College football rankings 2023, preseason Top 25: Florida State eyeing top, Texas is back
Preseason Top 25 college football rankings for the 2023 season. Florida State is coming for Georgia, Texas is back, Alabama and Ohio State have much to prove.
Week 0 is so close you can taste it and college football fans are already salivating.
Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs are going for a 3-peat coming off of back-to-back titles, but they won’t be given it (even if their Charmin-soft schedule would have you believe otherwise). What’s interesting, though, is it’s not just the usual suspects of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines trying to run the Dawgs down.
Certainly, those programs are in the mix. But there is also a bevy of teams who are not only in the preseason mix to compete with Georgia and the top contenders, they have the talent to do so as well.
Preseason college football rankings, all told, are a bit hollow. We are looking on paper and that’s not where the games are played. The most important thing that we can glean is where these teams stand in terms of perception coming into the 2023 season. So we’re doing exactly that.
We’ve already projected what we believe the preseason AP Top 25 will look like and examined the Coaches Poll that came out on Aug. 7, but let’s do one better with our FanSided preseason Top 25 college football rankings for the 2023 season.
College football rankings 2023, FanSided preseason Top 25: No. 25-21
25. Ole Miss Rebels
The self-proclaimed king of the transfer portal put all of his reigning energy into quarterbacks this offseason as Lane Kiffin brought in both Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard to Ole Miss to compete with Jaxson Dart. The Rebels are hoping that the arrival of Pete Golding will shore up a leaky defense that caused the team to go 1-5 in the second half of last year. But the offense, no matter who wins a heated transfer QB competition, should be lethal still.
24. North Carolina Tar Heels
UNC may simply go as far as Drake Maye can drag them. The Tar Heels have one of the best quarterbacks in college football and weapons that are enticing, particularly with the transfer addition of Devontez Walker from Kent State. But the simple truth for North Carolina is that if the offensive line and defense don’t improve from what they were in 2022, the Heels aren’t going to live up to Maye’s hype.
23. TCU Horned Frogs
Expecting TCU to replicate their College Football Playoff run from last season is a fool’s errand, but the Horned Frogs should still be a quality team in the 2023 season. Chandler Morris appears capable of stepping in at quarterback and Sonny Dykes, as he’s long been, has filled other holes by way of the portal. Again, the ceiling doesn’t appear to be nearly as high as it was last year, but the overall outlook in Fort Worth is positive.
22. Texas A&M Aggies
Anyone who says that they know how things are going to work out in College Station is lying to you. In theory, bringing in Bobby Petrino to take over the offense on Jimbo Fisher’s staff should help this program not disappoint yet again. On the other hand, that’s a combustible situation. The talent that Texas A&M has recruited is undeniable, though, and I’m choosing to hesitantly believe that the changes and talent will ultimately shine through for the Aggies.
21. Texas Tech Red Raiders
The buzz building around Joey McGuire’s Texas Tech is impossible to ignore at this point, so much so that it’s hard to even call them “this year’s TCU” as some have. Even with losing Tyree Wilson, the Red Raiders defense has been making big strides. Tyler Shough is back at quarterback as well and, if he can stay healthy, there is every reason to believe that tortillas will be on the mind of everyone in college football this season.