College Football Rankings: B/R’s Top 25 After Week 6 | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Week 6 of the 2022 college football season was an extremely sweaty one for a bunch of highly ranked teams.

Up top, AP No. 1 Alabama got all it could handle and then some without Bryce Young at home against Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide ran the ball well and got seemingly constant pressure on Aggies QB Haynes King, but they just could not create any separation on the scoreboard. They never trailed, but it came right down to the final second with Demarcco Hellams breaking up A&M’s do-or-die attempt for a final score of 24-20.

Compared to that, the others were much less stressful, but still tight affairs for a while.

At halftime of their games, No. 4 Michigan was tied with Indiana, both No. 5 Clemson and No. 6 USC held one-possession leads over Boston College and Washington State, respectively, No. 7 Oklahoma State trailed Texas Tech by four and, most shocking of all, No. 9 Ole Miss was down by a field goal at Vanderbilt.

They outscored their opponents by a combined score of 111-15 the rest of the way, though, ensuring that no Top 10 team took an L this week.

One week ago, B/R’s college football experts—David Kenyon, Adam Kramer, Kerry Miller, Morgan Moriarty and Brad Shepard—were pretty well split on our top three. Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State each received at least one first-place vote. But between Alabama’s nail-biter and C.J. Stroud and Co. annihilating Michigan State even without key weapons Miyan Williams and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the Buckeyes are our unanimous No. 1 team this team around. (At least we no longer have a tie at No. 2, though.

Illinois, Cincinnati and Texas join our Top 25, replacing BYU, Washington and Arkansas.

Bleacher Report’s Post-Week 6 Top 25:

1. Ohio State (Previous Week: 1)
2. Georgia (2t)
3. Alabama (2t)
4. Clemson (5)
5. Michigan (4)
6. Tennessee (8)
7. Oklahoma State (6)
8. USC (9)
9. Ole Miss (7)
10. Penn State (12)
11. UCLA (16t)
12 (tie). Oregon (15)
12 (tie). TCU (13)
14. Wake Forest (18)
15. NC State (20)
16. Kansas State (19)
17. Mississippi State (23)
18. Syracuse (21)
19. James Madison (22)
20. Utah (10)
21. Kansas (14)
22 (tie). Cincinnati (NR)
22 (tie). Kentucky (11)
24. Illinois (NR)
25. Texas (NR)

Others Receiving Votes: North Carolina, BYU, Coastal Carolina

Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

Rarely, if ever, do you worry about a team potentially overlooking a road game against a ranked opponent.

However, with No. 8 Tennessee coming off a bye and perhaps already starting to think about next weekend’s annual showdown with Alabama, let’s just say it wouldn’t have been that stunning if the Volunteers had looked a tad lethargic in the bayou against No. 25 LSU.

But they didn’t look lethargic.

Not even a little bit.

Thanks to a pair of huge special teams plays—a forced fumble on the opening kickoff and a 58-yard punt return after LSU went three-and-out on its first possession—Tennessee jumped out to a two-score lead in the blink of an eye.

The Vols then forced back-to-back turnovers on downs before Hendon Hooker connected with Jalin Hyatt on an absolutely gorgeous 45-yard dime down the left sideline. That touchdown put Tennessee up 20-0 early in the second quarter, pretty much ending what was supposed to be one of the best games of the day.

Hooker was, per usual, flawless. It wasn’t a huge box score day for the fifth-year QB (239 passing yards, 56 rushing yards, two touchdowns), but it rarely is.

Multiple scores and no giveaways, though? Par for the course. He now has a combined 49 passing and rushing touchdowns against just three interceptions since arriving in Knoxville from Virginia Tech last season.

And with WR Cedric Tillman out, Hooker’s rapport with former USC/Texas transfer Bru McCoy continued to grow. The once highly-touted recruit had a career-high 102 receiving yards in Tennessee’s last game, and he bested that with 140 yards against LSU.

If McCoy has finally arrived after all those transfers and eligibility issues, look out.

Meanwhile, Jabari Small racked up 127 rushing yards and two touchdowns against a Tigers defense that looked unusually helpless against both the pass and the run during this 40-13 blowout.

We’ve spent the past few weeks trying to ascertain the true top challenger to this season’s big five of Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State. The Volunteers now look like that team, and they can prove it against the Crimson Tide next weekend.

BYU’s Jaren Hall (Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

By this point in the season, most players are nursing some sort of injury.

But there were an unusual number of questionable quarterbacks heading into Week 6.

The biggest of the bunch, was No. 1 Alabama’s Bryce Young, and we literally didn’t find out until the Crimson Tide’s opening drive that he would not play against Texas A&M on account of the shoulder injury suffered last week against Arkansas. And with Jalen Milroe running the offense, they were nowhere near as potent. They won, but just barely, as Milroe lost two fumbles and threw a pick. They needed a goal line stand at the end of the game in order to survive.

Other teams with injured quarterbacks weren’t as lucky.

No. 16 BYU at least had its quarterback on the field with his shoulder injury, but Jaren Hall didn’t look right in the 28-20 loss to Notre Dame in Las Vegas. He threw a pick on the first play of the game and managed just nine completions on the night. (Though, BYU’s bigger problem was evidently not realizing that Notre Dame’s tight end, Michael Mayer, is ridiculously good and should probably be covered on occasion.)

No. 13 Kentucky had its quarterback, Will Levis, suffer both a dislocated finger and an injured foot against Ole Miss, and he was unable to go this week against South Carolina. And the Wildcats simply were not the same with Kaiya Sheron running the show. He had just 36 passing yards at halftime and was sacked a total of six times in the 24-14 loss to the unranked Gamecocks.

