How the AP Top 25 should’ve looked after Week 2
Erase what you thought you knew about the SEC West heading into the 2015 season.
After two weeks, Texas A&M and Ole Miss are better than expected — the Aggies defensively and the Rebels offensively — as two of the division’s best teams, Alabama’s about where we thought it would be and the Auburn-Arkansas combination has failed to live up to expectations.
The good news? Auburn survived its scare.
Ten SEC teams ranked in the second AP Top 25 was simply too many and separation will soon begin. Tennessee’s fourth-quarter meltdown against Oklahoma proves the Vols aren’t yet ready for a spot inside the Top 20 and Mississippi State fell a couple plays short in its SEC opener against LSU.
If the season ended today, I’d say Ohio State, TCU and Michigan State were the three best teams in college football. The fourth spot’s up for grabs.
Ranking the Top 25 based on what we saw on the field Saturday with Week 2 rankings in mind, here’s how the AP Top 25 should’ve looked heading into the third weekend of games:
How the AP Top 25 Should’ve Looked
1. Ohio State (2-0) — Point blank, the Buckeyes can sleepwalk through the next two months of the regular season.
2. Alabama (2-0) — Six touchdowns for Derrick Henry thus far, but the Crimson Tide still haven’t settled on a quarterback. Jake Coker needs to play well — and produce enough points — to win Saturday’s showdown against Ole Miss. If not, Alabama has zero margin for error the rest of the way much like last season.
3. TCU (2-0) — Trevone Boykin’s Heisman campaign was re-energized against Stephen F. Austin with four touchdown passes.
4. Michigan State (2-0) — The Spartans posted college football’s best win thus far Saturday night in East Lansing after holding off Oregon.
5. Baylor (2-0) — Art Briles’ offense has taken awhile to get started in consecutive weeks, but when it has, it doesn’t stop.
6. USC (2-0) — Distractions aside, the Trojans have disposed of their first two opponents by a score of 114-15.
7. Georgia (2-0) — I’m still worried that the Bulldogs will be a one-dimensional football team against elite competition further down the road this season. That one-dimension is awfully good with Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and others, but at some point, the passing game must become a threat. Georgia’s defense in Year 2 under Jeremy Pruitt could be even better than advertised.
8. Notre Dame (2-0) — The fighting Irish’s Playoff hopes took a severe blow after Malik Zaire broke his ankle, but his back-up showed flashes of starpower during a win at Virginia.
9. Florida State (2-0) — Dalvin Cook’s unstoppable. The sophomore ballcarrier’s rushed for 422 yards on 49 carries thus far as Everett Golson adjusts to the Seminoles’ offense.
10. Oregon (1-1) — Vernon Adams and the Ducks had their chances at fifth-ranked Michigan State, but it wasn’t to be. That could be Oregon’s only loss during the regular season.
11. Oklahoma (2-0) — I didn’t think the Sooners could go on the road in front of 100,000-plus and beat Tennessee, much less doing so with a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
12. UCLA (2-0) — Josh Rosen’s second start wasn’t as spectacular as his first, but this Bruins team is most likely the most talented Jim Mora’s had in the Pac 12.
13. Clemson (2-0) — Injuries are mounting for a preseason Power 5 favorite.
14. LSU (2-0) — Good old fashioned pad-crunching. If you don’t like the way the Tigers play the game, you aren’t a football purist. Les Miles fed arguably the West’s best player (Leonard Fournette) a career-high 28 times Saturday night in Starkville to ensure his team won its opener. Taking pressure off Brandon Harris’ shoulders was a marvelous plan.
15. Ole Miss (2-0) — Video game numbers. Not only have the Rebels been explosive with Chad Kelly under center, they’ve been downright unstoppable. Ole Miss is averaging a nation-leading 9.3 yards per play and has scored 149 in eight quarters. En fuego. Will it continue in Tuscaloosa?
16. Texas A&M (2-0) — The fourth West team in this ranking thus far, I’d put the Aggies a hair behind LSU and Ole Miss for the battle for second in the division after two weeks. Arizona State slipped past Cal Poly, which didn’t exactly strengthen Texas A&M’s Week 1 win. The defense has been rock solid under John Chavis, however and if that continues, this team’s capable of 10 wins.
17. Auburn (2-0) — Jeremy Johnson is an unknown and the Tigers haven’t passed the eye-test defensively with so many injuries, but anyone writing off Auburn’s Saturday night affair in Baton Rouge is overreacting. I thought Auburn’s 12-spot fall from No. 6 to No. 18 in this week’s poll was too harsh at first glance, but after further inspection, the Tigers did this to themselves. Let’s wait until there’s a mark in the loss column however before handing out mediocre bowl invites.
