Coming in a little early this week since we are on a double bye week and this is our first poll since the action began in 2020.
Everyone wants to play football now. After a couple of weeks of college football action, big conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided to reverse course and will make plans to enter the fray later next month. Of course, not long after these announcements another round of Covid-related issues struck the sport again–including at Notre Dame which postponed this past weekend’s game against Wake Forest until December 12th–and shows how tenuous of a situation everyone is dealing with.
Nevertheless, the sport continues to march on at least for now. This past weekend the SEC started up and allows us the chance to update our poll for the first time since the pre-season.
Note: We are only including teams who have taken the field in 2020.
18 Stripes Top 20 Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | NEXT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clemson | 2-0 | BYE |
| 2 | Alabama | 1-0 | 38-19 Win at Missouri |
| 3 | Florida (+3) | 1-0 | 51-35 Win at Ole Miss |
| 4 | Notre Dame (+3) | 2-0 | BYE |
| 5 | Auburn (+3) | 1-0 | 29-13 Win vs. Kentucky |
| 6 | Georgia (-3) | 1-0 | 37-10 Win at Arkansas |
| 7 | Miami (NR) | 3-0 | 52-10 Win vs. FSU |
| 8 | Texas (+2) | 2-0 | 63-56 Win at Texas Tech |
| 9 | UCF (+5) | 2-0 | 51-28 Win at East Carolina |
| 10 | Cincinnati (+3) | 2-0 | 24-10 Win vs. Army |
| 11 | North Carolina (+1) | 1-0 | BYE |
| 12 | Miss State (NR) | 1-0 | 44-34 Win at LSU |
| 13 | Memphis (+4) | 1-0 | BYE |
| 14 | Tennessee (+2) | 1-0 | 31-27 Win at South Carolina |
| 15 | Baylor (+3) | 1-0 | 47-14 Win vs. Kansas |
| 16 | Pittsburgh (NR) | 3-0 | 23-20 Win vs. Louisville |
| 17 | BYU (NR) | 2-0 | 48-7 Win vs. Troy |
| 18 | Oklahoma State (-7) | 2-0 | 27-13 Win vs. West Virginia |
| 19 | Virginia Tech (NR) | 1-0 | 45-24 Win vs. NC State |
| 20 | Louisiana (NR) | 3-0 | 20-18 Win vs. Georgia Southern |
OUT: Oklahoma, LSU, A&M, Iowa State, Louisville, SMU
IN: Miami, Miss State, Pitt, BYU, Virginia Tech, Louisiana
We all saw it coming. Coming off the defense of their National Championship in this weird season while replacing about 45 players and facing a newly-minted Air Raid offense, LSU faltered in game one. Stanford transfer K.J. Costello threw for a SEC-record 623 yards in the upset. It took LSU a while to even get going in this game which is understandable but eventually they looked okay. We’ll try not to read too much into this one game but this is likely a severe come-down-to-earth season for everyone in Baton Rouge.
Not many saw the Sooners faltering to a team that had already lost to Arkansas State. Going -4 in turnovers rarely leads to a win, you should probably try to avoid that. Fun fact, K-State only managed 10 first downs but 400 yards, isn’t that neat?
Texas A&M looked super mediocre in a bid for survival against Vanderbilt so I dropped them out. We have too many SEC teams as it is and I have to draw the line somewhere.
Iowa State beat TCU this weekend but lost their opener to Louisiana by double-digits so they’re out for now. Speaking of which, Louisiana is already 3-0 and 14-3 stretching back to the start of last year. Watch out for the Ragin’ Cajuns!
Louisville’s defense stabilized a little bit in their loss to Pitt this weekend but they looked putrid in another defeat two weekends ago to Miami. An expected jump for the Cards isn’t likely happening in 2020.
SMU has been fine (they’re 3-0) it’s just they haven’t played anyone yet.
Is Miami for real this year? We’ve shot them up to 7th after a historic beat down of the Noles (yikes, FSU) and a solid beatdown over Louisville. At the very least, the Canes offense looks multitudes more dangerous with Houston quarterback transfer D’Eriq King who is the 2nd rated passer in the ACC so far behind Trevor Lawrence.
Pitt looks a lot like Pitt with a very good defense and an inconsistent offense.
