Post and Courier sports columnist Scott Hamilton is one of 65 voters in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll. Here’s how his ballot shook out after Week 8:
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High-pressure system: Five ranked matchups in one day set the stage for some dramatic football and that’s what happened. Three of those games were decided by one score. The two decided by larger margins (Alabama’s 37-20 win over Tennessee, Vanderbilt’s 31-24 win over LSU) were much closer than their final scores.
The Commodores were probably the biggest winners among the 10 teams in those games. Vandy is 6-1 (2-1 SEC) for the first time in 75 years, and they snapped a 10-game losing streak to LSU (5-2, 2-2 SEC) that dated back to 1990.
The Commodores looked like a complete team, controlling the clock by 13 minutes and converting 8 of 15 attempted on third and fourth down. All of that was definitely enough to move them up from No. 16 to No. 8 in these rankings.
Vandy quarterback Diego Pavia was 14-of-22 passing for 160 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 86 yards and two more scores. He also had a very Heismenesque moment, popping into the iconic trophy’s pose after scoring a 21-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Low-pressure system: Ohio State’s 34-0 win over Wisconsin was never going to be a struggle; the Buckeyes were never going to drop from the top spot in these rankings.
The Buckeyes (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) are allowing an FBS-fewest 5.9 points a game, while Wisconsin’s (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) offense is averaging a Power Four-worst 13.3 points.
It also doesn’t hurt that Buckeyes’ QB Julian Sayin threw for a career-high 393 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those scores went to Carnell Tate, who caught six passes for 111 yards.
Pop-up storm: Miami went from being second in these rankings (and a candidate for maybe even being the best team in America) to 10th after losing to Louisville 24-21. There’s still plenty of season left, but the Hurricanes (5-1, 1-1 ACC) have some issues to tighten up. Atop the list: cleaning up the locker room after QB Carson Beck pushed tight end Elija Lofton under the bus.
He was throwing to Lofton when he was picked off by Louisville (5-1, 2-1 ACC) linebacker T.J. Capers to seal the win for the Cardinals. Beck said Capers “ran the wrong” route on a ball that already looked underthrown.
It’s worth noting that was one of four (four!) interceptions Beck had against Louisville. He finished 25 of 35 passing for 271 yards and without a touchdown.
Heat wave: Georgia Tech won at Duke 27-18 to improve to 7-0 for the first time since 1966. The Yellow Jackets are also 4-0 in the ACC for the first time in 27 years thanks to another all-around game from QB Haynes King. He threw for 205 yards and rushed for 120 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown run that made it 27-10 with 2:10 remaining.
Georgia Tech moved up from 11th to ninth in these rankings. More importantly, it also appears to have a friendly path to not only the ACC championship game, but perhaps the College Football Playoff.
The Yellow Jackets have four conferences games left (two at home, two on the road) against opponents who are a combined 13-15 overall, 5-10 in the ACC. They’ll wrap up the regular season with their traditional game against Georgia.
Foggy: Of course there’s still a couple of weeks left in October, yet the standings for every conference remains murky. Nine teams in the Big Ten are either tied for first place or only one game behind; eight SEC teams are in that same situation. And no league has more than three teams still undefeated in conference play.
Cold front: Southern Cal, Utah, Memphis and Nebraska are no longer in these rankings. Defeats by the Trojans and Utes are somewhat palatable, coming on the road to ranked teams.
But the Huskers were dominated 24-6 by a mid-level Minnesota team, while Memphis lost to an Alabama-Birmingham squad that just fired its coach.
Cloudburst: There’s still an abundance of SEC teams throughout these rankings, starting with Texas A&M at No. 3 and ending with No. 25 LSU. The Big Ten has five teams (including Ohio State and Indiana at the very top), while the ACC and Big 12 have four each. South Florida (6-1, 3-0 American), up two spots to No. 18 after beating Florida Atlantic 48-13, is the only Group of Six team.
Notre Dame (5-2), as usual, is the lone independent.
Hamilton’s rankings (last week):
1. Ohio State (1)
2. Indiana (2)
3. Texas A&M (4)
4. Alabama (6)
5. Oregon (5)
6. Georgia (9)
7. Ole Miss (5)
8. Vanderbilt (16)
9. Georgia Tech (11)
10. Miami (2)
