Kudos to Penn State football for changing the narrative that it always loses to top 10 teams. The new narrative: It can lose to anybody.
The Nittany Lions just lost to UCLA, which spent the first month of the season proving it was the worst power conference team in the country. As a result, they have tumbled from near the top to near the bottom of my Big Ten/SEC top 25.
On Sept. 27, the Nittany Lions lost to unbeaten Oregon. On the following Saturday, they lost to previously winless UCLA.
That tells me Penn State has “great range for losing.”
1. Oregon: Good luck finding an opponent capable of knocking off the Ducks. Their toughest game will be Oct. 11 against Indiana. And that’s a home game.
2. Ohio State: Who says the Buckeyes can’t play from behind? They spotted Minnesota a 3-0 lead before “rallying” for a 42-3 victory.
3. Oklahoma: The Sooners enraged the betting members of their fanbase by failing to cover a 45.5-point spread in a 44-0 victory over Kent State.
Just kidding. Oklahoma fans were too busy celebrating Texas’ loss to Florida to notice the last 10 minutes of the Kent State game.
4. Ole Miss: The Rebels had an open date on Oct. 4. Up next: Washington State, which already has given up 59 points twice.
Translation: Ole Miss will have three weeks to prepare for Georgia on Oct. 18.
5. Texas A&M: The Aggies have committed 47 penalties for 375 yards, which raises the question: “Are they in violation of the school’s code of honor?”
Answer: No. The code reads: “An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.”
It doesn’t say anything about penalties.
6. Alabama: Wonder how many Tide fans were thinking this time last year: “I can’t wait for Jalen Milroe to leave so Ty Simpson can be our quarterback”?
Simpson hasn’t just become Alabama’s best quarterback. He has become one of the nation’s best quarterbacks.
7. Georgia: Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart talked about how physically impressive his team was in a 35-14 victory over Kentucky. That left me thinking how fiscally impressive Kentucky wasn’t in agreeing to a high-priced, long-term contract with coach Mark Stoops.
8. Tennessee: Josh Heupel’s clock management is raising concerns in Big Orange Country. But that shouldn’t be a problem against Arkansas.
There’s always time to score against the Razorbacks, who spent much of September escorting opponents into their end zone.
9. LSU: Brian Kelly stressed after a loss to Ole Miss that you can’t win in the SEC on defense alone. No kidding.
So, why doesn’t he take his own advice, give Michael Van Buren a chance at quarterback, and give Garrett Nussmeier more time to heal and regain his fastball?
10. Michigan: Just for old-time’s sake, Michigan and Southern Cal should play their Oct. 11 game in Pasadena, where they have met eight times in the Rose Bowl.
11. Indiana: The Hoosiers can post basketball-size scores against mediocre defenses (see Illinois for details). But there’s nothing mediocre about Oregon (Oct. 11 in Eugene).
12. Missouri: The Tigers have become “sneaky dominant” (feel free to work that into your sports lexicon). They have outscored their five opponents by 30 points per game.
13. Nebraska:I keep reading that Cornhuskers quarterback Dylan Raiola is a “dark horse” Heisman candidate. There’s nothing “dark horse” about him.
He has completed 74% of his passes for 1,331 yards and 12 touchdowns.
14. Vanderbilt: This is one of the Commodores’ best teams, but their fourth-quarter fade in a 30-14 loss to Alabama brought back memories of their worst teams.
15. Illinois: The Illini will renew their series with Ohio State on Oct. 11. So, they have had eight years to figure out an effective attack against the Buckeyes defense.
In their last nine meetings, Illinois scored more than 22 points only once. And it failed to score more than 14 points six times.
16. Southern Cal : Any team in the running for an at-large playoff berth should be hoping that the Trojans get their act together for Notre Dame on Oct. 18. Spoiler alert: They won’t.
17. Texas: If the Longhorns don’t perk up offensively, Matthew McConaughey soon will be wearing a paper bag on the sideline. Bevo might want one, too.
18. Penn State: Nittany Lions coach James Franklin delivered the understatement of the week after a 42-37 defeat to UCLA: “We did not handle last week’s loss (to Oregon) well.”
19. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs already have doubled their two-win total from last season. But their improvement wasn’t apparent in a 31-9 loss to Texas A&M.
20. Auburn: This could be the Tigers’ final appearance in my top 25. The Gus Malzahn era keeps looking better.
The Bryan Harsin era still looks awful.
21. Washington: Offseason acquisitions are paying off for the Huskies, who hired Ryan Walters as defensive coordinator and further bolstered the defense with transfers.
The Huskies gave up an average of 32.9 points in their last seven games in 2024. No team has scored more than 24 points on them this season.
22. Maryland: After the Terps blew a 20-0 lead in a 24-20 loss to Washington, you no longer can call them the nation’s worst unbeaten power conference team.
23. Iowa: I get nostalgic watching the Hawkeyes, who are averaging 148.6 yards per game passing. They remind me of the two offenses I saw in 1957 when I attended my first college football game.
As I remember, there was a lot of punting.
24. Minnesota: The Gophers can look back on their first possession against Ohio State as the “glory days.” They drove 66 yards in 13 plays to set up a field goal.
They managed just 98 yards after that.
25. Florida: Am I’m overreacting to the Gators’ upset of Texas by referring to their coach as “Big Game Billy?”
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com.
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