SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
So where does the Colorado football team go from here?
First its new head coach Deion Sanders signed out of Jackson State and brought his Buffalos a classic win over Texas Christian, the other thing is last year’s national runner-up that was clobbered by Michigan came in at No. 16 this time after graduation claimed most of the Horned Frogs, and also fell from the ranks after that.
Then a wounded Sanders and his almost amputated left leg rolled over a Colorado State rival and continued to be the early story of the collegiate grid season, going 3-0 after winning just once last year.
But it all came to a close when Sanders and his very talented quarterback son traveled to No. 9 Oregon, and before a full house wearing gold and green, were shellacked from start to finish, 42-6, and out of the top 25.
No excuses from the former stellar athlete, he took the loss and now awaits undefeated No. 8 Southern California’s visit to Boulder Saturday. The Trojans though did fall from No. 5 after getting a tough test at unranked Arizona State last Saturday (were favored by 35 but won by 16), so now they hit the road and head coach Lincoln Riley is expected to have his team well prepared this time.
And the Buffs, who knows? Either they play well enough to jump back into the rankings or continue to fade. Sanders took the Oregon embarrassment fairly well, but his words weren’t kind.
“Are you kidding me,” he said, “we were humiliated, beaten in every phase of the game, so now we have to pick ourselves up and see if we can recover against a very good USC team.”
Well, hail Mary to Coach Sanders.
Then there was previously unbeaten UCLA with the same dilemma, falling out of the rankings after getting to No. 9 before the setback at now No. 10 Utah, which is at No. 19 Oregon State Friday night. No. 4 Ohio State, which won Saturday in the last seconds at Notre Dame, has an off weekend, while the Fighting Irish hung in at No. 10 and has a toughie Saturday at No. 17 rising Duke.
Wobbly Alabama, at 3-1, stayed in the top 25 at No. 16 by getting past Mississippi on a late run, but the Crimson Tide doesn’t appear to be challenging much this time around.
Two-time No. 1 Georgia is 4-0 and remains in the top spot with a test at unranked Auburn on tap. No. 2 Michigan routed visiting unbeaten, unranked Rutgers, and No. 3 Texas romped over Baylor on the road and now faces No. 24 Kansas.
Undefeated No. 6 Penn State with shades of the late Joe Paterno is red-hot and heads for unranked Northwestern next. Unbeaten Washington, too, is playing stellar ball at No. 7 and now travels to unranked Arizona. At No. 9 is Oregon and it plays next at unranked Stanford.
The Pac-12 though had nine teams in the top 25 prior to last weekend, and now has six, which is still an impressive number.
Then there’s No. 13 Louisiana State traveling to No. 20 Mississippi, which lost by three to Bama. Soaring No. 14 Oklahoma has routed its four opponents and is now at Iowa State. Tennessee, at No. 21, plays at South Carolina, No. 22 Florida at Kentucky, No. 23 Missouri at Vanderbilt, and No. 25 Fresno State versus Nevada.
Interesting, 15 of the ranked teams hit the road this weekend.
Six teams receiving first place votes is the most in a regular-season poll since Nov. 1, 2015. In that poll, Ohio State was No. 1, and had been that way since the preseason as the defending national champion, and the Buckeyes also received 39 first-place votes.
Also then, No. 2 Baylor got six No. 1 votes, three went to No. 3 Clemson, No. 4 LSU picked up five, No. 5 TCU four, and No. 7 Alabama had one.
The three teams that entered the rankings this week were No. 23 Missouri for the first time since 2019, No. 24 Kansas for the second consecutive season, and No. 25 Fresno State, a winner of 13 straight games, the second-longest after Georgia’s 17, which finished last season with 24.
Also joining Colorado and UCLA out of the poll was Iowa. The Hawkeyes have yo-yoed in and out of the rankings and did not receive a single point this week after getting shut out at Penn State.
As for the conference listings in the national rankings, there’s seven from the Southeastern Conference, six from the Pac-12, four from the Atlantic Coast Conference, three from the Big Ten, three from the Big 12, and one from the Mountain West. The lone independent is No. 11 Notre Dame.