18. Georgia Tech (2-0) — Boasting an offense that’s the inverse of Mississippi’s up-tempo spread, Paul Johnson’s Yellow Jackets have stomped a sizable hole in their first two opponents.
19. Arizona (2-0) — Quarterback Anu Solomon’s completing passes at a near 67 percent clip and has six touchdowns without an interception in two starts.
20. Utah (2-0) — Wins over Jim Harbaugh are obviously inflating, but the Utes could be a factor our West.
21. BYU (2-0) — Kudos to the Cougars for wins over Nebraska and Boise State. The Hail Mary magic will soon run out.
22. Mizzou (2-0) — If there’s one player having an outstanding year that few have mentioned nationally, it’s linebacker Kentrell Brothers. Not only did he help the Tigers stave off an upset Saturday at Arkansas State, but his 32 total tackles thus far leads college football. Brothers is improving his draft stock with every game tape. Mizzou hasn’t looked like one of the Top 25 best teams in the country early, but the two-time defending division champs get the benefit of the doubt since they were ranked in the preseason.
23. Northwestern (2-0) — Many feared the Wildcats would overlook Eastern Illinois following a win over nationally-ranked Stanford, but it didn’t happen.
24. Oklahoma State (2-0) — There’s a team in the Big 12 playing defense early? Maybe the Cowboys won’t be forced to out-score the opposition in shootout fashion this fall.
25. Wisconsin (1-1) — The Badgers showed more in a loss to Alabama than they did over the weekend during a 58-point drubbing.
Other SEC notes: Mizzou could be the next SEC team to fall out of the Top 25 if the Tigers don’t get it together offensively. Too much inconsistency. After Saturday’s game against UConn, Mizzou travels to Lexington in a game that could possibly decide which team stays ranked heading into October (if the Wildcats beat Florida this weekend).
Maybe I’m a hater, but I think literally every team on that list could beat auburn. And plenty that aren’t too. Hell I wouldn’t know who to put money on if they played vandy at home right now.
I think Auburn could easily beat LSU this week, just because of the sheer lack of respect it has received (deservedly so of course based on how the Tigers have looked).
Lack of respect?? Y’all have given Auburn more respect than any other team. As bad as they have looked, you just make excuses for them. Get over it, it’s not their year.
Uh, watch Saturday as Auburn goes to 3-0 and your team ends up 2-1.
@Deacon4AU
Why would you believe you are in a position to talk crap?
Lack of respect certainly motivated Bama in 2011, when people kept telling them they didn’t belong in the national championship game. I think this is a different situation. I think what we’ve seen from Auburn so far this season is the real Auburn. They have only 10 starters back from an 8-5 team. How can they be expected to play like a championship caliber team? People are expecting Auburn to wake up and suddenly start playing like the team everyone thought they would be. Is it possible that everyone made a mistake? I guess anything is possible. I look at LSU-Auburn, and it looks to me like LSU is the more experienced team, probably the more talented team, and the home team. LSU should be favored, and I will be very surprised if LSU doesn’t win.
This right here. 8-5 last year. There was a reason that a converted DB played QB last year and it’s showing now. Muschamp is a good coach, but he’ll need time to get his personnel in there. Auburn will be lucky to go 9-4 this year. Losses – LSU, BAMA, UGA, Ole Miss.
lsu is the same team they were last year nothing special and even with as bad as we looked so far this year i seen nothing last saturday that scared me lets not read too much into the jax st game samford gave us more of a game then lsu did last year
charlottedawg the reason a db played qb last year was because he lead us to the national championship game the year before something u would know anything about considering u probably wasnt alive the last time uga has seen one and lets not forget he also had auburn ranked #2 in the country before we chocked against a&m so there was no need for him to play maybe u should convert a db to qb because you guys are not going anywere with the uva reject qb enjoy another 9 or 10 win season that yall luv so much at georgia
Can anyone read/translate what mrbettathan is trying to say? He lost me from the beginning. Typical Auburn guy…
I blame the Alabama education standards.
btucker traslation,uga is and always will be a underacheiving program
translation
*an *underachieving program @mrbettathan
does it hurt to constantly lose to that underachieving program?
Auburn definitely could beat LSU this weekend. anybody could beat anybody. I think LSU will win, but you’re right about them being underestimated (NOW). they had 2 bad games but they are gonna be really really upset and ready to prove something. they certainly aren’t playoff contenders at this point, and I think LSU is the better team, but we should all know by now that sometimes the better team doesn’t win. emotion has everything to do with it. could be LSU by 21, could be Aub by 21. My money is on a 1 possession game either way.
