Georgia is sitting at No. 1 in the second College Football Playoff rankings, but Danny Kanell isn’t ready to hand the Bulldogs the crown just because the résumé looks tidy on paper.
On the CBS Sports Cover 3 podcast, Kanell pushed back after Chip Patterson labeled Georgia “the best damn team in the country.” Kanell’s response was blunt: the Bulldogs are “just being christened No. 1 because their resume is so perfect,” and then he added, “It’s not that great.”
Patterson leaned on the eye test. “Eye test and pad level say Georgia’s the best damn team in the country,” he said. Kanell didn’t bite, replying, “That’s fine,” before Bud Elliott jumped in with the résumé argument: “They beat the second-best team in the country.”
Georgia’s case starts with an 8-1 record and a 42-7 demolition of Ole Miss that helped push the Bulldogs to the top spot. The win over Alabama on Oct. 10 matters too - a 20-17 victory in Tuscaloosa that marked the program’s first win there since 2007, with the Crimson Tide now sitting at No.
- Georgia also handled Florida 27-8 in Atlanta before the blowout in Oxford, and that latest win gave Kirby Smart his first victory at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Smart said his team wanted to come out “being on the hunt” and set the tone as the aggressor. “I thought the game started that way from the start,” he said.
The one loss on Georgia’s ledger came Oct. 17, when unranked Auburn stunned the Bulldogs 27-24 on a walk-off field goal in Athens. Two weeks later, that same Auburn team was beaten by Ole Miss by 30 points.
Kanell’s bigger gripe, though, was how the committee handled Indiana. “Indiana’s is not great either, but they’re getting punished for it,” he said. “They can’t help it.”
Indiana is 8-1, but the Hoosiers slid from No. 4 to No. 9 after sitting idle last week and watching all but one of their past opponents lose. Their only defeat came Oct. 17 in a 19-15 home loss to Ohio State, which snapped a 22-game winning streak. Since then, Curt Cignetti’s team has beaten Michigan and Minnesota in overtime by seven points apiece.
That Ohio State loss looks less damaging by the week. The Buckeyes are 6-3 and No. 20 after losses to USC and Oregon, a stretch that prompted Paul Finebaum to call them “dead, dead and buried.”
Kanell’s stance also matched the top of his own rankings. Before Tuesday’s reveal, he had undefeated Utah at No. 1, and the 9-0 Utes came in at No. 2 behind Georgia.
With the top four teams in the final rankings earning first-round byes regardless of conference title results, every week from here matters for both Georgia and Indiana.
Georgia hosts No. 22 Missouri on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
ET on ABC, then goes to No. 17 South Carolina before finishing the regular season against Georgia Tech.
Indiana gets another ranked test Saturday when No. 18 USC visits Bloomington.
In Other News...
USCs Injury Problems Could Change Everything Against Indiana
USC heads into its Week 11 trip to No. 9 Indiana still trying to sort through injury issues that could reshape the way the Trojans approach one of their biggest games of the season. The situation has opened the door for younger players to matter more than they might have expected this early, with freshman running back Shahn Alston and wide receiver Ethan Feaster among the names drawing attention as USC looks for answers and depth.
For Indiana, the matchup figures to be decided in the trenches as much as anywhere else. The Hoosiers have built a strong defensive line, and that puts extra pressure on USCs running game and its own defensive front seven to hold up on the road. If the Trojans are going to keep pace, they may need those developing pieces to contribute quickly while the injury picture continues to hang over the week. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Gets One Encouraging Sign Before Must Win USC Matchup
Josh Hoover appears set to give Indiana a needed boost heading into a must-win matchup with USC. After being left off the teams initial injury report, the quarterback is expected to be available, and coach Curt Cignetti said he would be in uniform as long as he stays clear of the report. For a Hoosiers team trying to steady itself late in the season, simply having Hoover on hand changes the conversation at the most important position on the field.
The rest of the injury picture is less reassuring. Leading rusher Turbo Richard and defensive end Kellan Wyatt have already been ruled out, while cornerback A.J. Harris and linebacker Rolijah Hardy are listed as questionable. Cignetti has not named a starter, so Indiana still has some decisions to sort through before facing USC, but Hoovers status at least gives the Hoosiers a chance to enter the game with a little more stability than they might have had otherwise. [Read more 🡒]
Urban Meyer Just Reignited Indianas CFP Respect Debate
The latest College Football Playoff rankings gave Indiana a jolt even without the Hoosiers taking the field in Week 10, and Urban Meyer wasted little time turning that into a broader discussion about where they really belong. The FOX analyst and former coach pointed to Indianas slide from No. 4 to No. 9, using it as a springboard to question whether the committee had overvalued the Hoosiers in the first place, especially given the quality of their wins and the strength of schedule they have faced.
Meyers comments land at a time when the playoff picture is tightening around the Big Ten and Big 12, with Notre Dame and UCLA also climbing in the latest rankings. For Indiana, the issue is no longer just where it sits in the poll, but whether its early respect was earned or simply a product of a committee that is still sorting out how to weigh unbeaten records against the week-to-week reality of who teams have actually beaten. [Read more 🡒]