Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Josh's World

Second Longest Running Personal Blog on the Internet

Football

Josh’s College Football Rankings 2025–Week 2

Ngewo

I guess I was wrong about there not being too many exciting games this week. Granted, not too exciting for the top teams, they all did their thing, and to me there was no real need to change up the top nine. 

  1. Ohio State (2-0)–#1–W 70-0 Grambling State
  2. Penn State (2-0)–#2–W 34-0 Florida International. I did not get to watch this one, but it sounds like the Nittany Lions played like crap. Not too worried, get a bad game out of the way now.
  3. Georgia (2-0)–#3–W 28-6 Austin Peay. The Governors are no joke, they end their season with Tarleton State, that might be one to watch.
  4. Texas (1-1)–#4–W 38-7 San Jose State. Arch Manning needed a game to ease him into the starting role.
  5. LSU (2-0)–#5–W 23-7 Louisiana Tech
  6. Miami (2-0)–#6–W 45-3 Bethune-Cookman
  7. Oregon (2-0)–#7–W 69-3 Oklahoma State. Are the Cowboys just this bad again? Or are the Ducks just that good.
  8. South Carolina (2-0)–#8–W 38-10 South Carolina State
  9. Notre Dame (0-1)–#9–BYE
  10. Illinois (2-0)–#13–W 45-19 Duke. I thought this game would be a low-scoring affair, since I figured Manny Diaz defense could hold the Illini to around 24. I doubted the skills of Luke Altmyer.
  11. Clemson (1-1)–#10–W 27-16 Troy. I am totally being stubborn about the Tigers. I should drop them after almost losing to Troy, but I just cannot do it yet. Maybe they are just slow starters.
  12. Oklahoma (2-0)–#22–W 24-13 #11 Michigan. On the other hand, I am quickly buying the John Mateer Heisman talk.
  13. Florida State (2-0)–#16–W 77-3 East Texas A&M
  14. Ole Miss (2-0)–#17–W 30-23 Kentucky
  15. Iowa State (3-0)–#20–W 16-13 #36 Iowa. It is never pretty when these two teams meet each year, but the Cyclones came out on top.
  16. Indiana (2-0)–#18–W 56-9 Kennesaw State
  17. Tennessee (2-0)–#19–W 72-17 East Tennessee State
  18. Texas A&M (2-0)–#21–W 44-22 Utah State
  19. Texas Tech (2-0)–#23–W 62-14 Kent State
  20. Auburn (2-0)–#25–W 42-3 Ball State
  21. Michigan (1-1)–#11–L 24-13 #22 Oklahoma. The Wolverines need Underwood to adjust quickly after this loss. They have Central Michigan, then they have some tough games. The true freshman could be in for rough welcome to the Big Ten.
  22. South Florida (2-0)–HM–W 18-16 #15 Florida. The Bulls pulled off the big upset this week, and they shocked Boise State last week. Taking out two ranked teams will get you into my Top 25. Can they do it again next week?
  23. Florida (1-1)–#15–L 18-16 South Florida. Yikes, not exactly the result the Gators were hoping for. I still believe they are a good team, so I will not dismiss them quite yet.
  24. Alabama (1-1)–#24–W 73-0 ULM. Cool, you destroyed ULM.
  25. Missouri (2-0)–#29–W 42-31 #33 Kansas. Beau Pribula shines in another win for the Tigers.
  26. TCU (1-0)–#26–BYE
  27. Georgia Tech (2-0)–#28–W 59-12 Gardner-Webb
  28. Baylor (1-1)–#39–W 48-45 2OT #14 SMU. Good rebound win for Baylor.
  29. SMU (1-1)–#14–L 48-45 2OT #39 Baylor. Rough loss for the Mustangs.
  30. Arkansas (2-0)–#30–W 56-14 Arkansas State
  31. USC (2-0)–#31–W 59-20 Georgia Southern
  32. Washington (2-0)–#32–W 70-10 UC Davis
  33. Nebraska (2-0)–#34–W 68-0 Akron
  34. Arizona State (1-1)–#12–L 24-20 Mississippi State. Wow, I thought for sure the Sun Devils would lose an early game, but I figured it would be to Baylor/TCU/Kansas State…not to Mississippi State.
  35. Tulane (2-0)–#35–W 33-31 South Alabama
  36. UNLV (3-0)–#37–W 30-23 UCLA
  37. BYU (2-0)–#38–W 27-3 Stanford
  38. Utah (2-0)–HM–W 63-9 Cal Poly
  39. Kansas (2-1)–#33–L 42-31 #29 Missouri
  40. Iowa (1-1)–#36–L 16-13 #20 Iowa State

Honorable Mentions
Vanderbilt (2-0)–NR–W 44-20 #40 Virginia Tech
Louisville (2-0)–HM–W 28-14 JMU
Minnesota (2-0)–HM–W 66-0 Northwestern State
Wisconsin (2-0)–HM–W 42-10 Middle Tennessee State
Mississippi State (2-0)–NR–W 24-20 #12 Arizona State

Neyland Stadium

I have eight games next week that I think you should watch. First of all, you have to watch the Backyard Brawl: Pittsburgh at West Virginia. The Mountaineers just lost to Ohio, and if they get crushed by the Panthers, the fans may start screaming for RichRod’s head after three games. Speaking of rivalry games, we also get #3 Georgia at #17 Tennessee. The Bulldogs would love a huge early season statement victory, and the Vols need an upset to convince people they are worthy of being in the top ten.

