College Football Rankings: Projected Week 3 AP Top 25
It's always the sleepy weeks in college football when things get wild for the AP Top 25 college football rankings — especially when it's something like Week 2 and so early in the season. There was only one ranked-on-ranked matchup on the schedule, a game in which the Oklahoma Sooners dominated the Michigan Wolverines for a "welcome back" type of win, but that didn't stop three teams from dropping out of the AP Top 25 projections with upset losses, two of them coming at home.
The Florida Gators may have been caught looking ahead to next week's showdown with LSU, and the Billy Napier hot seat talk is back because of it. USF, who took down Boise State emphatically last week, had the Gators sweating for all 60 minutes, but they only needed the final seconds to secure the win with a last-second field goal. That was also true for the Baylor Bears, who kicked their game-winner in double overtime to take down previously No. 17-ranked SMU in a rivalry game.
Then came the late-night calamity courtesy of last year's Big 12 champions, the Arizona State Sun Devils. On the road in the land of cowbells, Mississippi State picked up by far the biggest win of Jeff Lebby's young tenure with a last-minute touchdown pass that all but went the length of the field to stun Kenny Dillingham and Co.
So yeah, things got weird, and that means the rankings are going to get a bit weird too. Here's what we have for the projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after the chaos that was Week 2.
Dropped out of Top 25 rankings: Arizona State (12), Florida Gators (13), SMU Mustangs (17)
No. 25-21
25. BYU Cougars
BYU was the first team out of the AP Top 25 last week, but the chaos of the week and their own impressive performance should vault the Cougars into the poll fully this week. Bear Bachmeier might be appointment television, even playing in the late window every week, and he proved it again as the Cougs dismantled lowly Stanford. The 47-wearing quarterback threw for 175 yards but also rushed for a touchdown in the game with LJ Martin help leading the way. Despite the offseason turmoil, BYU isn't going anywhere.
24. Auburn Tigers
Beating Ball State isn’t what gets Auburn into the Top 25 — which you could argue they should’ve been — but, rather, a re-evaluation of what we saw last week. With Baylor going on the road and taking down SMU in double overtime, you have to think that the Tigers going on the road last week
23. Texas Tech Red Raiders
If there’s one thing we know about Texas Tech, it’s that the Red Raiders know how to put up a big number on bad, wholly outmatched teams. Kent State was on the wrong end of that on Saturday, but I’m also not so sure how much any of that actually means. Texas Tech hasn’t played a single soul of consequence to this point, and won’t until two weeks from now when they visit upstart Utah.
22. Utah Utes
Keep overlooking Utah at your own risk at this point. The Utes were dominant against UCLA last week and hung 63 points on Cal Poly this week. The level of competition there isn’t the highest, to be sure, but Devon Dampier looks like a revelation for Kyle Whittingham’s team this season, and the defense is as bankable. This team looks methodical in their path of destruction right now, and may well be the favorite in the Big 12 by the look of the conference’s landscape right now.
21. Indiana Hoosiers
With the way that Fernando Mendoza’s debut went for the Hoosiers, you just had the feeling that Curt Cignetti was going to take out some frustrations on Kennesaw State. Indeed he did. It wasn’t a perfect, especially with another slow-ish start, but Indiana pulled away for a massive victory that it seemed like they needed to get the ball rolling this season. They’ll have another chance to do so on Friday against Indiana State before a little extra rest and then a huge Big Ten showdown at home against Illinois.
No. 20-16
20. USF Bulls
Through two weeks, South Florida is the only program with two ranked wins to its credit. They beat the brakes off of Group of Five favorite Boise State last week, and followed that up somehow by going to The Swamp and riding a last-second field goal to get the victory over Florida. Byrum Brown is healthy and the USF offense is dangerous when that’s the case, but the upswing of the defense seems to be the biggest story for the Bulls this season in a major way.
19. Tennessee Volunteers
On the one hand, Joey Aguilar and Tennessee followed up their offensive domination of Syracuse a week ago by completely tearing East Tennessee State down to the studs in a 72-17 win. However, two things to note there are that ETSU is not equipped for this type of matchup, and Syracuse nearly lost to UConn. We might not know exactly what this Vols team is this season, but we’ll find out quickly next week as they take on rival Georgia.
18. Alabama Crimson Tide
Congratulations to Kalen DeBoer for not letting things spiral in Tuscaloosa after last week — but I’m not going to give anything more than a participation trophy to Alabama for beating Louisiana-Monroe. Despite the Crimson Tide’s dubious history with that program, DeBoer might’ve been fired on the spot if he didn’t win that game. Ty Simpson and Co. still have a lot of questions to answer, most of which I don’t think we’ll get answers to until SEC play, especially after Wisconsin looked quite uninspiring this week.
17. Michigan Wolverines
Michigan shouldn’t be penalized too terribly much for their loss in Norman. With a young quarterback at the helm in Bryce Underwood, the Oklahoma defense was a bit too much for them and it showed. However, the Wolverines defense showed out well and continues to be a strength, even in a tough environment. With the offensive improvement, even with some youth-related weaknesses, this is still a dangerous team.
