College Football Playoff rankings 2022: Projected Week 14 Top 25 after Michigan dominates Ohio State, LSU and Clemson lay eggs

Projected College Football Playoff rankings after Week 13: No. 8-7

8. Penn State Nittany Lions

All season, the sermon being preached on Penn State has been that they dominate the teams they are obviously better and more talented than but can’t get over the hump against the better teams on their schedule. Facing off for the Land Grant Trophy in the rivalry game against Michigan State, though, there was at least some question as to whether or not the Nittany Lions would handle business as thoroughly as they should based on what we saw on paper.

Indeed, Sean Clifford and Co. came out and left no doubt. Penn State jumped out to a 21-3 lead just past midway through the third quarter and then tried to turn on the cruise control. And when the Spartans started to try and mount a comeback, they snuffed out any hope with two late fourth-quarter touchdowns to run away to the 35-16 win. There is no real shot for making the Playoff with James Franklin’s team, but 10-2 is still nothing to scoff at.

7. Tennessee Volunteers

Despite how much more talent and how thoroughly Tennessee has dominated the in-state rivalry with Vanderbilt over the years, the Hendon Hooker injury along with last week’s embarrassing loss to South Carolina put whether or not the Vols were going to win in Nashville into question. But once the players got onto the field, that was never in doubt.

Hats off to the Tennessee defense for one of its best games of the season as they bottled up what had been a surging Vandy offense in recent weeks. Moreover, Joe Milton played mistake-free, something that evaded him in other starts in his career previously, while the rushing attack was a force that the Commodores couldn’t stop. The end result was a dominant blowout and one that Tennessee wishes wasn’t sullied by its shortcomings against the Gamecocks.