We are playing very well, regardless of opponent. These people watch football for a living; they have the ability to recognize quality when they see it.

We are getting a rankings bump because we keep winning in mostly impressive fashion while the teams closest to us are playing really inconsistently and making a lot of mistakes, including many unforced mistakes. We have been largely mistake free, partly because our opponents haven't been good enough to force them, and partly because we aren't beating ourselves, which a lot of teams close to us in the rankings are doing.

Are we really the 12th best team in the country? Probably not. But college football always has that 3rd tier between 15-ish and 35-ish where the teams are really hard to distinguish among and matchups make a huge difference when they play each other. That's where we are this year, for the first time since 2016, and we should enjoy it.