Week 10 AP Top 25 projections: Georgia, Oklahoma up; Texas, Florida down

Penn State held off Iowa at home to improve to 6-2 on the season, beating the Hawkeyes, 30-24. The Hawkeyes might have led 12-7 through the first quarter, but Penn State would outscore Iowa in the final three frames, 27-12. Once Nittany Lions quarterback Trace McSorley ran it 51 yards to the house, Penn State took the lead and never relinquished it. Penn State is out of the Playoff picture but has its biggest game of the year next week on the road at Michigan.

Texas was messed with by Oklahoma State during the Cowboys’ homecoming in Stillwater. The Longhorns looked to be back for the first time since the peak of the Mack Brown era with now Tom Herman calling the shots. However, this loss ends Texas’ season as a Playoff darling. It might have been the Longhorns’ first Big 12 defeat, but man does that Week 1 loss to Maryland in Landover really sting now.

Florida saw its College Football Playoff dreams and SEC title hopes come to a crashing end on Saturday. The Gators kept it very close through 3.5 quarters down in Jacksonville versus rival Georgia. However, three turnovers and spotty secondary play had the Gators fall to Georgia, 36-17. It’s clear that head coach Dan Mullen has made a massive impact for this program in his first year in The Swamp. That being said, it won’t be until 2019 at the very earliest before we can say that Florida is back.

Yes, Washington State remains the Pac-12’s best and frankly, only hopes at getting a team into the College Football Playoff. Mike Leach’s Cougars have only suffered one loss on the season, but that was to reeling USC. Outlasting Pac-12 North rival Stanford on Saturday night puts the Cougars in the driver’s seat in the division. If quarterback Gardner Minshew plays like he does the last few weeks, Wazzu could very well be your Pac-12 champion and in the Playoff. However, the Cougars have absolutely no wiggle room. They must win out.

West Virginia bounced back with a blowout win over Baylor on Thursday evening, 58-14. This comes off the Mountaineers’ rough road loss in Week 8 to Iowa State in Ames. Though they have one loss on the year and will only play 11 regular season games, as their game with North Carolina State was canceled, West Virginia is still in play to win the Big 12 and could make the Playoff. Quarterback Will Grier needs to play his best ball in November, as West Virginia has both Oklahoma and Texas left on the slate. How good are the Mountaineers? We’ll see.