CFBHQ Top 10: College Football Power Rankings for Week 11
Trying to come up with scientific and unbiased college football rankings is getting harder by the week, but as the upsets pile up and teams we thought were contenders start taking Ls, we're starting to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Now 10 weeks through the season and with the conference schedules sorting things out, it's apparent that teams are changing very rapidly week to week.
You aren't who you were last Saturday, and you'll be somebody else next Saturday. With only a few elite exceptions, and sometimes not even then.
Forget the AP top 25 or the Coaches Poll or the College Football Playoff rankings: let's look at the real 10 best teams heading into this weekend.
CFBHQ Top 10: College Football Power Rankings for Week 11
College football power rankings for Week 11
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In theory, team(s) in these rankings should beat the team(s) ranked lower and lose to the team(s) ranked higher on a neutral field
10. Ole Miss. A good time for a bye week, the Rebels played a close one at Texas A&M a week after getting handled by LSU on the road. The defense and rushing attack, the engine behind this offense, played much better in the Aggie game, shoring up needed improvements ahead of the test of this team's season, welcoming a now 2-loss and desperate Alabama. The last time the Tide came to Oxford, the Rebs hung 48 points and 647 yards in a shootout.
9. Utah. Utes quarterback Cameron Rising returned from a surprise injury to help out in a dominant win against Arizona, but the star of Saturday's show was a stellar and productive rushing attack that featured eight different players combining for over 300 yards on the ground and five touchdowns. Overlooked somewhat since the opening loss at Florida, Utah still plays a physical brand of football on both sides of the line and is very much in the Pac-12 title hunt.
8. Alabama. When you're Alabama and at two losses in November, you're bound to get overreactions, and why not? This is the first season since 2010 that the Tide have multiple losses before the Iron Bowl, on the road at Tennessee and LSU, two of the best teams in the country. And while the warning signs were there all along starting in the Texas game - shaky protection, a lack of playmakers at receiver, and an iffy back seven - this roster is still pound-for-pound one of the nation's best and would be comfortably favored against just about any team nationally outside the top of the SEC.
7. LSU. There are still some concerns about this team's slower starts and some mistakes on the defensive side, but it's hard to fault a team under a first-year coach that just dumped Alabama from the College Football Playoff by handing it a second loss. The way LSU has responded to its challenges has been impressive, especially given the play of two of Brian Kelly's transfer pickups: quarterback Jayden Daniels, one of the nation's premier dual threats, and linebacker Harold Perkins, who is a legit problem in the front seven. Suddenly, LSU is in the driver's seat for the SEC West and could be in Atlanta in Kelly's first year.
6. TCU. There's definitely a trend about this team: slow starts in the first half make you think this is the week TCU will finally lose, only for the offense to come to life after halftime and dominate the latter two quarters. That was the formula once again in Saturday's win over Texas Tech, running for 234 yards with Kendre Miller adding 158 and a touchdown. Now the Frogs are 9-0 since the 2010 season when they won the Rose Bowl, but a major tilt against Texas is upcoming.
5. Oregon. Granted, the 49-3 loss to Georgia in the season opener is a big shadow that still hangs over this team, but in the weeks since then, it's responded just about as perfectly as a team could have. Oregon has won eight straight games and scored over 40 points in all of them, led by the inspired play of quarterback Bo Nix, who's coming off a game in which he threw, ran for, and caught a touchdown. Maybe you could chalk up the Georgia game to nerves or it being Dan Lanning's first game, or maybe Georgia really is just that much better than even the class of the Pac-12. Time will tell, because the Ducks are making a case for getting into the College Football Playoff if they win this conference.
4. Tennessee. After destroying defenses all season, Georgia returned the favor by swallowing the Vols' top-ranked offensive attack and holding quarterback Hendon Hooker and his receivers in check all day. Procedural penalties also played a role in the deafening scene at Sanford Stadium and Hooker was held without a TD pass for the first time in 20 games. Now on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff hunt, the Volunteers still have the firepower to beat you on any given Saturday, but they could stand to get a little more physical on both lines.
3. Ohio State. Sure, some of the Buckeyes' offensive struggles were due to the gale force winds and sideways rain in Chicago, but not all of them. OSU was sluggish out of the gate, had difficulty matching Northwestern's physicality at the line, and looked listless and uninspired when on offense. CJ Stroud, a Heisman favorite all season, missed several throws he usually makes, and the entire team's performance left something to be desired going against a 1-win opponent. That doesn't completely take away from what Ohio State can do with the ball, but Saturday's outing was a red flag for sure.
2. Michigan. Rutgers led this team going into halftime, but Michigan flipped the switch coming out of the break and scored 38 unanswered points to stay undefeated. Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards both went over 100 yards rushing while the Wolverines' defense held the Knights to under 200 total yards. Top to bottom, this might be the most complete team in the Big Ten right now.
1. Georgia. College football's defending national champions left no doubt on Saturday in case anyone was wondering if the Bulldogs had taken a step back this season, soundly defeating the CFP No. 1 Volunteers behind a dominant defensive effort and a big-play offense that had Stetson Bennett going deep in the first half. Georgia held Tennessee's top-ranked offense to no touchdowns until the late fourth quarter and sacked Hendon Hooker six times. A trip to Atlanta seems inevitable and from there, a virtual guarantee of making the final four once again.
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