16. Ole Miss Rebels
The good news is that Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss avoided their Kentucky house of horrors with this week’s trip to Lexington. Austin Simmons and the offense overcame an ugly, turnover-filled start to get the victory, and the defense stepped up largely down the stretch (even if they blew the cover late). Even still, I remain curious to see what the upside is for Ole Miss, especially considering they have one of the weaker schedules in the SEC.
No. 15-11
15. Texas A&M Aggies
Texas A&M picked up a second straight win and was able to pull away from Utah State to win with margin. That’s going to be enough amid some upset chaos to move them up in the rankings. At the same time, it’s hard to look at this game and not feel like the Aggies are still leaving us wanting a bit. Marcel Reed is dynamic but the offense hasn’t faced a viable defense, and the defense itself has given up 20+ points to back-to-back Group of Five opponents. With Notre Dame looming next week, A&M still has quite a lot to prove.
14. Iowa State Cyclones
The rivalry clash between Iowa State and Iowa may have felt like we’d time-traveled back to the 1930s with the way the game was played, but the fact of the matter is that the Cyclones moved to 3-0 on the season with a gritty performance in a game that obviously has emotional stakes well beyond the regular-season record. This game is simply never pretty and should never have too much read into it, but escaping with a win is quite important for Matt Campbell’s team.
While I’m not going to light the beacons because Florida State beat East Texas A&M on the heels of upsetting Alabama last week, the Seminoles looked the part of a legitimate threat against low-level competition with a scoring barrage. They put up 77 points in the win as the offense, no matter which of four quarterbacks Mike Norvell played, had its way and the defense just sat on their opponents. And frankly, we might be in store for more of that next week with Kent State set to visit Tallahassee.
12. Illinois Fighting Illini
Sure, it might not have computed entirely that Illinois visiting Duke was a game to pay attention to in Week 2 given the programs involved, but it absolutely was — and the Illini more than lived up to the billing with a big-time performance. Luke Altmyer was stellar through the air, but might’ve only been outdone by the defense, which put the clamps on Darian Mensah and the Blue Devils. Illinois feels like it’s lurking dangerously right now just outside the Top 10.
11. Clemson Tigers
Following up a loss to LSU on your home field by letting Troy have an 11-point halftime lead and seemingly a chance to give Clemson a second straight loss probably isn’t the way that Dabo Swinney drew it up. I was a bit shocked to see Clemson not fall outside of the Top 10 last week but, with another lackluster performance on their resumé this season, I’m willing to be that the voters are ready to dock the Tigers again in the Week 3 voting.
No. 10-9
10. South Carolina Gamecocks
After waiting nearly half of the day to actually kick off against South Carolina State, the Gamecocks finally took the field late in Columbia and really delivered a performance that kind of looked like it. Make no mistake, South Carolina ultimately ran away with this one in a 38-10 win, but they were also down three after the first quarter. At the same time, you can somewhat excuse that, especially with the end result, given the delay and the situation.
On a short week after a spotlight matchup, the Gamecocks had this cupcake matchup scheduled in-between before welcoming pesky Vanderbilt to town next week. So, it makes sense why LaNorris Sellers only rushed eight times, and why the offense looked sub-vanilla for most of the game. Having said that, we might actually have more questions about South Carolina than we did coming into the week, not because of this game, but because of how badly Virginia Tech got spanked by Vandy.
9. Oklahoma Sooners
John Mateer and the Oklahoma Sooners might truly be the real deal. While they had the advantage in Week 2’s marquee matchup of playing at home in Norman against Michigan, they were able to thoroughly dominate the action far more than the 24-13 final score would indicate. Not only did the Wazzu transfer at quarterback play arguably the best game of his career against high-level competition, but the defense was suffocating against Bryce Underwood.
Make no mistake, it’ll still be an uphill battle for the Sooners this season with the most daunting schedule in the country. However, this team looks completely different than the one we saw wearing the “OU” on their helmets last year. The fire is back with this group and, with several SEC counterparts looking suspect or at least unproven, Oklahoma absolutely looks like it could be in the conference title mix.
No. 8-7
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame was off in Week 2, giving Marcus Freeman and his team an opportunity to lick their wounds a bit before another big-time ranked-on-ranked matchup as they’ll host Texas A&M in South Bend next week.
Make no mistake, there’s a lot that the Fighting Irish need to clean up from the Miami loss. Perhaps most crucially, they can’t let Jeremiyah Love be as little of a factor in the offense as he was, especially given the fact that C.J. Carr will still only be making his second career start. Having said all of that, Notre Dame still looks quality and has a chance immediately now to erase the bad taste from everyone’s mouths.
7. Texas Longhorns
On the one hand, we got to see visions of what a Texas team led by Arch Manning could potentially look like when everything starts clicking offensively. Unfortunately, the other side of that equation for Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns is the fact that none of that was consistent on the offensive side of the ball, even against a struggling program like San Jose State. It ended up being a comfortable win, but one could argue that it should be more comfortable.
