College Football Rankings: B/R’s Top 25 After Week 11

Week 11 in college football included plenty of drama even before the games began, as the Big Ten suspended Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games of the season, including Saturday’s game at No. 10 Penn State. No Harbaugh, no problem, as interim head coach Sherrone Moore led the Wolverines to a 24-15 victory over Penn State.

In the afternoon window, No. 5 Washington got past No. 18 Utah 35-28 in a gutsy win to move the Huskies to 10-0. No. 4 Florida State also survived a fight from Miami, winning 27-20.

In the evening slate, we saw No. 2 Georgia absolutely dominate No. 9 Ole Miss, winning 52-17. No. 7 Texas got past TCU 29-26 on the road, and No. 1 Ohio State easily took care of Michigan State, winning 38-3.

Bleacher Report’s College Football experts consisting of Joel Reuter, Brad Shepard, Adam Kramer and Morgan Moriarty tried to make sense of it all and rank the Top 25 as such:

1. Michigan

2. Georgia

3. Ohio State

4. Washington

5. Florida State

6. Oregon

7. Alabama

8. Texas

9. Louisville

10. Oregon State

11. Penn State

12. Missouri

13. Ole Miss

14. James Madison

15. Oklahoma

16. Tulane

17. LSU

18. Utah

19. Liberty

20. Arizona

21. Notre Dame

22. Toledo

T-23. Iowa

T-23. North Carolina

25. USC

If you didn’t watch Saturday night’s game between LSU and Florida in Baton Rouge, you missed a remarkable performance from Tiger quarterback Jayden Daniels.

The LSU quarterback finished 17-of-26 for 372 yards passing with three touchdowns and zero interceptions, and he added another 234 yards and two scores on the ground. He accounted for 606—a new SEC record—of LSU’s whopping 701 yards of offense.

He also made college football history with his performance, becoming the first player in FBS history to throw for over 350 yards in the air and over 200 on the ground in a single game:

In addition, he was the second SEC player ever to post 200 rushing and 200 passing yards in a game, alongside Johnny Manziel (2012).

Daniels torched Florida’s defense the entire night, with most of his scores coming on long passes or runs. His first touchdown of the night came on an 85-yard touchdown in the second quarter that is a must-see:

He had a 51-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter, and his longest touchdown pass of the night was a 37-yarder to receiver Brian Thomas with 9:14 left in the fourth quarter. It was an unbelievably impressive showing, especially considering Daniels was coming off being put in the concussion protocol just last week during LSU’s 42-28 loss to Alabama.

Daniels has +800 odds to win the Heisman, per DraftKings, behind the current leaders in Oregon QB Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. But with a performance like this one, even though LSU is out of the playoff hunt, he likely will earn a lot more people’s votes with his performance on Saturday night. His head coach, Brian Kelly campaigned for him after the win:

Daniels even was seen flashing a Heisman celebration pose during the game. With a record-setting performance like he had, it’s hard to not envision him at the Heisman ceremony come December.

It seems like everybody is talking about Michigan and Jim Harbaugh’s sign-stealing-related suspension amid the Wolverines’ possible College Football Playoff run.

But what might get lost in Michigan’s impressive 24-15 win over No. 10 Penn State without Harbaugh is what this does to PSU head coach James Franklin’s legacy. After Saturday’s loss, the Nittany Lions are just 3-17 against AP Top 10 opponents under him. It gets worse—Penn State is also 1-14 against both Michigan and Ohio State when those teams are ranked inside the Top 10.

Oof. Those numbers alone might be enough for Penn State to consider making a change from Franklin. And could you blame the university? Since Franklin’s arrival to Happy Valley in 2014, he has gone 86-38. That record includes a 3-2 record in New Year’s Six bowl appearances, though Penn State did win the Rose Bowl at the end of last season.

Franklin has produced top-10 recruiting classes just twice in his tenure—2018 and 2022—as rated by 247Sports, finishing behind Ohio State those years.

It would be an impressive enough resume for most programs to keep Franklin, who signed a 10-year, $70 million contract extension in November 2021. But if you can’t win in big games against some of your biggest rivals, how long can NY6 wins sustain you?

No, I’m not saying Penn State is going to move on from Franklin after this season. But the rumblings about just how long he can stay in Happy Valley will certainly start getting louder after this year, regardless of how it plays out.

What a season it’s been for the Washington Huskies. On Saturday, they defeated No. 13 Utah 35-28 at home. The victory didn’t come easy, as Utah stayed in this game until the very end.

The Huskies went to the locker room trailing to the Utes 28-24. Washington scored just 10 points in the second half, all coming in the third quarter. Husky quarterback Michael Penix Jr. hit receiver Rome Odunze for a 33-yard touchdown with 4:09 left in the quarter.

Washington’s defense came alive in the second half, forcing two Utah interceptions and getting a safety late in the third quarter to give Washington a 35-28 lead that held until the end.

With the victory, Washington moved to 10-0 on the season. That’s significant not just because it’s a great record, but it’s also just the second time in school history that the Huskies have been 10-0. The last time? That was back in 1991 during Washington head coach Don James’ 12-0 season in Seattle that saw the Huskies win a national title.

Saturday’s victory over the Utes marks the third win over an AP Top 25 opponent this season for Washington. Next up for the Huskies is a road trip to No. 12 Oregon State next week.

The win was also a huge one for the aforementioned Odunze, too. He finished with 111 yards receiving and two touchdowns on the day, and he eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season. That makes him the first Husky receiver since 2002-03 to have consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.

Week 12 in college football doesn’t include the splashiest matchups, but there is plenty of intrigue across the board.

The biggest game of the week looks to be No. 2 Georgia going on the road to face No. 13 Tennessee. Sure, this game obviously looked more intriguing before the Vols’ 36-7 loss to Missouri on Saturday. But this is Georgia’s first true SEC road test after previously playing at Auburn and Vanderbilt so far this year.

Elsewhere, plenty of other teams will have to travel on the road before rivalry week. No. 3 Michigan will travel to face Maryland on Saturday. The day prior to that contest, Michigan is scheduled to have a hearing on the temporary restraining order against the Big Ten’s suspension of Harbaugh. For now, it could be offensive coordinator Sherrod Moore leading the Wolverines once again.

In the Pac-12, the front-runners in the conference in No. 5 Washington and No. 6 Oregon both have to hit the road. The Huskies play Oregon State, and Oregon goes to Tucson to play Arizona State. Neither team can really afford a loss if they are to meet in the Pac-12 title game, but Oregon especially can’t with its loss to Washington earlier in the year.

No. 7 Texas also travels to Iowa State next week. A pretty quiet Saturday, all things considered, which should set us up for a huge rivalry weekend in the final week of the regular season.