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Smoking Musket Top 25 - Week 8
| Rank | Team | Points | Previous | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Points | Previous | Movement |
| 1 | Alabama (4) | 100 | 1 | - |
| 2 | Penn State | 94 | 4 | +2 |
| 3 | TCU | 91 | 10 | +7 |
| 4 | Georgia | 87 | 6 | +2 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | 84 | 8 | +3 |
| 6 | Ohio State | 77 | 9 | +2 |
| 7 | Miami | 72 | 13 | +6 |
| 8 | Oklahoma | 70 | 3 | -5 |
| 9 | Clemson | 69 | 2 | -7 |
| 10 | USC | 66 | 12 | +2 |
| 11 | Oklahoma State | 66 | 15 | +4 |
| 12 | Washington | 55 | 5 | -7 |
| 13 | South Florida | 50 | 17 | +4 |
| 14 | Virginia Tech | 48 | 19 | +5 |
| 15 | Michigan | 44 | 7 | -8 |
| 16 | NC State | 43 | 24 | +8 |
| 17 | Notre Dame | 34 | 23 | +6 |
| 18 | Michigan State | 32 | NR | - |
| 19 | Washington State | 29 | 11 | -8 |
| 20 | Auburn | 22 | 14 | -6 |
| 21 | UCF | 22 | 25 | +4 |
| 22 | West Virginia | 17 | 21 | -1 |
| 23 | Stanford | 16 | NR | - |
| 24 | SDSU | 8 | NR | - |
| 25 | Mississippi State | 4 | NR | - |
The top of the polls are static. The Alabama Crimson Tide, Clemson Tigers, Oklahoma Sooners, USC Trojans and Penn State Nittany Lions have all jumped out to an early lead in their conference and staked their claims. If these five aren’t battling it out for national supremacy in January, many people will be shocked.
The first big shakeup in the conference races came Saturday when TCU Horned Frogs headed into Stillwater, Oklahoma and proceeded to manhandle the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Mason Rudolph, who I said scared the $h!t out of me last week was pedestrian. He completed just 53% of his passes. Yes, he threw for nearly 400 but it took him 40+ attempts.
Florida State, who came into the year with national title aspirations, dropped their second straight game (in Week 4!) to the NC State Wolfpack 27-21. Ryan Finley threw for 230 yards and two touchdowns to give the Wolfpack their first road win over a ranked team since 2008.
The Mountaineers slowly climb up the rankings thanks to a 22-point win over the Kansas Jayhawks. It wasn’t pretty at times, but despite being without several starters, the defense jumped all over the Jayhawks early. The Mountaineers led 28-3 at one point in the first quarter, 35-13 at half time and outscored the Jayhawks 21-7 in the 4th quarter to pull away 56-34.