Joel Klatt’s College Football Rankings: Indiana Shakes Up The Top 10, LSU Falls

If you have been waiting for a major shakeup in the top 10, then it’s here: Indiana’s huge win over Illinois is part of that, but its performance isn’t the only one that reshaped these rankings.

Week 4 of the college football season is in the books, and so are Joel Klatt’s weekly rankings of the top 10 schools. 

Here are Klatt’s top 10 rankings after another week of college football games.

Klatt’s take: They were off last week, but it’s still Ohio State at No. 1. They’ve been, to me, the most impressive team. Again, you lose 14 draft picks off of your team that won a national championship, had all of that senior leadership, they’ve got to replace so much on their team, and what do they do? It’s just reload and go back to business. Quarterback Julian Sayin has been terrific, he’s leading the country in completion percentage. He throws it down the field as well, it’s not like it’s just dink and dunk to achieve that completion percentage. Very accurate and deep down the field. They’ve still got Jeremiah Smith, who I think is the best player in college football, you still have Caleb Downs and a defense that has reloaded under Matt Patricia – that’s the team to me that’s been the most impressive, and they’re my No. 1 team.

Klatt’s take: Every week, I get more and more and more impressed by Miami. This team is really good. They’re great at the line of scrimmage on both sides. Rueben Bain has been the most impactful defender in college football so far. He and Caleb Downs have been clearly the two best defenders in the sport, and yet Bain has been a bigger impact player thus far this year. Bain has been a game wrecker – no one can block him on the line of scrimmage, the pressure he puts on the opposing quarterback is immense, and yet he’s also great against the run and has a great motor in pursuit. It’s wild how good this guy is, and so with him on the field, that Miami defense is elite. And with quarterback Carson Beck on the field, the offense, with their offensive line, can control the line of scrimmage and make plays down the field. I know their offense didn’t play a staggering game against Florida, but (No. 1) Florida’s defense is pretty good and very athletic, and (No. 2) it’s raining and they did what they needed to do, and still owned the line of scrimmage.

Klatt’s take: Georgia’s win over Tennessee was impressive, in particular the way that it happened – I give them a lot of credit for that. I’ve been so impressed with quarterback Gunner Stockton, down 21-7 in that environment in Neyland and winning 44-41.

Klatt’s take: Of all the teams you’re going to track with this, do we know the least amount about Penn State? Probably. I think that they’re really good, I don’t know that they are. Every other team has had some performance where you’re like, “OK, I kind of get it, I know where the questions are, I know where the strengths are.” I think I know all of those things about Penn State, but we’re going to find out this Saturday when they host Oregon.  

Klatt’s take: Teams two through five are pretty interchangeable – you can convince me that any of them are the second-best team or the fifth-best team. At No. 5, I’m going to go Oregon – I think quarterback Dante Moore is playing really well, I love his potential, I really like the roster, I like the size in key areas of their team. And I still have some concerns about their run defense. Every one of these teams, from two to five, I love elements of their team, but then there’s some elements that give me a little bit of concern. The run defense for Oregon against Northwestern was not great; they have to face Penn State this week with those great backs, so we’ll see how that goes.

Klatt’s take: Here’s a team that gets this big win in Week 1, and we’re like, “Oh wow, that’s crazy, maybe this other team got all the focus and what happened to them?” I’m talking about Florida State: they beat up on Alabama really soundly, and since then, all Alabama has done is totally right the ship. And they’re playing way better. And now in hindsight, I’m thinking, “Hold on a second: Alabama, beating them the way that Florida State did, was crazy!” So Florida State is going to be No. 6. They’ve totally taken care of business, emphatically, since that win over Alabama. They had 775 total yards against Kent State, nearly 500 of them on the ground, they’re second in the country in rushing at 363 yards per game. … It’s tough to beat Florida State this year. 

Klatt’s take: There’s just been more teams that have been more impressive, and every single week this résumé gets weaker and weaker and weaker. LSU is No. 7 – I had them all the way up at No. 2 at one point after that win over Clemson, but now the way that Clemson has played, some of their games that they’ve played since. … I can’t in good conscience put LSU in the top five. Even an LSU fan would understand that, again, with some of the performances we’ve seen across the country and the consistency that we’ve seen from some of these teams. The Clemson win is now not a good win! 

Klatt’s take: Oklahoma gets another win, and it’s another big win for them. This time, they get their former quarterback Jackson Arnold and Auburn, and they get them in their home stadium and beat ‘em. John Mateer is playing well, maybe as well as anybody in the country. The defense, though, and this is really the thing that has me most excited about Oklahoma, is the fact that it’s not just some wide-open offense or some quarterback with a cape on his back. It’s that the defense is real; this defense was outstanding against Auburn.

Klatt’s take: What we saw Saturday night in Bloomington was ridiculous. Indiana is going to be my No. 9 team – that team is freaking good, man. What a performance against Illinois, and Illinois was ranked in the top 10. A lot of us thought highly of Illinois – they had 16 starters back from a team that won double-digit games last year. And Indiana just took ’em behind the shed. It was not even close. That Indiana team is very good.

Klatt’s take: I know that Arch Manning played a lot better, and certainly, I would say, that’s heartening for the Texas fans, there’s no doubt about that. Five total touchdowns, only three incompletions against Sam Houston – hey, that’s great. Defense still top-five in the country. I feel like I know that the defense is going to be just fine. Now the question is, “What Arch are we going to get from week to week?” There’s been some drastic inconsistencies with the way that he’s played. Obviously, it’s a great sign moving forward if he’s able to play the level of football that he did last week against Sam Houston. If that continues, they’re not a 10th-ranked team, they’re a third-ranked team or a fourth-ranked team. This can change, and it can change in a hurry.

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