Kudos to Penn State soccer for altering the narrative that it all the time loses to prime 10 groups. The brand new narrative: It might probably lose to anyone.
The Nittany Lions simply misplaced to UCLA, which spent the primary month of the season proving it was the worst energy convention crew within the nation. In consequence, they’ve tumbled from close to the highest to close the underside of my Huge Ten/SEC prime 25.
On Sept. 27, the Nittany Lions misplaced to unbeaten Oregon. On the next Saturday, they misplaced to beforehand winless UCLA.
That tells me Penn State has “nice vary for dropping.”
1. Oregon: Good luck discovering an opponent able to knocking off the Geese. Their hardest sport might be Oct. 11 towards Indiana. And that’s a house sport.
2. Ohio State: Who says the Buckeyes cannot play from behind? They noticed Minnesota a 3-0 lead earlier than “rallying” for a 42-3 victory.
3. Oklahoma: The Sooners enraged the betting members of their fanbase by failing to cowl a forty five.5-point unfold in a 44-0 victory over Kent State.
Simply kidding. Oklahoma followers have been too busy celebrating Texas’ loss to Florida to note the final 10 minutes of the Kent State sport.
4. Ole Miss: The Rebels had an open date on Oct. 4. Up subsequent: Washington State, which already has given up 59 factors twice.
Translation: Ole Miss can have three weeks to organize for Georgia on Oct. 18.
5. Texas A&M: The Aggies have dedicated 47 penalties for 375 yards, which raises the query: “Are they in violation of the varsity’s code of honor?”
Reply: No. The code reads: “An Aggie doesn’t lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those that do.”
It doesn’t say something about penalties.
6. Alabama: Surprise what number of Tide followers have been considering this time final 12 months: “I can’t look forward to Jalen Milroe to go away so Ty Simpson will be our quarterback”?
Simpson hasn’t simply change into Alabama’s finest quarterback. He has change into one of many nation’s finest quarterbacks.
7. Georgia: Bulldogs coach Kirby Sensible talked about how bodily spectacular his crew was in a 35-14 victory over Kentucky. That left me considering how fiscally spectacular Kentucky wasn’t in agreeing to a high-priced, long-term contract with coach Mark Stoops.
8. Tennessee: Josh Heupel’s clock administration is elevating issues in Huge Orange Nation. However that shouldn’t be an issue towards Arkansas.
There’s all the time time to attain towards the Razorbacks, who spent a lot of September escorting opponents into their finish zone.
9. LSU: Brian Kelly harassed after a loss to Ole Miss that you may’t win within the SEC on protection alone. No kidding.
So, why doesn’t he take his personal recommendation, give Michael Van Buren an opportunity at quarterback, and provides Garrett Nussmeier extra time to heal and regain his fastball?
10. Michigan: Only for old-time’s sake, Michigan and Southern Cal ought to play their Oct. 11 sport in Pasadena, the place they’ve met eight occasions within the Rose Bowl.
11. Indiana: The Hoosiers can submit basketball-size scores towards mediocre defenses (see Illinois for particulars). However there’s nothing mediocre about Oregon (Oct. 11 in Eugene).
12. Missouri: The Tigers have change into “sneaky dominant” (be happy to work that into your sports activities lexicon). They’ve outscored their 5 opponents by 30 factors per sport.
13. Nebraska:I preserve studying that Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola is a “darkish horse” Heisman candidate. There’s nothing “darkish horse” about him.
He has accomplished 74% of his passes for 1,331 yards and 12 touchdowns.
14. Vanderbilt: This is without doubt one of the Commodores’ finest groups, however their fourth-quarter fade in a 30-14 loss to Alabama introduced again reminiscences of their worst groups.
15. Illinois: The Illini will renew their sequence with Ohio State on Oct. 11. So, they’ve had eight years to determine an efficient assault towards the Buckeyes protection.
Of their final 9 conferences, Illinois scored greater than 22 factors solely as soon as. And it failed to attain greater than 14 factors six occasions.
16. Southern Cal : Any crew within the working for an at-large playoff berth needs to be hoping that the Trojans get their act collectively for Notre Dame on Oct. 18. Spoiler alert: They gained’t.
17. Texas: If the Longhorns don’t perk up offensively, Matthew McConaughey quickly might be sporting a paper bag on the sideline. Bevo may need one, too.
18. Penn State: Nittany Lions coach James Franklin delivered the understatement of the week after a 42-37 defeat to UCLA: “We didn’t deal with final week’s loss (to Oregon) effectively.”
19. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs have already got doubled their two-win complete from final season. However their enchancment wasn’t obvious in a 31-9 loss to Texas A&M.
20. Auburn: This might be the Tigers’ ultimate look in my prime 25. The Gus Malzahn period retains trying higher.
The Bryan Harsin period nonetheless appears terrible.
21. Washington: Offseason acquisitions are paying off for the Huskies, who employed Ryan Walters as defensive coordinator and additional bolstered the protection with transfers.
The Huskies gave up a median of 32.9 factors of their final seven video games in 2024. No crew has scored greater than 24 factors on them this season.
22. Maryland: After the Terps blew a 20-0 lead in a 24-20 loss to Washington, you not can name them the nation’s worst unbeaten energy convention crew.
23. Iowa: I get nostalgic watching the Hawkeyes, who’re averaging 148.6 yards per sport passing. They remind me of the 2 offenses I noticed in 1957 after I attended my first school soccer sport.
As I bear in mind, there was a whole lot of punting.
24. Minnesota: The Gophers can look again on their first possession towards Ohio State because the “glory days.” They drove 66 yards in 13 performs to arrange a area objective.
They managed simply 98 yards after that.
25. Florida: Am I’m overreacting to the Gators’ upset of Texas by referring to their coach as “Huge Recreation Billy?”
John Adams is a senior columnist. He could also be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com.
