Josh’s College Football Rankings 2024–Week 1

An exciting opening week of football. Things kicked off with Florida State taking a loss against Georgia Tech. Then Clemson took a beating from Georgia. The ACC looked to be on their way out as a P4 (I guess it is just Power Four now, right?) conference, but then Miami saved the day by crushing the Gators. Lots of teams destroyed FCS opponents…except for Colorado, who almost lost to North Dakota State. And then we had the Penn State game. The national media seemed to be on the WVU-train, with most of the experts picking the Mountaineers to pull off the upset. The Nittany Lions shut them all up, particularly any of the doubters about the explosiveness of the new offense.

I decided to give my explanation for the rankings, the image is great, but I like being able to justify my decisions.

1. Georgia (1-0)–#1–W 34-3 #12 Clemson. The Bulldogs proved they are still at the top.
2. Alabama (1-0)–#3–W 63-0 Western Kentucky. Alabama moves up to the second spot because they just look so complete. Milroe is ready this season, and it will be hard to stop that offense if he is firing on all cylinders.
3. Texas (1-0)–#4–W 52-0 Colorado State. Hey, Arch Manning finally got a chance, and he threw for a touchdown. Has there ever been a more hyped backup?
4. Oregon (1-0)–#2–W 24-14 Idaho. Ummm, what the hell happened in this game? I know the Vandals were a good FCS team last year, but Oregon should have won by like 60. I am keeping an eye Oregon.
5. Ohio State (1-0)–#5–W 52-6 Akron. The Buckeyes were losing 3-0 until the end of the first quarter. I know, that sounds stupid to say, but I think Akron has to take that as a positive. It was only 17-3 at halftime. Then the Buckeyes began to steamroll the Zips.
6. Michigan (1-0)–#6–W 30-10 Fresno State. The defending champs took down a tough MWC opponent. The defense looks great, the offense may take a few weeks to get rolling, but honestly, this Wolverine team does not feel much different than a Harbaugh team.
7. Penn State (1-0)–#9–W 34-12 WVU. I was a little bit skittish about the Nittany Lions, but they answered my concerns.
8. Notre Dame (1-0)–#11–W 23-13 #22 Texas A&M. The Irish defense is good. Like PSU, they answered some concerns for me with a nice win against a ranked SEC team.
9. Missouri (1-0)–#7–W 51-0 Murray State. Yep, that game told me nothing.
10. Ole Miss (1-0)–#8–W 76-0 Furman. Same as above.
11. Washington (1-0)–#10–W 35-3 Weber State. The AP does not respect the Huskies at all, having them outside the Top 25? That seems crazy. I know, they lost a ton of players, and a coach, but they brought in some talent. The game on Saturday does not tell us much.
12. Oklahoma (1-0)–#13–W 51-3 Temple. Sadly, Temple has become the tune up game for the good teams.
13. Tennessee (1-0)–#14–W 69-3 Chattanooga
14. Utah (1-0)–#23–W 49-0 Southern Utah. Probably the team I was most wrong about in my preseason rankings. I knew Cam Rising was coming back, but I guess I forgot how good he can be when healthy.
15. USC (1-0)–HM–W 27-20 #16 LSU. The Trojans looked good. They did not give up fifty, so that is a positive. If their defense could have held teams under 30 last year, they probably finish in the top ten.
16. Miami (1-0)–#24–W 41-17 Florida. The Hurricanes are back! I am sure everyone in the national media is saying it. I think they were impressive, but that could also be an indictment of the Gators.
17. Arizona (1-0)–#17–W 61-39 New Mexico
18. Kansas (1-0)–#18–W 48-3 Lindenwood. Is this even a real school? I think the Jayhawks are the team I might be wrong about at this point in the year.
19. Louisville (1-0)–#20–W 62-0 Austin Peay
20. Clemson (0-1)–#12–L 34-3 #1 Georgia. The Tigers are not done, they need to shake this loss off, and string together a bunch of wins.
21. Kansas State (1-0)–#21–W 41-6 Tennessee-Martin
22. LSU (0-1)–#16–L 27-20 USC. Similar to Clemson, they need to win a bunch of games and get ready for those big SEC matchups.
23. Georgia Tech (2-0)–NR–W 24-21 #15 Florida State, W 35-12 Georgia State. The Yellow Jackets were on my watch list after their strong finish last season. They came out and proved they deserved to be noticed by upsetting Florida State in Dublin.
24. Oklahoma State (1-0)–#25–W 44-20 South Dakota State. Nice to see they had no problems with the defending FCS champs.
25. NC State (1-0)–#19–W 39-21 Western Carolina. I had high expectations for the Wolfpack after picking up Grayson McCall, but it was not a great showing from them. Also, why are they the Wolfpack, but Nevada is the Wolf Pack?

Honorable Mention
Texas A&M (0-1)–#22–L 23-13 #11 Notre Dame. It was a close game, the Aggies played well.
Auburn (1-0)–HM–W 73-3 Alabama A&M
SMU (2-0)–HM–W 29-24 Nevada, W 59-7 Houston Christian
Iowa (1-0)–HM–W 40-0 Illinois State. Iowa scored points! Rank them in the top ten.
Kentucky (1-0)–NR–W 31-0 Southern Miss. The game was canceled in the third quarter due to lightning. I had the Wildcats in my Watch List, and they looked to be rolling before it was stopped. 

Watch List
WVU (0-1)–HM–L 34-12 #9 Penn State. Can the Mountaineers rebound?
Boston College (1-0)–NR–W 28-13 #15 Florida State. Bill O’Brien owned Florida State, dominated the line, and have opened some eyes. 
UCF (1-0)–NR–W 57-3 New Hampshire. KJ Jefferson intrigues me.
Duke (1-0)–NR–W 26-3 Elon. Keep an eye on this Manny Diaz team. 
Sam Houston (1-0)–NR–W 34-14 Rice. The Bearkats did not pick up a win until November last year. 

The big game for week two is #3 Texas at #6 Michigan. How does Quinn Ewers do against that Wolverine defense? Other games to watch:
#13 Tennessee at #25 NC State–I want to see Grayson McCall against Nico Iamaleava.
#21 Kansas State at Tulane–Can the Green Wave take down a ranked team, and get themselves back to the top 25?
Iowa State at Iowa–Rivalry game! 
App State at #20 Clemson–The Tigers need to rebound, but App State loves to ruin someone’s day.
Boise State at #4 Oregon–If the Ducks struggled with Idaho, what will happen against the Broncos???

Coaching Hot Seat
New segment this year. I am going to talk about a coach that I think could be in trouble. This week we are looking at Dabo Swinny. I do not think he is going to be fired. But I think Clemson will have a decision to make if this team finishes 8-4 or even 9-3. They might go to him at the end of the year and either demand he use the transfer portal, or retire. Or maybe they do fire him. I have never liked him, his self-righteousness has always annoyed me, but his decision to not use the portal (and then sticking to his principles) is respectable. 

Awful Losses
I like to keep track of the FCS wins over FBS, as well as the G5 wins over P5 (I still do not know where to count the Pac-2). So far this year we have…
Montana State over New Mexico 35-31
UNLV (MWC) over Houston (Big XII) 27-7