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bretticus33 Ballot for 2023 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 11, 2023, 4:21 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Another weekend, another Georgia blowout win. Until I have a reason to, Georgia will stay my #1 team.
2 Michigan Wolverines Like last week, Michigan cruised to an easy win, scoring more than enough points before putting it on cruise control. 1 more game without Harbaugh and it’s against Bowling Green.
3 Florida State Seminoles FSU followed up their huge win over LSU with an easy win over Southern Miss despite a not-so-great game from Jordan Travis.
4 Texas Longhorns Is Texas back? I don’t know but that win over Alabama is arguably the program’s biggest since their Rose Bowl win over USC. Quinn Ewers put on a show and the team showed strong mentality.
5 Washington Huskies UW followed up blowing out Boise State by blowing out Tulsa, although not quite by as many points. UW remains my top PAC-12 team.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State leaps over Ohio State after an impressive showing over Delaware. Drew Allan was efficient, but the real story was PSU’s ground game.
7 USC Trojans Caleb Williams is putting up a strong argument to repeat as Heisman winner with a huge game against Stanford. USC’s defense looked better and had two strong weeks in a row, but I still want to see them against a stronger opponent.
8 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State falls again because I don’t trust this QB situation. Kyle McCord probably won the starting QB job for good (or for at least a while), but the teams ahead of them appear to have their QB situations more settled.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish That might have been the longest game in Notre Dame history, but again the offense under Sam Hartman looked good. Defense looked more vulnerable today but I’m not worried yet.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide All offseason I’d been saying I don’t trust this Alabama team. I know Nick Saban is still HC, but the QB situation isn’t good, the skill positions aren’t great, and the defense struggled against a good offense. There’s real reason to believe Alabama could be a 3 loss team this season.
11 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee took a while to get going, but they eventually did in a 17 point win over Austin Peay. Joe Milton has a ton of talent but is inconsistent. Tennessee has a lot to clean up.
12 LSU Tigers LSU took care of Grambling pretty easily, as they should have, and Jayden Daniels played like a Heisman winner, but it was just Grambling. LSU opens up SEC play against Miss State next week.
13 Utah Utes Utah has a QB situation as long as Rising is out. A QB change ended up sparking a comeback against Baylor, but considering Texas State beat Baylor a week ago, Utah should have done better. I trust Kyle Wittingham, but the Utes didn’t look all that great.
14 Oregon Ducks Oregon won a hard fought game against Texas Tech, a game that was a revenge game for TTU QB Tyler Shough. I don’t fully trust Oregon after last season, but their talent is undeniable.
15 Oregon State Beavers Oregon State has taken care of business so far in 2023. Nothing challenging, and DJU wasn’t asked to do much against UC Davis.
16 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss started slow but ended up beating the reigning top G5 team in their stadium. Don’t be fooled, Tulane is still good without Michael Pratt. Ole Miss doesn’t move up too much for it though.
17 Duke Blue Devils Duke took a while to get going against Lafayette, but ended up winning by 35. Impressively, Duke QBs threw zero incomplete passes.
18 North Carolina Tar Heels UNC and App State needs to be a more often played game after the last couple years. After a very strong showing against SCAR last weekend, the UNC defense regressed some. Once again, UNC won without Drake Maye looking like a Heisman contender.
19 Kansas State Wildcats KSU jumped out to a lead, then nearly blew it, then ran away with it against Troy. It’s been a strong start for KSU to 2023 but they haven’t faced tough tests yet.
20 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma beat SMU in not-very-convincing fashion but a win is a win. Jeff Lebby appears to be on the hot seat not just for inconsistent offense, but his connections with Art Briles might do him in.
21 Clemson Tigers Clemson started very slow against Charleston Southern, but used a massive second half to comfortably win. I’m not sold on Clemson yet though.
22 Colorado Buffaloes Colorado has been THE story of the CFB season for good reason. Superstar HC, an unprecedented roster transformation, the HC’s son being the star QB, and the best player in CFB in Travis Hunter. Granted, none of the teams they beat probably won’t be great, but CU is likely starting 3-0 regardless (barring a massive upset against CSU)
23 Miami Hurricanes In the matchup of the most overrated coaches, Miami prevailed with a comfortable 15 point win over Texas A&M. I was impressed with how Miami played though but I could see Miami struggling again with consistency issues.
24 Washington State Cougars WSU again beat up Wisconsin despite letting the Badgers into the game again. In what is their final P5 season, WSU is playing with a passion and out to cause as much chaos as possible.
25 Tulane Green Wave Yes Tulane lost to Ole Miss by 17, but I give them a pass because their star QB was out with an injury. It might not be as big of a deal with P5 programs, but for G5 programs the depth isn’t quite there and Michael Pratt’s backup did not look good. I keep Tulane in the top 25 to give Tulane the benefit of the doubt.

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