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_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2026 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 22, 2026, 7:51 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal thoughts. It's a bit early to have some serious data, but I do what I can with what I've seen.

Teams that dropped out this week:
Michigan
Virginia

New Teams In:
Kentucky
WVU

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Not much change from last week. UT got up early against UTSA and never looked back. Final result, 30-6.
2 Miami Hurricanes Miami is very good - great, even - offensively, probably better than last year. Mensah is a savant on the college football field. Mensah and Toney are a scary good combo and both legit Heisman candidates. They said they weren't going to force feed Toney and then he went 12/12 so I think they went back on that promise. Defensively, I had a feeling this one would be technically closer than their last few games (shocking take, I know), and it was, technically, but in practice, it wasn't. Wake did score a few touchdowns on this defense, which I expected, but the game was fully controlled by Miami.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Not much to say here. They moved up 1 from last week since LSU dropped, but they definitely deserve to be top 5 at this point.
4 Georgia Bulldogs The bulldogs steamrolled Arkansas. Held them to 17 yards on the ground, forced a fumble, and won 45-17. Unfortunately, the dawgs are looking good. They play Oklahoma next week and, barring a miracle for the Sooners, I doubt UGA will have much trouble stopping their offense.
5 Ole Miss Rebels I can only imagine how euphoric that win was for Ole Miss. The go-for-two decision was quite funny, considering it was likely done specifically because the coaching staff knows Lane's tendencies and that Lane would go for 2 if LSU had scored a touchdown on their last drive. Chambliss looked like everything you would want in a college QB, throwing for 363 yards, 2 TD, and an INT, and running for an additional touchdown as well. Ole Miss did not have much in the way of a rushing attack though, only running for 63 yards. Receivers Traylon Ray, Caleb Odom, Deuce Alexander, and Horatio Fields all had good days, with Ray having 7 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.
6 Indiana Hoosiers Another clean sheet. This marks the end of Indiana's tune ups and they play a powerhouse in Northwestern this weekend. On a more serious note, Northwestern has been somewhat impressive on offense in their last 2 games. I doubt they'll pose too much trouble, but I would enjoy watching that.
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I am curious as to what is being built in East Lansing, but Michigan State had a tough time in Notre Dame stadium. While the first half was competitive, ending 17-10 in favor of the Irish, Notre Dame took control in the second half, scoring 10 more and allowing 0 points against. ND play Purdue this weekend, and I doubt there will be too much spoilermaking during that game.
8 LSU Tigers I feel like Leavitt's first instinct is to run, rather than to throw. Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but it felt like he scrambled as often as he could. He was 16/27 for 158 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, but had 17 carries for 63 yards and 1 TD as well. Dillon Jones also had a good day, 106 yards and 1 TD over 23 carries.
9 BYU Cougars This game was not as close as the scoreline indicates, but BYU's depth leaves some concerns. BYU went up 27-7 in the first quarter, scored an additional 17 points through the second and third, and then CSU finally scored again in Q4, effectively garbage time. There were also some penalties that helped lead to CSU's scores. CSU did lose their starting QB early in the day, which didn't help the Ram's chances.
BYU RB LJ Martin had 176 yards on the day across 15 carries, scoring 3TDs. Legend Glasker had 131 yards on 5 receptions and a rushing TD.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide FSU came to play in Tuscaloosa, and they played fairly well. Alabama was down big midway through the 2nd, and continued to hang around as Alabama rallied and took the lead. Alabama was beat on the deep ball several times this game, which was well planned by FSU, who probably knew they weren't going to get much going on the ground. And they didn't - Alabama only let up 94 rushing yards. But they did let up 377 passing yards. While Alabama's defense played well against Kentucky, this was definitely more of an offensive showing, putting up 567 total yards of offense and no turnovers. They may have started slow, but they got hot and showed out. If Alabama can play a complete game on both sides of the ball, they will be an impressive team.
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders Tough home win over a good Houston team. I was a bit concerned with TTech's defense towards the end, but they came up with the stop on that 2-Point Conversion. Got away with this one, and I don't think they'll have anyone who, on paper, challenges them this much for the rest of the season. Would not be surprised to see TTech in the Big 12 title game.
12 Tennessee Volunteers In a blowout win over Kennesaw St, Tennessee took the lead and never looked back. Not much to say here. Looking forward to seeing who the real UT is this upcoming week as Texas comes to Knoxville for a noon game.
13 Utah Utes Utah dominates the teams that they are bigger than, and they did that this past Saturday. It's rare for a team to out-physical them (idk if that's a term). By comparison, Washington beat this team by 2 last week. Given what I saw across both those games, Utah State actually has a decent defense, and I think that the Utah vs Washington games goes to show the wide gaps that can occur between borderline playoff team and a team that rounds out the top 25. Pretty confident Utah is a fringe playoff team with the potential to sneak in there. Curious to see how they do in conference play this year.
14 USC Trojans What is defense?

