Week 9 college football rankings: Army, Navy, Vanderbilt, Tennessee rise as Texas, Alabama drop

The Vanderbilt Commodores have made their way into the top 25 college football rankings. There’s a sentence no one expected anytime soon. It was fair to wait after the Alabama win, considering the Commodores had lost to Georgia State and Missouri. Now, Vandy is riding a three-game win streak with Diego Pavia doing just enough to secure the fifth win of the season. Of note, the last time Vanderbilt won seven games in a year was back in 2013 under James Franklin.

The Ole Miss Rebels’ playoff hopes evaporated last Saturday against LSU, now Lane Kiffin and Jaxson Dart are just trying to avoid following out of the college football rankings entirely. There isn’t a single ‘signature’ win on Mississippi’s resume right now and based on how it’s played in the last month, just beating Oklahoma might prove more difficult than expected. One loss (Nov. 9 vs Georgia) feels inevitable and there might even be a fourth before the year is over.

The SMU Mustangs only needed the first quarter to take care of things on Saturday night against Stanford. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Jennings excelled again, this time through the air, netting 3 touchdowns with nearly 200 yards in the first quarter alone. It moves SMU to a stellar 6-1 record, drawing us closer to that Nov. 2 battle against ranked Pittsburgh.

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While the Army Black Knights are the program getting national attention right now, deservedly so, they aren’t the only undefeated military academy. The Navy Midshipmen extended their perfect start on Saturday, hosting Charlotte and completely dismantling them. It started with 24 first-quarter points, thanks to running back Alex Tecza and quarterback Blake Horvath. Fittingly, though, it was a team effort that led to domination with Navy’s defense also finding the end zone in this one. The Midshipmen should be underdogs next week against Notre Dame, but it will be a fun matchup.

Army Black Nights quarterback Bryson Daily is on an incredible run right now. He did some damage through the air on Saturday, completing 7-of-10 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown. Of course, his bread and butter is dominating opponents on the ground. IN Week 8 against East Carolina, Daily set season-highs in carries (31), touchdowns (six total) and rushing yards (171). He’s the biggest reason why Army isn’t just undefeated, but hasn’t trailed in a game this season. The Black Knights will be undefeated entering November. incredible.

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The Pittsburgh Panthers haven’t faced a ranked opponent this season, but an undefeated record in late October deserves a spot in the top 25 college football rankings. Pitt survived a low-scoring game against Cal a week ago, but the recipe for success this season is put together by freshman quarterback Eli Holstein (1,697 pass yards and 15-5 TD-INT). The Panthers should be able to handle their business this coming Thursday night at home against Syracuse, which would set up a Pitt vs SMU bout to kick off college football in November. For the sake of that matchup, we hope both teams keep winning.

It says a lot about where the Missouri Tigers are right now when they are only a 4.5-point favorite at home against Auburn (2-5). Mizzou did suffer a blow early with quarterback Brady Cook leaving with an injury that required an MRI at the hospital. Fortunately for the Tigers, he returned for a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, including the game-winning score with under 1 minute left. The 6-1 record seems impressive for Missouri, but this just doesn’t look like a good team when you watch it right now and Alabama is looming.

If any college football player is most deserving of a bye week, it is Ashton Jeanty. The Heisman Trophy front-runner has been historically dominant this season, averaging over 200 rushing yards per game with the most total scrimmage touchdowns (18) in the nation. Jeanty has carried Boise State to five wins this season and more are coming. However, we do have some concerns when comparing the Broncos to the best college football teams, because this program also ranks 86th in scoring defense (28.6 PPG allowed).

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Avery Johnson, ladies and gentlemen. If the Kansas State Wildcats were going to have a strong 2024 season, they needed their young quarterback to step up. It wasn’t pretty for Johnson early, who threw under 200 passing yards in each of his first four games. He’s elevated his game as of late, leading wins over Oklahoma State and Colorado leading into Saturday night. On the road against West Virginia, with the Wildcats’ ground game unable to get anything going, Johnson had his first 300-yard game of the season and the spohmore rode a strong third quarter to a comfortable win for K-State.

Bret Bielema has to be especially proud of his defense after Saturday. Facing the Michigan Wolverines in Week 8, the Illinois Fighting Illini didn’t have much go right offensively. Illinois went just 3-for-11 on its third-down attempts and it lost the time of possession battle (33:34 to 26:26) to Michigan. Thankfully for the Fighting Illini, this defense generated 3 takeaways and shut out the Wolverines offense outside of a second-quarter touchdown. Moving to 6-1 with November approaching, Illinois now has three ranked wins (vs Kansas, at Nebraska, vs Michigan) this season. We don’t expect a win next Saturday at Oregon, but maybe it can be a close game.

The Texas A&M Aggies survived, but it shouldn’t have been a one-score game in the fourth quarter against Mississippi State (1-6). Mike Elko’s defense had some issues through the air, but the main culprit was more turnovers by Teas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman. Elko will settle for the win and a 4-0 record against SEC teams, but the Aggies need a lot more from Weigman and running back Le’Veon Moss if they are going to beat LSU in Week 9.

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We’ve never seen a Heisman campaign come undone so fast. Just a few weeks ago, Jalen Milroe looked like the obvious choice for the Heisman Trophy after beating Georgia and Kalen DeBoer had many believing the Alabama Crimson Tide hadn’t lost a step without Nick Saban. The last three games have changed everything. Alabama is undisciplined, is poorly coached defensively and it’s looked like the worst team against Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Tennessee. This is already a two-loss team and we’re probably looking at a third loss before the middle of November, if not earlier.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish got off to a slow start on the road, finding themselves down 7-0 in the first quarter with one Riley Leonard interception. Notre Dame’s defense took care of business after that touchdown drive, not allowing Georgia Tech to score again until the final minute of the fourth quarter. In the meantime, Leonard ran for two touchdowns and Adon Shuler even provided a pick-six to give this Fighting Irish defense a touchdown of its own. Notre Dame is in a good place heading into a matchup against unbeaten Navy, a matchup between teams with 12 combined wins in 13 games.

