The Color & Pageantry Top 25

College Football

Top 25

1.     Florida State, 8-0, 1
2.     Mississippi State, 8-0, 2
3.     Alabama, 7-1, 3
4.     Oregon, 8-1, 4
5.     Auburn, 7-1, 8
6.     Michigan State, 7-1, 5
7.     Kansas State, 7-1, 11
8.     Texas Christian, 7-1, 10
9.     Notre Dame, 7-1, 6
10.   Baylor, 7-1, 14
11.   Ole Miss, 7-2, 9
12.   Arizona State, 7-1, 12
13.   Louisiana State, 7-2, 15
14.   Ohio State, 7-1, 16
15.   Nebraska, 8-1, 13
16.   Georgia, 6-2, 7
17.   Oklahoma, 6-2, 19
18.   UCLA, 7-2, 24
19.   Arizona, 6-2, 16
20.   Clemson, 6-2, 20
21.   West Virginia, 6-3, 20
22.   Utah, 6-2, 18
23.   Wisconsin, 6-2, NR
24.   Miami, 6-3, NR
25.   Louisville, 6-3, 23

OUT:  Duke (22) East Carolina (25)

VOTES: Duke, Southern Cal, Iowa, Missouri, Georgia Tech, Florida, Stanford, Texas A&M, Marshall and Colorado State.

NATIONAL ANALYSIS

UCF arrived in a cold and wet Stores, CT to take on lowly UCONN, and proceeded to sleepwalk through the entire game, throwing interceptions seemingly every other drive and giving a much needed win away, going away, a most pitiful performance.....OU bombed Iowa State in Ames.....Iowa absolutely throttled Northwestern, an outcome few anticipated, perhaps signalling the Hawks are becoming what we thought they might be this season....Wisconsin smothered Rutgers....Miami looks like they are reaching their peak at just the right time, running wild behind Duke Johnson to swarm North Carolina in front of a sparse crowd in Sun Life....Duke outlasted Pitt 51-48 in a pair of overtimes, with offensive fireworks just like the 58-55 game last season....Boston College held on to beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and after the decisive win at Ohio State in early September, the wheels appear to have fallen off. The Texas Aggies got by La. Monroe, and are nothing near what they seemed after bombing So. Carolina to start the year.....Washington struggled to beat Colorado, who is showing some signs of improvement.....TCU took the lead for the first time on a last second FG to beat West Virginia in Morgantown, and we fear for several couches in the immediate proximity...Ga. Tech defeated Virginia soundly, and the Jackets hope to find a way to win the ACC Coastal over Duke....Michigan, after the appropriate resignation of their AD, used a more festive home atmosphere to beat Indiana.....Missouri beat Kentucky, and now looks in control in the SEC East, because the Florida Gators, with coach Will Muschamp all but fired, used a devastating rushing attack to throttle Georgia at The World's Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville.  It was a stunning outcome, as Georgia thought it was only a formality; however, the Gators have five star talent all over the field...Maryland upended Penn State at State College, but their players refused to shake hands with the Lions, yet another reason to cheer against the Terps...Baylor and Southern Cal got needed conference wins...Tennessee is getting better, and you knew they would beat someone soon, and the win came at South Carolina, who is reeling...Miss State held on against Arkansas, another vastly improving team who is ready to score a big win....Ohio State crushed Illinois...K-State wiped out Okie State, still struggling after losing their starting QB a few weeks back...Notre Dame escaped Navy.....Oregon controlled a Stanford team not as good in '14 as in recent seasons....Cal is another improved team, and won at Oregon State...They say adversity can make you stronger, but the devastating loss by Ole Miss on Saturday night, inclusive of a grotesque injury to star wideout Laquon Treadwell, will be awfully tough to overcome.  Tackled from behind reaching for paydirt, Treadwell appears to have suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle, fumbling the ball before crossing the goal line in the final moments of the game, enabling Auburn to escape The Grove with the win.  UCLA, in awful looking uniforms, got a much needed win, grounding Arizona in Westwood....Arizona State beat surging Utah in Tempe in overtime, and Arizona State is 7-1 and in some control in the PAC 12.

FLORIDA STATE ANALYSIS

Many of the experts, from Mark May of ESPN to Randy Cross of CBS Sports, thought Louisville would upset Florida State at The Ville on Thursday night.  Coach Jimbo Fisher thought it would be a tremendous challenge for the undefeated Seminoles.  Louisville, after all, had the number #1 ranked defense and a wide receiver widely considered a top pick for the NFL draft.  On the first play, Louisville hit a 7 yard bomb down to the FSU 5.  The Noles held, but before you knew it, it was 21-0 Louisville and social media was a buzz.  The Seminoles closed to 24-7, but then proceeded to throw up almost 600 yards of offense en route to winning 42-31.  A late score by FSU made the final score a bit deceiving, as the Cards gave FSU all they wanted.  Many of the issues plaguing the Seminoles were, as usual, self inflicted. Much of the night, Jameis Winston was not sharp, tossing three interceptions.  But, when he was on, he was brilliant.  Running back Dalvin Cook has emerged, and he had 37 and 40 yard touchdown runs, which helped immensely.  FSU was intermittent on the stop side, but got plays when it counted.  Louisville is a good football team, and that is an impressive environment they have, so Florida State should feel fortunate to win given the 24-7 deficit they faced.  At times, FSU looks very average.  At times, the Seminoles make teams look silly.  The bad news is that the 'Noles cannot continue to dig big holes and come storming back, as one afternoon that won't work.   The good news for FSU is they have not dreamed of playing their best game.  With game at Miami, and arch rival Florida, who just slapped UGA around, upcoming, that game may be needed to close the regular season undefeated.   Right now, 24 wins in a row and unconquered.

NEBRASKA ANALYSIS

A home game against Purdue, an improving team who is not in the class of the Big Red, is just what was needed as the Huskers prepare for a stretch of games which will decide the winner of the B1G West. Instead of fine tuning en route to easy win, Nebraska showcased seemingly each and every weakness they have, and although the Big Red won 35-14, the game made every Husker fan very uneasy moving forward. Quarterback Tommy Armstrong, for whatever reason, continues to make poor decisions, turn the ball over and make poor throws, as evidenced by his unacceptable completion percentage.  Then, there is the inexplicable issue of receiving the snap.  With Nebraska about to go up 14-0, Armstrong fumbled the snap, which Ameer Abdullah scrambled to retrieve attempting to dart into paydirt.  Instead, Abdullah's knee got twisted and he was lost for the game, and Purdue took over on downs.  Whether Abdullah will be back at 100% in two weeks for the critical game at Wisconsin is not known, but this whole turn of events did not need to take place.  The fumbling of snaps continued, no matter who was at center.  Interceptions, blamed on poor route running, were idiocy.  Backing up Abdullah, Imani Cross could not seem to break a tackle, while Newby had some moments. The big uglies were fair to midland, but the lack of offensive cohesion and poor yards per play were glaring.  Defensively, the line play was decent, and the backers made some plays, but this was not a dominating an effort as you might expect at this juncture of the year.  I have noted the absence of Johsua Kalu, who played so well as a true freshman early in the year, and I am not sure why. What we have learned it that the glaring weaknesses underscore a simple truth; Nebraska has no chance of winning the B1G West if they play as they have the past two weeks.  It is not the time to switch signal callers.  But over the bye week, the coaching staff should be hard at work, allowing Armstrong to play games moving forward which accentuate his strengths, and there are many.  Obviously, if Abdullah is out, this becomes even more critical. 11-1 or 8-4 will depend on the work of the coaches over the bye week before heading first to Wisconsin.