College football rankings 2023: Projected Week 3 AP Top 25 after Texas upsets Alabama, Colorado rolls again

Projected AP Top 25 college football rankings after Week 2: No. 2-1

2. Michigan Wolverines

The plan while Jim Harbaugh is suspended for the first three games of Michigan’s season appears to be lay the wood emphatically out of the gate and then turn on the cruise control. After deploying that strategy last week against East Carolina, the Wolverines put more of the same on display in Week 2 against UNLV. 

J.J. McCarthy was near perfect on the day, going 22-of-25 for 278 yards and a pair of scores while Blake Corum added 80 rushing yards and three touchdowns. That allowed Michigan to jump out to a 21-0 lead at halftime and then add two more touchdowns for a 35-0 lead after three frames. The Runnin’ Rebels added a late touchdown but the game was well out of hand. 

We all knew that Michigan would unlikely be tested in its early schedule and it hasn’t. But the Wolverines have also barely broken a sweat to this point and have been dominant, even without the head coach manning the sidelines. 

1. Georgia Bulldogs

Kirby Smart had to have laid into the Georgia Bulldogs defense after they let UT Martin score a touchdown last week. The Dawgs defense wasn’t about to let that happen again against Ball State on Saturday afternoon between the hedges. 

The Cardinals completed fewer than 50% of their passes and averaged a meager 2.8 yards per carry on the ground while throwing three total interceptions in the game. That all but allowed Carson Beck and this Georgia offense to coast to a decisive victory in Athens, ultimately winning by a score of 45-3. Beck was good but unspectacular again, going 23-of-30 for 283 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and the run game was still middling. 

Put simply, Georgia hasn’t put it all together yet in the post-Stetson era for the Bulldogs – but that also hasn’t remotely needed to. And given what South Carolina, their Week 3 opponent, has looked like thus far, it’s hard to imagine next week will be too much of a test for Kirby’s team either.