College football rankings 2022: Projected Week 9 AP Top 25 after Alabama rebounds, Clemson survives, UCLA & Ole Miss stumble

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 8: No. 18-17

18. Kentucky Wildcats

Again speaking to the light slate that we had on Saturday, Kentucky was among the teams who didn’t take the field in Week 8. They’re probably more than happy with that, however, as the Wildcats have gotten pretty banged up in recent weeks, most notably with quarterback Will Levis having some injuries that he needs to recover from for Mark Stoops’ team to get into its top form.

They’ll need every bit of that as they come out of the off week, however, as Kentucky’s next task will be going on the road to Knoxville to face the Tennessee Volunteers. If there’s one thing the Wildcats haven’t shown yet, it’s that they can keep up in a shootout, which the Vols most certainly will want to get into. And it’ll be fascinating to see how that matchup plays out.

17. Syracuse Orange

It might’ve been the first loss of the season on Saturday for Syracuse as they watched a 21-10 lead against Clemson dissipate and turn into a 27-21 loss, but if you come out of Saturday thinkin that the Orange still aren’t one of the 20 best teams in college football this season by a pretty comfortable margin, then I’m not quite sure what sport you’ve been watching.

The one issue that continues to bite Dino Babers’ team is their run defense, but the Orange are extremely strong against the pass and have a dynamic offense behind Garrett Shrader and Sean Tucker. They might not be winning the ACC after falling to Clemson but the truth of the matter is that they should still be eyeing a big-time bowl game if they can rebound and reel off more wins, something they appear more than capable of doing.