It is always these slow weeks, aren’t they? Yesterday, seven teams in the AP Top 25 lost, Mizzou survived a scare, there were plenty of upsets, and the very best team emerged unscathed from byes or potential byes.

Let’s take stock after one month of play:

As usual, a few brief notes follow. The criteria are vague, wide-ranging and capricious — strength of play, good and bad coaching, injuries, pressing circumstances, home/away results, defense or lack thereof, offense or lack thereof, line play, power poll-ishness, can you cover a range (Vegas is pretty smart about the quality of a team), head-to-head where possible or reasonable, and my own lying eyes.

Let’s dive in:

Utah jumped to No. 4 after dominating the Cowboys in Stillwater…and with their backup, too. State of Oklahoma will always let you down, no matter how talented you are. K-State takes a week off after being beaten in Provo by BYU — we told you yesterday that the team was messing around way too much and needed to get their passing game in order. None of that happened, and the undefeated Cougars beat them to the punch. The middle class also looks solid. Cincy, UCF, Texas Tech and Iowa State are pretty good clubs, despite some odd losses or weak schedules along the way. And I have to give credit to Prime. The Colorado Buffalo were a far The club is more solid at the core this year. They can’t run and they can’t stop the run. But they’re trying to play defense, they’re much more solid on defense and Shedeur looks like a true FBS player. The next two weeks against Utah and Kansas State will show us how far the Buffs have come. State of Arizona lost a tough game, as we expected, but this year they’re bowling: you can bet on it – a loss in Lubbock happens to the best of them.

Speaking of disappointments: For a decade MemphisThe Achilles heel of was the Navy. In recent years, however, the Tigers have dominated. And this season particularly seemed ready to go on the defensive. Nope. Speaking of which: army And marine are both undefeated and playing great ball. North Texas is also 3-1 in the AAC. Like Arizona State, they are victims of Lubbock, so no shame in that.

The SEC is weird as always. Ole Miss falls several spots behind one-loss teams because you can’t continue to reward that terrible schedule (200th in the nation – worse than almost half of the FCS. DYK: To date, half of the Missouri Valley Conference has a stronger SOS than Ole Miss or Ohio State). FFS, at least Miami went to Raymond James and The Swamp. Mizzou remains the luckiest team in America. Some would unkindly call them cheating. The jury is still out, but have we considered that Vandy Has there really only been an improvement this year? LSU is out… again. This team is garbage and they will be kicked out when SEC play starts. Don’t look now, but Arkansas is 3-1 and should be undefeated. The loss in Stillwater has also made them mentally and physically stronger. Texas played against another dummy opponent. Yawn. TennesseeOU’s defense looked great and the running game was strong. The former was to be expected: OU’s offense is a piece of cake. The latter was a bit of a surprise. But don’t think this team will stay undefeated. They made a lot of mistakes, Nico looked inexperienced and a competent QB on the other side gets a W for the Earlier. They’re home but still hell on wheels. Guess where Alabama is playing them?

John Reed-Imagn Images

In the category “Miscellaneous” Wazzzu is at the top here because they beat TTU, SJSU and Washington – inflicting their only losses on all three. In terms of resumes, this might be the best of the early season. Remember last week when I said I was waiting for James Madison to make a statement? Consider the statement made. They were up by five points in Chapel Hill and scored the most points ever allowed in a half and quarter until Tar Heels. Yup. You Are Good. UNLV is ranked, but I secretly suspect SJSU could be the better team at the end of the year.

I guess we can stop thinking Pitt is just luck, right? Or that we should wait for Louisville to win a real game? before Christ bounces back on the strength of another manly performance. We still know almost nothing about Clemson, Dook and Virginia. I’m guessing one is pretty good, one is pretty good, and one has been shielded by a weak schedule. You can guess who is who! And Miami is, well, Miami — they destroy mediocre to bad teams. The road gets tougher, but they’re at the top of this garbage heap for a week.