College Football Rankings: Alabama turns back another challenger, stays No. 1 in RJ Young's Top 25
By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer
Editor’s note: Every Sunday during the college football season, RJ Young will release his updated Top 25 rankings.
In the marquee matchup of the day, featuring No. 1 Alabama traveling to The Swamp for the first time in a decade to play No. 11 Florida, I wanted to see how much Icarus the Gators had in them.
For those who slept during their Greek mythology elective, Icarus and Daedalus attempted to escape from the isle of Crete with wings daddy Daedalus created from a flock of feathers and some wax. Daddy Daedalus warned Lil' Icarus not to be complacent or arrogant.
He told Lil' Icarus not to fly too high or too low, lest the saltwater spray jam his wings with water or the sun cook his wings like a tapered fade wrapped under a du-rag for a week straight. But Lil' Icarus ignored daddy Daedalus’ warning, flew right up next to the sun and got cooked.
Turns out the Gators don't melt in the sun, which is fortunate because they play in Florida, aka the hot zone, and hoped to go viral with an upset win against Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide.
But it was not to be, as the Tide held off the Gators 31-29 on the road.
Alabama rolled to a 21-3 lead in the first quarter, but Todd Grantham's defense tightened up, particularly against the run.
Dan Mullen's offense got busy running against Pete Golding's defense. On the strength of 245 rush yards, Florida outgained Alabama in total yards, 439 to 324.
Emory Jones solidified his place as Florida's starting quarterback with 278 total yards, a rushing TD, an interception and only two sacks allowed. But Tide quarterback Bryce Young was just a touch better statistically, even if, at times, it felt like Jones outplayed young.
Young completed 22 of 35 for 240 yards with three tuddees to improve his TD-interception ratio to 10-0 while passing for at least 227 yards in each of Alabama's first three games.
But this narrow, two-point Tide victory showed how the 2021 detergent might be stained, and it starts with having the talent to run with Thanos’ Titans of Tuscaloosa.
There are 1,696 players on 32 NFL 53-man rosters — 54 of those played at Alabama.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Alabama has had more players in the league than any other college football program. But five of the top 20 programs with alumni in the NFL are on Alabama's 2021 schedule.
Put another way: 648 players, or 38% of the NFL, come from those 20 schools, and Alabama has to play a quarter of those schools this season. Indeed, 32 NFL players played their college ball at Florida.
This is why many continue to say the best football in the sport is played in the SEC and, in particular, the SEC West. According to the Team Talent Composite, Alabama has or will play five of the 15 most talented teams in the country this year.
In this game against Florida, there were a total of 20 five-stars on the two rosters. Which means there were at least 20 projected first-rounders at The Swamp, even if 14 of them play for Alabama.
The bottom line remains the same, though, as it has the past 16 times the Tide has played football. Saban is 11-0 all-time against Mullen, and the Tide have won 32 straight against SEC East opponents, dating back 11 years.
But the Tide still has ranked opponents Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Auburn left, let alone a talented LSU and feisty Mississippi State.
Alabama might be the best team in America yet again, but that doesn’t mean it's not gonna have to earn it.
Still, I'm not picking against the Tide the rest of the way.
Now, to the updated rankings:
No. 1 Alabama (3-0)
Defeated Florida 31-29
No. 2 Oregon (4-0)
Defeated Stony Brook 48-7
After three weeks, Oregon is the only undefeated team in the Pac-12. It’s a YIKES from me, dawg.
No. 3 Georgia (3-0)
Defeated South Carolina 40-13
No. 4 Iowa (3-0)
Defeated Kent State 30-7
No. 5 Penn State (3-0)
Defeated Auburn 28-20
Penn State joins Alabama, Brigham Young and Iowa as the only programs in the country with two Top 25 wins through four weeks of football and has made the best case yet to threaten Ohio State for Big Ten East supremacy.
No. 6 Oklahoma (3-0)
Defeated Nebraska 23-16
This game was scheduled to celebrate the 1971 Game of the Century that featured No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma. But in the buildup, it didn’t look like it was going to be much of a game. Oklahoma was thought to be so good, and Nebraska was thought to be so very bad.
Just look at Nebraska's loss to an Illinois team that lost to Maryland, Virginia and Texas-San Antonio. Illinois ain’t very good, and we all thought a team that lost to the Illini can’t be very good either.
After all that, though, it was 7-3 at halftime in a game I thought OU might lead 73-0 at the half. And it was the first time the Sooners were held to single digits in the first half at Owen Field since being held to six points by Notre Dame in 2012. (I was covering that game, and James Harden was traded from the Thunder to the Rockets that night.)
One thing we learned Saturday: Spencer Rattler is not the gunslinger Baker Mayfield was in 2017. He's more like Baker was in 2015.
Rattler is talented — he's just not good yet. But he has the potential to be great. Still, OU fans were screaming for Caleb Williams to start at QB.
Death, taxes and Oklahoma fans asking to see the true freshman quarterback in a tight game.
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RJ Young offers his takeaways from Oklahoma's 23-16 win over Nebraska, including his thoughts on the performances of Spencer Rattler and the Sooners' defense.
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But QB ain’t Oklahoma's problem. Finishing games is. The Sooners have a second-half problem against teams with a pulse.
In 2020, OU led K-State 21-7 at half and lost 38-35. In the same year, the Sooners led Iowa State 17-6 at half and lost 37-30.
They led Iowa State 24-7 at half in the Big 12 title game last year and barely held on 27-24. This season, they led Tulane 37-14 and barely held on 40-35. And then there’s Nebraska on Saturday.
If Pat Fields didn't run back that blocked extra point attempt for two, we're looking not at a one-score game but at a game Nebraska could've won with its final possession – just like Tulane two weeks ago.
And if D.J. Graham hadn't made the most acrobatic INT of the Century — get it, "Int of the Century" — OU might've lost the game altogether. But it didn't, and you know what I think September is about: Survive and advance.
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Oklahoma cornerback D.J. Graham leaps and makes an incredible, one-handed interception to thwart a fourth-quarter drive by Nebraska.
At 3-0, the Sooners did just that. With that in mind, Nebraska QB Adrian Martinez had just 34 yards rushing, even if he did throw for 289, and was sacked five times.
All this in a game in which Oklahoma didn’t turn the ball over as Nebraska deliberately slowed the game down. It wasn't pretty, and no one wants to hear that a Nebraska team that lost to Illinois, and now OU, is decent.
The win was OU’s 11th straight, tied for the second-longest streak in the country with Texas A&M.
Meanwhile, Nebraska, baby – now you know you're good enough to play with the No. 3 team in the country. Somehow, I think Huskers fans will feel they should’ve won this game, and I don't think that's gonna make them feel any better about losing it.
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Joel Klatt breaks down the Oklahoma-Nebraska game and says that the Cornhuskers have made significant progress under head coach Scott Frost.
No. 7 Notre Dame (3-0)
Defeated Purdue 27-13
No. 8 Ohio State (2-1)
Defeated Tulsa 41-20
No. 9 Arkansas (3-0)
Defeated Georgia Southern 45-10
No. 10 Texas A&M (3-0)
Defeated New Mexico 34-0
No. 11 BYU (3-0)
Defeated Arizona State 27-17
With the win, BYU has knocked off back-to-back ranked opponents this season. Iowa is the only other team to accomplish that feat. It’s also the first time ever in school history that BYU has beaten ranked opponents in back-to-back weeks.
No. 12 Clemson (2-1)
Defeated Georgia Tech 14-8
No. 13 Cincinnati (3-0)
Defeated Indiana 38-24
The win against Indiana, which the AP and I both ranked in the preseason, means more than Coastal Carolina’s best win so far this season against a Kansas team still rebuilding.
No. 14 Coastal Carolina (3-0)
Defeated Buffalo 28-25
No. 15 Rutgers (3-0)
Defeated Delaware 45-13
No. 16 Michigan State (3-0)
Defeated Miami (Fla.) 38-17
MSU tailback Kenneth Walker III went for 172 on 27 rushes, but Scottie Halzeton’s Spartan defense got lit up by quarterback D’Eriq King for nearly 400 yards through the air.
No. 17 Kansas State (3-0)
Defeated Nevada 38-17
K-State tailback Deuce Vaughn is still that dude. He rushed for more yards (127) than K-State quarterback Will Howard passed for (123).
No. 18 Ole Miss (3-0)
Defeated Tulane 61-21
Mississippi hung 61 on a team Oklahoma could only muster 40 on, and Mississippi gave up just 21 to a team Oklahoma struggled to hold to 35.
No. 19 Maryland (3-0)
Defeated Illinois 20-17
It’s the first time since 2016 that the Terps have begun the season 3-0. They also beat a West Virginia team that just knocked off a previously unbeaten Va. Tech – ranked No. 14 here last week.
No. 20 Michigan (3-0)
Defeated Northern Illinois 63-10
It’s not just that Michigan’s first nine drives ended in touchdowns. It’s that the Wolverines beat down an NIU team that beat a Georgia Tech team that played vaunted Clemson to a one-score game.
The Wolverines also put up 373 rush yards in this game.
No. 21 Wisconsin (2-1)
BYE
No. 22 Iowa State (2-1)
Defeated UNLV 48-3
No. 23 TCU (2-0)
BYE
No. 24 Florida (2-1)
Lost to Alabama 31-29
No. 25 Fresno State (2-1)
Defeated UCLA 40-37
Look, I could put undefeated Oklahoma State in this spot after a nail-biting win against Boise State. Or Southern Methodist after needing a Hail Mary to get past Louisiana Tech.
Or undefeated Baylor, which barely beat a Texas State team that got thumped Saturday night by Incarnate Word. Or Utah State, which smacked a bad Washington State team that happens to play in a Power 5 conference.
Or undefeated Army, which has a signature win against — check notes — Georgia State. Or undefeated Texas Tech, which whipped Florida International 54-21 and has its best start to any season since 2017.
Or undefeated San Diego State, which told Utah to put the money in the bag.
I could have ranked any of those teams, but I ranked Fresno State. QB Jake Haener hit 39 of 53 for 455 yards with two TDs and one INT. Tailback Ronnie Rivers carried the rock 21 times for 136 yards, and wideout Jalen Cropper caught 14 balls for 141 yards.
Beating UCLA is the biggest win Fresno State has recorded against a ranked opponent in two decades.
I ranked the Bulldogs because they’ve not just been in every game they’ve played; they were fewer than four minutes from knocking off Oregon, the same Oregon that marched into Columbus and handed Ohio State an L at home.
The Bulldogs also have one thing these 3-0 teams do not: a win against a ranked opponent on the road. And the team the Bulldogs beat? Knocked off a talented and formerly ranked LSU team, a team that was thought to be one of the best in the deepest division in football when the season began.
As for the remaining unbeaten teams that are not ranked, may you play a team with a number next to its name and continue to run the table. Until then, I will give the Bulldogs their flowers with the knowledge that I think they could beat those that aren’t ranked here.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.