College football rankings: USC moves up to No. 8 in AP Top 25 Poll

The Trojans move up one spot after improving to 8-1

USC was frustrated with its defensive performance in Saturday's 41-35 win over Cal - but the college football poll voters didn't seem to notice.

The Trojans moved up to No. 8 in the country in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, released Sunday.

USC racked up over 500 yards of offense against Cal, and Caleb Williams accounted for five touchdowns. But the Trojans were gashed by the Bears, especially through the air. Cal quarterback Jack Plummer passed for 406 yards and three touchdowns.

“We're 10 weeks into the season, which you know, as soon as I say that, I want to vomit. Some of the issues … I don’t know if some of these things we can fix in 48 hours, 72 hours,” USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said. “You know we had 11 months to do a lot of things around here, and we've got five days to get it right for next week, so we all have a sense of urgency in everything we do.”

The Pac-12 still has three teams ranked in the top 10, with Oregon moving up two spots to No. 6 and UCLA moving up one spot to No. 9. Utah dropped one spot to No. 13 and Washington moved into the rankings at No. 24.

Here's the complete AP Top 25 Poll, with first-place votes in parentheses:

AP Top 25 poll

Nov. 6, 2022

1. Georgia (62)
2. Ohio State (1)
3. Michigan
4. TCU
5. Tennessee
6. Oregon
7. LSU
8. USC
9. UCLA
10. Alabama
11. Ole Miss
12. Clemson
13. Utah
14. Penn State
15. North Carolina
16. Tulane
17. NC State
18. Texas
19. Liberty
20. Notre Dame
21. Illinois
22. UCF
23. Kansas State
24. Washington
25. Florida State

Others receiving votes: Cincinnati (74), Kentucky (61), Coastal Carolina (46), Wake Forest (34), Oklahoma State (21), Baylor (19), Kansas (10), Mississippi State (8), South Carolina (6), Troy (5), UTSA (5), Louisville (3), Oregon State (3), San Jose State (1),