College Football Rankings: 5 Teams That Should Make a Big Jump

With the exception of the Miami and Maryland game tonight, the first week of college football is in the books, and five teams had impressive victories that should elevate them higher in the polls.

In a weekend that saw two top teams in Oregon and LSU throw down in Cowboy Stadium along with two Top-20 teams Boise State and Georgia battling it out in the Georgia Dome, the first weekend of college football was, well, what it always is, and that’s entertaining.

We saw spectacular performances from Virginia Tech, Stanford and Oklahoma, but these five teams had the best performances over the weekend and should rise in the rankings.

Baylor

Last Friday night saw two teams go at it in a shootout as Baylor and TCU went back and forth in what was an instant classic.

Baylor pulled off the upset and defeated the No. 14 team in the nation 50-48 as Robert Griffin III threw for 359 yards and five touchdowns. This game had more than 1,000 yards of total offense and went down to the very end.

If people didn’t know who RGIII was before that game, they certainly know who he is now.

Kendall Wright made a name for himself, as well, with 189 yards receiving and three total touchdowns.

Baylor has an explosive offense and Griffin proved many people right when they said that he was one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. The Bears had an impressive victory over Horned Frogs, and they deserve to break the Top 25 in the polls.

Wisconsin

Russell Wilson, James White and Montee Ball put on a clinic in their blowout victory over UNLV as they beat the Rebels, 51-17.

The Badgers proved that their running game will be as deadly as it is every season with a two-headed monster in Ball and White. As if that wasn’t enough for defensive coordinators to worry about, they also have to account for the dynamic play of Wilson.

Wilson is a dual threat quarterback as he can beat opponents throwing the football as well as running it. Wisconsin has one of the most explosive offenses in the country with the addition of Wilson, and they deserve to break the Top 10 when the new polls are released.

Mississippi State

Watch out SEC West, I think the division is going to be tougher than you thought.

Everybody knew going in that Mississippi State would be a great team in a loaded division, but Dan Mullen has this team believing that they are the best team in the SEC West and they play like it.

Chris Relf looks like he’s matured as a quarterback as he hung in the pocket and made some nice throws. Relf was impressive, but running back Vick Ballard stole the show for the Bulldogs as he averaged 16.6 yards per carry, rushed for 166 yards and had three touchdowns.

The Bulldogs will be for real in the SEC West this season, and they will ruin an SEC West opponent’s hopes of winning the SEC.

South Florida

Notre Dame doubled the total yards of South Florida, but you had to be impressed with the way South Florida was able to squeeze by against the Irish.

Skip Holtz is a great coach and had his team ready to play against who many have thought was the best Notre Dame team in recent years.

Notre Dame was the No. 16 team in the nation and the media was hyping this team up to be a dark horse for the national title because of all the returning starters they had.

Sure this happens each and every year, but this time we were supposed to really believe it. Well, South Florida put things in perspective quickly as they knocked off Notre Dame in South Bend.

Look for South Florida to break the Top 25 as well when the polls are released.

Boise State

It’s time for me to eat some crow. I’m one of those people who love to hate Boise State because they don’t go through the kind of schedule that the Big Ten or SEC teams have to go through.

But I’ll give it to the Broncos—Saturday night was an impressive victory.

The Broncos went up against, in my mind, the sixth best team in the SEC in Georgia and beat them 35-21. This still doesn’t change the fact that they don’t have to run the gauntlet.

Any team can get up for one big game and it’s hard to do it over and over throughout the season.

But, like I said, I’ll give it to Broncos head coach Chris Petersen. Boise State came to play and they stunned Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray and the Bulldogs.

Petersen is a great coach, and this is a quality win for the Broncos in their search of reaching a BCS National Championship.