NCAA Football Rankings 2014: Predicting the Top 25 After Week 8
Week 8 was highlighted by a Top Five matchup between Notre Dame and Florida State that lived up to its billing and was probably the best game of the season.
Based on that alone, the week was a success.
The rest of the schedule featured a disproportionate amount of blowouts, but enough important things happened that FSU-Notre Dame did not have to do the entirety of the lifting. Especially in the Big 12, where both of the (heavy, heavy) preseason favorites went down, chaos ruled the day once again.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
But how will the wreckage be sorted when the Week 9 Associated Press poll is released Sunday afternoon?
Let's take a shot in the dark:
| 1. Mississippi State | 6-0 | 1 | BYE |
| 2. Florida State | 7-0 | 2 | def. Notre Dame, 31-27 |
| 3. Ole Miss | 7-0 | 3 | def. Tennessee, 34-3 |
| 4. Alabama | 6-1 | 7 | def. Texas A&M, 59-0 |
| 5. Auburn | 5-1 | 6 | BYE |
| 6. Notre Dame | 6-1 | 5 | lost to Florida State, 31-27 |
| 7. Oregon | 6-1 | 9 | def. Washington, 45-20 |
| 8. Michigan State | 6-1 | 8 | def. Indiana, 56-17 |
| 9. Georgia | 6-1 | 10 | def. Arkansas, 45-32 |
| 10. TCU | 5-1 | 12 | def. Oklahoma State, 42-9 |
| 11. Kansas State | 5-1 | 14 | def. Oklahoma, 31-30 |
| 12. Baylor | 6-1 | 4 | lost to West Virginia, 41-27 |
| 12. Ohio State | 5-1 | 13 | def. Rutgers, 56-17 |
| 14. Arizona State | 5-1 | 17 | def. Stanford, 26-10 |
| 15. Arizona | 5-1 | 16 | BYE |
| 16. East Carolina | 5-1 | 18 | BYE |
| 17. Nebraska | 6-1 | 19 | def. Northwestern, 38-17 |
| 18. Utah | 5-1 | 20 | def. Oregon State, 29-23 |
| 19. Oklahoma | 5-2 | 11 | lost to Kansas State, 31-30 |
| 20. USC | 5-2 | 22 | def. Colorado, 56-28 |
| 21. West Virginia | 5-2 | NR | def. Baylor, 41-27 |
| 22. Clemson | 5-2 | 24 | def. Boston College, 17-13 |
| 23. Marshall | 7-0 | 25 | def. Florida International, 45-13 |
| 24. LSU | 6-2 | NR | def. Kentucky, 41-3 |
| 25. Duke | 6-1 | NR | def. Virginia, 20-13 |
Note: Rankings reflect a prediction of the Week 9 AP poll—not how the author would rank the teams himself.
Biggest Risers
West Virginia
West Virginia finally got over the hump after close losses against Alabama and Oklahoma, beating Baylor in Morgantown, 41-27.
The Mountaineers defense has been slowly improving all season and played perhaps its best game of the Dana Holgorsen era Saturday, holding Baylor to 27 points and 318 yards of offense one week after it scored 61 points and gained 782 yards of offense against TCU.
Receiver Kevin White continued to play like an All-American, catching eight passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was a ridiculous one-handed grab in the fourth quarter that would prove to be the game-winning score.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, White joined Michael Crabtree in 2007 and Justin Blackmon in 2010 as the third receiver in the last 15 years to post 100 receiving yards in his team's first seven games. Crabtree and Blackmon both won the Biletnikoff Award that season.
White could make it three in a row.
Alabama
Alabama beat the stuffing out of Texas A&M, outgaining the Aggies 560 yards to 50 before taking its foot off the gas in a 59-0 win.
Nick Saban and Kirby Smart adjusted well after getting torched by A&M's offense last season, proving once and (one would think) for all that they are not allergic to defending the high-tempo spread. Kevin Sumlin had never before this game been shut out as a head coach.
Now he needs to start a new streak.
But the Crimson Tide offense was every bit as impressive as their defense. Blake Sims, T.J. Yeldon and Amari Cooper all played well, and the offensive line had its best overall showing of the year.
After losing at Ole Miss and barely edging past Arkansas, Alabama righted the ship in a big way. It once again looks like a favorite to make and win the College Football Playoff.
Biggest Fallers
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State played Florida State close in Week 1 but hadn't proved much of anything in the subsequent five games. It sort of just rose up the rankings to No. 15 as other teams around it lost. It got exposed, though, in a brutally lopsided 42-9 loss at TCU in which it was outgained by more than 400 yards. In hindsight, the Cowboys barely beating Kansas last week makes a lot more sense.
"We just got our butts kicked. There's really not anything else I can say," admitted head coach Mike Gundy, per The Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "We gave up two big plays in the first quarter. Offensively, we couldn't make plays. ... We never could get out of a jam after we got behind."
Gundy's team will try to rebound—and to avenge what happened in 2013—against West Virginia next weekend.
Oklahoma
It was not a good week for the Sooner State.
Just like its rivals from Stillwater, Oklahoma lost Saturday. Unlike its rivals from Stillwater, it lost on its home field.
That is a rare occurrence for the Sooners under head coach Bob Stoops, who is normally a sure thing in Norman. But Stoops' former mentor, Bill Snyder, had Kansas State ready to play with a smart game plan and a bye the week before to prepare.
Oklahoma is 5-2 but came dangerously close to losing against Texas last weekend—a game in which it was outgained by 250 yards and needed a pair of non-offensive touchdowns to win. If not for those non-offensive touchdowns, the Sooners would be riding a three-game losing streak.
(At least I got something right during the preseason.)
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