Unranked Arkansas had to face Mississippi State without KJ Jefferson (head injury). And though Malik Hornsby did average nearly 30 yards per completion, he only connected with teammates eight times while throwing a pair of interceptions in the 40-17 loss.

And the most egregious QB-less disaster of all was in the Red River Rivalry, in which Oklahoma failed to score a single point without Dillon Gabriel (head injury). The Sooners gained just 195 total yards in getting blown out 49-0.

Of note, though, Arizona State was able to upset No. 21 Washington despite losing QB Emory Jones to an apparent head injury midway through the second quarter. The combination of interim head coach Shaun Aguano and backup quarterback Trenton Bourguet ended up working wonders for the Sun Devils.

UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson (Ric Tapia/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Highlighting UCLA for the second consecutive October Saturday in our Top 25 rankings?

Got to say, I did not see that one coming before the season began.

After all, the last time the Bruins were ranked at any point a week into October was back in 2015. And you have to go back another decade to find the most recent time they carried an undefeated record into the second half of their schedule.

Maurice Jones-Drew was that 2005 team’s top rusher. 17-year NFL veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis led the way in receptions.

It’s been a minute.

Yet, here they are, sitting at 6-0 after back-to-back, high-scoring home wins over ranked Washington and ranked Utah that have vaulted quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson firmly into the “Guys not named C.J. Stroud” tier of Heisman hopefuls.

We would be remiss if we didn’t first mention that running back Zach Charbonnet was awesome against the Utes, stutter-stepping and dancing all over the field to 198 yards on 22 carries. Even if you take out the 44-yard and 49-yard scampers in the first half, he still averaged 5.25 yards per carry.

But it was DTR’s d-a-y to shine.

He did throw a completely pointless and careless pick-six with less than a minute remaining in what had been a 17-point game, which was the polar opposite of the proverbial cherry on the sundae

Up until that point, though, Thompson-Robinson was 18-of-22 for 299 yards and four passing touchdowns, plus the rushing touchdown that broke the scoreless tie late in the first quarter.

After he found Logan Loya wide-open on a crossing route for a 70-yard touchdown on 2nd-and-long early in the fourth quarter—more or less extinguishing Utah’s hopes of pulling off the comeback—DTR came off the field, screaming, “This is my s–t!” to the jubilant Bruins faithful.

Indeed it was.

No. 18 UCLA defeated No. 11 Utah by a final score of 42-35, scoring over 40 points for the fifth time this season and bringing its scoring average up slightly to 41.5 per game.

The Bruins will now have the week off to prepare for their Week 8 trip to Eugene to take on the 12th-ranked Oregon Ducks. Win that one, and the Bruins would become both a heavy favorite to at least reach the Pac-12 title game and a legitimate threat to crash the CFP party.

Michigan’s Blake Corum (James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

For college football fans, it’s never a good Saturday for yardwork or apple picking.

But next weekend, in particular, would be a rough one to abandon your post in front of the TV, as there is (based on current AP rankings) at least one ranked-against-ranked showdown from each of the Power Five leagues.

Not surprisingly, the lone double dip comes from the SEC. The colossal game is No. 1 Alabama at No. 8 Tennessee (3:30 p.m. ET), which we’ll spend plenty of time dissecting over the course of the next seven days. But No. 23 Mississippi State at No. 13 Kentucky (7:30 p.m. ET) is one heck of an undercard between teams looking to remain in the mix for a New Year’s Six bowl.

Almost as big as Alabama-Tennessee is the Big Ten headliner of No. 10 Penn State traveling to Ann Arbor to face No. 4 Michigan (Noon ET).

The Wolverines got a bit of an early scare at Indiana this week, possibly caught peeking ahead to this game against the Nittany Lions. But after being tied at halftime, they eventually cruised to a 31-10 victory, with J.J. McCarthy throwing three touchdowns in the second half.

If undefeated Penn State can pull off the road upset, though, it becomes a much more legitimate candidate to reach the College Football Playoff in advance of hosting No. 3 Ohio State in Week 9.

While it’s not currently a battle between Top 10 teams, No. 7 Oklahoma State at No. 17 TCU (3:30 p.m. ET) might be when the new rankings come out after the Horned Frogs improved to 5-0 with a 38-31 road win over No. 19 Kansas.

With all due respect to Kansas State, Texas and others, this feels like a preview of the Big 12 championship and the point where we finally determine the conference’s best candidate for the CFP.

The big Pac-12 showdown of No. 6 USC at No. 11 Utah (8 p.m. ET) lost a bit of its luster with the Utes losing to UCLA. Can Utah bounce back with a huge win over the Trojans to both stay in the mix for the Pac-12 championship and deliver a major blow to USC’s CFP dreams?

And if the ACC’s ranked matchup of No. 14 N.C. State at No. 22 and still undefeated Syracuse (3:30 p.m. ET) is seriously the sixth-highest profile game of the day, then that’s a damn fine slate.

Elsewhere, No. 5 Clemson at Florida State (7:30 p.m. ET) has some serious upset potential, while the spread for No. 19 Kansas at completely broken Oklahoma (Noon ET) will be fascinating. The unranked clash between Minnesota and Illinois (Noon ET) could have crucial Big Ten West implications.

Even with No. 3 Ohio State, No. 12 Oregon, No. 15 Wake Forest, No. 18 UCLA, No. 21 Washington and No. 24 Cincinnati all idle, it’s going to be wall-to-wall entertainment.