Blog Poll 2024: Week 2 — Are we sure the Longhorns aren’t the best team in the country right now?

It’s always the “slow weeks”, isn’t it? That’s when you get the most chaos.

This week was no exception — only two Top 25 games on the schedule, but what should have been a sleepy Saturday saw the playoff hopes of the reigning champions and darling Domers nearly dashed. Many more struggled, and there were surprises all over the country.

It shook things up. And since this week is another “slow” week, I’m almost counting on it happening again when we meet at this time next week.

What follows are a few brief observations. The criteria are vague, far-reaching, and fickle — strength of schedule, bad and good coaching, injuries, tough conditions, home/away results, defense or lack thereof, offense or lack thereof, line play, power poll-ishness, ability to cover a spread (Vegas is pretty smart about how good a team is), head-to-head when possible or wise, and my own lying eyes.

Let’s get started:

Once Alabama has sorted his line combination, it absolutely devoured VSFYou wouldn’t know this team was in a one-point game going into the fourth quarter. Georgia had another service. Texas played with his food. They were just so damn good at every stage. I didn’t think the Wolverines would be great this year, but Shortie did it in every phase of the game — and Michigan rightfully disappears from our rankings. That’s not a Top 25 team we saw on Saturday; earn it back. I think Clemson will be the better winner in the end. But you can make just as good an argument for Texas as you can for UGA. I don’t think many people expected much from NCSU (no idea why that team was ranked that way), but the To share are downright scary. Worse yet, they are playing defense this year. Mizzou And Old lady don’t have much on their resumes, but they did a great job. LSU out of action for a week until it can figure out pretty much everything.

In the middle majors, Memphis the lights are out. They travel to State of Florida this week and can win that match very easily. State of Texas gets our approval for his 2-0 record and destruction of UTSAthe C-USA favorite. It was 42-6 in the 3rd, and it felt like a changing of the guard. It was supposed to be a rebuilding year in Vegas. It has been anything but that. UNLV somehow looks better than the Rebels last season. NIU was a MAC preseason favorite for a reason; wonder why Freeman didn’t get that message. A win under the welcoming arms of Touchdown Jesus gets you into the Top 25 — and it wasn’t a coincidence; the Huskies led from start to finish and physically dominated Our Lady, making Riley Leonard look like a jester.

Speaking of Notre Dame, last week I said I almost sold on Notre Dame during the preseason. That a competent offense could get them to the playoffs. Oops. For the third year in a row, Notre Dame overlooked a cupcake and got punched in the face. If it doesn’t happen this year with Freeman, it might never happen… because he’ll be a defensive coordinator at another program while the Irish go on a coaching search. Again. The margin for error is literally zero from here on out; the schedule isn’t getting any easier. They travel to Purdue this week, then host of the other MAC co-favorite, Miami-OHfollowed by a visit from Louisvilleand roadies to USC, Georgia technology. Who knows? FSU could also rebound. This team is not good enough to even beat teams like UVA on the schedule.

Boston College And Syracuse play fantastic fundamental football. Very physical, dominant rushing attacks and great defense.Georgia Tech slides for a week, but they could be back. They were in a war in Upstate vs. the Orange, and lost by just a FG. But it looks very much like we’re in MiamiThe world…for now. The schedule is getting tougher, but they haven’t broken a sweat on their ass-kicking tour of the state. Plus, no one has Real trust Cristobal for 15 games, right? Darling And Pitt are also secretly looking good. We’ll keep an eye on them. It may be too early to tell, but the ACC mid-range seems to be doing pretty well.

USC continues to look impressive, just like Utah. I have temporarily removed Arizona of this week’s rankings, because I’m not even sure it’s the best team in Arizona right now. The State of Arizona The Sun Devils have let me (and hopefully others) know that they are not the same old Devils anymore. The defense is fast and active, the offense cuts down on turnovers, and they have been great so far.

Okie light decided to sleepwalk for half a minute but realized they had a talented team and gave in Arkansas‘s brain. Sam Pittman just got fired, and he probably doesn’t even know it. The Hogs AD is sending out feelers for Jimmy Sexton as we speak; bet your money. The state of Iowa Defense was its usual oppressive self, but they also added some offense for a change. Look at you, Clones! K-state a little bit of the ole’ Big 12 road underachievement, and then nearly beaten by Tulane. But they also remembered who they were. Kansaswas, as we predicted, beaten up by BERT in Champaign.

The illini are a sly 2-0. OSU nobody played…again. And we left Oregon very intentional. That team is 2-0 and should lose twice — to Idaho State. You’re going to have to earn your way here. Somehow your offense is worse than Oklahoma. (Okay, let’s not be unreasonable. But it’s pretty bad.) Speaking of the Sooners, you’ve got one game to sort it out before the volunteers come to town. If that game were to be played tomorrow, Tennessee would remove the visual spheres from OU and then mate with the vacated socket.