College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 4 AP Top 25 after Tennessee upset, Alabama, Texas, Georgia struggle
- Tennessee's upset loss to Florida proves costly for Vols
- Alabama falls in rankings despite a win
- Georgia, Florida State, Texas all stumble into wins
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 3: No. 20-16
20. Miami Hurricanes
Coming off of the hard-fought win over Texas A&M last week, you had to expect some sort of letdown from Miami, even if it would always be hard to notice against Bethune-Cookman. Indeed that was the case, though, as the Canes ran out to a ho-hum 48-7 win on Thursday night. The good news for The U is that Tyler Van Dyke looks reborn and this offense appears capable of matching the uber-talented Miami defense.
19. Duke Blue Devils
The battle of academia was on deck for Durham on Saturday afternoon with Northwestern visiting Duke. On the gridiron, though, the Wildcats were truly no match for the Blue Devils in this game. There was nothing too spectacular from Riley Leonard or any part of Duke in this one except for maybe the run game looking near unstoppable. But Duke continues to make winnable games look simple and they have the win over Clemson in their back pockets.
18. Colorado Buffaloes
If Colorado had covered the 23-point spread against rival Colorado State, they could've jumped into the Top 15 as the hype continues to grow. Instead, they went to double-overtime after tying with a late comeback in regulation before moving to 3-0 with a 43-35 win for the Buffs. Shedeur Sanders lit up the stat sheet again. But as the big matchup at Oregon next week looms, the big question is Travis Hunter, who left this game after a dirty CSU hit and was taken to the hospital.
17. North Carolina Tar Heels
Even though Minnesota isn’t the most formidable opponent, you have to think that UNC answered some big questions this week with a 31-13 victory over the Golden Gophers. After flirting with disaster against App State last week, Drake Maye wasn’t perfect with two picks, but the Tar Heels as a whole looked dominant against a Power-Five opponent. That’s a good sign as they’ll go on the road to face Pitt and begin ACC play next week.
16. Oklahoma Sooners
Though Tulsa certainly might have some real troubles throughout this entire season, there is at least one big positive that you could take away from Oklahoma beating the Golden Hurricane 66-17 this week. Washington only put up 43 points on Tulsa, which the Sooners bested by a wide margin. This offense seems to be starting to click, but then again, you have to wonder how the defense will hold up against Big 12 competition.