I shouldn't be joking (especially because a pick 6 was the difference in this game) because my own team and a few others here definitely did basically the same thing where big leads let up points at the end that make the game look closer than it is. But let's not act like Rutgers is good so it makes a bit more sense for Florida to allow Auburn back in or Miss St let SCAR back in over USC letting Rutgers back in, especially when USC is so much further up the rankings. And I feel like this has been a recurring problem for USC every year? Correct me if I'm wrong.

USC stays in 14 for me. I don't know if I should move them down yet, but I know I shouldn't move them up yet.
15 Iowa Hawkeyes Blowout win & clean sheet against Northern Iowa. Good performance. They were tested last week against Iowa State, and may be tested again against Michigan this week. They've moved up a few spots for me, from 19 to 15, but this is mainly due to a couple teams ahead of them having moved down. Nice to see them with a functional offense though, unlike the Ferentz days.
16 Louisville Cardinals I've been saying Louisville is a good team, I just don't think SMU is (at least not yet). I've moved them from 20 to 16, which is a bump up, but not too far, and is helped partially by the fact that I've moved other teams down. Louisville made some big plays, but also gave up a couple. Kienholz did well avoiding pressure and turning those moments into plays, with that 2nd touchdown in the 1st quarter being especially fun to watch. They benefited from 3 turnoevers (2 INTs, 1 FUM, and a TOD too to boot), two of them in the 4th to help seal the game with their 10 point advantage. That 50 something yard run by Brown to go up 17-14 was magnifique as well, with that stiff arm to keep the safety off him icing on the cake. Louisville's remaining schedule is comparatively easy, so, barring any blunders, they should end up doing fairly well this season and, if it goes that well, will likely be playing Miami in the ACCCG. There's some potential traps, but they've acquitted themselves well so far, playing very close with a Good Ole Miss, beating out SMU, and we'll see how things go.
17 Houston Cougars That game was wonderful to watch. I really thought Houston had that game going into OT, but they came up just short. I've been relatively high on Houston from the start, believing that the 13-22 ranking gap between them and Texas Tech was much too wide. I had them at 17 last week, they lost to Texas Tech by 2 in the last minute in Lubbock. I can't really fault them for that. Keeping them at 17.
18 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State hasn't really played anyone yet, but they are 3-0 with 3 blowout wins. I've come to the conclusion that I erred in moving them up from 17 to 16 last week, even if it was a case of other teams that moved down that resulted in it. Other teams have started to get into their conference schedules and play important opponents. Penn State does play Wisconsin this week, which shouldn't bee too hard, but it will be their first conference game and we can possibly start to see where they may actually be at following this. This past Saturday, while it was a thorough win, PSU was a bit sloppy on penalties and went 2/9 on 3rd downs, which isn't too great. Koby Howard looked great out there though, with 2 touchdowns, one via receiving and one via rushing.
19 Missouri Tigers Mizzou looked quite shaky against Troy, going down 10-0 in the 1st, but coming back to win 27-17. Dropped from 18 to 19 from last week to this week for me. No turnovers or anything, were just unable to get moving early. They will need to build consistency if they want to keep in the hunt. They have a road trip to Starkville this weekend.
