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Predicting College Football Playoff rankings after Week 9: Some movement in the middle

Where does #Michigan rank?

Week 9 is in the books and like every week, we are going to predict the College Football Playoff rankings.

The first CFP rankings will be revealed on Tuesday night, so tune in to find out what the official rankings will look like.

Our top eight will remain the same since all teams either took care of business or had a bye week. Ohio State, Michigan, and Tennessee all took care of teams that had presented them with trouble in the past.

There were a couple of upsets in Week 9. Kansas State pounded Oklahoma State without their starting quarterback, Adrian Martinez and Louisville crushed Wake Forest.

We had a couple of new teams enter out top 25 this week. UCF defeated Cincinnati on Saturday and it will jump into the 25th spot and UC will find its way out of the rankings.

Keep reading to find out what we think the top 25 would look like if it were released on Sunday.

Michigan dominated MSU with strong second half but red zone woes continue

Once #Michigan can score in the red zone, nobody can beat them! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Another Saturday, another Michgian victory.

The Wolverines continue rolling through their competition and this time, Michigan State became Michigan’s eighth victim. The maize and blue dominated their way to a 29-7 victory over their in-state, bitter, rival.

Michigan gained 443 yards on the ground against Sparty compared to MSU gaining 252. The Wolverines recorded 27 first downs to the Spartans’ 11. It was a butt-whooping, but the scoreboard should have been even more lopsided than it was.

The Wolverines have had a red zone issue that has been surfacing in the last few weeks and it looks to be a real issue. Michigan had the ball inside the red zone five times on Saturday night against the Spartans but the Wolverines kicked three field goals. Two of those drives reached the MSU five-yard line and instead of gaining yards, Michigan went backward.

After the game on Saturday, Michigan has now scored touchdowns in the red zone 28 times out of 44 attempts. The maize and blue score touchdowns 63% of the time they have the ball inside the opposing 20 — not great.

At times, it seems as if the offense tightens up when it gets inside the red zone. The Wolverines choose to run the ball up the middle with very little creativity. There are never any fades to talented Michigan receivers, screens, or almost anything other than a run up the middle.

J.J. McCarthy acknowledges there is an issue. The sophomore quarterback says there is a lot to unpack from this game and he knows the offense will be focusing on its red zone woes.

“There’s multiple factors, just basic execution, and scheme,” said McCarthy. “Like there’s so many things that we just got to unpack and unravel. And really get into the film where we really understand what and why, like, why aren’t we getting in there? And don’t have any answers for that right now. But it’s just all of the above. I mean, we’re going back-to-back weeks without finishing, and this — this game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Should have been a blowout. And that’s all just based on a red zone.”

Blake Corum says that Michgian won and that’s all that matters. He is right, the Wolverines defeated — dominated — a big-time rival on Saturday. But even the junior back, who ran for 177 yards and scored two touchdowns, says that this game should have been a blowout if Michigan could’ve scored more touchdowns.

“You know we got the win,” said Corum. “You know, you want to win, you win by one, you win by one, you know, you just want to win. So yeah, I would say we got out of it when we wanted to. But we got to score, you know, I want to blow them out. This should have been a blowout. But you know, not gonna make no excuses, man, we got to get better at the red zone. And we will, you know, that’s what’s so good about this team. You know, we see some bad, you know, we go back to the table. We’re gonna work on the red zone.”

Even with kicking five field goals on Saturday, Michigan still won by 22 points. That was largely due to the Wolverines’ second-half adjustments that were made. In the first half, MSU racked up 189 yards of offense and the Spartans were throwing jump balls to Keon Coleman for 20-plus yards.

Michigan has made a living at making crucial adjustments at halftime to slow the opposing team down. The first three drives of the second half from the Spartans were three-and-out. MSU ended the second half with 63 total yards of offense. The Wolverines were able to get more of a pass rush against Payton Thorne and did a better job of giving safety help against Michigan State’s tall receivers.

McCarthy says that the team loves those last 30 minutes of a game. He believes the team thrives playing in the second half of games, and so far, the sophomore is right.

“All those fourth-quarter finishes,” said McCarthy. “We live for that, all the chips are on the table, you got 30 more minutes to show what you can do, and leave it all out there. We want that we want that. And we thrive in that. So it’s just something that we’ve been building up over the offseason for months and months, and it’s just where we thrive.”

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ESPN updates its college football power rankings after Week 9. Where is Ohio State after the Penn State win?

ESPN updated its Week 9 Power Rankings. Did Ohio State’s performance knock it from the top? #GoBucks

As we continue on for the college football season, we’re now through Week 9. Some of the same teams that were expected to be at the top and started there have remained there, but there have definitely been some surprises like there always are in this grand sport.

Each week, ESPN produces a list of college football power rankings that change based on performance, and the “worldwide leader” is at it again with its updated power rankings after Week 9.

Teams like Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, and Tennessee continued to roll on Saturday, while teams like Oklahoma State and Wake Forest failed to impress.

Here is how ESPN sees the landscape of college football after Week 9 with its updated power rankings.

Blake Corum and J.J. McCarthy share thoughts on the Michigan State rivalry

No love lost between these two schools.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There is certainly no love lost between these two teams.

