Time to talk about who should be number 1.
Georgia has held the top spot in 15 consecutive AP Top 25 games, dating back to the middle of last season when the Bulldogs won their second straight national title.
Georgia (5-0) extended its school-record winning streak to 22 games at Auburn on Saturday, but the Bulldogs once again didn’t look like the best team in the country.
For the second time in two Southeastern Conference games, Georgia trailed at halftime. This time against an Auburn team that simply doesn’t have a functioning passing game. Credit to coach Hugh Freeze for using the quarterback run to keep the Bulldogs off balance, but again, coach Kirby Smart’s team took a while to find its offense.
“I just think there’s a lot more equality in college football. I don’t think there’s much of a separation between anyone,” Smart said. “The pro scouts that come to us – I always trust their opinion – and they say, ‘Well, we’ve been to this place, this place, this place.’ And they are all pretty similar. There’s not that much leeway.’”
Unsurprisingly, the solution was to get the ball into the hands of one of the best players in the country.
If there’s one tight end that can compete for the Heisman Trophy, it’s Brock Bowers. The third-year star finished the game with eight catches for 157 yards and the game-winning touchdown.
Georgia has been an overwhelming No. 1 seed since the preseason, and the Bulldogs received 55 first-place votes last week. The other eight were distributed among five other teams.
The door is open for another team to step up and take the top spot, but there is no obvious team that could replace Georgia on Sunday when the poll is released.
No. 2 Michigan beat Nebraska and has yet to be tested, but the best opponent the Wolverines have faced is Rutgers (4-1).
No. 3 Texas? Perhaps. The Longhorns beat Alabama and aside from a slow start against Wyoming the following week, they have been in good shape since then. Kansas stayed on the scoreboard for a while, but it really wasn’t close on Saturday in Austin. Texas edged the Jayhawks 661-260 to set up a battle of the unbeatens against No. 14 in the final Big 12 edition of the Red River Rivalry next week.
The Longhorns and Sooners will meet undefeated for the first time since 2011.
No. 4 Ohio State won’t jump to No. 1 on an off week.
No. 5 Florida State was also out on Saturday, and that impressive win over LSU earlier in the season isn’t looking quite as good after the Tigers allowed 711 yards in a loss to No. 20 Mississippi.
LSU, which started the season fifth, suffered two losses before the calendar changed to October.
No. 6 Penn State struggled against Northwestern. Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions need to find some explosive plays before traveling to Ohio State in three weeks.
No. 7 Washington played its first close game of the season but was perfect against Arizona.
Right now, the difference between No. 1 Georgia and No. 11 Notre Dame, which got a crucial 95-yard touchdown drive from Sam Hartman to beat No. 17 Duke, seems relatively small.
And don’t forget that Alabama is lurking at No. 12. After beating the Mississippi schools 64-27 overall, the Crimson Tide should still be considered favorites in the SEC West.
The Bulldogs are probably safe for now and will have a chance to bounce back next week against undefeated Kentucky.
But a month into the season, this Georgia doesn’t look nearly as dominant as the last two, which could make the final two months far more interesting.
PAST TIME
The Colorado-centric portion of the college football season is now complete.
For the second week in a row, Deion Sanders’ team was unable to face a Pac-12 major, although the Buffaloes fared far better against No. 8 Southern California.
Caleb Williams and the Trojans picked up virtually where Oregon left off last week, going up 34-7 in the second quarter. What’s notable, however, is that Shedeur Sanders and the Buffs turned a fourth-quarter blowout into a one-score game.
“It was a pleasure playing against them and their head coach. I mean, I really enjoyed it,” Deion Sanders told reporters. “Probably didn’t look like it, but that was fun.”
There will be no more pregame shows coming to Boulder, and the hugging, debating talking heads on cable will be dedicating far fewer segments to Coach Prime and his team in the next few weeks.
The Buffaloes are 3-2 after five games, which is still pretty good for a team expecting three or four wins before the season.
In many ways, Colorado did exactly what it expected, with the exception of TCU’s upset.
Sanders’ program will now take a back seat. The Buffs have a few more manageable opponents in the next two weeks in Stanford and Arizona State. That puts 5:2 within reach.
A year after going 1-11, getting to a bowl game would be a big deal for the Buffs. There’s also no guarantee the Buffs will get six wins in a tough Pac-12 tournament.
As for USC, this was the second straight week the Trojans played with their food on the road after making Arizona State wait. Compare and contrast what Oregon — which stifled Stanford on Saturday — did to Colorado with how USC failed to keep the Buffs at bay.
Colorado had 564 yards, the most in 18 games under coach Lincoln Riley, who insists things have gotten better on that side of the ball.
“If something doesn’t go the way we want it to, it won’t look like it did last year,” Riley told reporters. “Not to the trained eye.”
As great as Williams is, it’s hard to take the Trojans seriously as playoff contenders with their sloppy defense and lack of attention to detail.
AROUND THE COUNTRY: To make Duke’s night even worse, quarterback Riley Leonard injured his right ankle in a scrimmage on the Blue Devils’ final play. Leonard left the field on crutches after being treated in the injury tent, and Hartman waited for him to come out of the tent after the game to wish his counterpart well. … Kentucky should be ranked on Sunday. Ray Davis and the Wildcats made a statement by beating No. 22 Florida, which probably shouldn’t have been ranked. Davis managed 280 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Kentucky snapped a three-game winning streak against Florida for the first time since 1951, when Bear Bryant was coach of the Wildcats. … Texas A&M, you have our attention. The Aggies handled Arkansas with relative ease and now enter a home game with 12 Alabama on a three-game winning streak. A&M is one of the few teams in the Portal Era with a solid and experienced backup QB in Max Johnson, who doesn’t fall back heavily on the injured Conner Weigman. … The four new Big 12 teams are 1-7 in conference play after UCF blew a big lead at home against Baylor and Houston was knocked out by Texas Tech. The only win came Friday night when BYU defeated fellow freshman Cincinnati. … One of the best teams outside the Power Five isn’t even eligible to play in a bowl. James Madison (5-0) remained undefeated against South Alabama, but the Dukes are still moving to FBS and are not eligible for the Sun Belt championship or the postseason. … There was a lot of talk before the season about how a difficult schedule in September could derail West Virginia coach Neal Brown. The Mountaineers finished the month 4-1 by defeating TCU.
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AP Sports Writer John Zenor in Auburn, Ala., contributed to this report.
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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com
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AP College Football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll