జోయెల్ క్లాట్ యొక్క కాలేజ్ ఫుట్‌బాల్ ర్యాంకింగ్స్: ఒహియో స్టేట్ తన నంబర్ 1 స్థానాన్ని పటిష్టం చేస్తూనే ఉంది

A few weeks back, Penn State didn’t have the opportunity to show us who it was yet. Following its upset loss at UCLA on Saturday, we have a pretty good idea now.

Week 6 of the college football season is in the books, and multiple top-10 teams losing to unranked foes means Joel Klatt’s weekly ranking will have some shakeup.  

So, here are Klatt’s top 10 rankings after another week of college football games.

Klatt’s take: Ohio State just dismantled Minnesota, 42-3. It wasn’t very close. Here’s the bottom line for me: they are the team that has not shown a real weakness in any game. And that’s why they’re No. 1. They are suffocatingly good because they have answers. If you take away their deep-passing game, they’ll throw it short. If you take away their short-passing game, they’ll run it. They’ve got the best offensive player in the country in wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, and if you take him away, oh, Carnell Tate is probably a first-round draft pick on the other side. Tate was incredible against Minnesota: nine catches, 183 yards and a touchdown. Hey, that’s a pretty good No 2. receiver. Hey by the way if you single-cover Jeremiah Smith at any point, whether it’s in the regular spot on the field or in the red zone, they just throw it to him and he makes a play, whether it’s a touchdown or not. They can run it with fast backs that are getting better every single game — namely, their freshman Bo Jackson, who’s right up there in terms of efficiency numbers, average yards per carry, things of that nature. Oh and hey by the way they’ve got a five-star quarterback, Julian Sayin, that’s starting to look like a five-star quarterback. The most accurate passer in college football at 80%. He’s a top-five passer in efficiency. He’s only thrown the two picks and they happened a few weeks ago. 

Oh by the way, that whole dissertation about answers and the way that their offense is playing and how elite they are and how suffocatingly good they are: guess what I haven’t talked about yet? The single-best unit in college football. The Ohio State defense is the elite unit in the sport. Period. They are great at the line of scrimmage. Caden Curry has become a real factor as a defensive end. They have the best tandem linebackers in the country in Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese, and they have the single-best defender behind all that in Caleb Downs. It is the best defense and single-best unit in the country. And here’s what’s scary about that: a lot of these guys are really smart players, and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia has taken them to another level. I can’t believe I’m about to say this because they were No. 1 in the country and they won the national championship and they were the best defensive team in the country a year ago: Ohio State’s defense is better this year. They’re faster and they’re more intricate, and they can execute those intricate systems and schematics. Why is Ohio State No. 1 over the other teams? Not that the other teams are bad, not that Ohio State is wildly better, but they haven’t shown a weakness, they’ve got the most elite unit in the sport, they’ve got the best offensive player in the sport, they’ve got the best defensive player right now. That’s a tough out.

Klatt’s take: The win over Penn State is obviously a huge win for them. Now they’re going to have a monster game against Indiana. That’s going to be a huge game, at home, for Oregon. We’ll see if they can rise up again and beat another really quality opponent, a top-10 opponent. This one’s going to be in their house. And I’ll just go back to this: quarterback Dante Moore is playing incredible football, and right now he would probably get the nod for me as the Heisman Trophy winner. I think he’s been that good, and he is that good and will be that good. The defense played great, stopping the run against Penn State and made plays when they needed to in overtime against Penn State with that interception. The run game has been solid: Dierre Hill, their true freshman back, is one of the best backs in the country. He’s very efficient running the football.

Klatt’s take: This is a razor’s edge with these three teams. Miami is going to be No. 3 after their win over Florida State, 28-22. If you voted Miami No. 1, I get that. If you voted Oregon No. 1, I understand that. If you voted Ohio State No. 1, I get it and I support it. Miami’s game was not as close as the final score — we all know it if we watched it, 28-22, but Florida State clawed back in that game. It became schoolyard ball in a sense, a 17-play drive, Miami’s defense starts getting a little bit tired. But man when it was regular football, like let’s just line it up and play, Miami dominated Florida State. Their defensive line dominated Florida State. QB Tommy Castellanos had nowhere to go with the football. And offensively, they’re showing quality run game, good offensive line play and a quarterback that can be elite and explosive. Miami led 28-3 in the fourth quarter. That’s more of the game that I had in my mind. 

Klatt’s take: I had the iPad with the four box going on YouTube TV and my phone, I have five games going on my way home every single Saturday night. One of the four boxes was the Texas A&M game. And it was sluggish at times early on the offensive side, and I thought to myself, “Well, is their offense as elite as I thought?” And then it clicked, right, and it started to get going, and wide receiver Mario Craver gets the ball in space and he’s as fast as anybody in the country. And QB Marcel Reed starts to play a little bit better. But guess what was the constant — and now has been the constant over the last two games in conference? The defense. The defense has been outstanding. Two straight weeks of great defense. In fact, on third down, the most critical snap on defense, A&M’s opposing offenses are 1 for the last 23. So they’ve stopped 22 of the last 23 third-down opportunities in league play. That’s really difficult to do. So they’re playing great, and I think A&M, at this point, is a team that could beat anybody else in the SEC.

Klatt’s take: With QB Trinidad Chambliss, their offense is more dynamic. The defense played really well against LSU; Ole Miss is right there for me. That’s some good wins for them.

Klatt’s take: I think Indiana is the elite team. You watch the way that they play offense, their defense is incredibly opportunistic. Scheme-wise, they game plan as well or better than anybody. Head coach Curt Cignetti does an incredible job every week of putting his players in position to succeed. And their defense does it, as well. I’m always impressed when I watch Indiana on film, and quarterback Fernando Mendoza has kind of taken their offense to another level. I thought Kurtis Roark was really good, in particular before he had that hand injury last year against Nebraska. He had the surgery, they were never really the same after that. Mendoza has increased the level of offensive play and execution and that’s huge for Indiana. And they run it well.

Klatt’s take: Alabama beat Vandy, they ran for 146 yards on almost four a carry. So that was a little bit better than the way they toted the rock against Georgia. That’s my question for them, because I know they’re elite throwing the football. I think they’ve probably got the best pure passing game in college football. Doesn’t surprise me, with head coach Kalen DeBoer’s background, with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s background, quarterback Ty Simpson is a great fit for them. They’ve got weapons on the outside. I don’t necessarily know if it’s in DeBoer’s DNA and Grubb’s DNA to be great running the football, but they ran it effectively enough against Vandy — certainly more effective than they were against Georgia. That does need to increase, though, because here’s the thing with Alabama: as great as they are throwing the football, you’re going to run up against a team that puts pressure on that passing game. Which already happened in Week 1 when Florida State was all over Ty Simpson! See that’s one of those things that doesn’t always travel. When you all of a sudden don’t have a great day protecting the passer, you’re going to be very vulnerable. And that’s where Alabama is going to be at.

Klatt’s take: Couple of quick thoughts on Texas Tech. I watch all of this film, and you can see when a team is good, and you can see when a team has a good record. Those are two totally different things. This is just a really good team. And I think that we have to start wrapping our head around this team being an elite team in college football. They dominated Houston 35-11 — the game was not even as close as that score, since they settled for a couple of field goals on some possessions. They are explosive on offense, they can throw it, they can run it, and then their defense is incredible. The pressure rate that they have… for instance, they put more pressure on Houston, on the quarterback, than anybody last week. The only other team that put that amount of pressure on the opposing quarterback was Florida, on Arch Manning. They were constantly in the backfield, they’ve got really good linebackers. Jacob Rodriguez is going to be an All-American candidate and a Butkus candidate, there’s no doubt. He’s constantly around the football, causing turnovers, he’s productive in terms of tackles. And then they have just built a really, really good roster. That is the best team in the Big 12. They’re going to have a couple of big tests coming up.

Klatt’s take: Georgia beat Kentucky, 35-14, handled their business, did everything that they needed to do. We know that Georgia has some flaws, there’s no doubt. We also know that they are potent and that they could beat anybody. There’s no doubt about that as well. So Georgia is going to continue to sit in there.

Klatt’s take: Now remember, last week I didn’t have Oklahoma in there. I thought the John Mateer injury was going to be really difficult for them to overcome, and it might still be when they face a good opponent. Here’s what I do know: that defense is pretty real. The defensive line is pretty real, and that’s going to give them a chance even if Mateer is not on the field, and even if Mateer is not totally healthy moving forward. 

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!

---

---