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Other than for a brief wake-up call in Missouri, the 10-0 Georgia Bulldogs are demolishing all comers once again in 2022.
Though supporters of currently unbeaten teams like Michigan, Ohio State, and TCU may take exception to that statement, I don’t think any team really wants to tangle with the Godzilla of college football.
This football monster is rampaging once again this season. Even after 15 Georgia players were selected by the NFL in last spring’s draft, the defending national champions are improving every week. After ten games in 2022, the Bulldogs’ defense (ranked #2 nationally) has allowed just 11.6 points per game.
The Georgia offense is still lead by the average-looking quarterback who simply continues to make all the right plays. Stetson Bennett probably won’t win the Heisman Trophy this year, but he might win a second straight national championship. The Georgia offense scores nearly 41 points per game this season.
After ten games, Georgia’s average margin of victory is nearly 30 points per game. Though Georgia will face a tough final road game at 6-4 Kentucky on Saturday, the odds makers are giving Kentucky 23 points – at home – in the game. Georgia’s regular season ends with a Thanksgiving weekend home game against 4-6 Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech may become a true rambling wreck after playing this Bulldogs team in Athens.
After that, Georgia will square off with surprising SEC West Champion LSU (currently 8-2) for the SEC Championship. That game will be played in the state of Georgia (Atlanta). Should the Georgia Bulldogs stumble and lose to LSU, the defending national champions would still be 11-1 and hard to keep out of the four-team College Football Playoffs.
Your hard-working SwampSwami spend much of the day on Sunday reviewing the performance of the entire 131 FBS group of major college football teams.
A few things stand out in reviewing the season thus far:
- The #114 team in my list is…Texas A&M. The 3-7 Aggies are, by far, the most disappointing college football team this year. The Associated Press #6 preseason team, the Texas Aggies have lost six games in a row for the first time since 1972. Heck, they just lost to an Auburn team which fired its head coach two weeks ago. With his incredibly large contract at Texas A&M, Coach Jimbo Fisher and his family will be financially set for life. This year’s incredible pressure of losing means that I wouldn’t be surprised if Fisher negotiates a new deal to leave AggieLand. Their unhappy fans are ready to help him pack.
- The #101 team is another SEC team, Auburn. Unlike Texas A&M, Auburn (4-6) wasn’t expected to field a very good team this season. If you happened to watch the end of Auburn’s 13-10 home win Saturday night against Texas A&M, the sold-out Auburn football stadium crowd stayed to the end to give a standing ovation to the team and their temporary head football coach, Cadillac Williams. After former coach Bryan Harsin was fired, the baton was handed to the enthusiastic former star running back at Auburn. Cadillac Williams (the team’s running backs coach) has rallied both the team and its loyal fans. Auburn’s win snapped a five game losing streak and sent the Texas Aggies to the bottom of the entire SEC at 3-7.
- The Pac-12 is back! This week, Pac-12 Conference teams occupy five of the top 17 spots in my rankings. USC is now 9-1, but UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and Utah all have just two losses apiece. If UCLA should knock-off USC this Saturday, the Pac-12 will have a hard time getting a single team into the four-team College Football Playoffs.
- Bringing up the rear – There are still five teams which have just one win this season. At least Colorado and Northwestern have defeated one major college team. The only win for South Florida, UMass, and Akron came in early-season home games against small school FCS teams. Shame!
- The Associated Press poll continues to ignore smaller conference schools – Though I’ve had Sunbelt Conference leader Coastal Carolina (now 9-1) in my rankings for the past month, the AP voters finally took notice this week. What I don’t understand is how the AP can rank 7-3 Oklahoma State of the Big 12 Conference as their #24 team. Nothing against the Cowboys, but the Pokes’ best win this season has come against a faltering 6-4 Baylor. I have Okie State at #33. I fully admit that my rankings (which are based on team records and their best win of the year) tend to give a few of the underappreciated teams like Conference USA leader UT-San Antonio and a couple of other Sunbelt teams (Troy and South Alabama) a little recognition. In case you forgot, South Alabama traveled to 8-2 UCLA earlier this season and lost by just one point.
Let’s unveil the current rankings for every FBS large college team in the SwampSwamiSports.com Top 25 (plus 106) for the week ending November 12, 2022:
