College Football’s Top 25 after 10 weeks

#20 Syracuse

So who had the Orange going 7-2 before the season started? I’m waiting. Syracuse has been a cool story, because this is the first time they have reached seven wins since their first season joining the ACC in 2013. With that being said – and I like this team – the committee has overrated the entire conference in a ridiculous manner.

Clemson is clearly the second-best team in the country right now, but the fact that there are three other ACC teams in he top 20 just because they have only lost two games, feeding on a really bad conference this year, simply isn’t right. Syracuse at 13 in all three major polls is mind-blowing to me with their biggest win coming at home versus N.C. State, who I think shouldn’t even be ranked, and the FPI saying they are only the 40th-best team in the nation.

And I don’t want to hear anything of this nonsense about how they almost beat Clemson. The Tigers defeated them with a redshirt freshman, who was a three-star recruit, and if Trevor Lawrence didn’t leave the game he would have sat the fourth quarter anyway because of the lead they would have had built until then already.

Okay, now that is out, so let’s give the Orange some credit. Their offense is putting up 43.3 points a game and even though their running backs don’t have any high totals, combined with their QB scrambling for them they on average pick up 11 first downs on the ground.

Eric Dungey is fun to watch, because he just doesn’t give a damn about getting hit. He has put up some nice stats as a passer, but he also is their leader in rushing with over 600 yards and 10 touchdowns as a runner.

However, they also allow 28.1 defensively. Regardless, they still have a chance to prove me wrong when they meet Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium and they close at Boston College.

#21 Florida

Dan Mullen has arrived in Gainesville and he is about to turn this program around once again. However, they have not arrived quite yet. The Gators won a couple of tough games at Mississippi State and at home versus LSU, but that 36-17 loss to Georgia brought them back to Earth.

Of course, losing by a margin of an extra two points to Missouri. hurts even more. Considering they lost to Kentucky by double-digits early on as well, that makes them a little irrelevant in the SEC for 2018, especially with Georgia having wrapped up the East already. Before those last two losses, however, they were surrendering just 18.3 points a game and they are still averaging five yards per rush.

Quarterback Feleipe Franks might not blow anybody away with the numbers he is putting up, but he has been playing so much better than anybody the Gators have been trotting out there since Tim Tebow probably, considering their two best guys since then (Jacoby Brissett and Will Grier) didn’t find any success and transferred eventually. Mullen is already putting way more pressure on opposing defenses than Florida has done in quite a while with different formations and looks and he doesn’t even have real playmakers yet, as a grand total of 12 players already have 100 yards or more from scrimmage.

I don’t think their defense is as talented as it’s been in recent years, which doesn’t mean they don’t have some ballers on that side of the ball, when you look at Jabari Zuniga and Cece Jefferson showing up in the backfield and Chauncey Gardner flashing everywhere on the field from his safety spot. Georgia looks poised to compete for the SEC with Bama for a long time, but with a good recruiting class the Gators could be their main competition for the East next year already.