College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 9 AP Top 25 after Ohio State rolls Penn State, UNC upset
- Ohio State and Alabama answered the call, manhandling Penn State and Tennessee
- UNC was stunned by one of the ACC's worst teams
- Florida State, Texas and Oklahoma all survived upset scares
Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 8: No. 6-5
6. Oklahoma Sooners
You have to wonder if Brent Venables’ Oklahoma Sooners spent the bye week and this past week celebrating their Red River victory over rival Texas. Because what we saw on Saturday in Norman against a hot-and-cold UCF team seemed indicative of a highly talented team that was just simply not ready for competition. As a result of that, though, OU undoubtedly got a scare put into them by the Gus Bus.
In the end, the Sooners defense stepped up to blow up a trick play for what would’ve been a game-tying two-point conversion in order to seal the victory. Dillon Gabriel had a bit of a letdown day going 25-of-38 for only 253 yards with an interception, but he did add three touchdown throws to his tally. The big takeaway from this game, though, is that Oklahoma can’t be playing with its food in the Big 12. While they and Texas might be the class of the conference on their way out, they can still get clipped at any time.
5. Washington Huskies
On the heels of the highly emotional win over Oregon last week, the Washington Huskies very opaquely came into a letdown spot in Week 8, even playing at home in Seattle once again. The hope was that a one-win Arizona State team would not provide much of a challenge.
The Huskies were not that fortunate, however.
While Washington's defense stepped up and delivered a great overall effort, Michael Penix Jr. had one of his worst games to date for the program, throwing two first-half interceptions that put his team in a 7-0 hole early and even trailing 7-3 late. But a field goal drive, a clutch pick-six, and then another field goal were enough for the Huskies to escape Saturday and move to 7-0 on the season, still looking like a Playoff contender and the Pac-12 favorite.