It was one of the biggest moments in Georgia football history. Players were celebrating. Fans were delirious.

But Bennett Vest had a job to do.

Yes, for all intents and purposes, the game was over when Ohio State kicker Noah Ruggles missed a 50-yard field goal attempt with only eight seconds remaining in the 2022 College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl.

But the game wasn’t actually over.

So Vest, situated on the Ohio State sideline, weaved through the maze of dejected Buckeyes and completed his final task: delivering the game ball to the official. Moments later, quarterback Stetson Bennett took one final snap to send Georgia to the national championship game.

 

Welcome to life as a ball boy.

“Though we may not have a direct impact on the game,” said Vest, who served as a student manager for the Bulldogs as an undergraduate, “we can certainly mess it up.”

It’s an important if largely unseen job that requires timing, quick instincts, athleticism and — as one equipment manager put it — “maturity.”

But it’s also wildly fun, according to those who have done it. And there’s no other gig like it in college football.

“I’m never gonna look at a game the same,” said Ben Shirley, a former manager at Clemson who is now on the equipment staff at UNLV.

“Like, any sport ever again, after doing this.”

---

College football programs employ anywhere from 12 to 25 student managers, typically undergraduates who work for a stipend. Duties during the week range from practice setup to equipment prep to laundry to … well, anything required to keep the operation running smoothly.

On game day, as many as six managers serve as ball boys — two or three on each sideline. The job requirement is simple: If the game ball is thrown out of bounds or knocked out of play, make sure the officials have a replacement as quickly as possible.

“Kids love it. It’s just exciting for them and there’s really never a better seat in the house because you’re right where the play is, you’re right where the ball is,” said Luke Wyatt, the former head equipment manager at Vanderbilt. “The managers would always politic to see if they could be the ball boy that weekend.”

But working the opposing sidelines comes with more responsibility, as well.

“Over the years, I always tried to put the most mature guys on the (other) side because they’re not gonna run their mouths,” Wyatt said. “You always have to let them know: ‘Don’t interact with the players. When we don’t have the ball, step back out of the way. Don’t get in the way of the coaches coaching the game, or the officials.’”

Former Auburn ball boy Jake Longenecker did his best to behave. But he sometimes couldn’t help himself during his time with the Tigers in the mid-2010s.

“I was kind of a little s—,” he said. “I always found ways to be a smart-ass, I’ll tell you that much.”

Longenecker typically stayed busy when Auburn was on offense. But he had plenty of time for tomfoolery when the Tigers were on defense and the opposing team was responsible for running balls.

“(The opponent is) signaling in plays and I was always aware of where I was standing and sometimes I would try to, on purpose, stand in front of the people calling in the plays,” said Longenecker, the son of two Auburn graduates and a lifelong fan of the program. “They would never like that. They would shove you out of the way and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I know what I’m doing. I know what I’m doing. So go for it.’”

Scott Cochran, the former strength and conditioning coach at Alabama and special teams coordinator at Georgia, had a similar sense of humor. When Auburn played the Crimson Tide, Cochran would often punch the ball out of Longenecker’s hands.

“And he would just be like, ‘Ball security!’” said Longenecker, who works in marketing at James Madison. “He was just joking. (But) it didn’t hurt any less. … I was like, ‘Man, he really works out.’”

Some head coaches enjoy interacting with the opposing team’s ball boys. Others ignore them.

“You’ll get into conversations with coaches on the visiting team sideline,” said Bradley “Spider” Caldwell, a former equipment manager for three decades at Penn State. “Like, (former Ohio State coach) John Cooper one time, he leaned over to one of my managers and he says, ‘Who’s that No. 24 out there?’ So the manager told him who he was. He was a defensive back. (Cooper) says, ‘Yeah, that kid’s not very good. Tell Joe (Paterno) that kid’s not very good.’”

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze doesn’t get into deep conversations with ball boys but likes to thank them for the job they do and will often take a jab about their head coach’s “awful” golf game. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said ball boys are “always good kids” and bring “special meaning” to the game. But he likes to jokingly tell them before the game starts to “stay the hell out of my way.” San Jose State’s Ken Niumatalolo loves to say hello and ask them about their majors.

