A relatively tame slate of games still turned into a spooky Saturday for Ohio State, Florida, SMU, Arizona and Northwestern.

Those defeats, combined with a bunch of close calls for heavy favorites, created even more shakeups in my latest AP Top 25 poll. Go grab some leftover candy and let’s talk about it.

My AP Top 25 poll after Week 9

1. Georgia, 2. Utah, 3. Miami, 4. Notre Dame, 5. Ole Miss, 6. Alabama, 7. Texas, 8. UCLA, 9. LSU, 10. Texas Tech, 11. BYU, 12. Indiana, 13. Tennessee, 14. Houston, 15. Ohio State, 16. Kentucky, 17. Missouri, 18. Wake Forest, 19. South Carolina, 20. Arizona, 21. Florida, 22. Iowa, 23. Southern Cal, 24. Northwestern, 25. Boise State

Just missed: Louisville, Oklahoma State, Oregon and SMU

Newcomers: South Carolina, Iowa, USC and Boise State

Dropped from last week: Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, Cincinnati and SMU

Buckeyes fall and Utes rise

I gave Ohio State the benefit of the doubt last week. I couldn’t ding the Buckeyes for the injury to quarterback Julian Sayin since we hadn’t seen backup Luke Fahey play for more than a quarter.

But now that Fahey has played an entire contest, it’s safe to say that this isn’t the same team anymore. The Buckeyes didn’t score a touchdown until late in the fourth quarter against a USC defense that’s barely stopped anyone this year. Even the Ohio State defense struggled to stop the Trojans from making big plays, a week after Wisconsin shut down USC’s attack.

The loss clearly showed that Ohio State is no longer the top-5 caliber team it looked like for most of the year with Sayin in the lineup. And now that the second-year starter is out for the year, it’s time to treat this version of the Buckeyes for what they are: barely a College Football Playoff contender.

Utah, meanwhile, replaced Ohio State in my top-5 after smashing Cincinnati on the road. The Utes found the end zone in almost every way possible, scoring through the air, the ground, on a fumble recovery and on an interception returned to the end zone.

The Bearcats aren’t winning the national championship this year, but they’re not bad. I had them in my poll last week after they bullied Texas Tech. This is another impressive win for Utah after last week’s victory over Houston, making the Utes’ case for a top-5 ranking rock solid, especially since they’re still undefeated.

I’m not convinced that Utah is actually a contender for the national title. The offense had plenty of ups and downs against Houston, which makes me question what it would look like against Miami, Notre Dame or any of the top SEC teams.

But, again, the resume is more than good enough to slide into the top-5, and it’s not like the Hurricanes (beat North Carolina by three) or Fighting Irish (struggled for a half against Navy) looked unstoppable this weekend.

BYU and Indiana fall despite winning

BYU had another very unimpressive showing this week, barely beating an Arizona State team on its third quarterback at home. I don’t think Sun Devils quarterback Jake Fette is horrible, but the freshman shouldn’t be leading the struggling Sun Devils to a one-score loss in Provo that could’ve been even closer if it weren’t for the Big 12 referees screwing up another major call at the goal line.

This ugly win, combined with losing to UCF last week — the same team that got smashed at home on Friday by Baylor, which fired its coach last week — puts the Cougars in a strange place. They have great wins (Notre Dame and Arizona) but also have one of the worst losses of the season and close wins over a few not-so-good teams in ASU and TCU.

Last week, I was somewhat forgiving of the UCF result. This week's ASU performance proved that I was probably wrong.

Indiana, on the other hand, can’t keep getting away with this.

The Hoosiers needed a 60-yard field goal in the final seconds just to force overtime against Minnesota at home this weekend. They eventually won it during the final period, but at some point we need to look at the elephant in the room with this team.

Last week, they needed overtime to beat Michigan. They also needed a furious comeback to beat Nebraska and only took down Northwestern by a touchdown. Granted, Indiana’s only loss came to Ohio State at home — Sayin was available for most of the game — but the performances and resume don’t warrant top-10 status.

Where are the defining wins? Why is every game against conference competition (except for Rutgers) down to the wire? The record suggests that Indiana is one of the best teams in the country, but nothing else does. Let’s stop pretending that it’s still 2025.

Hats off to South Carolina

South Carolina deserves to be ranked. The Gamecocks have two wins over top-21 teams in my poll and have played like a top-10 team over the last three weeks. Sure, they have three losses, but two came to ranked teams, and the other — Mississippi State — was also a Top 25-caliber opponent when its quarterback was healthy.

They lost to Mississippi State by a touchdown and fell to Kentucky on a two-point conversion. That’s not bad at all. Combine all of that with rising into the top-25 of ESPN’s SP+ metric, and the Gamecocks are a team everyone should take seriously as we head into the final month of the year.

Other notes

Texas Tech shot itself right back into the top-10 with a win over Arizona this week. I’m not a fan of Thomas Castellanos, but the quarterback change worked. They got whatever they wanted on the ground against a solid Arizona defense. The Cincinnati loss feels like an outlier for Texas Tech, especially considering the Houston win.

Florida’s loss to Georgia was tough to watch, but the Gators’ resume is still too good to take them out of the rankings entirely. They have two top-10 wins, and their losses have all come to ranked teams — even if those defeats have been concerningly lopsided.

Georgia’s loss to Auburn feels more like a fluke the deeper we get into this season. A dominant showing over Florida and a road win over Alabama were enough to put the Bulldogs at No. 1 for me. No team has put together a better combination of resume and eye test through nine weeks than Kirby Smart’s team.