Brian’s College Football Top 5: Week 9

Photo by Zachary BonDurant from USA Today

Next week, November college football begins.

It’s colder. The games mean more. You face your rivals.

This is when it gets real.

But first, we have one last October weekend.

5. Northwestern Wildcats

Northwestern went through tons of turmoil this past offseason, and it looked like this team that was already going to be very bad was going to be even worse.

And yet, after an upset win against Maryland, Northwestern is 4-4 and can possibly find their way into a bowl game.

This is a good building block for whoever the next coach is.

4. Georgia Southern Eagles

Georgia State has been the talk of the Sun Belt this year, with head coach Shawn Elliott finally putting it all together to be successful.

But to the south of Georgia State is a little school called Georgia Southern, who under Clay Helton has put together a nice 5-2 season of their own so far.

And when they welcomed Georgia State into town, they blew the doors off of them.

Georgia State ain’t running the Sun Belt in that state just yet.

3. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georgia State couldn’t get a win, but the other Atlanta school got one.

And not just a win, but an upset win over the #17 ranked UNC Tar Heels.

Georgia Tech makes no sense this year.

Lose to Bowling Green? Beat Miami the next week.

Lose to Boston College? Beat UNC the next week.

They love an upset, and they still have Georgia on the schedule…

2. Arizona Wildcats

Are enough people talking about Arizona this year?

This basketball school under Jedd Fisch is 5-3 on the season with a couple of top 25 wins.

The three losses? An overtime loss to Mississippi State when their quarterback turned it over 4 times, a one possession loss to #7 Washington, and a triple overtime loss to #9 USC.

These Cats are good, and Fisch has them heading in the right direction before they go to the Big 12 next year.

1. Kansas Jayhawks

If you told me before the year that Kansas would beat Oklahoma in Lawrence, I wouldn’t be shocked at all.

After all, this isn’t the Kansas of years past, Oklahoma was coming off a down year and Jalon Daniels is an electric quarterback.

But then we got to the game.

Oklahoma is having a very good year, and Jalon Daniels is out hurt.

Doesn’t matter.

Lance Leipold has the Kansas Jayhawks playing “next man up” football, and Jason Bean led the comeback to upset the Sooners and put a dent in their college football playoff hopes.

A nice little goodbye to the Sooners before they head to the SEC.