College football rankings 2022: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25 after Oklahoma upset, USC survives, Ohio State cruises

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 4: No. 4-3

4. Michigan Wolverines

Given the way that Maryland started hot last season but then got wallopped against the best teams in the Big Ten, the assumption was that the Terps would go to the Big House against J.J. McCarthy and Michigan and get stomped on. We saw a much different story play out though.

The fact of the matter is that the Wolverines had not been tested en route to their 3-0 start to the year and that changed quickly. Taulia Tagovailoa and a host of Maryland weapons with NFL futures put Michigan’s defense to the test from start to finish in this game. Meanwhile, McCarthy also looked at least partially imperfect for the first time this season.

At the end of the day, it was a big win for the Wolverines to start Big Ten play and Maryland might just be much better than we’re accustomed to. But we now have more questions about Michigan than we did coming into Week 4.

3. Ohio State Buckeyes

Since the scare against Notre Dame in the opener, there hadn’t been much more than speedbumps in front of Ohio State as C.J. Stroud and the offense loaded with weapons just ran through both Arkansas State and Toledo, even dropping an absurd 77 points on the Rockets a week prior. But with Wisconsin traveling to Columbus, it looked like there might be another test coming the way of the Buckeyes.

As it turned out, the Badgers were nothing but another speedbump.

While it wasn’t full-throttle offense for 60 minutes for the Buckeyes, they had their way early and took full control of the game with a 28-0 lead and then never looked back as Stroud got ample help from Miyan Williams TreVeyon Henderson. If there were any concerns about the OSU attack, we can probably put them to rest now.