Why college football’s topsy-turvy start ‘not really a shock’ to Kirby Smart

ATHENS — College football has turned a tad topsy-turvy, and it has not even reached the halfway point of the season.

Three of the top four preseason AP Top 25 teams have dropped completely out of the rankings, while Georgia has fallen from No. 5 to No. 10 in the poll five weeks into the season.

Texas, Penn State and Clemson — ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 when the season kicked off — are outside of the Top 25 looking in, on the verge of elimination from practical consideration for rankings that would get them into the 12-team College Football Playoff field.

The Longhorns, who made history with their first-ever preseason No. 1 ranking, have made more history with an unprecedented precipitous drop.

Texas has fallen out of the AP Top 25 poll faster (in five weeks) than any preseason No. 1 team in the 89-year history of the poll, taking that dubious distinction from the 2012 USC team (12 weeks).

Kirby Smart, the FBS coach with the longest-active streak of top-10 finishes (eight), said he’s not surprised by the volatile nature of a 2025 season that has already seen eight preseason Top 25 teams fall out of the rankings.

“It’s not really a shock to me because there’s good football teams, or what you call parity, all over the place,” Smart said on the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday. “As long as you’re playing good football teams, there’s likelihood or more risk that there’s going to be more losses.”

Smart has pointed to the Bulldogs’ game at Auburn at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

The Tigers were ranked No. 22 after a 3-0 start before losing by a touchdown at current-No. 6 Oklahoma 24-17 and then to No. 5 Texas A&M 17-10 in College Station, Texas.

“They’ve played two really, really hard road games in our league, against two of the premier teams in our league right now,” Smart said.

Texas lost its opening game of the season to defending national champ and current No. 1 Ohio State 14-7 and suffered its second loss to Florida in Gainesville.

The Gators have three consecutive home wins against ranked SEC foes in The Swamp dating to last season (27-16 over No. 21 LSU, 24-17 over No. 9 Ole Miss and 29-21 over No. 9 Texas).

Florida, which began the season No. 15 in the preseason poll, appears back on track with quarterback DJ Lagway back in stride after his offseason rehabbing injuries led to a slow start.

“Going into the game, we knew that The Swamp would be a difficult place to play, and it was,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said on the SEC coaches call.

“We knew going into the game that they were a very good defensive football team. I thought we took our shots when we had opportunities. ... Obviously, they did a great job at the line of scrimmage, and I thought what also played a part into the game was that was probably their best game offensively that they had played.”

There’s simply not as much margin for error with the transfer portal spreading talent within the ranks, as preseason No. 2 Penn State found out in its 42-37 road loss at previously-winless UCLA.

It was a game that saw another high-profile quarterback shake off a slow start and rise to the occasion to beat a road favorite.

“Obviously we did not handle last week’s loss well,” said Penn State coach James Franklin, whose Nittany Lions fell from the ranks of the unbeaten at the hands of current No. 3 Oregon, 30-24 in double-overtime the Saturday before the loss to UCLA.

“We also lost some players in that (Oregon) game, then everything else — travel, everything else — we did not come out with the right energy to start the game.”

Bruins quarterback Nico Iamaleava, a high-dollar spring transfer from Tennessee, validated his value with a five-touchdown performance.

Iamaleava, who led the Volunteers to a College Football Playoff appearance last season, was 17-of-24 passing for 166 yards and a pair of touchdown passes along with 16 carries for 128 yards and three touchdowns, winning AP National Player of the Week honors.

Clemson, which began the season No. 4 in the preseason ranks, fell from the Top 25 after a 24-21, last-second loss to Georgia Tech on Sept. 13.

“They got their points off the two turnovers, that’s the difference in the game,” Tigers’ coach Dabo Swinney said. “We miss a field-goal (attempt) and three points, (and) that’s the difference in the game.

“We get a huge third-down drop that maybe we put the game away right there, and that’s football.”

Clemson was favored by only 3 points over the Yellow Jackets, which some felt at the time was curiously low considering the Tigers had won nine consecutive in the series.

Smart, whose team is favored by only 3.5 points at Auburn despite having won eight consecutive in that series, pointed to the oddsmakers as evidence of a more balanced college football world.

“I mean, just look at Vegas — Vegas is usually right,” Smart said of the oddsmakers who set betting lines for games. “And when you look across the board of what those games are and what those spreads are, the margins are much tighter.”

To Smart’s point, five of the six games this Saturday pitting SEC teams against one another feature a single-digit point spread. The one that doesn’t, Arkansas at Tennessee (-12.5) features an interim head coach making his audition on the road against a No. 12-ranked Volunteer team that’s coming off a bye week.

Here’s a look at the preseason Top 25 and where the team is ranked now. Teams no longer ranked are noted in boldface type:

1. Texas (3-2)

2. Penn State (3-2)

3. Ohio State (5-0), Ranked No. 1

4. Clemson (2-3)

5. Georgia (4-1), Ranked No. 10

6. Notre Dame (3-2), Ranked No. 16

7. Oregon (5-0), Ranked No. 3

8. Alabama (4-1), Ranked No. 8

9. LSU, (4-1), Ranked No. 11

10. Miami (5-0), Ranked No. 2

11. Arizona State (4-1) Ranked No. 21

12. Illinois (5-1) Ranked No. 17

13. South Carolina (3-2)

14. Michigan (4-1) Ranked No. 15

15. Florida (2-3)

16. SMU (3-2)

17. Kansas State (2-4)

18. Oklahoma (5-0) Ranked No. 6

19. Texas A&M (5-0) Ranked No. 5

20. Indiana (5-0) Ranked No. 7

21. Ole Miss (5-0) Ranked No. 4

22. Iowa State (5-1) Ranked No. 22

23. Texas Tech (5-0) Ranked No. 9