Week 8 Rankings, Ratings, Movers and Shakers

RK	AP Poll	USA Today Poll	Jeremy	Nick
1	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Florida State
2	Florida State	Florida State	Florida State	Mississippi State
3	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Ole Miss	Ole Miss
4	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor
5	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Alabama
6	Auburn	Michigan State	Auburn	Auburn
7	Alabama	Alabama	Alabama	Oregon
8	Michigan State	Auburn	Michigan State	Notre Dame
9	Oregon	Oregon	Georgia	Georgia
10	Georgia	Georgia	Oregon	TCU
11	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	TCU	Oklahoma
12	TCU	TCU	Oklahoma	Michigan State
13	Ohio State	Ohio State	Ohio State	Kansas State
14	Kansas State	Kansas State	Clemson	Oklahoma State
15	Oklahoma State	Oklahoma State	Stanford	Nebraska
16	Arizona	East Carolina	Kansas State	East Carolina
17	Arizona State	Arizona	ECU	Marshall
18	East Carolina	Arizona State	Texas A&M	Arizona
19	Nebraska	Nebraska	Arizona State	USC
20	Utah	Stanford	Utah	Ohio State
21	Texas A&M	Texas A&M	USC	Stanford
22	USC	Clemson	Arizona	Texas A&M
23	Stanford	Utah	Duke	Utah
24	Clemson	Marshall	Washington	Clemson
25	Marshall	USC	Marshall	Washington

 

 

Overrated

 

Arizona
This team could have been in this spot for sure last week at No. 10.  Even now at No. 16, I think Arizona is a little overrated.  I like this team better, somewhere around the 20’s. 

 

Utah

The Utes have played well this season and coming off a win over UCLA two weeks ago, it’s easy to overreact and rank them higher than they should be.  UCLA is showing their true colors and that win doesn’t look quite as impressive as it did at the time.  Plus, let’s not forget the loss the week before against Washington State and a close win over Michigan.

 

 

Underrated

 

Stanford

The Cardinal have been pretty bad offensively and they do have two losses.  That said, I would take this team over almost any team ranked outside of the top 10 and there are some top 10 teams that I think Stanford could beat.  With games against No. 17 ASU and No. 9 Oregon coming up, the Cardinal have an opportunity to jump in the rankings. 

 

Clemson

The Tigers are a bit like Stanford to me- hey have two losses that really hurts them right now.  With the addition of Deshaun Watson at quarterback and solid defensive play, this is a really good football team and should be much higher than No. 24 (I’ve got them at No. 14).

 

 

Going Up 

 

Mississippi

Once again The State of Mississippi rules the college football world. Mississippi State and Ole Miss look like legitimate playoff contenders. Both of these teams have elite defenses and their offenses have played extremely well as of late. For the Rebels, Bo Wallace has played extremely well the last few weeks and coupled with arguably the best defense in the country this team has some big wins. Dak Prescott looks like the Heisman front runner at this point for the Bulldogs and its defense may not quite be elite, but its offense is more efficient and maybe a little more trustworthy than Ole Miss. This has been one hell of a season for the state and chances are one of these teams could end up in the playoff.

 

Michigan State
I have been very back and forth on this team and I am a little curious why they are going up. They will go score 50-plus points one week against a bad team and the following week allow a team like Purdue to hang around and give them a game. Now they are creeping back into the playoff picture. How can they possibly be ahead of Oregon in the polls? I guess voters quickly forget the thumping Oregon gave them a few weeks ago.

 

 

Going Down 

 

TCU’s Fourth Quarter Defense

The Frogs were up by 21 points with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter and allowed Bryce Petty to get hot and throw for three touchdowns, rallying Baylor back to score 24 straight and win the game on the final play. This was easily the craziest game of the weekend and I am sure these are the two best teams in the Big 12. But since TCU lost by giving up 24 fourth quarter points it gets a going down this week.

 

Clemson

How could Clemson be both Underrated and Going Down?  Deshaun Watson.  The quarterback sparked this team and they’ve been much better this year with him at quarterback.  Watson went down in the second quarter against Louisville last week and the Tigers barely squeaked out a win.  The schedule sets up favorably for the Tigers but three of their next four are on the road.

 

Alabama’s offense

I’m not going to go solely after Lane Kiffin here.  Quarterback, Blake Sims and the offensive line have both earned their share of the blame.  Sims seems to have regressed a bit the past two weeks and just hasn’t been effective in the passing game and his decision making has been questionable.  Alabama was only able to muster 66 rushing yards against Arkansas last weekend and with the backs they have- TJ Yeldon and Derrick Henry- there’s no excuse for not being more effective running the football.  The two combined for only 23 carries last week.  Now for Kiffin.  It’s hard to know whether or not Nick Saban has Kiffin handcuffed as far as play-calling but the offense has been extremely bland and predictable.  They went away from an effective ground game against Ole Miss and didn’t really seem to have any rhythm against Arkansas. 

 

 

Bubble Watch

 

Minnesota

The Gophers look to be a pretty good team in the B1G West. I guess when Northwestern is your best win it’s a little tough to get too high on this team, but watch out they could sneak out of the west.

 

Washington

The more I research the Huskies the more I am beginning to like them. Their only loss is to a really good Stanford defense and have had some closer than expected, but they seem to be buying into the new system. We will learn a lot about this team this week taking the trip south to Autzen to take on a rejuvenated Ducks team.  

 

 

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