Robert Griffin III ranks top 5 college football teams on the rise

Robert Griffin III helped elevate Baylor football from being a long-slumbering program to a 10-win season as the Heisman Trophy winner in 2011, and on Friday, he spotlighted the top five college football teams on the rise in 2025.

Griffin, a college football analyst for Fox Sports, started his list with USC, followed by a couple of Group of Five programs, including UNLV and Memphis, the suddenly resurgent UCLA Bruins, and Nebraska.

Top 5 Teams on the Rise in College Football

1. @uscfb
2. @unlvfootball
3. @MemphisFB
4. @UCLAFootball
5. @HuskerFootball pic.twitter.com/se30gj5M21
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) October 17, 2025

It's an interesting list for a few reasons ...

USC is off to a 5-1 start and back in the AP top 25 poll at No. 20 after a 31-13 over then-No. 15 Michigan last week. The Trojans' only loss came by two points on the road at Illinois on a last-second field goal in a game in which they were down two starting offensive linemen and their best defensive back. Otherwise, USC has won each of its other games by at least 14 points.

Quarterback Jayden Maiava, who started as a redshirt freshman at UNLV before transferring to USC and spending the first part of last season in a backup role, is having a breakout season as a redshirt junior. He's passed for 1,852 yards, 13 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions, cutting down on the turnovers that plagued him earlier in his career. He also has 4 rushing TDs.

Meanwhile, junior Makai Lemon (44 catches for 682 yards and 6 TDs plus a rushing TD) is projected by some to be the first receiver taken in the 2026 NFL Draft.

USC is in its fourth year under coach Lincoln Riley, and after an 11-3 debut season with Heisman winner Caleb Williams leading the way, Riley's Trojans tumbled to 8-5 and 7-6 finishes the last two years.

So far, this has indeed been a resurgent season for the program, but it faces a big test Saturday night on the road at No. 13 Notre Dame.

As for UNLV, the Rebels' rise has been a few years in the works. Former head coach Barry Odom took UNLV from 5 wins the season prior to his arrival to finishes of 9-5 and 11-3 the last two years before leaving for Purdue. In came former Mississippi State and Florida coach Dan Mullen, who has the Rebels off to a 6-0 start (including a 30-23 win over UCLA).

Memphis, meanwhile, is in the conversation as potentially the top Group of Five team in college football this year while off to a 6-0 start (with a win over Arkansas) and up to No. 22 in the AP poll. But like UNLV, the Tigers have been rising for a while. They went 10-3 and 11-2 the last two years, so it's more like they're sustaining than rising at this point.

UCLA is the most interesting inclusion on the list, though.

The Bruins would have been regarded as the complete opposite of a rising team when they opened the season 0-4 with losses to UNLV and New Mexico to prompt the firing of second-year head coach DeShaun Foster. They would better be considered a program that was free-falling or bottoming out.

Since Foster was fired, UCLA stunned Penn State in a 42-37 upset that helped contribute to the firing of long-time Nittany Lions coach James Franklin, and the Bruins followed that with a 38-13 road win at Michigan State.

So, yeah, maybe they are on a program on the rise. QB Nico Iamaleava, the high-profile Tennessee transfer, has played better and is a talented enough dual-threat playmaker to keep the Bruins competitive. Interim head coach Tim Skipper deserves a ton of credit, as does new offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel, who was promoted from tight ends coach after Foster's firing and has transformed the Bruins in short order.

The final team on Griffin's list, Nebraska, fits the criteria as the Cornhuskers are off to a 5-1 start and back in the national rankings at No. 25. Coach Matt Rhule has taken the program from 5-7 to 7-6 and now this strong start in his third season.

But he's considered a prime candidate to replace Franklin at Penn State, so it remains to be seen how much building he's able to do at Nebraska, which hasn't had a 10-win season since 2012.