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Panic time for Florida State, plus a new AP Top 25 and other rankings


Panic time for Florida State, plus a new AP Top 25 and other rankings

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After five consecutive days of college football, Week 1 is officially over and The athleteThe College Football Playoff forecast with the 12 teams is current.

The most striking thing about the updated forecast: Florida State has dropped from a 54 percent chance of making the CFP to a 1 percent chance. Let’s talk about the Seminoles…


Press the panic button

Florida State starts with 0-2

It’s not an overreaction in Week 1 to say that things are looking very, very bad for Florida State. The Seminoles, ranked No. 10 in the preseason AP poll, fell completely out of the rankings after losing two games in which they were double-digit favorites.

A Week 0 loss can be dismissed as one of those weird Week 0 things. But last night’s 28-13 loss to Boston College made it clear that the wheels could be falling off in Tallahassee. What was billed as a powerful rebuild by Mike Norvell – replacing 10 NFL Draft picks in the offseason with experienced transfers – looks more like a painful rebuild at this point. I asked The athleteManny Navarro, who wrote today about Florida State living and dying by the transfer portal, listed three of the Seminoles’ deficiencies. Here’s what he said:

  1. DJ Uiagalelei’s inconsistency at QB
  2. Defensive line does not live up to expectations
  3. The missing running game

Florida State managed just 21 yards against BC, with freshman Kam Davis leading the running game with three runs for 11 yards. Meanwhile, a D-line that was supposed to be one of the best in the country was run down. They gave up 190 yards against Georgia Tech and 263 yards against Boston College.

But the quarterback has taken much of the criticism for Florida State’s early decline. Uiagalelei’s accuracy issues persist – they were largely responsible for his original move from Clemson to Oregon State two years ago. Against the Eagles, he only completed half of his passes. was sacked three times and threw an interception that led to a BC touchdown two plays later. That’s a harsh reality for a Florida State team that relied on Uiagalelei to make an immediate impact.

After that dull start, the Seminoles’ overarching legal battle to abandon the ACC in favor of a conference with a more lucrative media rights deal is becoming increasingly difficult.


New Top 25

Promoted and relegated

The new AP poll finally came out this afternoon and Week 1 has caused a lot of upheaval in the rankings. Some other notable climbers and fallers:

πŸ“‰ Oregon fell from 3rd place to 7th place after a lackluster 24-14 win over Idaho, and LSU dropped five spots to 18th after Brian Kelly lost again in Week 1, this time to USC. The former 20th Texas A&M fell out of the rankings after the loss against Notre Dame. Clemson from 14th to 25th place after a barely competitive performance against Georgia. But the biggest loser was State of Floridawhich dropped from 10th place to 0th place. In fact, the Seminoles received ZERO votes.

πŸ“ˆ Notre-Dame improved by two places to the top five, while Missouri made a legitimate jump into the top 10. USC experienced the biggest rise, jumping from 23rd to 13th after a promising 27-20 win over LSU. And we must not forget Miamiwhich is now ranked 12th after the 41-17 win against Florida. The Hurricanes are considered the clear favorites in the ACC.

πŸ‘‹ Welcome to the survey, No. 22 Louisville And No. 23 Georgia Tech! The Cardinals beat Austin Peay 62-0 to make a big splash while their ACC rivals struggled. Georgia Tech is back in the rankings for the first time since 2015 after starting 2-0 against Florida State and Georgia State. In the “Others Receiving Votes” category, Boston College stands out, receiving the second most votes among teams outside the top 25 behind Texas A&M.


A new No. 134

Bad start for the Owls

New FBS member Kennesaw State debuted at No. 134 in Chris Vannini’s preseason rankings last week. And even though the Owls lost 24-16 to UTSA on Saturday, their second-half adjustments were promising enough to push them out of No. 134. That means there’s a new No. 134 in town: the Temple Owls. Yes, it’s a bad year for an Owls mascot.

Get to know the Temple Owls: The Owls find themselves here after a 51-3 loss to Oklahoma, which moved up from No. 16 to No. 15 in the AP poll this week. Temple wasn’t the only team to suffer a crushing loss in Week 1 (Akron 52-6 to No. 2 Ohio State, UConn 50-7 to Maryland), but it was the Owls’ six turnovers that put them here. Temple is coached by Stan Drayton, who coached running backs in college and the NFL before taking over as Temple’s head coach in 2022. He is 6-19 with the Owls.

How to get out of No. 134: Drayton said the Owls will stick with junior Forrest Brock at quarterback, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Brock didn’t complete a pass with positive yardage until the second quarter against the Sooners and threw two interceptions, but he won the starting position over Rutgers transfer Evan Simon. Temple needs Brock to get over some of those pre-game jitters as it comes up with its AAC opener against Navy, which just beat FCS Bucknell 49-21 and is ranked 114th in Chris’s rating.


Quick snapshots

USC to the CFP? Nebraska 8-0 start … with a win against Ohio State? Jesse Temple and Austin Meek rank Big Ten overreactions from least to most unusual after week 1.

Also from Austin today, like Michigan build the Big house to a place that embodies everything that has to do with college football?

Holly Rowe of ESPN Last weekend’s coach-player helmet communication over the helmet of a Notre Dame backup quarterback was one of the best bits of the weekend’s broadcast. Read more about which networks rated it best in Week 1 here.

The deadline imposed by the Pac-12 and Mountain West to agree on the 2025 schedule has expired without an extension. This leaves the future for State of Oregon And State of Washington in the air.

Here you can buy tickets for any college football game.

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(Top photo of Justin Cryer: Melina Myers / USA Today)

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