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. 6-5

6. Iowa Hawkeyes

We’re flipping teams in the Big Ten after Saturday and it has nothing to do with Penn State but, rather, much more to do with Iowa looking a bit vulnerable against a Colorado State team that had done nothing all that impressive prior to this week.

The Hawkeyes play a particular brand of football that won’t often win style points or beauty contests but that can take you to victory. With that said, their defensive prowess should’ve let them handle the Rams with ease and they had to come from behind out of an early deficit on Saturday. That makes me worry that Iowa might be more susceptible to an upset down the line than expected, hence why the drop a spot despite the win.

5. Penn State Nittany Lions

Playing against an FCS opponent is something that Power 5 teams can sometimes overlook but that can get tricky when the matchup is against a quality program like Villanova. It wasn’t a huge win for the Nittany Lions but, on the heels of beating Auburn in an emotion-packed night game last week, James Franklin’s team deserves credit for taking care of the win.

Sean Clifford threw for four touchdowns in a 38-17 victory that, truth be told, wasn’t that close. Villanova scored twice late to make it look better. That being said, Penn State has struggled somewhat to run the ball of late and we’ll need to see them improve that if they want to avoid an upset moving forward in the 2021 campaign.