As I said last week after the loss to Ohio State, though, the good news for Texas is that they don’t have to rush anything to get ready for the SEC gauntlet that they’ll need to run through for a return trip to the College Football Playoff. UTEP and Sam Houston are on deck, but we need to see more from this offense before it’ll be viable to believe they can win a national championship. The defense, for now, has no such concerns.
No. 6-5
6. Oregon Ducks
Mike Gundy almost surely has some regrets about his midweek trash talk exchange with Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, because the Ducks showed absolutely no mercy against the Pokes on Saturday. They hung 69 points on them and just kept the train rolling from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
In the end, I’m not exactly sure that means all too much. Oklahoma State was without its starting quarterback and might not be all that good to begin with either. However, this is the type of fire that Oregon has lacked at times over the years, so to see them motivated to just thoroughly beat down and outright embarrass an opponent is a good mentality to see. They’ll likely do the same to Northwestern next week, though perhaps with a little more motivation to take their foot off the gas in that matchup.
5. Miami Hurricanes
Fully understanding that Bethune is not remotely in the same class as Miami, we have a two-week sample size now that says that Carson Beck might be the answer that the Hurricanes were looking for. After some big-time plays to help guide the way to a win over Notre Dame last week, the Georgia transfer came out and delivered another gem for The U with a 22-of-24 performance where he didn’t even look like he was working all that hard.
One thing that’s always worth noting, though, is that Miami is a 12-week proposition to watch under Mario Cristobal. Beating Notre Dame wasn’t the first big win that the Canes have been able to notch under this head coach’s regime, but they’ve also had head-scratching losses paired with that too often. Beck and an improved defense look like they might remedy that, but a matchup with USF next week could be another test to see how real that upswing is.
No. 4-3
4. Georgia Bulldogs
When you just look at the final score, you’re probably not too impressed by how little margin Georgia won by against Austin Peay. And frankly, there’s nothing to write home about in a 28-6 win when the talent gap is so vast. At the same time, this was a classic Kirby Smart early-season game in which the Dawgs just sat on the Govs for 60 minutes and didn’t seem to break too much out of the box on the offensive side of the ball.
Admittedly, that last part could be of some mild concern. We still don’t fully know what to expect from the Mike Bobo and Gunner Stockton marriage, and there were times when things looked a bit more difficult for Georgia on that side of the ball than you’d like. However, until we see Georgia not perform in a big spot against a team that’s on more equal footing, I still don’t think there’s a real reason to worry. Of course, that means they better show something more next week in a rivalry matchup against Tennessee.
3. Penn State Nittany Lions
Despite getting an overall comfortable win against FIU, Penn State actually drops a bit in the rankings after Week 2 simply because it wasn’t as impressive as it probably should’ve been. Kaytron Allen, Nicolas Singleton and this nasty Nittany Lions defense were up to the task with big games for all three of those players or groups, but the 34-0 victory isn’t totally indicative of a game in which James Franklin’s team didn’t pull away with nearly the ease that they should’ve.
A lot of that ultimately falls on the shoulders of Drew Allar. After some big flashes to start the season, the PSU quarterback was middling at best, going 19-of-33 for just 200 yards and two touchdowns. The play of Allar and the receiving corps was always going to be the biggest factor when talking about the Nittany Lions making a leap this season, and it feels fair to say we haven’t seen them pass that test yet. Hopefully they can figure it out before they welcome Oregon in three weeks time.
No. 2-1
2. LSU Tigers
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed by LSU after their huge Week 1 win on the road against Clemson (and claiming Baton Rouge as the “real” Death Valley). Sure, the defense continued to look much improved as they almost entirely shut down Louisiana Tech, but Garrett Nussmeier and the offense weren’t exactly dialed in at peak efficiency for this game. At the end of the day, though, they’re still going to move up based on the strength of last week.
In all honesty, while there might be a tinge of disappointment, there shouldn’t be any concern for LSU. Yes, this team probably should’ve handled Tech a bit more decisively. At the same time, the Tigers already notched the big victory that they needed, and also have to take on a tough Florida team next week. This game felt like getting guys healthy and largely taking it as easy as possible. To win more comfortably than the final score indicated was a good way to accomplish exactly that.
1. Ohio State Buckeyes
Shockingly enough, Grambling didn’t provide nearly as stiff of a challenge for the Buckeyes as Texas did in the season opener. After picking up the truly season-altering win over the Longhorns that vaulted Ohio State to No. 1 in the rankings, they made light work of their Week 2 matchup on Saturday with a widely expected 70-0 victory in which the offense finally got to take off the training wheels far more than they did a week ago.
Julian Sayin showed off his prowess, going 18-of-19 for 306 yards with four touchdowns and one pick, while Jeremiah Smith (5-119-2) and Bo Jackson both came up big as well. The defense was dominant, even if that was the expectation for a group that wasn’t exactly sweating against this level of competition. It’s not nothing to keep the good vibes just rolling forward, but there will be sterner tests awaiting Ryan Day’s team ahead, including a sneaky matchup with the Ohio Bobcats, who knocked off West Virginia in Week 2, next week before beginning Big Ten play.