College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 7 AP Top 25 after Oklahoma stuns Texas, Georgia routs Kentucky
- Oklahoma turned the Horns Down in Texas' dream of perfect season
- Georgia, Michigan showed exceptionally dominant form
- Louisville ended all of Notre Dame's hopes, keep their own alive
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 6: No. 10-9
10. USC Trojans
If you're a USC fan who hasn't yet fastened their seatbelt for the 2023 season with the Trojans, we would recommend you do so now.
Lincoln Riley's Trojans flirted with absolute disaster on Saturday night as they welcomed Arizona to the Coliseum. A horrendous early performance from the offensive line put Caleb Williams under too much duress, causing a number of fruitless drives and allowing the Wildcats to jump out to a 17-0 first-half lead. It didn't stop there as, even after USC took a 28-20 lead in the fourth quarter, the defense was suspect yet again and allowed Arizona to tie it back up.
And with a #CollegeKickers situation for both teams, we went to OT with that score. After trading scores in the first OT, both teams scored but failed the two-point try in the second extra frame. Williams then showed off a superhuman effort on the first two-point try to convert. The defense finally rewarded him with a big stop of Arizona's run play. It's a win, but USC looks as worrisome as ever -- but 6-0 is 6-0.
9. Texas Longhorns
Leave it to Texas to do everything it absolutely needed to do in order to officially be “back” only to then incur far too many self-inflicted wounds against their biggest rivals, play too conservatively (Re: Play for a field goal) in the final minutes, and then lose their first game of the season in heartbreaking fashion.
Quinn Ewers set the tone horribly for this game with a poor throw that led to an interception on the first drive, setting up an easy Oklahoma score. More importantly, though, the defense struggled to contain Dillon Gabriel’s rushing ability and let up several chunk passing plays over the top.
I still believe in Texas as one of the five best teams in college football this season. But this was a step in the wrong direction, leaving Steve Sarkisian’s team with precisely zero margin for error if they want to make it to the Playoff.