I would put money on Auburn in most games, but not Vandy. Seriously Auburn and Vandy almost always play in terrible years for Auburn.
If you for real bet football, you look at the trends. NEVER take the sucker bet that’s too good to be true. Auburn as a road dog coming off two back to back tragic failures to cover with some interceptions that might look a little shady if you consider betting lines into the equation. Every moron in the country is going to bet against Auburn and Vegas is going to get paid.
Yeah, call me a homer, but I see it making more since to stay ranked at #25 by losing to #19 by a touchdown in double OT than being ranked #6 and and beating an unranked FCS team by a touchdown in OT.
That thought expands to the actual rankings as well as these theoretical rankings.
Vandy has a winning Record VS Auburn so the odds are in their favor….
Jeremey Johnson an unknown? What the hell Brad? When he had thrown fewer college passes than Rudy, you/the media had proclaimed him a Heisman favorite, SEC best, Cam 2.0, better than Nick Marshall, can make every throw… should I go on?
He was an unknown then, but that didn’t stop the incessant hype.
Now that he has played a full two games, and stunk it up royally, he is suddenly an unknown? Geez. Get over it.
And sure, Auburn could beat LSU this weekend. They still have plenty of talent on the team, and might make some changes and get it together. But at this point, short of a miracle, they aren’t winning the NC carried on the back of the greatest QB to ever play the game as was predicted.
Auburn 2-0, Moo State 1-1. 12-0 Auburn’s in the playoffs regardless. What part of that is it that you people are missing?
You’re in denial. Your team may be OK. But they were highly overrated and so was your QB. I watched him throw balls last week a 3rd string QB could throw better. You can keep making comments but you’ll have to accept it sooner or later.
i will accept it as soon as u accept that ole miss will never win the sec
Here’s a fun fact for you Barners:
Ole Miss has one more OFFICIAL national title than Auburn
how bout bammers stop claiming gun magazine championships.And ole miss is the only team in the west to not make it ti atlanta, and that trend will continue.
to
Ole Miss CLAIMS 3 national titles, but none of them were from the AP or UPI/Coaches poll. They couldn’t get the real polls to rank them #1, so they had to look at other publications. Kind of reminds me of another team that claims some titles they didn’t actually win.
We are missing the 12-0 part unless AU has moved to the Mountain West Conference.
That makes perfect sense, you’re a Georgia fan. Logic slips by you. Auburn is still alive because they have that -0 to end their record. If they push that to 12-0 it doesn’t matter what you haters think, they’ll make the playoffs. Meanwhile, this page is full of Tennessee and Moo State fans that don’t have that luxury. Their record ends -1 and since they feel the need to pile on Auburn, the’re hurting their own case for any chance to make the playoffs by throwing the entire strength of the conference under the bus based on the results of two games Auburn played as though they were preseason games. Plus, Tennessee and Moo State fans are forgetting something important. It’s a hell of a lot better to win ugly than lose pretty. Two new candidates for moral victory U.
It must be difficult to be that deep in denial. LSU should take care of that pretty easily.
The news media never ceases to pretend and never ceases to pretend somebody else is pretending. Shut up already. As fans we are about 99% ready to let the young men and coaching staffs decide the questions at every practice and every game. There is no predetermined secret that the news media can predict or uncover here. Just admit that injuries, attitudes, academic challenges, girl-friend and family dynamics, changing personal goals, changing tactical schemes, and many other factors make college football impossible to know in advance. And thank Heaven for that. Stop doing OPINION polls all-together, the media does not own opinions and stop blaming your uninformed opinions on somebody else. (Kindly) stop turning the garden hose up in the air and telling us it’s raining.
There is no prize for UT maintaining their streak?
Umm, yeah, so ah SDS, LSU is 1-0. Their week 1 game was canceled.
“If the season ended today, I’d say Ohio State, TCU and Michigan State were the three best teams in college football. The fourth spot’s up for grabs.” but you rank Alabama number 2?
That’s a bit of a weasel approach, say something to get attention and then back off in the next paragraph.
Too early. No one has a clue who is better within the top 10.
Polls we don’t need no more stinking polls!
Well I for one do not think half your top twenty should even qualify for a ranking. The standard should be 2 wins against FBS competition. There are twenty one FBS schools that can make that claim this week and they all deserve to be ranked ahead of any team that has only 1 win against FBS opponents.
