A month into the college football season, one thing appears certain: the teams many of us thought might be are very much not .
We’re looking at you Texas and Miami. Texas Tech beat the Longhorns in overtime, and Middle Tennessee walloped Miami in maybe the most shocking result of the day (on coach Mario Cristobal’s birthday, noless). On Saturday, it was good to be a Raider, both Red and Blue.
It was good to be Orange, too. Just ask Tennessee, which rolled Florida, and Clemson, which survived a scare at Wake Forest. And there’s Auburn, too, which didn’t exactly win as much as Missouri lost in an epically ugly overtime game on the Plains. Coach Bryan Harsin survives for at least another week.
In another SEC battle, Arkansas blew a 14-0 lead in a 23-21 loss to Texas A&M that included one of the most bizarre missed field goals you’ll ever see. Cam Little’s go-ahead attempt in the final two minutes doinked off of the top of the right upright and fell into the end zone! Gone from the Top 10 are the Hogs as well as the Sooners. The Adrian Martinez-led Kansas State Wildcats, a week after losing to Tulane at home, went on the road to stun Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Kansas remained undefeated with a win over Duke, and Sonny Dykes’ TCU team took it to SMU in his return to Dallas. The skillet heads back to Fort Worth. Michigan finally played a Power 5 team, Maryland, and passed the test, while Minnesota traveled to Michigan State and bludgeoned Sparty.
Out in Colorado, things have gone from bad to worse. The Buffaloes and the Rams are a combined 0-8, losing on Saturday by a cumulative score of 86-27 to UCLA and Sacramento State, respectively (yes, Sacramento State). At Georgia Tech, things aren’t much better. Geoff Collins’ hot seat is scorching after the Yellow Jackets dropped to 1-3 with a 17-point loss at UCF.
But let’s go back to discussing those who are very much not . The Longhorns are now 2-2 to start Year 2 under coach Steve Sarkisian after losing for the first time to Tech since 2017. At Miami, Year 1 of the Cristobal Era is off to an awful start. The Hurricanes scored nine points in a loss at A&M last week, and their defense allowed chunks of yards to Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders had scores of 69, 71 and 98 yards, and their quarterback, Chase Cunningham, threw for 401 yards on just 16 completions (that seems almost impossible).
Needless to say, the Longhorns and the Hurricanes are not in our Top 10. Before we get to the rankings, keep in mind that we put particular importance on teams played (ahem, Michigan fans).
To the rankings!