And when Clemson hosted Louisiana Tech in 2022, Shirley remembers Bulldogs coach Sonny Cumbie jokingly asking him what plays the Tigers were about to run after they built a double-digit lead in the second half.

“He said it in a way that I could tell that he knew I didn’t actually know. So I just said we were running it, like as a joke,” Shirley said. “And then he actually yelled out to his team that it was a run, also as a joke kind of thing. It was pretty funny.”

Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said there have been a couple of instances when an opposing ball boy has gotten chippy on the sidelines, although that seems to be the exception and not the norm.

“It’s one of those things that may not always make sense, but it’s how we do business,” he said, referring to the oddity of having a couple of representatives from the opponent on your sideline. “Most times when there is or has been (an issue) it resolves pretty quickly.”

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said opposing ball boys can be distracting, but he always tries to be respectful. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he doesn’t really notice them.

Both coaches used to be ball boys themselves — Drinkwitz starting as a freshman in high school and Kiffin manning the sidelines as a teenager when his father, Monte, coached linebackers for the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

“It was actually a really cool experience,” Kiffin said. “We had to be on the other sidelines for half the game and — I was just telling this story the other day — Mike Ditka’s over there and Jim Harbaugh and Walter Payton.

“I always wanted to come up with a system because I could hear (the opposing team’s) plays over there, but my dad would be on the other sidelines coaching defense for the other team, for the Vikings. And I always thought, ‘I wonder if you could come up with a system where if I heard the play I could tell him the plays somehow.’”

When Steve Spurrier was the coach at Florida, one of Wyatt’s Vanderbilt ball boys asked the Head Ball Coach if he could have his visor.

“He said, ‘Kid, you’ve got a lot of balls. But no. You can’t have my visor,’” Wyatt recalled. “That was really funny.”

At the 2023 Gator Bowl, a Kentucky player offered to exchange his jersey for Shirley’s Clemson pullover.

“I was thinking about that the entire time, the entire game. Like how funny would it be if I came back (to the Clemson bus) with a (Kentucky) jersey?” Shirley said.

One of Wyatt’s favorite memories is from an away game at Ole Miss years ago.

“I was really short on help that day, so I had … one of our policemen running balls — not in uniform, but he was an off-duty policeman,” Wyatt said. “Well, he’s a great big guy. He was like 6-5, 300-plus pounds. So before the game, the officials always meet with the ball boys. They have a meeting to tell them how they want things done.

“Well, he looks up and he goes, ‘OK. You’re the oldest and the largest ball boy I’ve ever seen.’ And James is the guy that’s doing it. He goes, ‘Well look here, ref, don’t start no s— and there won’t be any.’ So it’s a grown man running balls telling the referee that. The referee got a real good kick out of it.”

---

Nowadays, all teams have their own ball boys working both sidelines, regardless of whether they’re home or away. But in Caldwell’s early days at Penn State, the home team often provided managers to run balls for both teams.

Such was the case in the fall of 1989 when Penn State traveled to upstate New York.

“So we’re playing Syracuse and it’s right before halftime and we’re driving. We’re in field goal range,” Caldwell said. “But we had a little bit more time on the clock and so coach Paterno wanted to get a little bit closer to make it a short kick.”

The Nittany Lions put one more play in — a 5-yard hitch from quarterback Tony Sacca to the tight end. But Sacca threw an interception. Paterno was not pleased.

“He’s yelling at the quarterback, ‘Why did you throw that ball?!’” Caldwell said, imitating Paterno’s distinct voice. “(Sacca) was notorious for excuses. So he’s like, ‘Coach, the football was wet.’”

Caldwell didn’t see the interception. He left the sidelines a few minutes earlier to prepare the locker room for halftime. So when Paterno stormed over to Caldwell in the locker room and demanded answers — specifically, why the football was wet — Caldwell was caught off guard.

“I said, ‘Well, the Syracuse managers are running the footballs,’” Caldwell said. “(Paterno said), ‘What do you mean the Syracuse managers are running the footballs? You’ve gotta get somebody on those. We can’t have that.’ I’m like, ‘OK, Coach, OK.’ And the whole team’s in there now. They’re getting ready to do halftime adjustments and Joe storms out of the room and all of the team’s looking at me and the coaches are standing there and one of the coaches says, ‘Football? Wet? How can a football be wet when we’re playing inside the Carrier Dome?’