Kentrell Brothers looks like a Heisman candidate to me, the dudes a monster, 120 tackles in 2 games are you kindling me?!?? Jeremy Johnson isn’t a Heisman candidate Most AU fans were saying that before the season. The media is the one feeding the Jeremy Johnson Hype machine not AU fans. Now that being said Jeremy has the POTINTIAL to be hiesman QB IF he would come out and play his hardest EVERY SNAP which he doesn’t. He can make every throw but he doesn’t run enough to make the defense keep him honest on the read option. Jeremy also seems to be buying into the hype which isn’t good Gus needs to either Bench him or Make sure he knows he can and will bench him if he doesn’t get it together and start a dual threat guy.
Lat time I checked a Heisman QB doesn’t get benched. Just putting that out there.
We’re you even alive the last time Georgia had someone win the heisman?
Can’t think of what that has to do with anything at all. But yes I was born in 1960 started college in Georgia in 1979. So what do you think? Or, should I do the math for you. Face it dude you don’t have a Heisman QB like we heard the whole off season. Also Awbun is not that good on defense either. Which is another hype we heard. So go cry alone in your grandmothers basement. Don’t come out until after Saturdays games.
The math is simple, Auburn has won 2 heismans since UGA won their last heisman. Other than that Auburn has no control over what the media writes about them, 98% of fans didn’t buy into the hype, but we were optimistic about JJ and the defense. Also I’ve never lived in the basement but before reaching 24 years old was able to get 2 college degrees and move to Europe with a job at GE, but don’t compare yourself to me much like your Georgia team you will always fall short
Brothers has 32 tackles in 2 games (I wish it was 120 that would be amazing), 2 INTs, 18 solo and a few TFL’s
Yes, 120 tackles would be great, heck I would settle for 120 for the season. The coaching staff should let the team listen to the talking heads on Finebaums show. Once again, if they ever speak of Mizzou, which is rare, they are not giving them a chance of repeating SEC East champ. All the talk is how long they will stay in the top 25. Granted they haven’t been a ball of fire yet, but if I remember right they kind of started out this way last year. There should be a chip inplanted on every Miz player’s shoulder from what I have been listening too. I still can’t fathom why all the talk is about teams Miz beat the last 2 years with Georgia exception. If the Tigers quietly continue to win, any reasonable person would think that eventually receive some measure of respect.
It doesn’t matter how many tackles he has if the other guys aren’t getting the job done……if they were he wouldn’t have all those tackles by himself…if he’s averaging 16 tackles per game, either the D-line or the other linebackers aren’t hacking it, otherwise Mizzou wouldn’t have struggled to beat two obviously inferior teams.
> Mizzou travels to Lexington in a game that could possibly decide which team stays ranked heading into October
Borderline Erotic.
Haha yes, I don’t think Kentucky’s been ranked since ’07… maybe ’08? Will need a more consistent effort to break the streak vs. Florida. Even with a UK win, I doubt we’re ranked. But I’ll remind everyone UK still 3-pt. underdog at home vs. the Gators.
LOL, same.
Brad – You need to call an SDS meeting, so that the site can get better ‘in-line’ with their opinions. In this article you point out how Kentrell Brothers is a major force at defense and holding Mizzou’s hopes alive at the moment, (which is absolutely true)
but then Chris ‘whatshisface’ doesn’t think Brothers’ performance worthy of attention in his article.
It’d be nice to have some sort of symmetry here….
Different writers are entitled to different opinions……. this isn’t China. I woulda had Brothers on MY list but no reason to be upset cause someone had him below 10. If it were top 12 maybe he’d be on it.
All the Auburn and Arkansas hype was silly.Auburn was 8-5 and didn’t pull their QB for the Heisman Contender…Arkansas was never going to live up to the hype,they have won 2 SEC under Beliema and all of a sudden they were going to become world beaters…nope Bama,Ole Miss and A&M look to be the teams to watch in the West.LSU may be they will give the Heisman Contender fits this weekend and that vaunted Barner will get tired by end of third qtr.
Tired of what? Throwing to the wrong colored jersey?
Should have read “vaunted defense”,but yeah there will be interceptions if Auburn allows him to throw it.
Auburn drops two spots after being humiliated on national TV by an FCS opponent and Tennessee drops out because they lose to a team who was ranked higher than them in double OT makes the poll a popularity contest instead of a true ranking system! The Ohio State and Alabama recruiting network, also known as ESPN, and the rest of the so called experts are so biased the rankings don’t mean a whole lot anymore!
Can’t wait for some more SEC football to be played out so it’ll be clear cut who the elite teams are in this league and who should’ve lost to Jax State