Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Football

Josh’s College Football Rankings 2025–Week 9

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The rankings did not change too much this week, I mean 1-11 are exactly the same. And yet there were so many close games that almost turned into upsets. South Carolina, Mizzou, Oklahoma, UNC, and Mississippi State almost shook things up. This also felt like an injury week. Pribula, Manning, and Moore all hurt during their games. It will be interesting to see how those teams fare if they have to roll with backups for an extended period of time.

  1. Ohio State (7-0)–#1–BYE
  2. Texas A&M (8-0)–#2–W 49-25 #21 LSU. I thought for sure LSU would pull off an upset here. The Aggies felt like that top team who was ready for a stumble. They proved me wrong, and they are making a case for the #1 spot.
  3. Indiana (8-0)–#3–W 56-6 UCLA. Cignetti & his Hoosiers decided to shut up that idea of UCLA winning the Big Ten. Just an absolute beat down.
  4. Alabama (7-1)–#4–W 29-22 South Carolina. Down 22-14 in the 4th quarter, and the Tide came back…great teams just find ways to win and never give up.
  5. Georgia Tech (8-0)–#5–W 41-16 Syracuse. I thought maybe this would be close, but Haynes King had something to say about that.
  6. Georgia (6-1)–#6–BYE
  7. Oregon (7-1)–#7–W 21-7 Wisconsin. Dante Moore goes down, but the Ducks are still way too much for the Badgers.
  8. Ole Miss (7-1)–#8–W 34-26 #13 Oklahoma. This was a good game. The Rebels rallied in the 4th quarter against that strong Sooner defense.
  9. Vanderbilt (7-1)–#9–W 17-10 #12 Missouri. This game was a little boring, but the Commodores managed to get the lead late and hold off the Tigers.
  10. BYU (8-0)–#10–W 41-27 #27 Iowa State. Some valid points made this week about BYU being disrespected by pollsters (I guess that includes me as well). Let me try to explain my thinking. The Big XII is very good, but they are all super similar. In all honesty, the top seven teams could all be ranked around 14-21). A team like Georgia Tech (Cougar fans are asking why GT is higher with a similar resume) has a Haynes King, which helps me put them higher. BYU has Texas Tech next, if they get a big win against them, it would be easy to bump them up a few spots.
  11. Miami (6-1)–#11–W 42-7 Stanford. Not much to say about this one. The Hurricanes started off slow, but then turned it on in the second half.
  12. Virginia (7-1)–#14–W 17-16 OT UNC. They stopped the Tar Heels at the goal line in overtime for the win. Why not go for the extra points and continue OT? Bill Belichick out-thought himself this time. Good job Cavaliers on the win.
  13. Louisville (6-1)–#15–W 38-24 Boston College
  14. Cincinnati (7-1)–#17–W 41-20 #40 Baylor. Brendan Sorby is quietly having a fantastic season. The Bearcats continue to climb the rankings (and as you can see, the argument against BYU makes sense, you could shuffle all of those Big XII teams).
  15. Texas Tech (7-1)–#18–W 42-0 Oklahoma State
  16. Notre Dame (5-2)–#16–BYE
  17. Missouri (6-2)–#12–L 17-10 #9 Vanderbilt. Almost had one of the great endings with a Hail Mary caught on the one-inch line as time expired. Beau Pribula may be out for the rest of the year, but Matt Zollers could remind people why he was such a highly touted recruit, but he will have to do it during a rough stretch of games.
  18. Oklahoma (6-2)–#13–L 34-26 #8 Ole Miss. What was Mateer doing in the 4th quarter? Some of those throws were real head-scratchers.
  19. Tennessee (6-2)–#19–W 56-34 Kentucky
  20. Michigan (6-2)–#20–W 31-20 Michigan State. I always respect a big rivalry win.
  21. Washington (6-2)–#29–W 42-25 #23 Illinois. The Huskies are a confusing team.
  22. Texas (6-2)–#22–W 45-38 OT Mississippi State. Arch Manning finally had a great game, and he ends up getting a concussion.
  23. Iowa (6-2)–#30–W 41-3 #39 Minnesota. I can admit that I have a bias against Iowa. I have teams that I hate, but for some reason the Hawkeyes get zero respect from me. I hate Ohio State, but I can always admit that they are a great team. I hate Pitt, and when they start winning, I can respect them. BUT Iowa? I hate them (I have reasons), and I can finally admit that they are a good team. It is just weird seeing them score points. I look forward to seeing how the do against Oregon in two weeks.
  24. USC (5-2)–#24–BYE
  25. Houston (7-1)–#33–W 24-16 #25 Arizona State. See arguments above for Big XII teams.
  26. Utah (6-2)–#31–W 53-7 Colorado. The Utes were up 43-0 at halftime. They had backups playing against a conference opponent.
  27. TCU (6-2)–#26–W 23-17 West Virginia
  28. Pittsburgh (6-2)–#35–W 53-34 NC State. How did this team lose to West Virginia??? The ACC better watch out, the Panthers are playing great and could just ruin some seasons (they have a brutal end to the season with Notre Dame, GT, and Miami).
  29. Tulane (6-1)–#32–BYE
  30. Navy (6-0)–#36–W 42-32 Florida Atlantic
  31. James Madison (6-1)–#37–BYE
  32. LSU (5-3)–#21–L 49-25 #2 Texas A&M. Yikes, the Tigers are spiraling out of control. Remember when Nussmeier was a Heisman front-runner? Those were the good ol’ days.
  33. Memphis (7-1)–NR–W 34-31 #28 South Florida. Damn, Memphis just reentered their names into the G5 playoff spot sweepstakes. Also, just a reminder, they are undefeated in the SEC with that win over Arkansas. So these Tigers have as many SEC conference wins as the Tigers, and one less than the other two Tigers. My point? Tigers is a generic mascot.
  34. Illinois (5-3)–#23–L 42-25 #29 Washington
  35. Nebraska (6-2)–HM–W 28-21 #34 Northwestern. The Cornhuskers only have two losses? It feels like more. But this was a nice win for them against a tough Northwestern team.
  36. Arizona State (5-3)–#25–L 24-16 #33 Houston
  37. Iowa State (5-3)–#27–L 41-27 #10 BYU
  38. Boise State (6-2)–#38–W 24-3 Nevada
  39. South Florida (6-2)–#28–L 34-31 Memphis
  40. San Diego State (6-1)–HM–W 23-0 Fresno State. The Aztecs just pitched their third shutout of the year. One of them was against California. This defense is for real. They are second in points allowed per game (only behind Ohio State).

