College football rankings 2021: Projected Week 6 AP Top 25 after Notre Dame, Oregon lose, Alabama and Georgia dominate

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 5: No. 20-19

20. Texas Longhorns

One week ahead of the Red River Rivalry, it always feels like a date with a lesser rival in TCU is doomsday for Texas. This is a matchup in which the Longhorns have not held their own, or at least not as often as they should. So hats off to Bijan Robinson and the rest of Steve Sarkisian’s team for fighting tooth and nail to get a big win in Fort Worth.

The running back is an absolute stud at this point in his sophomore season as he set a career-high with 216 rushing yards. More importantly, though, this team is finding its identity and is playing with a ton of resiliency and fire every time they take the field. After the loss to Arkansas, they’ve done nothing but prove that they still deserve a top-20 spot, so we’re giving it to them.

19. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Sometimes, you can look at a close game from a ranked team against an unranked opponent and knock a team for not blowing them out. But when you look at Wake Forest needing a late field goal to take down Louisville at home, there is certainly no shame in that for the Demon Deacons, who remain unbeaten at 5-0 after the win.

This was the first real adversity that Wake Forest has faced this season and for them to respond with a ton of fight and the game-sealing score says a lot about this team. On top of that, Louisville is no slouch, especially when Malik Cunningham plays as well as he did. But Sam Hartman matched it for Wake and they remain perfect in 2021 as a result.