College football rankings 2021: Projected Week 7 AP Top 25 after Alabama, Penn State fall & Oklahoma, Michigan survive

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 14-13

14. Ole Miss Rebels

Any lack of offense from last week against Alabama was made up for on Saturday in Oxford. Even with Jerrion Ealy missing the game against Arkansas, the Rebels ran the ball at will with Henry Parris Jr. (111 yards), Snoop Conner (110 yards, 3 TDs) and Matt Corral (94 yards, 2 TDs) going berserk on the ground. Corral also had his way through the air with 287 yards on just 21 attempts and two more scores.

Now, the Ole Miss defense was, once again, nowhere to be found. As the Rebels scored 52 points, they gave up 51 and only gave up that few because the Razorbacks scored in the final seconds and then attempted a two-point conversion to try and get the walk-off win. Credit to the Rebels for getting that stop to earn the win but they need to shore up the defense to earn their respect in the SEC as the dog days of October and November arrive.

13. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

It always seemed like a dangerous spot for Notre Dame to be coming off of a high-profile loss to Cincinnati last week and then have to make the trip to Lane Stadium to face a good Virginia Tech team. And indeed, it was a hairy situation for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish as they trailed the Hokies for large chunks of the game. But as things went to the wire, a touchdown and two-point conversion followed by a stop and huge field goal gave them the win.

Notre Dame continues to look blatantly imperfect with what they’ve shown and it does seem like a number of teams left on an admittedly tough remaining schedule could get the best of them. But even then, credit to Jack Coan and the Irish for getting pushed to the brink in a tough environment and doing what it took to survive.