“I never even thought about it. So I’m looking over at Sacca like, ‘I’m gonna kill you, you son of a gun.’”

Since that game, Penn State has traveled with eight managers (up from six), with two designated to run balls on the other team’s sideline.

“To (Sacca’s) defense, I guess our center was a sweater,” Caldwell said, laughing. “He did sweat a lot and it was pretty hot in the Carrier Dome … (but) I beg to differ.”

---

Ball boys may not be blue-chip recruits, but don’t underestimate their athleticism — and fearlessness. This crew is scrappy.

Longenecker, a former high school linebacker, went viral during Auburn’s 2014 game against Arkansas when he somehow kept pace with Tigers wide receiver Melvin Ray on a 49-yard touchdown reception.

Longenecker found out during a weather delay later that afternoon that a clip of his “exploits” had already amassed 4 million views on Vine, the former social media platform. ESPN tweeted out the play, as well.

“Melvin and I had a chuckle about it. I think I did, like, one interview at the time and they asked me why my high school coach never put me at running back,” Longenecker said. “I was like, ‘Because I was slow.’ And I meant it. I still am. It was something that looked good on camera there for like 10 yards.”

Frankie Grizzle-Malgrat, better known as “Red Lightning,” is arguably the most famous ball boy in college football history. He first went viral in the early 2010s when TV cameras caught him sprinting down the sidelines to celebrate a Florida State touchdown.

The man. The myth. The legend.@FSUFootball‘s Red Lightning pic.twitter.com/76foBPRfk9

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) June 27, 2020

But he may be remembered more fondly for never backing down when he sensed a Florida State player needed his help.

“When someone messes with your brother, you go to their aid,” Grizzle-Malgrat said. “And you don’t really think about the consequences. … You just hope for the best.”

Grizzle-Malgrat is 5 foot 8 … with shoes on. But when former FSU quarterback Jameis Winston threw an interception against Oklahoma State in 2014 and found himself surrounded by Cowboys players — one of whom hit him in the face mask — Grizzle-Malgrat muscled his way in to defend his guy and helped pull the All-American QB out of the tussle.

“I’m a lot, lot smaller than a bunch of them dudes, but you don’t think about it,” Grizzle-Malgrat said, adding that his biggest fear was always getting his glasses broken. “Oklahoma State, one of the big defensive linemen, he elbowed me in the back of the head.”

Similarly, he was there to help Winston up when the quarterback took a late hit against Duke in the 2013 ACC Championship Game.

“Just know that I’m there for you and I’m there to help you up,” Grizzle-Malgrat said. “I’ve got your back.”

Niumatalolo can remember one of his 5-foot-9 ball boys at Navy jumping into a skirmish to help a player in a bowl game on the opposite sideline.

“I said, ‘What happened over there? Did you get in the fight?’ He said, ‘No, Coach, I had to jump in there and try to save so-and-so,’” Niumatalolo said. “I said, ‘Good for you, man! You’re standing in for our players?’ These are small, tiny kids jumping in there trying to fight.”

During Wyatt’s time at Vanderbilt, the Commodores actually needed help from law enforcement on a trip to Arkansas.

“One of my ball boys comes across the field and tells me, ‘Hey, I’ve got a problem. Their strength coach is grabbing me and pushing me around, saying I’m in the coach’s way and all that,’” Wyatt said. “So we had to get the state trooper to remove the strength coach from Arkansas’ sideline.”

And sometimes, there’s even drama between the home and visiting ball boys.

“We were playing at UT (in 2005) and we won the game on a basically last-minute touchdown,” Wyatt said. “We had the ball that won the game for our quarterback (Jay Cutler). We were gonna keep it. And the (Tennessee) ball boy tried to take it and our ball boy ran across the back of the end zone and tackled him. It was pretty funny.”

---

For as serious as the job can be, it’s ultimately the fun memories that ball boys take with them.

Vest, now in his second year of law school at Samford, had an unforgettable conversation with a group of Ohio State defensive linemen in the second half of the 2022 Peach Bowl, right as the game was coming down to the wire.

“They were asking where all the girls were at,” he said, laughing.