#11 Clemson heads to #27 Georgia Tech. If the Yellow Jackets can beat their fellow science nerd rivals (it is funny to me that Georgia/Georgia Tech & Clemson/South Carolina are rivalries between in-state schools, where one is kind of the science/tech focused school, and the other is…well Georgia or South Carolina), they would definitely jump a decent bit in my rankings.

Speaking of the #8 South Carolina Gamecocks, they will host Vanderbilt this week. The Commodores have not won against South Carolina since 2008. Could this be the year? I mean, they beat Alabama last year. And you know what, #24 Alabama faces Wisconsin at home. The Tide should have no problem with the Badgers, but who knows how good either of these are this year.

Now we get to my three big games.
#22 South Florida at #6 Miami. I am not going to lie, I would love to see the Bulls pull off this upset.
#18 Texas A&M at #9 Notre Dame. The Irish had a week off to prepare. The Aggies want to prove they are for real. This should be a great game.
And finally, we have #23 Florida at #5 LSU. I am shocked this game does not have a cool name. The Gators have to bounce back, and they could easily make people forget about this week’s loss with a win over LSU.

Tiny But Mighty
Four G5 teams beat P4 schools, and we had two more FCS wins. Ohio beat West Virginia, South Florida over Florida, UNLV beat UCLA, and Army took down Kansas State. Wait, what? Army…who lost to Tarleton State last week, beat Kansas State? Speaking of FCS programs, Bryant won against UMass, and LIU beat Eastern Michigan. 

I was thinking about FCS programs, and wondered which schools would be making the jump to FBS. My guess is that by 2030, there will be at least 140 FBS schools (there are 136 now). 

Sacramento State is actively trying to make the jump. They applied and did all of the stuff, but they were denied this past year. I believe they are appealing the decision (I guess they were not offered membership to any conference, which is why they were denied). They could be independent for a year, then maybe get into the MWC when a bunch of teams leave for the Pac-12. So we at least know of one school.

One of the big requirements is that a school must have an average attendance of over 15,000 for two years. So that eliminates many schools. I actually looked up FCS schools, then sorted their stadiums by size. There are like 44 stadiums that are big enough. Next, I eliminated all of the Ivy League schools (why the hell do they all have gigantic stadiums?). After that, I looked up attendance numbers, and figured out which schools are in the realm of 15K. That left eight schools. I figured I would also include a few schools that are slightly under since who knows if these are official. That expanded my list to eighteen. 

Jackson State, Montana, Montana State, Tarleton State, Alabama State, South Dakota State, Southern, Florida A&M, North Dakota State, Norfolk State, Sacramento State, South Carolina State, North Carolina A&T, Holy Cross, Tennessee State, Eastern Kentucky, McNeese State, and Furman. 

Okay, we already counted Sacramento State, so they are eliminated. Also, Florida A&M used to be FBS, but dropped to FCS, so I knew I could cross them off the list. I decided my next thing would be to just look up what the schools are saying about the subject. And guess what? Most university ADs or presidents have commented on this topic in the last few years. 

Jackson State, Montana, Montana State, Alabama State, Southern, Norfolk State, South Carolina State, and Holy Cross all said no. They cost involved is just too much for their universities. 

North Carolina A&T said no, but they were not ruling it out. Tennessee State said not at the moment, but that it was definitely a long-term goal. Furman said no, but they have increased their spending in all sports (which seems to be one of the first steps), so they could be positioning themselves for a move way down the road.

South Dakota State and North Dakota State have both said they would like to move to the FBS level. I believe they plan to enter the MWC once Boise State and the others leave. Eastern Kentucky and McNeese State both have said that they are trying. And finally we have Tarleton State who is also actively doing what they have to do to make the jump. I believe Tarleton was Division II a few years ago, then made the jump to FCS. 

My guess is that by 2030, we have Sacramento State, SDSU, and NDSU in the MWC. I think Tarleton State will be in C-USA. 

Coaching Carousel
Every time I hear about Tarleton, I think about the article in the New York Times about the 400 subsequent moves that happened when Nick Saban retired. Towards the end, we learn that when DeBoer is hired, he hires a coach from Baylor. To fill the void, Baylor hires a coach from Tarleton. They need to fill their spot, so they hire the head coach from Cisco College. If you read the whole article, you learn about the new head coach at Cisco, and his long journey to get there. I highly recommend reading it. 

Heisman Watch
I will rank my top five picks for the Heisman Trophy. Why not, these posts are not long enough! 
1. Garrett Nussmeier (QB)–LSU
2. John Mateer (QB)–Oklahoma
3. LaNorris Sellers (QB)–South Carolina
4. Carson Beck (QB)–Miami
5. Rocco Becht (QB)–Iowa State

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