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. 10-9

10. Ohio State Buckeyes

With backup quarterback Kyle McCord getting the start over C.J. Stroud — for whatever reason that may be — it’s not shocking that Ohio State played one of the worst FBS teams in the country in Akron and just let their rushing attack go to work. Sure, there was a quick moment of worry when the Zips scored early but that was their only points of the night.

It was easy money for the Buckeyes as McCord threw for 319 with two scores (and a pick) while TreVeyon Henderson and Master Teague III combined for 164 yards on just 16 carries along with two scores. Now they’ll hope this builds good momentum as they head into the start of Big Ten play this week, though the toughest matchups won’t be on the slate until late October.

9. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Playing in Soldier Field against ranked Wisconsin on Saturday, everyone expected to see an old-fashioned slobber-knocker on display with offense being hard to come by. For the Badgers, that was indeed the case. It was not so much so, however, for Notre Dame as they had to turn to freshman quarterback Drew Pyne and put up 41 points in a massive 28-point victory.

Considering that we’ve seen the Fighting Irish in some hairy situations this year, it’s hard to say that this win tells us everything. And in fact, what it might tell us the loudest is that Wisconsin’s offense keeps them from being all that good. But this was by far the most impressive single-game performance from the Irish, hence why they move up in the rankings.