CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position

Even before I started working at Rivals.com, I would spend my Saturdays watching as many college football games as possible. Now that I have interacted with most current college football players, it gives Saturday’s a different perspective. Each week, I will watch as many games as possible and share my thoughts in this space, examining weird moments and sharing some throwback recruiting stories as well.

Like most people I was a little skeptical about Washington State’s chances to make the College Football Playoff earlier in the year and while the Cougars are still on the outside looking in, their impressive play is becoming too hard to ignore. Saturday night’s late-night drubbing of Arizona is just the latest in an impressive streak of wins, as Mike Leach’s team got back to its high-scoring ways after putting up 55 points in the first half and finishing with 69 in the win over Arizona.

For those who haven’t had a chance to watch Washington State this year, it’s actually the team’s defense that is truly surprising, regularly shutting down high-powered Pac-12 offenses.

If Washington State hadn’t lost a shootout to USC earlier in the year, I might make the argument that the Cougars should be ranked in the top four. Unfortunately for the Pac-12, they did, so a trip to the Rose Bowl will have to serve as a consolation prize, assuming the Cougars can finally beat Washington next week.

Leach and grad transfer quarterback Gardner Minshew have been a great story, and Leach deserves full credit for luring him to the Northwest after Minshew was initially bound for Alabama.

Plenty of people had jokes about Chip Kelly and Scott Frost after both had rough starts to the year at their new schools, but both coaches appear to have found their footing over the back half of the season. UCLA scored a major victory over rival USC at home on Saturday, while Nebraska came from behind in a snowstorm to beat Michigan State. While neither program will make a bowl game this year, it’s still worth noting their late season success with players recruited to play in much different systems. As both get a chance to remake their roster, each should only improve, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see both programs compete for division titles in their respective conferences last season.

In an era where people are ready to change coaches on a weekly basis, both Frost and Kelly are examples of why fans don’t need to overreact early in the season.

Oklahoma struggled mightily in its victory over Kansas on Saturday night, giving up 40 points and 524 yards of total offense to the Jayhawks, the Big 12 bottom dweller with a lame duck head coach. While most fans are rationalizing their team’s flaws in hopes of making it into the playoff, most Sooners fans have had enough of the team’s woeful defense. Earlier in the season, longtime defensive coordinator Mike Stoops was fired, but things haven’t gotten much better under fill-in coordinator Ruffin McNeil. The expectation is that Oklahoma will make a major investment in a defensive mind this offseason in hopes of turning things around in the future, but it’s clear the short-term fix isn’t working.

What happens now? Well, nothing really. Oklahoma fans are going to have to come to terms with the team’s lackluster defense and hope that Kyler Murray and the offense can continue to outscore opponents for the rest of the year. It’s unlikely the Sooners end up in the playoff again, so Sooners fans might as well enjoy the last few games of the Murray era without sweating the details.

Anybody who watched the Ohio State-Maryland game saw Urban Meyer anguish on the sidelines, with most thinking it had more to do with his health as opposed to his team’s poor play. Meyer’s health issues have come to the forefront this season, with Yahoo’s Pete Thamel extensively detailing Meyer’s struggles with a brain cysts that causes severe headaches. Because of Meyer’s abrupt exit from Florida, most are now saying the writing is on the wall for Meyer to depart once again. I have to say, I’m starting to join that line of thinking.

Meyer has a clear and obvious replacement in offensive coordinator Ryan Day, who served as the team’s interim during Meyer’s suspension, and if his health is truly and issue, he should probably be doing less stressful than coaching football. Given all the factors in play, I wouldn’t be at all shocked if this is Meyer’s last run as head coach of the Buckeyes.

Les Miles was officially announced as the new head coach at Kansas on Sunday and the national media reaction was not exactly positive. Most notable college football pundits panned the move, citing Miles' lack of offensive creativity while at LSU. But how many time is Kansas going to have a chance to hire a national championship-winning coach?

I don’t see what the downside is in hiring Miles. He will immediately help in recruiting, especially in Louisiana, where the Jayhawks have already had success over the past few years. Personally, I think people are remembering the caricature of Miles, not the actual coach. Sure, he’s a little quirky, but he’s a proven winner and Kansas has averaged two wins a year over the past nine seasons. So if he’s bad, what happens? They only win two or three games again?

Miles can reinvigorate the boosters and assuming he hires a young, energetic staff, I fully expect the team to get better under his watch, both on the field and in recruiting.

Every week in this space I’ll share my thoughts on the top four and how I think things should shake out when the rankings are released.

1. Alabama – The Tide got a minor scare from The Citadel, but continue to be the nation’s most impressive team.

2. Clemson – The Tigers also started slow against Duke, but if Clemson’s wide receivers hadn’t have had so many drops, this game would have been an even bigger blowout.

3. Notre Dame – The Irish are for real and appear poised to walk into the playoff if they can handle USC this week.

4. Michigan – The Wolverines might have slightly looked ahead to Ohio State, but got the win they needed over Indiana.

The rest: Georgia continues to sit at No. 5 and still can make the playoff if it can beat Georgia Tech and Alabama over the next few weeks. Washington State checks in at No. 6 and this is where we get controversial.

UCF Watch: I personally think the Knights should be No. 7 when the new rankings are revealed after dominating No. 24 Cincinnati on Saturday night. Oklahoma is No. 8 on my list, with Ohio State at No. 9 and LSU No. 10. If the Knights are going to be punished for not winning impressively enough earlier in the year, the same rationale should apply to the Buckeyes and Sooners.

People may say, ‘Woody, how can you take credit for a consensus five-star prospect playing well?’ and that’s a great question, but hear me out.

I was first alerted to Fields following his sophomore season, when he came to a regional Rivals Camp. At that time, he was a virtual unknown with no offers, and he impressed enough to get on our radar. Later that year, when we released the initial Rivals250 for the 2018 class, we made Fields a four-star, while many others initially ranked him as a three-star. Eventually, everyone got on board and Fields was a five-star across the board, but nevertheless I’m taking credit for an early evaluation.

As far as what Fields did this week, he saw extensive playing time in Georgia’s blowout victory over UMass, throwing for 121 yards and two scores while rushing for 100 yards and another touchdown. Fields has been used as primarily a runner this season, but make no mistake, he’s an excellent passer and I think he will show that when he gets his opportunity in the future.

Terry is a classic case of a diamond in the rough, emerging from South Georgia late during the 2017 cycle. I was first alerted to Terry by Michael Langston of our Florida State site, Warchant.com, and it wasn’t long after that Terry saw an avalanche of recruiting interest. He ended up picking up offers from Florida State, Georgia, Florida and several others, and committed to the 'Noles in early Jan. 2017.

After redshirting last season, Terry has become an excellent deep threat for Florida State, and in Saturday’s victory over Boston College he had three catches for 112 yards, including the game-winning 74-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter. Terry checks all the boxes physically, but I had some concerns about his hands, which is why he landed as a mid-three-star prospect. Terry has 666 yards this season on just 32 catches and is well on his way to outplaying his high school ranking.

This weekly category is now for coaches that have already have been fired, instead of coaches that might be fired. News broke on Sunday that MacIntyre would be fired, following Colorado’s sixth consecutive loss. I personally think the Buffs should stand pat and give him another year after he took the program from laughing stock to relevant, but it’s hard to argue with the decision after the team’s tumble this season. It will be very interesting to see who the Buffs tab to replacement, especially considering the wide-open Pac-12 South seemingly has a new team winning the division title on a yearly basis.