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. 10-9

10. Michigan State Spartans

Perhaps people just aren’t ready to buy into Michigan State being as good as their now 6-0 record would indicate but it’s time that any doubters start to believe in the Spartans. On the road against a good Rutgers defense — even if the offense is suspect — Mel Tucker’s team came into the game and just laid it to the Scarlet Knights.

Payton Thorne looked incredible, especially when going to Jalen Nailor, who had a career day with 221 yards and three touchdowns. For good measure, Kenneth Walker III continued his Heisman bid with 232 yards and a touchdown on the ground. With that and holding their in-conference opponents to just 13 points in an 18-point victory, Michigan State is fully deserving of being a top-10 team.

9. Michigan Wolverines

It was easy to see coming with the Wolverines riding high and going on the road to Lincoln to face a Nebraska team with a good defense and that was finding its stride heading into Week 6. But Michigan deserves a ton of credit for going into that situation, getting hit in the mouth late in the game, and then still finding a way to claw out a victory and stay undefeated to this point in the year.

In big games, Michigan still needs to see more from quarterback Cade McNamara but it was an impressive showing from Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum to put up over 200 combined rushing yards against a good Huskers defense. This team has the goods to compete and possibly win the Big Ten and surviving in a tough spot like this one speaks to their moxie.