Jim Harbaugh and Michigan got their first win against Mel Tucker on Saturday after defeating the Spartans, 29-7. The Wolverines moved to 8-0 on the season and Michgian’s Big Ten and CFP hopes are still well alive.

The score really doesn’t indicate how dominant the Wolverines were in the game.

The maize and blue outgained MSU, 443-252. The Wolverines ran the ball down the Spartans’ throat. It’s what Michigan has done all season, run the opposing team into oblivion. And Michigan State happened to be the latest victim.

This in-state showdown happens once a year and the team that won the latest game will have bragging rights until the next game. Michigan State had won two straight against Michigan going into the game. These Michigan players heard all about the Spartans’ victories over the maize and blue and they finally had enough.

After the game ended, Blake Corum and J.J. McCarthy were the two offensive players that the media had a chance to talk to. Running back Blake Corum came into the press conference with an opening statement ready to roll.

“Y’all like that? I thought Tuck was coming,” said Corum. “I thought Tuck was coming! That’s what they said this offseason, right? All them shirts? Tuck was coming. I just saw him running”

Michigan State isn’t the first team that has come into the Big House with confidence and using words to express themselves. In the last home game, Penn State players threw PB&J sandwiches at Michigan and a scuffle started in the tunnel. McCarthy says that the Wolverines allow the opposing teams to run their mouths and the Wolverines believe in allowing their football skills to do the talking.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve had multiple, numerous teams come in here just yapping their mouth,” said McCarthy. “And we just like to come back with action. We don’t like talking back with words. That’s just all extra stuff. We just want to do what we do.”

Ohio State and Michigan are the biggest rivalry in all of football. But between Ohio State and Michigan State, which game is dirtier? Well, after the first video surfaced showing Michigan State players attacking a Wovlerine — I would say the MSU rivalry is extremely dirty.

Blake Corum was blunt when saying he doesn’t like the Spartans and that whenever his team beats a rival, it does the trick by shutting them up until the next game between the two teams.

“I don’t like them,” said Corum.

“I mean we don’t talk we just do,” Corum said. “Our side of the game is always clean we just try to punish we don’t do much talking. The coaches always preach ‘don’t talk just beat them’. That’s what we take pride in so you know obviously everything — you know whether it be Michigan State or Ohio State, but we don’t we don’t really feed into that. I don’t really know which game is cleaner. But when you beat them they shut up.”

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ESPN CFB analyst Aaron Murray reveals new top-10: Dawgs on top

ESPN’s @AaronMurray11 updates new top 10

Former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray, now a college football analyst with ESPN, provided me with his personal rankings of the top 10 teams following Week 9.

In Week 9, the Georgia Bulldogs took down the Florida Gators, 42-20, to move to 8-0. It was close for a few minutes in the third quarter before UGA pulled away again. But overall, it was dominance.

Ohio State beat Penn State, 44-31, but it was a very, very close game until the Buckeyes went on a run in the fourth quarter. And Tennessee simply dominated Kentucky.

Here’s Murray’s new top 10:

Offensive/Defensive Players of the Week from Nebraska’s loss to Illinois

Here are the Offensive/Defensive Players of the Week from Nebraska’s loss to Illinois

On Saturday, the Nebraska Cornhuskers suffered a 9-26 loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini.

It was a competitive game in the first half. Midway through the second quarter, the Cornhuskers actually held a 9-6 lead. Unfortunately, quarterback Casey Thompson left the game late in the second quarter with an injury. In Thompson’s absence, Nebraska’s offense failed to put any additional points on the board. Backup quarterback Chubba Purdy completed only three passes for 15 yards.

It was an ugly loss. Nevertheless, a couple of players managed to have standout performances. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Nebraska’s Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week.

Best photos from Georgia’s 42-20 win over Florida

Best photos from Georgia’s win over the Gators

On Saturday, the Georgia Bulldogs moved to 8-0 with a 42-20 win over the Florida Gators. It was a game of runs in Jacksonville. Georgia held a 28-3 halftime lead before Florida scored 17 unanswered to cut it 28-20. The Dawgs then scored the final 14 points of the game to give Georgia another win over the Gators.

Stetson Bennett was phenomenal in the first half before a rough third quarter. He finished the game with 316 yards and two touchdowns on 19 of 38 passing. He threw two interceptions. Brock Bowers was the player of the game, reeling in five catches for 154 yards and a touchdown. Daijun Edwards had 106 rushing yards and Kenny McIntosh had 90 of his own.

Here’s the best photos from Georgia’s win over the Gators:

Joel Klatt updates his college football top 10 after Week 9

He’s the best in the business.

While the week in college football wasn’t wild in terms of big upsets or anything like that, we did see some teams really assert themselves. One of those teams was Tennessee with a visceral beatdown of neighboring Kentucky.

Georgia beat rival Florida, Michigan beat rival MSU and Ohio State beat rival Penn State. There were some growing pains in the latter two games, to be sure, but it doesn’t always necessarily preclude doom.

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt has a steady hand, and while OSU did come away with a multi-score win, he dropped the Buckeyes a spot in his latest top 10. Here is the list of who he has and where.

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