Honorable Mentions
UNLV (6-1)–HM–BYE
Northwestern (5-3)–#34–L 28-21 Nebraska
Wake Forest (5-2)–NR–W 13-12 SMU. This team loves close games.
Miami OH (5-3)–NR–W 26-17 Western Michigan. The RedHawks have won five straight games. 
North Texas (7-1)–NR–W 54-20 Charlotte. Mestermaker with 608 yards passing! 

Rice Stadium

There are not too many great games this week. I mean, we all had this week circled since it was Penn State at #1 Ohio State. There was a time when we figured this would be the battle between the top two teams. Now? I am just hoping the Nittany Lions do not get blown out. The Vanderbilt train continues as the #9 Commodores head to Austin to take on the #22 Longhorns. #18 Oklahoma heads to #19 Tennessee (I love when two teams are ranked next to each other, that way if we get an upset, I can just flip them, haha). And finally we have #14 Cincinnati at #26 Utah. The Bearcats could make a statement to the rest of the Big XII with a big win. 

Now, there are other interesting games. Particularly some potential upsets. On Halloween, check out #33 Memphis at Rice. The Owls are 4-4 and just beat UConn. The Tigers have Tulane next week, so this is a potential trap game. #30 Navy finally gets a test as they head to North Texas for an AAC battle. Florida will host #6 Georgia. I think this game has a fun name, but I am too lazy to look it up. Can the Gators focus under an interim coach with all the talk of head coach hires swirling around? 

Tiny But Mighty
Okay, today I want to talk about a local performance. Kellen Stahl is the quarterback for Washington & Jefferson. He set the Division III record for completion percentage by going 27/28 (96.4%). He threw for 408 yards with five touchdowns. The cool thing? Stahl is from Richland High School (which for the folks who are not familiar with Johnstown, is the school district where my kids go). Nice job Kellen!

Coaching Carousel
Brian Kelly may be out. I have this feeling that his time in Baton Rouge is coming to a close. Getting destroyed at home by the Aggies is not a good sign. Also, the last three head coaches have won a national championship in their first four seasons (Saban, Miles, and Orgeron). It does not look like Brian will be joining that club. The bad thing is that if they fire him, the LSU job becomes the premiere job (we can debate if Penn State or Florida is a better job). 

Heisman Watch
1. Fernando Mendoza (QB)–Indiana
2. Ty Simpson (QB)–Alabama
3. Marcel Reed (QB)–Texas A&M
4. Julian Sayin (QB)–Ohio State
5. Haynes King (QB)–Georgia Tech

I think King needs to be in the conversation. He takes games over for GT. Another name that we should keep in mind: Jeremiyah Love of Notre Dame. As the season continues, it will be interesting to see if he can keep stringing together monster games as Notre Dame keeps winning games. 

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