College football rankings: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25 after Clemson, Texas A&M highlight 6 ranked teams to lose

Projected AP Top 25 College Football Rankings after Week 4: No. 18-17

18. Fresno State Bulldogs

If you love college football, it’s hard not to root for Jake Haener at this point. The Fresno State quarterback is an all-out warrior who has played throughout injuries all year and has done nothing but put up big-time numbers and lead his team to one win after another. Week 4 was no deviation from that plan as they played on Friday night and outlasted UNLV.

Yes, the Bulldogs should’ve absolutely smacked the Runnin’ Rebs around on Friday night heading into the weekend. But coming off the UCLA win and with injuries to Haener and more, this was a letdown spot. It’s to the credit of Fresno that they survived a scare and came out on the other side still unscathed.

17. Michigan State Spartans

Speaking of unscathed, Michigan State was also in a letdown spot after they climbed into the college football ranking and AP Top 25 with a win over Miami last week but then went back to East Lansing this week to play Nebraska. They were clearly the better team but it was a spot in which they could make a fool of themselves.

They almost did just that as the Spartans trailed 20-13 in the fourth quarter but score with just under four minutes to play to force overtime. A field goal and a clutch interception later, they got their fourth win of the year to stay undefeated. That’s probably not emblematic of how good Sparty is but they’ve taken care of business every step of the way to this point.