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loganisfresh Ballot for 2024 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2024, 5:45 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Combination of who I think would win if two teams ranked next to each other played right now + how impressed/unimpressed I was by a team's most recent performance.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs I don't believe they actually played as well as people are giving them credit for, and also don't believe that Clemson is a very good team, as they may as well have been 2023 Iowa with how anemic their offense looked at times. So safe to say I was not impressed with the first half, but I do recognize that Georgia's running back depth was not where it will be, and that could have been a contributor. Definitely turned the offense on the second half and looked like the #1 team once they wore down the Tiger defense.
2 Texas Longhorns Played like the #1 team and were almost perfect the whole game through. Impressive because Texas tends to play slow and down to their competition in games like this. I was a little higher on Colorado State than most, which warranted moving up Texas to 2 for me, but not enough for the 1 slot since it's now obvious that Colorado State probably isn't very good.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Did everything they needed to and looked good after a little bit of a slow start against what is probably not going to be a great team in Akron. No major complaints, they did what they needed to, and an argument could be made to move them up, but the caliber of win does not warrant that for me.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Complete game against an inferior opponent. No signs of any problems. Not much to gain from watching the best teams play G5 and FCS opponents but it could be argued that Alabama looked the best.
5 Ole Miss Rebels Played a complete game against a higher caliber FCS team and perhaps even ran up the score a tiny bit. Granted, it's still an FCS team and Ole Miss was expected to win in a blowout, but they looked even better than most probably expected.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions A sloppy game in the beginning from both teams and a delay didn't help any, but overall, the team looked fast and seems to have retained a top 5 caliber defensive unit that held a West Virginia offense that is usually dangerous in check. Offense looks more explosive and dynamic.
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish A sloppy game, but as we have seen in previous seasons, winning a night game at Kyle Field is no easy task, and by the end Notre Dame made it a double-digit victory against a ranked Texas A&M. It wasn't the prettiest game by far, and it remains to be seen how good of an opponent Texas A&M will actually end up being by season's end, but for now, one of the most impressive wins of the week considering the circumstances.
8 Oregon Ducks According to scoreboards, the worst win of the week, although when investigating the box score that narrative may change. It's hard to explain what exactly happened in this game, as Oregon dominated almost every statistical category they could, besides points of course. The trenches, especially in running scenarios left a lot to be desired and may be where a lot of the Duck's problems stemmed from. Regardless, an inexcusable 24-14 victory when compared to the likes of Ole Miss completely dominating a Furman team similar in caliber to Idaho 77-0.
9 Missouri Tigers As for the remaining entries on this list, higher level teams such as Missouri dominating low level G5 and FCS teams needs little to no explanation at this point, barring headscratchers like the Ducks/Vandals matchup, and will have shorter game summaries henceforth.
10 Tennessee Volunteers Nico Iamaleava, Dylan Sampson, and the rest of the offense picked up right where Hendon Hooker and company left off in 2022.
11 USC Trojans It was nice to finally see a USC team that doesn't get completely gashed on defense whenever they play a half decent squad, and LSU may even end up having one of the better offenses in the country by season's end. The offense maybe didn't score as much as Trojan fans have become accustomed too, but they scored enough, made plays when needed, and will only get better from here. One thing I find funny is that if this game was played less than a year ago, the final number of points scored may very well have been over twice as many.
12 Miami Hurricanes Everyone will talk about Cam Ward's debut performance for the Hurricanes, and rightfully so, but credit where credit is due, Xavier Restrepo made multiple great catches and racked up over 110 receiving yards with a touchdown. Along with Ward, fellow Pac-2 refugee Damien Martinez didn't have the flashiest game, but look for him to make some big plays coming up. Miami has had the talent to be a top 15 caliber team for years now, but they were always missing those offensive playmakers that kept them in games or allowed them to blow out inferior opponents like Florida. It may be too early to say, but as of now it looks like Miami may have found it's missing pieces to win the ACC in a down year.
13 Utah Utes Cameron Rising Looks sharp in his first start back since January of 2023, throwing for 254 yards and 5 touchdowns on only 10 completions.
14 Oklahoma Sooners Jackson Arnold bounces back from a less than ideal first start against the Arizona Wildcats back in December, while the defense shows out, recovering 4 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions.
15 Kansas State Wildcats Avery Johnson and Kansas State didn't wow anyone in their first game back, but they got the job done with an overall solid performance and held UT Martin to just 134 combined passing and rushing yards on the day.
