illinois was odd, but not quite as odd as the nine-overtime epic that happened the last time these two teams met. Drew Allar struggled for the first time since becoming the Penn State starting quarterback, completing less than 50 percent of his passes for 208 yards and zero touchdowns. Still, Penn State won with relative ease, in a game in which four different Nittany Lions intercepted passes and running back Trey Potts threw a touchdown pass. James Franklin isn’t too concerned about the less-than-spectacular outing from Allar, but his QB must bounce back and play much better against the always-tough Iowa defense next weekend.
9.USC (3-0)
The Trojans were idle this week and return to Pac-12 action next Saturday against Arizona State ahead of a suddenly mammoth matchup with Colorado in two weeks. The only way to increase the hype around anything involving Coach Prime is to add the reigning Heisman Trophy winner into the mix. That’ll be a fun one to cap off an unpredictable September — and a really good test for a USC defense trying to show significant improvement.
10.Missouri (3-0)
Of course we are going to celebrate Harrison Mevis and the longest field goal in SEC history. We absolutely will shout out the cult hero affectionately nicknamed “The Thiccer Kicker.” Mevis’ 61-yarder as time expired to beat Kansas State gave head coach Eli Drinkwitz the biggest win of his tenure at Missouri and delivered a lift to a fan base that hasn’t had much to celebrate in recent years.
Drinkwitz got to bask in the glory of a win over a top-15 opponent. Mevis redeemed himself after a pair of missed field goals in the season opener and a missed extra point last week. And quarterback Brady Cook celebrated a few hours after he received audible boos from Mizzou fans when he was introduced before kickoff. This 30-27 win means a lot of things to a lot of people, and they deserve the opportunity to bask in it. The Tigers will happily pay that field-storm fine.
P.S. Sophomore Luther Burden is already one of the best receivers in college football. Don’t miss out.
(Photo ofJordan Travis: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
