Rankings after Week 9

November 1, 2009

Seven of the top ten teams in the country scored 40+ points today. One of the top ten teams found themselves on the opposite side of 47 points.

Florida, Texas, Boise State, TCU, Iowa, LSU, and Oregon all put up 40+ points today while No. 5 USC went on the road to the harshest environment to play in in all of college football: Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon where they lost 2 years ago and tonight 47-20 to the Ducks. It was USC's worst loss since 1997 and they have not allowed 47 points in 13 years.

Florida looked liked a complete No. 1 team today finally coming together on offense, but let's not jump to assumptions that "they're back" because you have to consider that they were playing against Georgia's defense even though you'd expect Georgia to play better in this rivalry game.

Texas was high upset alert tonight traveling to Stillwater, OK to face No. 14 Oklahoma State. Turns out, Texas dominated in the 41-14 win. Texas's number second-ranked defense in the country picked off Oklahoma State quarterback Zac Robinson 4 times, two for a pick-six by safety Earl Thomas and corner Curtis Brown. Thomas, the redshirt sophomore, is ranked as the number three safety eligible for the 2010 NFL Draft, and I hope he does not leave this Texas defense. As Matt Millen said on ESPN's broadcast, Texas is going to have a secondary with major shutdown ability in the coming years. Earl Thomas and Blake Gideon are stars at safety as well as reserve safety Nolan Brewster and cornerbacks Curtis Brown, Chykie Brown, and Aaron Williams.

TCU was impressive today in the 41-0 shutout of UNLV as they really brought out their running game. Much is made of TCU's defense, but their offense is very underrated.
Boise State is doing their best to keep up in the BCS with a 45-7 win over San Jose State. In this game, Boise quarterback Kellen Moore threw a pass to his little brother Kirby Moore for Kirby's first career touchdown.

We did have a lot of upsets this week other than USC going down tonight. Virginia Tech lost Thursday night to North Carolina and West Virginia was stifled by South Florida on Friday night.

Quick Notes:
Houston's Case Keenum had 559 passing yards to set a new school record.
Iowa won despite Ricky Stanzi's 5 interceptions and Iowa's 6 turnovers
Texas QB Colt McCoy passed Peyton Manning on the NCAA's All-Time Wins List. He needs just 3 more wins to become the winningest quarterback in history.
Texas's secondary added two more touchdowns today on interception returns. Texas leads the nation in the non-offensive touchdowns via defensive scores and special teams.

A couple other upsets were Ole Miss losing to Auburn, South Carolina losing to Tennessee, and Central Michigan losing to Boston College.
Let's also point out that Texas Tech dismantled the Kansas Jayhawks today 42-21, which in the big picture hurts Texas in the BCS computer rankings because Kansas will be unranked when Texas plays them.

There were some near upsets too like Southern Miss nearly upsetting the Houston Cougars. Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis is out for the year and the outcome might have been different with Davis running the show, but Houston's own star QB Case Keenum set the school record with 559 passing yards in this game including the game-winning touchdown to James Cleveland with under 30 seconds left.

Let's just get to my rankings now.

My Top 25 after Week 9
(x)=last week's ranking by me
1. Florida (1)
Beat Georgia 41-17
Next Game: vs. Vanderbilt
2. TEXAS (2)
Beat No. 14 Oklahoma State 41-14
Next Game: vs. Central Florida
3. Alabama (3)
Bye week
Next Game: vs. LSU
4. TCU
Beat UNLV 41-0
Next Game: at San Diego State
5. Boise State (5)
Beat San Jose State 45-7
Next Game: Friday Nov. 6 at Louisiana Tech
6. Oregon (10)
Beat No. 5 USC 47-20
Next Game: at Stanford
7. Iowa (8)
Beat Indiana 42-24
Next Game: vs. Northwestern
8. Cincinnati (6)
Beat Syracuse 28-7
Next Game: vs. UConn
9. LSU (9)
Beat Tulane 42-0
Next Game: at Alabama
10. Georgia Tech (11)
Beat Vanderbilt 56-31
Next Game: vs. Wake Forest
11. Penn State (13)
Beat Northwestern 34-13
Next Game: vs. Ohio State
12. USC (4)
Lost 47-20 to No. 10 Oregon
Next Game: at Arizona State
13. Ohio State (15)
Beat New Mexico State 45-0
Next Game: at Penn State
14. Miami (17)
Beat Wake Forest 28-27
Next Game: vs. Virginia
15. Houston (16)
Beat Southern Miss 50-43
Next Game: at Tulsa
16. Oklahoma (18)
Beat Kansas State 42-30
Next Game: at Nebraska
17. Pittsburgh (19)
Bye week
Next Game: vs. Syracuse
18. Utah (20)
Beat Wyoming 22-10
Next Game: vs. New Mexico
19. Virginia Tech (12)
Lost 20-17 to North Carolina
Next Game: Thursday Nov. 5 at East Carolina
20. Arizona (23)
Bye week
Next Game: vs. Washington State
21. California (22)
Beat Arizona State 23-21
Next Game: vs. Oregon State
22. Notre Dame (NR)
Beat Washington State 40-14
Next Game: vs. Navy
23. Texas Tech (25)
Beat Kansas 42-21
Next Game: Nov. 14 at Oklahoma State
24. Oklahoma State (14)
Lost 41-14 to Texas
Next Game: at Iowa State
25. Rutgers (NR)
Beat Connecticut 28-24
Next Game: Nov. 12 vs. South Florida
Dropped from my Rankings:
West Virginia (21)
Ole Miss (24)
No longer on the Bubble:
South Carolina (26)
Central Michigan (27)
On the Bubble:
Clemson, West Virginia, BYU, Wisconsin, Auburn