16 Michigan Wolverines Onto what others may consider the worst played game of the week for any of the top 25 teams. The trio of Davis Warren, Alex Orji, and Donovan Edwards were for the most part, abysmal to watch, with the only saving grace of the offense at times being tight end Colston Loveland. Fresno State may end up being a solid team as the season plays out, but in no way is it excusable for Michigan to only be leading this game 16-10 at one point in the fourth quarter, and if not for a Will Johnson pick six with Fresno State in the redzone, could have very well turned into just a 24-17 Michigan lead with less than 5 minutes of game time remaining. Speaking of Will Johnson and the defense, while overall they played a good game, it was obvious at times that they had given up uncovered zones and passing lanes that were not taken advantage of, whether it was missed reads or missed throws by Mikey Keene. More experienced and talented quarterbacks with better teams around them, such as Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns will take advantage of those defensive deficiencies if they are not fixed soon. As for offensively, if this same unit is trotted out onto the field this Saturday afternoon, Michigan needs to pray that Texas's defensive gameplan revolves around ignoring Colston Loveland as much as possible (it won't) if they want any chance at surpassing more than 17 offensive points.
17 LSU Tigers Another disappointing opening loss for the Tigers in what has become tradition since the magical Joe Burrow season. The defense looked better at times compared to last season's defense, if you can call it that. But the lack of Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers was apparent with only 20 points scored, although I would argue this offense didn't catch many breaks in this game and will pick up steam moving forward.
18 Louisville Cardinals Louisville is one of those fringe top 25 teams to me that loves to either over or under deliver in tune-up games like these (at least in my head, not going to verify that claim). Happy to say that over delivery was in the cards this week for the Cards.
19 Arizona Wildcats Most of us were aware at this point that the duo of Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillian would light up a lot of defenses this season, but I'm not sure anyone saw a performance like this coming from McMillian. That being said, the defense did not hold up its end of the bargain, and I worry that fate may not align for this zona team at some point his season, and the defense will be the team's undoing when the offense isn't as unstoppable against a higher caliber opponent. I was extremely high on Arizona, as they were even my preseason pick to win the Big 12, but I simply cannot rank them much higher than the 19th spot when they are giving up close to 40 to New Mexico level squads, regardless of the record next to their name.
20 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets As Florida State flounders yet again to different ACC sleeper team, Georgia Tech has a solid showing in its second game against a lower tier Georgia State opponent. That first win in Ireland may already look worse in less than 2 weeks after it took place, but the team looks like they deserve a spot in the fringe for now.
21 Oklahoma State Cowboys Many considered this a trap game, as South Dakota State walked into Stillwater as reigning back-to-back FCS national champions with a 29-game winning streak. While it wasn't the prettiest game, it wasn't the ugliest game either, and Oklahoma State got it done with a comfortable win against a team that would probably have challenged, and maybe even beaten a couple teams in my top 16 this past weekend with the way they played.
22 Kansas Jayhawks A slow first quarter followed by an explosive second quarter. Jalon Daniels didn't play much but looked solid when he did. The duo of Devin Neal and Daniel Hishaw Jr. were back and fun to watch, totaling 178 yards and 3 touchdowns on the ground in only 17 combined carries. An interesting test for the Jayhawks travelling to Champaigne and then back to Lawrence for two-night games against formidable Illinois and UNLV squads.
23 Vanderbilt Commodores In what was arguably the game of the week, Vanderbilt showed they had a lot of tenacity in various different game situations, whether it was starting hot, rebounding from the opposing team gaining a lot of momentum, or showing up in overtime. All of this while being the underdog playing against perhaps one of the most hyped Darkhorse teams of the offseason in Virginia Tech. Diego Pavia didn't have the most exciting arm of the week but made a lot of great throws and secured yards and points both on the ground and through the air when they were absolutely needed (26 carries for Pavia, 4 more than the rest of his team combined. Yikes!). Quincy Skinner Jr. and Sedrick Alexander are Commodore names to watch out for as the season progresses.
24 Tulane Green Wave Part of this ranking may be due to some bias from previous seasons, part of it may be due to bias towards an awesome mascot and uniforms, but also, I just think Tulane has a good team with really high-level G5 players, and played a great game this Saturday, albeit against a much inferior opponent.
25 UNLV Rebels the turnaround that Barry Odom and Brennan Marion have done with the rebels in such a short time has been a great mini story to watch, and hopefully continues for years to come. UNLV traveled to Houston as 3.5-point underdogs, and although not a complete blowout, beat the cougars 27-7 and just frankly looked like a good team. The passing stats leave some to be desired, but if the defense can keep up this pace, look to see them challenge a few teams such as Kansas, Syracuse, and Boise State down the line.

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