College Football Rankings: Projected top 10 after Washington State upsets USC

PULLMAN, WA - SEPTEMBER 29: James Williams #32 of the Washington State Cougars carries the ball against the USC Trojans in the first half at Martin Stadium on September 29, 2017 in Pullman, Washington. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images)
PULLMAN, WA - SEPTEMBER 29: James Williams #32 of the Washington State Cougars carries the ball against the USC Trojans in the first half at Martin Stadium on September 29, 2017 in Pullman, Washington. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images) /
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Taking a look at the projected top 10 college football rankings following the Washington State Cougars upsetting the USC Trojans on Friday night.

Sam Darnold and the USC Trojans had been playing with fire for much of the 2017 college football season. With close calls against Western Michigan, Texas and California over the first four weeks of the season, they’d looked far from a juggernaut some hoped they’d be. Then came Friday night as they had to travel to Pullman, WA to face the Washington State Cougars.

Mike Leach and Wazzu welcomed the Trojans to town having won their first four games of the year as well. However, they also came in with an underrated defense and patented efficient air-raid style offense. Thus, Luke Falk and company were thinking upset from the get-go.

Washington State fell behind in the first half, but their defense stood tall and took back the lead once, and then tied it up just before halftime. Then, in the second half, the Cougars looked even tougher. It became more of a war of attrition, but Wazzu seemed the stronger. They finally took a 30-27 lead with under two minutes remaining.

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That put the ball in Darnold’s hands, but the Cougars defense then took it out. With a banged up offensive line, USC hung their quarterback out to dry and the star signal-caller fumbled. Leach’s defense recovered to seal the win, a huge upset that shakes the college football landscape.

Following such a big upset, let’s take a look at the projected top 10 college football rankings following the Washington State upset of USC:

  1. Alabama Crimson Tide
  2. Clemson Tigers
  3. Oklahoma Sooners
  4. Penn State Nittany Lions
  5. Washington Huskies
  6. Georgia Bulldogs
  7. Michigan Wolverines
  8. TCU Horned Frogs
  9. Washington State Cougars
  10. Wisconsin Badgers

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If there were any doubts about Wazzu coming into this game, they did one heck of a job dispelling them. They’ll have plenty of other tests, but they’ve done enough at 5-0 to insert themselves into the top 10. What’s more, we’ll see if USC can climb back in as they’ll surely drop out following this loss.