The SEC wasn’t the only conference with big losses, but Alabama getting dropped by Ole Miss at home and LSU crushing Auburn will have the biggest effect on the rankings, although Ohio State struggling to beat Northern Illinois, USC messing up against Stanford and Notre Dame coming away with a big win over Georgia Tech won’t go unnoticed either.
The Buckeyes will likely drop their two quarterback stance after nearly getting upset by the Huskies and a stuck offense in the first half. Cardale Jones threw two touchdown passes and J.T. Barrett threw one as well, as even Ezekiel Elliott couldn’t get things going in the way that he’s used to. Losing the number one spot? Depends on how much voters liked TCU (vs SMU) and Michigan State (vs Air Force) putting up big numbers against scrubs, not to mention allowing a lot of points.
Alabama can’t beat Ole Miss. They were down 30-10 in the third quarter, couldn’t slow down Chad Kelly and have a big problem at quarterback with Jake Coker unable avoid interceptions, and too much of the offense struggling when Derrick Henry isn’t special. The Rebels once again have a very physical team on both ends, but one has to wonder if their ability to have big plays swing their ways all the time can last all through the season.
LSU will send Auburn out of the rankings. Not just Leonard Fournette with 229 rushing yards and three touchdowns while looking unstoppable. The defense made the Gus Malzahn offense look quite confused and unprepared again, and the almost loss to an FCS team a week earlier wasn’t a one time fluke. Auburn were overrated in the preseason, while LSU could come out as the team to beat, alongside the Rebels, in the SEC West, although that distinction can change each week.
A big day for Stanford as well. While the Northwestern loss can’t be erased, winning in the Pac-12 helps. USC tend to let down people early in the season, and once again expectations bubbles were busted as they gave up a big second quarter lead at home to the Cardinal, with a defense that’s not going to get them very far in the Pac-12.
Notre Dame might be playing with their backup quarterback, but the hype about Brian Kelly’s team was probably real. C.J. Prosise is a great running, back, the defense does a good job of adapting to different styles and DeShone Kizer isn’t Malik Zaire, he’s doing a good job so far of filling in, and should be better with time, although the competition will also be more difficult to play.
Georgia looked great in a win over South Carolina which means it should be good to pay attention to them as they’ll move up a spot or two and Florida State, despite not having any impressive wins, should get a nice little upwards bump. UCLA had a nice win over BYU, being the first to beat the Cougars with a dramatic late touchdown and just might be the best team in the Pac-12, finally. Heading into conference play will helps us find out.