Grizzle-Malgrat, who is now an equipment manager for Florida State’s softball and soccer teams, was at a bar in Virginia Beach for his cousin’s birthday in 2019 when a group of locals recognized him. Even 10 years later, he still fields autograph and photo requests in the grocery store or at a restaurant.

Vest recalls a different sort of interaction with fans at Tennessee.

“In Knoxville in 2021, we even had fans moon us from the stands,” he said.

As Longenecker said, the job isn’t always glamorous. It’s often thankless work that involves long hours filled with laundry, unpredictable weather and endless little tasks.

“(But) I’m alive. I’m healthy. And I’m happy. So I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world,” he said.

Perhaps Dan Leben, a former Vanderbilt manager, summed it up best.

“It is,” he said, “a ridiculously fun thing to do.”

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos: Clemson Athletics, Dannie Walls / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Georgia Athletics)

Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams.

It’s time to take notice of BYU.

The Cougars are undefeated and have delivered Kansas State and SMU their only losses of the season. Yet BYU remains outside the top 10 in both the AP and Coaches polls. But not here. BYU is up to No. 7 in this week’s edition of The Athletic 134.

I’m surprised the Cougars haven’t gotten more love. They’re undefeated at 7-0 and have two really good wins, both of which are better than the best wins of Iowa State (Iowa) and several other teams around their place in the polls. They’ve actually been in my top 10 for weeks.

Perhaps it’s because BYU has twice played on Friday nights, or because its 38-9 win against Kansas State was a 10:30 p.m. kickoff on a Saturday. Yes, the Cougars have played some close games and needed a late touchdown to beat Oklahoma State, but this team and especially this defense looks legit, now 13th in yards per play allowed.

You should also take notice because the second half of the schedule is manageable. BYU and Iowa State don’t play each other in the regular season. The Cougars already beat K-State and won’t play 5-2 Colorado. If the Big 12 wants to get two teams into the College Football Playoff, BYU would likely be one of them.

We’re more than halfway through the season, and we’re still getting surprise results that shake up the rankings. Here is this week’s edition of The Athletic 134.

1-10

Georgia slides up to No. 2 after its win at Texas, while the Longhorns fall to No. 6 because their best win at this point is a sliding Michigan team or a sliding Oklahoma. The Bulldogs’ loss to Alabama keeps them from the top spot, especially after the Tide lost again and are now ranked next to Boise State, which Oregon beat.

Miami jumps Ohio State after its win at Louisville, but the Ohio State-Penn State game in two weeks will be another shakeup game.

Tennessee and LSU jump into the top 10 after the Vols beat Alabama and the Tigers beat Arkansas 34-10. Tennessee and LSU’s resumes are incredibly even, but Tennessee has the better Best Win, so the Vols get the slight edge.

11-25

I’d been a little skeptical of Indiana’s ceiling after beating up on bad teams, but Saturday’s 56-7 demotion of Nebraska has turned me into a believer, moving the Hoosiers to No. 11. The bad news: Quarterback Kurtis Rourke is out indefinitely with a thumb injury. But the path to 10 or even 11 wins is there. Iowa State slips two spots mostly due to the performances turned in by Tennessee, LSU and Indiana on the same day that the Cyclones needed to rally late to survive UCF.

Illinois is the only newcomer to the top 25, back after a 21-7 win against Michigan to move to 6-1.

26-50

Teams just outside the top 25 took all kind of losses this week. As a result, Syracuse, UNLV, South Carolina, Memphis, Army, Duke and Cincinnati make big jumps into the top 35. Michigan State also jumps to No. 39 after a 32-20 win against Iowa. Next up is a Michigan-MSU game that could have major bowl implications for both.

Is it weird that we’ve stopped talking about Colorado right as the Buffs became a solid team? Colorado is 5-2 and No. 38 after a 34-7 win against Arizona, which comes after a last-minute loss to Kansas State and a win against UCF. It’d be a shocker if Colorado didn’t go bowling, which is another improvement for coach Deion Sanders.

No. 46 Florida and No. 47 Virginia Tech also move into the top 50 after handling Kentucky and Boston College, respectively. Utah continues to slide and is now just hanging onto No. 50 after losing to TCU.