Looking towards the top of the rankings, Alabama cruised in their opener before Missouri put up some garbage time points. Florida’s offense looked dynamic and Kyle Trask (416 yards, 6 TD) looks like a legit problem for the rest of the SEC.
I thought Auburn’s win was quiet but really impressive. Meanwhile, Georgia (5 points at halftime) took forever to get going and with their quarterback situation (which looked enviable this off-season) I’m not sure if they are going to be in the top 10 that much longer.
AP Top 25: Clemson, Bama, Florida, Georgia, ND, Ohio State, Auburn, Miami, Texas, Penn State, UCF, UNC, A&M, Oregon, Cincinnati, Miss State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, LSU, Tennessee, BYU, Michigan, Pitt, Memphis.
SP+ Top 25: Ohio State, Clemson, Bama, Georgia, ND, Auburn, Penn State, Florida, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, UNC, UCF, Oregon, Miami, USC, Virginia Tech, Washington, A&M, Minnesota, Baylor, Cincinnati, Michigan, Tennessee, LSU.
Week 5 Games to Watch
South Carolina at Florida
South Carolina’s normally gritty defense faces a big, big test. This may be the weekend where we find out the Gators could cruise to the division title.
Texas A&M at Alabama
The Aggies’ offense is going to have to be a whole lot better this weekend to even cover here.
North Carolina at Boston College
Our old friend Phil Jurkovec has looked okay in 2 starts so far and now faces a major test early in his career.
SMU at Memphis
A pair of unbeaten teams in the AAC will provide us some early-season clarity.
Auburn at Georgia
The Dawgs (who are without Wake transfer Jamie Newman who opted out and don’t have USC transfer JT Daniels healthy) moved to their 4th stringer on Saturday. Auburn has to smell blood on the road.
Oklahoma at Iowa State
You have to like the Sooners’ chances of getting back on the horse and maybe pummeling the Cyclones.
Don’t disagree with much. Love knocking Oklahoma and LSU out completely for their losses.
Also I’d buy stock in Mississippi St WR’s right now. Costello had 40 attempts in the first half alone. Mike Leach is going to make it fun down there, I bet he’s going to beat a team in the SEC West that he’s not supposed to. Maybe you could say he already has with LSU. But I think he’ll take down if not Bama than a A&M or Auburn.
It would have been great if Arkansas held on against Georgia, they ran out of gas and the end got silly but that game was surprisingly competitive. Made me dream of a scenario where every SEC team is between 6-4 and 3-7, kinda like how the NCAA video games would get a few years into the simulations where everyone was just average.
Yeah, Miss State is for sure going to upset someone big again.
(And probably lose to Vandy or Missouri).
I’m really torn on Mississippi state. I’m all for new football upsetting the normal course of action and disrupting the sec way of life but I also hate mike leach. So yeah hopefully he can beat Auburn LSU, a&m while losing to ole miss, mizzou and a fcs team every year
Or Arkansas.
He’s baaaaack….
https://www.si.com/college/georgia/recruiting/deion-colzie-commits-notre-dame-football
Surprisingly soft week for football given that three P5 conferences are playing, no? If Alabama and A&M play like last Saturday, that game won’t be close. Georgia-Auburn is certainly good, but that’s the only game that seems like must-see-TV.
Jurkovec giving off strong Wimbush vibes in the parts I’ve watched of bc games. In his first game he missed a couple wide open receivers on easy throws then picked up big yardage on a great play call and the play action. I don’t want to root against him but also really don’t want to hear the narrative it book doesn’t put up but numbers. Hopefully Nd gets to play and he gets it going again, but really not worried about bc being a threat
Sounds right to me. I don’t see them as a threat at all, a QB who can’t pass well is the type Lea can scheme up with great success. They have that one great WR that I’m sure ND will take away with extra attention (hello Kyle Hamilton!) and then that will be that when JOK, White and the front wipes up the rest.
No doubt though that Book is a way better QB in 2020 than Jurkovec. ND is way better off with how it worked out, compared to the original loose plan if Book would have left after 2019 and the QBs would be Jurk and Clark now? Woof, if there’s no Irish passing game now, just imagine that alternate scenario. I kinda lean to the train of thought that Clark might be starting now anyways..
Our starting QB this year if Book went pro might have been KJ Costello or JT Daniels. That would have been interesting.