College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 2 AP Top 25 after Georgia, Ohio State sleepwalk, Colorado upsets TCU

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

10. Texas Longhorns

Everyone was ready to fire off their “So Texas is back, huh?” jokes after the first half on Saturday against Rice. At the time, that definitely seemed warranted as Quinn Ewers and company were struggling to move the ball up the field consistently.

However, the defense was stout against inferior competition throughout and, more importantly, the offense started humming in the second half. There can’t be any lull next week, though, when the Longhorns head to Tuscaloosa.

Having said all of that, there is a good chance that Steve Sarkisian was trying not to put too much on film for Nick Saban to study as almost everything from Texas looked vanilla. I expect we'll see much more from this talented collection of players against Bama.

9. Washington Huskies

Boise State could legitimately contend for the Mountain West title this season. So it wasn’t entirely surprising that Washington didn’t completely have its way with the Broncos to start their 2023 season. However, it’s a testament to how dangerous the Huskies are and will continue to be that they overcame a 6-0 first quarter deficit to ultimately secure a runaway 56-19 win to begin the season 1-0.

Michael Penix Jr. will rightfully be one of the Heisman Trophy frontrunners coming out of this game, torching Boise for 450 yards and five touchdowns on the day. And we should’ve expected that with what he did in Kalen DeBoer’s first year in 2022. But the defense was actually just as impressive, tightening up after some leaks early in the game to force two interceptions and completely render the Broncos ineffective by comparison. 

Washington should be one of the Pac-12 favorites and nothing we saw on Saturday will change that assessment.