College Football Rankings After Week 5: Who Rose and Fell in Coaches Top 25 Poll

Coaches Poll voters were faced with a few notable decisions when compiling the new college football rankings coming into a huge Week 6 slate.

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This past weekend wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the weekend before when it comes to how many ranked teams lost their games, but the Coaches Poll voters were still forced into some notable decisions when compiling the new college football rankings.

The first action in the month of October saw five teams the coaches previously ranked come out on the wrong end of their matchups, including one SEC contender given a major vote of confidence last week, only to take an ugly loss on the road this week.

Coaches Poll Top 25 Rankings

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First-place votes in parentheses

1. Texas (45)
2. Georgia (20)
3. Notre Dame (1)
4. Miami
5. Indiana (8)
6. Ohio State
7. Alabama
8. BYU
9. Texas Tech
10. LSU
11. Ole Miss
12. Utah
13. Oregon
14. Tennessee
15. Florida
16. Missouri
17. USC
18. Iowa
19. Houston
20. Mississippi State
21. SMU
22. UCLA
23. Duke
24. Pittsburgh
25. Kentucky

Coaches Poll Biggest Movers

Missouri (Up 9). A nine-game losing streak against AP ranked opponents came to a dramatic end for the Tigers, who snapped that skid by pounding insurgent Florida in a 45-17 decision that forces voters to consider this among the SEC’s top teams right now. And that’s still despite not having Ahmad Hardy, the conference’s most productive rusher a year ago, in the backfield.

Florida (Down 7). Jon Sumrall had college football’s hottest team on his hands, but its powerful run game ran into a wall at Missouri, and the Gators’ secondary, considered a weakness by critics coming in, was exposed by the Tigers’ expert aerial attack, and now Florida faces a brutal stretch coming up that could make things even worse.

Mississippi State (Down 4). It may be too much to say the Bulldogs were exposed after one game, but allowing 56 points at home in a loss to Alabama definitely takes some of the shine off this SEC insurgent team, especially with trips to LSU and Texas coming up that could further derail their future.

Unranked to Ranked This Week

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Pittsburgh (Up 5). A last-second field goal at Virginia Tech keeps the Panthers perfect through five games and atop the ACC, but at a huge cost, as star quarterback Mason Heintschel tore his ACL and is done for the year.

Kentucky (Up 2). Down on the road to South Carolina, the Wildcats stormed back to win on a gutsy two-point conversion and improve to 4-1 for new coach Will Stein.

Ranked to Unranked in Week 6

No. 22 Penn State. Unlike the AP voters, the coaches retained some faith in the Nittany Lions after taking a last-minute loss at home to unranked Wisconsin, but they didn’t forgive them scoring just 13 points in a stunning loss at Northwestern, dropping them out of the rankings entirely as Matt Campbell’s debut goes south.

No. 24 Michigan. Likewise for another Big Ten blue blood, which could be 2-3 right now if officials didn’t give them that extra second against Western Michigan in the opener, but the Wolverines have enough problems at 3-2 after back-to-back losses to Iowa and now Minnesota, with Kyle Whittingham admitting he doesn’t know what’s wrong with his offense.

What Teams Just Missed Out?

These teams got votes in the Coaches Poll, but not enough to make the top 25 rankings.

Oklahoma State 187; Boise State 161; Nebraska 117; Wake Forest 87; Northwestern 70; Wisconsin 47; James Madison 42; Minnesota 40; North Dakota State 29; Arizona 15; New Mexico 7; Baylor 3; Virginia Tech 1; Texas A&M 1; Kansas State 1.