College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 8 AP Top 25 after Notre Dame blasts USC, Washington prevails

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 7: No. 15-11

15. Tennessee Volunteers

Tennessee might be the most difficult to read team in the country for me right now. That’s probably because the Vols are substantially different than what we saw from them a year ago. Joe Milton at quarterback lowers the ceiling of the offense dramatically, but the defense appears to be quite improved as well. They used the latter to squeak by Texas A&M in Neyland on Saturday, staying a one-loss team with Alabama on deck. 

14. Utah Utes

Another week, another Utah game in which they still don’t have starting quarterback Cam Rising on the field – and where it also didn’t totally matter. Cal jumped out to an early 7-0 lead over the Utes on Saturday only for Kyle Whittingham’s team to answer with 24 straight points of their own. The end result was a 34-14 victory but you have to wonder what the ceiling for Utah is as long as Rising is out… and when the QB might actually return this year, if he does.

13. Ole Miss Rebels

Ole Miss knocked off LSU in Oxford only to get a scare from Arkansas last week. Lane Kiffin was probably feeling some mercy from the college football gods that his Rebels got the week off on Saturday. Ole Miss still looks at times like it could be a Top 15 team in the country as it's ranked, but looks overrated at other points. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but we may not see that outside of a Nov. 11 trip to Athens to face Georgia. 

12. Oregon State Beavers

With the way that we’d seen the UCLA defense perform of late, there was a belief that Jonathan Smith’s Beavers might be in trouble. Instead, it was the Oregon State defense (and offense at times) that shined through. The Beavs picked off Dante Moore three times on the night and pulled ahead far enough to pick up a relatively comfortable win, more so than the final score might show. The point being, don’t sleep on this Oregon State team; they’re still legit.

11. Alabama Crimson Tide

There was quite a bit of conversation throughout the week that Alabama still had a dark-horse opportunity at the College Football Playoff. If they play like they did in Week 7 against Arkansas, Crimson Tide fans can kiss those chances goodbye. It was an ugly second half from Jalen Milroe and, shockingly, the Bama defense. With Tennessee and LSU looming in the next two games (with a bye sandwiched between), Nick Saban still has kinks to iron out.