20 Mississippi State Bulldogs The Bulldogs started slow, letting South Carolina get out to a 16 point lead early (albeit over 4 scoring drives), but responded massively with a 41-7 run with some 10 points put up by the Gamecocks in the last few minutes of the game. Kamario Taylor might be straight up good, with Miss St being right there with him. Threw 18/26, 4TD, 1INT, and another 33 yards on the ground. We're gonna keep that "good" at a lower case "g" for now though. Big test next week vs Mizzou, but it's at home. That being said, Mizzou is just the start of the gauntlet, with Alabama, @LSU, and @Texas being 3 of the next 4 games after that. Curious to see if they can keep this up, but I like what's going down in Starkville right now.
21 Florida Gators Offense looks fantastic. Jaden Baugh is HIM. The play that created Baugh's 50ish yard touchdown run was one of the best-executed plays I've seen the Gators run all season. That block by the TE was buenisimo, look up Richard Johnson's breakdown of it for a good explanation. Defensive front can bring pressure (7 or 8 sacks, IIRC) but that secondary is cheeks. Booty. Ass. Say what you want about the officiating, cuz I think it was egregious, but the fact that the score got as close as it did was due to that secondary and the decision to take the foot off the gas pedal in the 4th. At one point, UF was up 3 scores (41-24). Would have liked to see the Gator Boys really put it away. They will need to shore some things up for when Ole Miss comes to Gainesville this weekend.
22 West Virginia Mountaineers A two score win over what I think could be a decent to good Virginia team in a neutral site game - the Duke's Mayo Classic in Charlotte. West Virginia enters the rankings for the first time for me, coming in at 3-0 and a win over the team I had ranked at 21 last week. Although playing to catch up in the first quarter, West Virginia took the lead in Q2 just before half and never really looked back, answering Virginia's tying TD by going ahead late in the 3rd, then stretching the lead in the 4th with Virginia scoring a garbage time TD (21 seconds left) to make it a bit closer. Final score of 38-27. QB Michael Hawkins Jr didn't throw too much, but was 10/17 for 2 TDs and 190 yards, looked pretty decent, especially when combined with WVU's running attack which rushed for 247 yards on the day. Defense is gaining consistency as well, but still open to being hit by some big plays. Let's see how things play out for the Mountaineers.
23 Kentucky Wildcats Great rebound after that thrashing that was handed to them by Alabama. Kentucky handled this game and were, without a doubt, the better team out there. Make the jokes you want about Kyle Field and the 12th Man, but College Station is a hard place to play, and Kentucky were in control the whole time. TAMU scored 14 points in the 4th quarter to make it look reasonably close, but were down 28-7 at the end of the 3rd. Both teams had over 400 yards of offense, but Kentucky made the most of it. Kenny Michey was good out there, 14/18 for 252 yards, 2 TDs, no INTs. Compare that to the fact that Marcel Reed threw for almost 50 passes this game while attempting to make up the deficit, but completed 26 passes for 236 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, and 4.8 YPC. He did also have a rushing TD and 80 yards on the ground, averaging 8 YPC, so there's that. But, all that to say, Kentucky was physically dominant and stopped that offense. Kentucky didn't steal this one, they straight up won. Say what you want about TAMU being overrated, cuz they were, but credit to what Will Stein is building in Lexington. Elko even said that there was nothing positive about that game. That was impressive.
24 Michigan Wolverines After a slow start, Michigan took control, but UTEP's only TDs were off of a scripted first drive and a short field due to a fumble. There's probably a lot Michigan can clean up here, as that first half was sloppy and they were down 17-14 at the halfway mark, but they did have the game under control in the second half, so there's that. Not entirely sure Michigan will enjoy playing actually good competition, and Iowa comes to Ann Arbor this weekend to kick off that section of the Wolverines' schedule. But we will see how they do this weekend and go from there.
25 Texas A&M Aggies Battered Aggie Syndrome is a real thing and should be taken seriously in the field of psychiatry.

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