51-75

USC has tumbled to No. 52 after blowing another 14-point lead and losing at Maryland to drop to 1-4 in Big Ten play. No. 53 Rutgers lost a shocker to UCLA and dropped out of the top 50.

Louisiana continues to sneak around the top of the Sun Belt, now No. 60 after beating Coastal Carolina to move to 6-1 overall, while Georgia Southern took control of the Sun Belt East in beating James Madison and moves up to No. 63 from No. 82. Toledo is up to No. 68 after beating Northern Illinois.

No. 65 NC State and No. 66 Cal are the toughest teams to rank. NC State recently lost to Wake Forest but turned around and beat Cal, which is 0-4 in ACC play by a total of nine points. If the Golden Bears could make a field goal, their record would be completely different.

76-100

Baylor jumps to No. 76 after a surprising 59-35 win against Texas Tech. Texas State drops to No. 77 after a loss to Old Dominion. Auburn blew a double-digit lead against Missouri, dropping to 2-5, and slips to No. 80.

No. 82 Western Michigan is actually atop the MAC at 3-0 after beating Buffalo, which has defeated Toledo and NIU. Marshall jumps up to No. 81 because the Herd have a win against WMU and beat Georgia State last week.

The bottom of the Power 4 is bunching together. Purdue is the lowest of the group at No. 95, but Florida State is just ahead at No. 94 after losing to Duke for the first time ever. No. 93 Mississippi State has played Georgia and Texas A&M competitively in recent weeks, while Houston slides back down to No. 89 after a 42-14 loss to Kansas.

101-134

New Mexico has won three games in a row after a 50-45 barnburner against Utah State to move up to No. 106 in Bronco Mendenhall’s first year. UTSA’s win against Florida Atlantic bounces the Roadrunners back up to No. 110.

UTEP got its first win of the season, beating FIU, to move up to No. 129. That leaves the FBS with just two winless teams: Kennesaw State and Kent State.

The Athletic 134 series is part of a partnership with Allstate. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)

Editor’s note: The Athletic 134 is a weekly ranking of all FBS college football teams.

“You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.”

When Nick Saban retired, many wondered whether Alabama would take a step back. It had to, right? The greatest coach in the history of the sport was gone. Surely the days of the Alabama dynasty had finally ended. Georgia had emerged as the new Alabama.

But like Thanos, Bama may be inevitable. After a 41-34 win against Georgia, the Tide have returned to the No. 1 spot in the Athletic 134 rankings.

It’s Alabama’s first time atop these rankings since the 2022 preseason. That year, Georgia took over one week in after plastering Oregon, and the Tide haven’t been back to No. 1 since then.

But it turns out when you let head coach Kalen DeBoer scheme up some stuff for elite-level talent, he can do a lot. Jalen Milroe looks like the best quarterback in the country. After the wild swings of the Game of the Year, I don’t exactly know how to feel about both teams. Alabama had a 28-0 lead and also blew a 28-0 lead. Georgia overcame that deficit on the road. But in the end, it’s the best win of the season for any team, so Alabama moves up from No. 7 to No. 1.

Georgia falls to No. 3, and not solely because of this result. The Week 1 blowout of Clemson looks better with each week. The Bulldogs’ schedule doesn’t get easier, however, with a trip to No. 2 Texas just a few weeks away.

Here is the latest edition of The Athletic 134.

1-10

I’m aware the SEC has the top four spots here. I don’t expect that to be the case by the end of the season. But so far, Alabama beat Georgia, Texas beat Michigan, Georgia beat Clemson and Tennessee beat NC State and Oklahoma. So that’s how it is right now. Ohio State’s big games are coming up, and the Buckeyes will move up if they win.

Miami slips to No. 8 after needing an overturned Hail Mary to beat Virginia Tech, and Penn State beat a ranked Illinois team to move up to No. 7. I don’t think the ceiling is very high for Michigan after it held on to beat Minnesota, but the Wolverines’ win against USC last week means they’re going to stay around here until something changes.

11-25

BYU jumps up to No. 12 after beating Baylor, but its earlier win against SMU continues to look better after the Mustangs moved to 4-1 with a 42-16 beatdown of Florida State. (Last weekend’s K-State win looks better, too). Clemson is up to No. 13 and still rolling since Week 1 after a 40-14 win against Stanford.