Leave no doubt. The Indiana Hoosiers made sure in Week 8 that the college football world finally started giving this program its due. Indiana running back Justice Ellison (105 yards and 2 touchdowns) made the most of his nine carries on Saturday, as did Ty Son Lawton (99 scrimmage yards on nine touches), but it was the Hoosiers defense (5 takeaways) that turned this win over Nebraska into a 56-7 blowout with a raucous home crowd rightfully lose their minds after a stunning 7-0 start.

The BYU Cougars have earned a spot in our top 10 college football rankings at this point, moving to 7-0 after a nail-biting win on Friday night against Oklahoma State. Week 8 marked the first time this season that the Cougars defense allowed 30-plus points, but running back LJ Martin (120 yards and 2 touchdowns) and receiver Darius Lassiter (129 yards, 1 TD) saved the day, with some help from quarterback Jake Retlaff. BYU’s undefeated record is legitimate and it should be favored in every game for the rest of the regular season, even at Utah.

Caden Durham was all the LSU Tigers needed on Saturday night on the road against Arkansas. In a relatively smooth 34-10 victory, the freshman running back broke free for 101 rushing yards and a career-high 3 touchdowns. Pair that excellence with LSU’s defense forcing 3 takeaways and you had arguably this program’s most stress-free win of the season.

Considering the Iowa State Cyclones were a two-touchdown favorite at home against the UCF Knights, needing a game-winning touchdown with 30 seconds left in the game is concerning. The problem on Saturday night was Rocco Becht’s interceptions, with UCF turning one into a pick-six and another into a 70-yard return that immediately set up a 1-yard touchdown. However, the Cyclones pulled it out in the end and an undefeated records from a Power 5 team deserves a top-10 spot.

The Clemson Tigers are dominating after that eye-opening loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in the season opener. While Cade Klubnik did throw an interception on Saturday, it was a rare blemish on his line. One of the nation’s top quarterbacks now has now recorded 20 passing touchdowns with 4 rushing touchdowns during Clemson’s six-game winning streak and this Tigers offense has scored 40-plus points in five of those games. What’s highly unusual is how suspect Clemson’s defense is this season, something to keep in mind if the Tigers make the College Football Playoff.

Quinn Ewers looked better in the second half, responding to the temporary benching, but he also showed the limitations of a quarterback who isn’t very gifted offensively. At the same time, we can’t put all the blame on the Texas Longhorns quarterback considering his offensive tackles looked more like turnstiles in Week 8 against this Bulldogs’ pass rush. One loss won’t kill Texas and it should wn out the rest of the season, but Ewers showcased his limitations and the Longhorns offense will be better off with Arch Manning long-term.

Josh Heupel and Nico Iamaleava can thank Dylan Sampson and this Tennessee Volunteers defense for another win. Sampson accounted for 2 of Tennessee’s touchdowns on Saturday in a narrow 24-17 victory over the Crimson Tide. The star SEC running back carries this offense, but even his efforts wouldn’t have been enough to get the win if Tennessee’s defense hadn’t held Alabama to 3-for-15 (ESPN) on third-down tries. We still wouldn’t put Tennessee anywhere close to the elite tier of college football teams, but this was a nice bounceback win for a program that desperately needed it.

There’s the Georgia Bulldogs football we expected to see this season. Even on a Saturday night in Austin where Carson Beck (3 interceptions) nearly threw the game away, running back Trevor Etienne (3 touchdowns and over 100 scrimmage yards) and this Bulldogs defense stepped up. This looked a lot more like the second-half Bulldogs team we saw against Alabama, even with Texas making it closer with a third-quarter rally. In the end, Georgia pulled out the win and there’s a path to reclaiming the title of best college football team if they can string together more performances like this.

It proved to be a very long bye week for the Ohio State Buckeyes, dealing with the stint of the Oregon loss for even longer. However, there’s no reason to be especially concerned about Ohio State’s playoff hopes right now, especially since the Buckeyes will be favorited in every game moving forward including on the road at Penn State (Nov. 2). Hold off on the calls to fire Ryan Day, at least for now. If Ohio State loses again, then we can start looking at Buckeyes coaching candidates.

Cam Ward is going to be a Heisman Trophy finalist taking a trip to New York City and the Miami Hurricanes will go to the College Football Playoff as long as they handle their business with the rest of the ACC schedule. However, it’s impossible to not be concerned about a Hurricanes defense that has allowed more than 100 combined points in the last three games with each of its opponents (Virginia Tech Cal and Louisville) scoring 33-plus points with 370-plus total yards. Miami’s defense might not cost it in the regular season, but it can absolutely be their undoing in the playoffs.

The Penn State Nittany Lions still deserve credit for avoiding a loss against USC after a cross-country flight in Week 7. Penn State isn’t necessarily winning with style points right now, but they beat Illinois by two scores and then delivered a road comeback against USC. We’ve been plenty critical of James Franklin and quarterback Drew Allar in the past, but the Nittany Lions are clearly one of the best college football teams right now.

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After a monumental win at home over the Ohio State Buckeyes, it would’ve been understandable if the Oregon Ducks had a letdown performance on the road in Week 8. Instead, the Ducks jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, scoring touchdowns on their first two drives, then never looked back. While Oregon’s run defense had some issues in this one – 208 yards and 5.2 ypc allowed – it got a shutout on the scoreboard. Moving to 7-0 on the year, Oregon has all the confidence it needs to return home and avoid an upset against Illinois.