College football rankings 2022: Projected Week 2 AP Top 25 after Ohio State outlasts Notre Dame, Georgia dismantles Oregon

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 1: No. 10-9

10. Oklahoma State Cowboys

If you enjoyed the hard-nosed, defensive-minded stylings of last year’s Oklahoma State team, then what you saw from the Cowboys on Thursday night might’ve made your stomach turn. But at the same time, there was a lot to be encouraged by.

Spencer Sanders, who a lot is being put on the shoulders of this year, played one of the best games of his career as he threw for 406 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions on the night and also rushed for 57 yards and two more scores. Against a quality Group of 5 team in Central Michigan, that’s a positive sign for the offense.

If there’s a concern, though, a defense that lost a great deal of talent and coordinator Jim Knowles gave up 44 points. Some of that was garbage time, so we can give it a slight pass. But it’s definitely something to watch as the Pokes go forward this season.

9. Baylor Bears

Starting off the season by welcoming Albany to Waco, the questions that some people have about Baylor entering the 2022 campaign were almost surely never going to be addressed as they simply have too much talent for the Great Danes to contend with. And sure enough, that looked to be the case for Dave Aranda’s team on Saturday.

The Bears jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a couple of offensive scores and a punt return touchdown before blowing it open going into halftime with a 35-7 lead after a second Blake Shapen touchdown pass and his first rushing score of the year.

It was pretty much out of reach for Albany at that point, but it still leaves questions about just how good Baylor will be this year after winning the Big 12 last season. We’ll get an answer to that next week, though, with a matchup in Provo against BYU on deck for the Bears.