People complain about preseason rankings and how valueless they are except to drum up TV ratings. I’m starting to think that the early to mid-season rankings are even less useful. There are enough games completed that we should be considering resumes instead of expectations at this point. At the same time, schedules are imbalanced and wins and losses have to matter.
Is LSU (3-2) better than Fresno State (5-0)? Probably.
Is Clemson (3-2) better than Louisville (5-0)? Almost certainly after what I saw last Friday.
But, it’s hard to justify teams that have lost 40% of their games being ranked in front of all the other teams that are unbeaten or have only one loss. I am pretty sure both LSU and Clemson are going to finish the season in the top 20, but their profile does not stack up right now.
A few of these borderline top 25 teams will get a chance to prove themselves in week 6. Missouri hosts LSU. Louisville hosts Notre Dame. Maryland travels to Ohio State. Kentucky is at Georgia. A win, or even competitive loss, will show a lot about how serious we need to take some of these programs for the rest of the season.
Top 25
Texas. Best combination of strong schedule and dominating lesser teams.
Washington. If Washington had dominated Arizona like they have everyone else, I would have them at #1. Most dominant team of the season so far, but against lesser competition.
Florida State. Wins against LSU and Clemson are the best pair anyone has this year to date. The achievement is slightly lessened by LSU and Clemson having bad second losses already. The game against BC was also concerning.
Ohio State. The thrilling victory at Notre Dame was great. This team seems like it might need to win with its defense. We’ll see if Ryan Day is up for that kind of challenge.
Michigan. Nobody has run a play inside of Michigan’s 10-yard line this season. An absurd stat for a defense that is giving up only 7 points per game so far. The offense is one of the slowest in the country in terms of pace, but they score nearly every time they have the ball.
Penn State. The offense is still a work in progress. Drew Allar is still finding his groove and there is no deep threat element for the Nittany Lions yet. The dominant victory over West Virginia to open the season continues to look better.
Georgia. The offense starts slow and the defense is far more vulnerable than it has been the last two seasons. We’ll see if the Auburn game is the wake up call that the Missouri game was last season or if Georgia is just simply not as good in 2023.
Oregon. Other than the nailbiter at Texas Tech, Oregon has crushed everyone they’ve played so far, including the widely watched beatdown of Colorado. The matchup with Washington in two weeks looms large.
USC. The offense is great. The defense is not. However, USC’s season starts in week 7 at Notre Dame. A game yours truly will be covering live.
Notre Dame. Last year, Ohio State beat Notre Dame twice as the Irish laid an egg against Marshall in week 2 after losing at Ohio State in week 1. The Irish survived the “game after” this year. The Irish looked dominant through three weeks and then split a pair of coin-flip games. Whether Notre Dame stays in the playoff race depends on beating USC in week 7.
Washington State. Cam Ward and the offense will fit right in with the rest of the top of the Pac-12.
Miami. Other than the Texas A&M game, you probably haven’t heard much about Miami. Why? They quietly dominated the first month of the season against weaker competition. Miami is competent so far. If not for last season’s train wreck, they would be getting more national hype.
Alabama. The defense has been great. The offense is not great, but they seem to have wisely settled on Jalen Milroe. The SEC West is wide open this year. Alabama’s usual steadiness may end up carrying the day, even if this is not a signature Saban team.
Oklahoma. I don’t know what to make of Oklahoma. Their offense has exploded on a couple of bad teams, and been held in check by SMU and Cincinnati. Drake Stoops leads the Sooners in targets. That’s all you need to know about the depth of Oklahoma’s receiver group. The defense has also shown significant improvement. We’ll know a lot more after the Texas game this week.
North Carolina. Mostly flipping a coin at this point for teams 15 - 25. The Tar Heels have Drake Maye. The rest of these teams don’t.
Maryland. Beat up on a lot of bad teams. We’ll see if they can put a scare into Ohio State this week.
Missouri. Luther Burden is one of the best receivers in the country. The Tigers have as much claims to being the second best team in the SEC East as anyone based on the results so far.
Kentucky. A dominant showing against Florida last week. Kentucky had looked fairly ho-hum prior to crushing the Gators. Can they upset Georgia in Athens on Saturday?
Fresno State. Best resume of any G5 team so far with wins over Purdue and Arizona State.
Duke. A heartbreaking loss against Notre Dame ruined an otherwise perfect September for Duke. Mike Elko is going to get swooped up by a bigger program sooner rather than later at this rate.
Oregon State. Took advantage of Utah’s inability to do anything on offense on Friday night.
Ole Miss. Made up for an ugly loss against Alabama with a wild shootout victory over LSU.
Louisville. They get credit for being unbeaten. I don’t think they will be after playing Notre Dame on Saturday.
Kansas State. The loss to Missouri looks better as the Tigers keep winning. Kansas State has looked strong in their other three games.
Air Force. Crushing all in their path through five games.
Best Games Of Week 6
Week Night Game Of The Week
Kansas State at Oklahoma State. A Friday night Big 12 matchup. Something seems off at Oklahoma State, which is not a good recipe when playing Kansas State.
Saturday Early Games
#12 Oklahoma - #3 Texas. One of the marquee rivalries in the sport. I love this game. It’s almost always good. Both teams are unbeaten for the first time since 2011 (Oklahoma won 55-17).
#23 LSU at #21 Missouri. LSU tries to save its season from going completely off the rails. Missouri tries to prove they have something legit cooking. Luther Burden and Brady White must be licking their lips after watching LSU’s secondary get torched by Ole Miss last week.
Saturday Midday Games
#11 Alabama at Texas A&M. This has been a tight matchup the last two seasons. Both teams stumbling in their key nonconference games has taken the luster off this matchup, although both have shown signs of improvment the last two weeks. The winner gains an early advantage in the SEC West race.
#13 Washington State at UCLA. A Pac-12 Network game, so I won’t see any of it live. Both teams are in the second tier of the Pac-12 contenders. UCLA looks to continue developing Dante Moore and Washington State looks to keep Cam Ward’s scorching start going.
Saturday Primetime Games
#20 Kentucky at #1 Georgia. Kentucky has dragged Georgia into the mud with them the past couple of seasons. Kentucky will probably be able to do the same again. This will likely be a low scoring affair where offense is at a premium. Don’t expect Kentucky to run roughshod over Georgia like they did to Florida last week.
Arkansas at #16 Ole Miss. If you like offense, this is one of the games to watch. Both teams are up for a shootout even if their styles of offense are polar opposite.
#10 Notre Dame at #25 Louisville. I think Louisville might be a bit fraudy. However, Jeff Brohm has a knack for getting his team up for these big games and usually has a few special plays locked and loaded. Notre Dame is coming off two emotionally exhausting games. This game may end up on upset alert watch.
Saturday Late Night
Only two late night kicks with Arizona at #9 USC and #15 Oregon State at California. Arizona has been pesky and USC is prone to letting pesky teams hang around. Cal has not been good and Oregon State should be able to run away from them.
Enjoy the games!