The college football world just got a fresh face in the Top-25, with the UCLA Bruins hitting No. 23 in the Week 4 USA TODAY Sports US LBM Coaches Poll. This is their first time ranked this season, and trust me, they absolutely earned it. Head coach Bob Chesney has injected new life into the UCLA program, and their performance so far speaks for itself.
UCLA’s Unstoppable Rise to the Top 25
This squad isn’t just winning, they’re dominating. The Bruins are 4-0 to start the season and have been an absolute buzzsaw for their opponents. You want proof? Their 54-3 thumping of Maryland at SECU Stadium was so comprehensive, it was enough to catapult them into Top-25 status. This team is a scoring machine, too, dropping 50 points in both of their Big Ten Conference games already. They picked up 183 points in the poll, securing that No. 23 spot, and it looks like just the start for this surging program.
The Big Ten Is Shaking Up the Coaches Poll
While UCLA celebrates its entry, the Coaches Poll saw some serious shakeups this week, especially within the Big Ten. The former No. 23 Washington Huskies actually dropped out of the Top-25 entirely. UCLA now finds itself squeezed right between the No. 24 Michigan Wolverines and the No. 22 Penn State Nittany Lions. Both of those teams took significant hits this week, suffering losses to conference opponents. The chaos didn’t stop there, either. The No. 18 USC Trojans joined the Wolverines and Nittany Lions in tasting defeat, which saw them fall six spots in the rankings.
But it wasn’t all drops! The No. 15 Oregon Ducks climbed one rank, making it into the Top-15 after they took down those Trojans, even without their star quarterback Dante Moore. And talk about clutch, the No. 14 Iowa Hawkeyes rose three spots to get just ahead of Oregon. How’d they do it? They silenced the Wolverines with a last-minute score, an absolute nail-biter. Rounding out the stacked Big Ten teams in the Top-25 are the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes and the No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers. That makes it a whopping eight Big Ten teams ranked in the Top-25 just four weeks into the 2026 season.
This poll shows the Big Ten is going to be an absolute slugfest all year. With so many ranked teams, every single conference game is going to feel like a playoff. Can UCLA keep this momentum rolling and shake up the conference even more next week? It’s going to be wild.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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