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. 2-1
2. Michigan Wolverines
In the final game of Jim Harbaugh’s suspension, Michigan looked like they needed their head coach back. Bowling Green has a chance to be one of the worst FBS teams in college football this season, and the Wolverines let them hang around far too closely in this one. And one big – albeit wholly surprising – reason for that was the early shortcoming of quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
McCarthy only threw the ball 13 times in this game but still ended up with more interceptions (3) than touchdown passes (2) in the eventual 31-6 win for Michigan. He was careless, far from sharp and not looking good. Of course, it didn’t wholly matter as the Wolverines ran the ball at will and completely suffocated the Bowling Green offense throughout the night. Even still, the hope should very much be that this team shows a leveling up once Harbaugh gets back to the sidelines.
1. Georgia Bulldogs
Given how North Carolina dominated the South Carolina offensive line in Week 1, everyone was expecting carnage on Saturday in Athens as the Gamecocks came to town. Instead, Shane Beamer’s team hit Kirby Smart’s Dawgs right in the mouth early and put a legitimate scare into the back-to-back defending national champions. Georgia went into halftime trailing 14-3 and staring down the barrel of a humiliating upset.
Instead, the Bulldogs found their stride on both sides of the ball in the second half. Not only did they put the clamps on Spencer Rattler and the offense, but Mike Bobo finally remembered to run the ball and the Dawgs did so extremely effectively. Carson Beck also finally came out of his shell a bit and showed a ton of promise in leading his team to the comeback 24-14 victory.
It wasn’t the dominant showing that we expected from UGA, but when they essentially put their own backs against the wall, you have to be encouraged by how the team responded.
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