Utah drops from No. 9 to No. 17 after a 23-10 loss to Arizona. It’s really hard to place the Utes because we don’t know when (or if) injured quarterback Cam Rising will come back. Notre Dame inches up to No. 18 after beating Louisville. The loss to Northern Illinois continues to look worse, but the wins against Louisville and Texas A&M help. Indiana continues to roll, up to No. 19 after a 42-28 win against Maryland.

Ole Miss drops from No. 5 to No. 20 after a 20-17 loss to Kentucky. The Rebels just don’t have any good wins to offset the loss and make a case for a higher ranking. They’ve beaten Furman, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest and Georgia Southern. Oklahoma is back into the top 25 after a comeback win at Auburn. Undefeated UNLV is back in after beating Fresno State 59-14, and Boise State enters the top 25 after beating Washington State 45-24.

26-50

Texas A&M’s win against Arkansas moves the Aggies up to No. 29. Navy’s 41-18 win at UAB slides the Midshipmen up to No. 31. Rutgers moves up to No. 32 after beating Washington on Friday night, and Arizona is up to No. 33 after the win against Utah. It’s Arizona’s 31-7 loss to Kansas State a few weeks back that keeps the Wildcats from being higher for now.

Oklahoma State tumbles from No. 20 to No. 37 after a 42-20 loss to K-State. The Cowboys are 0-2 in Big 12 play and needed a late comeback to beat Arkansas. Kentucky’s win against Ole Miss moves the Wildcats up to No. 39, but Week 2’s blowout loss to South Carolina keeps the Wildcats behind the Gamecocks for now.

Colorado jumps from No. 67 to No. 44 after a 48-21 win at UCF, easily the most impressive performance of the Deion Sanders era.

51-75

No. 55 NIU is now 0-2 since its Notre Dame upset, but the Huskies stayed close in a 24-17 loss to NC State, which moves up to No. 54. Virginia Tech actually ticks up two spots to No. 56 after its overturned Hail Mary loss to Miami, given the nature of that finish. Army is 4-0 and up to No. 62 after its third consecutive win against an Owls team (FAU, Rice, Temple).

Sam Houston jumps from No. 91 to No. 68 after a 40-39 win against Texas State to move to 4-1. Since an 0-8 start as an FBS program last year, the Bearkats are 7-2 in their last nine games.

76-100

Kansas drops to No. 80 after falling to 1-4. The Jayhawks entered the weekend with three consecutive one-score losses, but their latest setback was a 38-27 loss to TCU. Florida State tumbles again down to No. 81 after a blowout loss at SMU.

Louisiana moves up to No. 84 after beating Wake Forest, which drops to No. 88. UConn makes a big jump up to No. 86 after a dominant 47-3 win against Buffalo. The Huskies are definitely trending up over the last three weeks. Georgia State drops out of the top 50 to No. 85 after losing to Georgia Southern, dampening the value of the win against Vanderbilt. USF may be beat up after a tough nonconference schedule, dropping to No. 87 after a 45-10 loss to Tulane.

East Carolina beat UTSA 30-20 to move up to No. 92. Purdue and Mississippi State kept it close with Nebraska and Texas, respectively, in the first half, but they remain the lowest-ranked Power 4 teams at No. 98 and No. 99. Purdue fired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell on Sunday.

101-134

ULM is up to No. 101, now 3-1 after beating Troy. That’s already an improvement on last season’s 2-10 record for first-year coach Bryant Vincent. Bowling Green competed well with Penn State and Texas A&M but drops to No. 105 after losing to previously winless Old Dominion. Wyoming also got its first win of the season, over Air Force, to move up to No. 119, while Air Force drops to No. 120 with Navy coming up next.

San Diego State falls to No. 112 after a last-second field goal loss to Central Michigan. Charlotte beat Rice in a wild finish to move to 2-3 and get up to No. 124.

We’re down to just three winless teams, and they make up the bottom three. They also each have losses to FCS programs, after Kennesaw State lost 24-13 to UT Martin. Kent State remains at No. 134. The Golden Flashes played Eastern Michigan close in the box score, but four turnovers led to a 52-33 loss.

The Athletic 134 series is part of a partnership with Allstate. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)