The Couch Power 10, Week 4
After a slow-ish start for the everyday fan, college football went from 0 to 100 last weekend. Weeks 0-3 had yielded only a handful of buzzy matchups, a rarity in this sport that is increasingly bloated with money-grubbing, eyeball-chasing TV executives and athletics administrators. Week 4, however, ratcheted up the ante with a drool-inducing eight matchups between ranked teams, and some appetizing options beyond those eight.
It was going to be hard for the games to live up to the level of hype and anticipation from college football fans and broadcasters alike, and in truth, for the most part they did not. The meat of the football sandwich on Saturday featured a lot of surprisingly one-way games-- Penn State demolishing Iowa by 31, Oregon annihilating Colorado by 36, Washington State on cruise control against Oregon State (though the Beavers did end up scoring a few late to lose by a respectable 3 points). Even some of the more competitive games on the day were unfortunately ugly games to watch-- Alabama's 24-10 comeback win over Ole Miss and Utah's 14-7 slugfest over UCLA coming to mind. But, the bookends of the vaunted day absolutely delivered: at the Noon timeslot, Florida State and Clemson played an epic back-and-forth in Death Valley, culminating in a grad transfer kicker boffing his chance at a Cinderella story and the Seminoles eking out an overtime thriller. Then, in the prime time game on Saturday night, #6 Ohio State and #9 Notre Dame played a pulsating, mostly defensive battle in Notre Dame Stadium that the Buckeyes ultimately prevailed, thanks to a touchdown run on the literal last play of the game.
Just a refresher, since it's been nary a year since you've heard from this ranking: this is not a definitive ranking on how good the teams are, or on who I think will be/deserves to be in the playoff at the end of the year. Rather, it's more of a "What if preseason rankings and bigwig bias didn't predetermine the top teams" kind of thing, an ideal ranking of the country's teams based on what they've actually proved on the field to date. Don't be mad cuz I'm doin' me better than you doin' you:
1. Texas
After their demolition of Baylor (in Waco, no less), ESPN has Texas as owning the #12 strength of schedule and #1 strength of record to date. In their seemingly difficult opening stretch, have been tested for about 1 quarter in Alabama, and 3 quarters against a tricky Wyoming team the week after the Bama win. Otherwise, it's been remarkably smooth sailing. I think these Longhorns might be for real.
2. Florida State
As a reward for beating a ranked Clemson team in a place they hadn't won at in a decade (and only twice before in the 21st century), Florida State actually FELL in the polls. It's interesting to me that voters' takeaway seems to have been "Ah, another close win in which they nearly lost, clearly they're not very good," and not, "Hm, on the road against a good team who's desperate for a win to keep conference title and playoff hopes alive, and they managed to pull it out." Suffice to say, I am much more impressed by the latter school of thought than I am thrown by the former.
3. Utah
Someone needs to explain to me why the metrics have Utah as having a sub-80 schedule strength and only on the fringes of the Top 10 in strength of record. 3 of their first 4 games have come against Power 5 teams, 2 of those 3 have been against ranked teams, and the sole unranked Power 5 opponent was a road game against Baylor. Their other opponent was an FCS team, yes, but Weber State is also one of the premier FCS programs and the Utes destroyed them. Now, are they passing the "eye test"? Definitely not, at least on offense; each of those 3 Power 5 wins was a slog. But still, standing 4-0 with the schedule they have played, all without their starting veteran QB? There's an argument to be made they have the most impressive resume of any team right now.
4. Washington State
Much of what I said about Utah above could apply to Washington State as well. It feels like very few people are talking about the Cougs, and ESPN has their schedule strength as only 78th-best in the country. But Wazzu's opening 4-game stretch has been incredibly impressive: hanging 64 points on Northern Colorado, 50+ in a 30-point rout of Colorado State, and then two wins over ranked teams, including a Pac-2 championship this past weekend over Oregon State. It's a loaded conference race this year, to be sure, but don't sleep on the Cougars.
5. Oregon
Whether it was beating up on Portland State and Hawaii by a combined 136-17 scoreline or rallying for a tough road win at Texas Tech, Oregon had looked the part of contender thus far...but the Ducks were lacking a noteworthy win over a noteworthy opponent. Safe to say, that changed this weekend; Oregon made a statement in their dismantling of red-hot Colorado and asserted themselves as the team to beat in the Pac-12 thus far.
6. Penn State
Penn State is a totally different style of team, but has had a similar profile to Oregon, honestly. Namely, the Nittany Lions were highly thought of preseason, and thus far have looked the part, but were in serious need of a signature win. This weekend, they got one, and comprehensively so. Their win over Iowa was somewhat overshadowed by a big game at the same time involving a Big Ten foe. It shouldn't have been; Iowa may not be Notre Dame, but the ranked Hawkeyes have one of the best defenses in the country and are constant thorns in the Big Ten elite's sides. Yet, on Saturday, Drew Allar and the Nittany Lion offense shredded them to the tune of a 31-0 blowout. Barring something stunning, Penn State should be unbeaten and ranked in the Top 5 headed into their showdown with Ohio State.
7. Ohio State
I didn't really know what to make of Ohio State early on this season, and somehow in the wake of their victory at Notre Dame, I'm even more confused. There's no question the win in South Bend is one of the most impressive results any team has gotten this season, and I don't want to downplay that, nor how impressive their game-winning drive was. At the same time, more often than not in their 4 games, the Buckeyes still just haven't looked very good, and though all that matters in the end is the scoreboard, Saturday's result felt more like Notre Dame losing the game than Ohio State winning it. They deserve their high ranking thus far, but will have to massively improve to avoid multiple losses in the Big Ten, methinks.
8. North Carolina
The Tar Heels haven't played a ranked team to date, and yet own ESPN's 4th-rated strength of record. How could this be? Well, not many teams own a 4-0 record, and considerably fewer own that record despite playing three Power 5 teams, and one perpetually tricky Group of 5 team. Apart from an incredibly narrow escape against Appalachian State, their wins over the likes of South Carolina, Pittsburgh and Minnesota have been very easy, and the schedule sets up nicely for Carolina to make a real run at the ACC Championship again this season.
9. Duke
...yet, at the same time, UNC might not even be the best team in the state of North Carolina, let alone the ACC. Their rivals down the road have continued their impressive start with another blowout win, albeit over a crummy UConn team. The Blue Devils' win over Clemson actually looks even more impressive after this weekend, in my opinion, given how close the Tigers were to upsetting #3 Florida State. Now, if Duke beats (or even heavily challenges) Notre Dame this weekend with College GameDay in town, it's safe to say the nation will take notice.
10. Miami
Miami also would like to remind people not to forget about them in the ACC race. The Canes haven't played the toughest schedule, but continue to rack up methodical victories, and at least as of yet, that blowout of Texas A&M is still aging well.
Just missed: Missouri, Washington, Fresno State, Kansas, Syracuse, Alijah Huzzie
Comments