College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 5 AP Top 25 after Ohio State breaks Notre Dame, Colorado exposed
- Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon notch signature wins
- Colorado, Iowa get exposed, drop out of Top 25
- Florida State makes another statement, ends Clemson drought
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 4: No. 6-5
6. Penn State Nittany Lions
Of the ranked-on-ranked matchups in Week 4, perhaps the least talked-about this side of Utah-UCLA was Penn State hosting their annual White Out in Happy Valley against No. 24-ranked Iowa. A lot of that is probably due to the overwhelming (and deserved) doubts about the Hawkeyes. However, James Franklin’s team went out and dominated the way a Top 10 team and CFP contender should in that type of matchup.
Iowa’s offense, as it often finds itself, was in hell against this Penn State defensive front on Saturday night. Admittedly, it took Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions offense until the second half of the game to really get cooking. Once they did, however, it was completely lights out for the Hawkeyes as they couldn’t do anything. Allar took a big step forward by the eye test too, which bodes well for this Penn State team moving forward.
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
Full disclosure, I’d already prepared to move Ohio State to No. 10 in the rankings and talk about the Buckeyes’ need to be perfect if they were going to rebound from losing to Notre Dame. Then came a questionable Irish play-call with about two minutes remaining, followed by a clutch drive from Kyle McCord and the offense to punch in the game-winning Chip Trayanum touchdown with only a second left on the clock.
Ohio State’s defense was the big story for this win, though. They limited what had been a dominant Notre Dame offense throughout this game and put the pressure on Sam Hartman to make plays. Indeed, he did make some, but the Buckeyes defense undoubtedly controlled a large portion of this game.
I remain dubious of Ryan Day, McCord and Ohio State’s ceiling, but this was a big-time signature road win in South Bend that will vault them ahead of USC, who still hasn’t played a bonafide good team in 2023.