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. 8-7

8. Oregon Ducks

It feels like a decade ago at this point that the Oregon Ducks were in the national spotlight for their Week 1 matchup against Georgia and got completely run out of the building. That 49-3 drubbing at the hands of the Dawgs is now a distant memory, though, as Dan Lanning has his team rolling behind a resurgent Bo Nix and a swarming defense. And that entire equation showed up on Saturday against previously undefeated UCLA.

Though Oregon was favored in the matchup, there were plenty of people who believed that the Bruins were a live underdog capable of staying perfect on the season and picking up a win in Autzen. But the Ducks were able to put the clamps on Dorian Thompson-Robinson while Nix played perhaps the best game of his life. And now Oregon is looking once again like it could be the best team in the Pac-12.

7. TCU Horned Frogs

Despite the fact that TCU didn’t have to face the combo of Adrian Martinez and Deuce Vaughn after the first series when the Kansas State quarterback took himself out of the game with an apparent injury, the weathering that the Horned Frogs have taken on over a brutal schedule in the past few weeks seemed to be taking its toll as they fell into a large hole in the first half.

But as they did last week against Oklahoma State, Sonny Dykes’ team showed a massive amount of resolve as Max Duggan helped pull his team out of the mire and eventually took a lead late in the third quarter and then never looked back with some clutch plays from Quentin Johnson, Duggan and the defense. TCU will now get a bit of a respite as they face West Virginia and Texas Tech in the next two weeks. Still, they have to stay locked in to keep their playoff dreams alive.