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throwaway_6786 Ballot for 2024 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 3, 2024, 12:27 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Still a good bit of influence from the last two years, but how the teams fared in their Week 0/1 matchup(s) will also pull teams up and down. Because there's only one game to go off of, there are going to be some fairly wild swings. However, since this is the first game for almost everyone, I'm willing to ease up because coaches never know exactly how their team will operate until they face live competition.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Pretty obvious choice.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Not the best performance from the Bucks, but they've had high levels of success in the last two years and they did turn it on in the second half to crush Akron with ease. They stay above Texas for now, but just barely.
3 Texas Longhorns Solid performance all around against a middle-of-the-road G5. Lots of encouraging signs ahead of their showdown next week with the defending champs.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide It's only one game against a decent G5, but maybe life after Saban won't be so bad for the Tide.
5 Ole Miss Rebels 76-0. Enough said.
6 Oregon Ducks The only reason the Ducks don't fall any further is because it's week 1 and because they've got two strong years behind them to fall back on. However, they better kick it into gear quickly or else they're in big trouble with their B1G schedule looming.
7 Penn State Nittany Lions A solid win on the road over a decent P5. I liked Kotelnicki's willingness to stretch the field effectively, something the Lions never did much of with Yurcich running the offense.
8 Utah Utes Took care of their (in-state) FCS game without issue.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish There's a lot for Notre Dame to work on after watching that performance (particularly on offense). That being said, Freeman and his staff made the right adjustments after halftime and got a win in a tough road environment. We'll see if the Irish can build off of this win.
10 Michigan Wolverines Not a huge confidence-inspiring win, but Fresno State has been a tough G5 for many teams over the years and Michigan, to their credit, turned it on in the 4th quarter to run away with it. I could've moved them more, but they face Texas next week, so we'll get a much better sense of just how good the Wolverines are real soon.
11 Arizona Wildcats Not the best defensive performance, but Fifita to McMillan is a lethal connection that will have every defense on Arizona's schedule on notice. Still, I need to see more from the defense (particularly the front 7) to start treating this team as a true contender. The K-State matchup looms on the horizon.
12 Kansas State Wildcats Bad news is that Will Howard's departure is going to hurt. Good news is that their rushing attack appears to be so tough to stop that it might not matter all that much, especially with a solid defense behind them. Here comes Tulane and Arizona in succession to test just how good K-State really is without Howard.
13 Oklahoma State Cowboys They faced arguably the best FCS team out there and performed well from the start. Let's see if the Cowboys can keep it going against Arkansas.
14 Missouri Tigers Poor Murray State never stood a chance. Missouri is the beneficiary of a couple teams in front of them losing.
15 Oklahoma Sooners The Sooners had no problem shooting down the Owls. They've got two weeks before a battle with Tulane, followed by an interesting matchup against Tennessee. Speaking of which...
16 Tennessee Volunteers The SEC really had no mercy at all for these cupcakes. The Vols get some movement due to teams in front of them falling, but there's still some work to do for Heupel and his crew before they visit his old stomping grounds in a couple weeks.
17 Oregon State Beavers Not the best performance, but it is week 1, so I'll let the Beavers off a little easy. Still, slow starts like that won't suffice against the meat of their schedule, and the influence that their great 2022 campaign has on their spot will fade after this week, so Oregon State better get on their horse against SDSU before the Civil War matchup against Oregon.
18 USC Trojans USC won this game on that late TD, but it was their defense that kept them in this game all the way through. This is a rare sight for a Lincoln Riley-led team. I'm not ready to say that they're a more well-rounded team just yet, but the Trojans have a lot of good to take from beating favored LSU in the Vegas desert.
19 Kansas Jayhawks Dominated a game they had every reason to dominate. Nothing much else to say.
20 Miami Hurricanes I'm not ready to throw Miami way up there just yet, they've still had a mediocre last two years and Florida under Napier hasn't been close to their usual talent level. However, Cam Ward is a solid passer and his steadiness plus the talent level that the Canes have makes them a trendy pick for the ACC crown. We'll see if Cristobal and Co. can live up to the expectations.
21 Louisville Cardinals The Cardinals had no issue taking down Austin Peay, but Georgia Tech and Notre Dame are far better and fast approaching. Louisville has one more week to iron out any kinks, and then it's go time.
22 Iowa Hawkeyes 6-0 Iowa at half? Sounds about right. Then Iowa leapt forward 100 years into the future and found out about this wonderful thing called the forward pass. Final score: 40-0. In all seriousness, we've been saying for a while now that Iowa could be a contender if they could ever field a good offense. I'm not going to say they've figured it out just yet (this was FCS Illinois State, after all), but that has to feel encouraging for the Hawkeye faithful just to see a QB that can throw the ball with relative efficiency.
23 Washington Huskies Washington was #23 in my preseason poll, and at #23 they remain for now. Solid win over FCS Weber State, but they'll need to show more against an increasingly tough schedule to make moves up this list.
24 Tulane Green Wave Finally, a G5. A strong win for the Green Wave plus sustained success in the last two years gives me reason to put them in my Top 25. I know they don't have Willie Fritz anymore, but maybe Tulane is talented enough to continue winning without him. They've got K-State and Oklahoma coming up soon, so they'll have to be on their game.
25 LSU Tigers For what it's worth, LSU does have decent success over the last two years and they played a ranked USC team to a draw through 59 minutes and 51 seconds on a neutral field. Not the best way to start the year, but Brian Kelly and his squad have chances to execute and move back up over the next few weeks. I had considered Boise State, Georgia Tech, SMU, NC State, Clemson, Texas A&M, Iowa State, Nebraska, Memphis, and a few others for these last few spots, but they all didn't quite make it.

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