September 5th, 2023 at 2:36 PM ^
Colorado ranked #22. Personally, I want to see the Nebraska game first. I know Nebraska is not very good but their defense looked stingy and they were hitting. I'm interested to see how Colorado looks against more physical play.
September 5th, 2023 at 2:52 PM ^
Scott Frost's teams would always out hit as well.
*Source - Scott Frost
September 5th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
Scott Frost's teams would always out hit as well.
*Source - Scott Frost's Mom
Fixed it for you
September 5th, 2023 at 3:04 PM ^
Nebraska may prove to have a better defense overall, but the issue they have (among many, many others) is that their offense doesn't look good at all, so its going to leave a very tired defense out on the field quite a lot. Even if they get a few stops to start the game, I expect that dam to break open at some point in the second half when Nebraska's defense is just gassed and can't keep up anymore.
Minus Colorado's performance being a complete fluke last week, or minus TCU's defense being GERG-level bad, I just don't see how Nebraska keeps up.
We are going to learn a LOT about Colorado between September 23rd - 30th. They have Oregon on the road at USC at home, back to back. That week-long stretch could see Colorado either plummet back to Earth hard, or if they win both or one of those games, get launched into the stratosphere.
September 5th, 2023 at 4:54 PM ^
It’s early, but so far, I think the list of teams who have beaten a ranked opponent on the road consists of one team. Colorado. Might as well give them the ranking for this week.
September 5th, 2023 at 8:53 PM ^
Not so fast. Week 2 polls are incredibly important. I personally remember every week 2 poll since I started following CFB in 1990.
September 5th, 2023 at 5:26 PM ^
Tcu also appears to have one of the worst defenses in all of college football.
September 5th, 2023 at 7:59 PM ^
Nothing to see here. We already know Nebraska will lose by 1 on a missed PAT.
September 5th, 2023 at 2:44 PM ^
Not sure why Clemson is still ranked. They looked bad
September 5th, 2023 at 2:54 PM ^
I’m fine with them being ranked, they’re too talented to be out of the top 25 just yet. But being ranked above Duke? What the fuck is that about.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
It must be because it was only a 21 point loss to a conference opponent - on the road. One could say - Clemson held Duke to 28 points. When was the last time a Duke hoops team was held to 28 points at home?
Oh, my mistake - they played football - and, many who cast votes don’t follow the game as closely as they should… obviously…
September 5th, 2023 at 8:54 PM ^
Well, there's a lot of precedent for this. OSU lost by 23 at home and yet according to everyone they were still the better team and would have won a rematch because UM apparently can't keep hitting big plays.
September 5th, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^
Former Michigan professor Danny Kahneman has become quite famous explaining what the fuck that's about.
September 5th, 2023 at 7:29 PM ^
It will be disappointing when they are still ranked and get wrecked by ND and it is viewed as a signature win.
September 5th, 2023 at 5:46 PM ^
Had the same thought. Then I saw Iowa is next up on others receiving votes, so… shrugemoji.meh
September 5th, 2023 at 2:46 PM ^
I'm happy with the way we looked and happy that OSU didn't look stellar. But I also think they played a big ten team, and we played an American team, and Penn St played a Big 12 team and based on conference strength you can't really say anybody looked better than others. OSU's QB is young, made some good throws and some bad decisions - I'm still worried about them.
The West remains a confusing lump of enigma to me, as it has since like 2020 when Wisconsin stopped dominating.
Clemson has problems - even if Duke is surprising good, yes Clemson should have had like 9 more points but they still got clobbered. Nobody knows how good TCU is, but undoubtedly Colorado is a functional program, which is more than can be said of last year's squad. I like Prime but would rather we not reward cutting half your roster. But that's what it is these days, I guess.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
I don't think people ranking football teams can really take into account how somebody constructed their roster.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:28 PM ^
Wasn’t there a rule created a few years ago on how many transfer portal kids a team could take? I thought that was established after mellllllll’s run at getting 20 kids one year.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:36 PM ^
FWIW Sagarin has ECU ranked 12 spots ahead of IU.
EDIT: Sagarin rankings of opponents mentioned above: WVU 60; ECU 78; IU 90.
September 5th, 2023 at 7:49 PM ^
I wonder how accurate these preseason weighted/advanced rating system are now in the transfer portal era.
Indiana for instance brought in almost ~30 transfers this off-season, which is essentially a whole new 2-deep roster.
Do these preseason ratings factor that in or are they heavily weighted to the performance of the season prior? Colorado was probably extremely hard to a preseason rating.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:40 PM ^
I will be interested to see how Indiana, WVU and East Carolina play the rest of the season. Not sure which of those three teams is the best team?
I’m not sold on Colorado. I didn’t have the chance to see the game but I heard tcu had a couple turnovers in the red zone? Also, TCU lost their “stars” from last season.
September 5th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
Last year: IU was #70 (FEI ratings), WVU #66, ECU #62.
But NEXT week's question is the much more interesting one! Which of Youngstown State, Delaware and UNLV is the best* team?
-----
* University Presidents, color schemes, helmet design and turnover slot machines all not a part of this conversation.
September 5th, 2023 at 6:48 PM ^
obviously, Delaware has the best helmet and colors. UNLV has the best basketball program but the worst colors, and should be expected to run the ball well based on their nickname. Youngstown State shouldn't be averse to cold weather and clearly has the best nickname.
September 5th, 2023 at 10:11 PM ^
FWIW, only UNLV's basketball team is nicknamed the "Running Rebels." Their baseball team is nicknamed the "Hustling Rebels." Football is just the Rebels.
On a side note, UNLV football is remarkable for how simply unremarkable they have been over the years. They've been to TWO Bowl games this century. That's it! Nevada up the street has been to 14!
September 5th, 2023 at 5:55 PM ^
I think ECU could handle IU.
September 5th, 2023 at 2:58 PM ^
A special shout out to AP voter Kirk Bohls, who has Michigan #1 and Ohio State #11.
September 5th, 2023 at 3:10 PM ^
*New B1G:
2. Michigan
5. Ohio State
6. USC
7. Penn State
8. Washington
13. Oregon
19. Wisconsin
Impressive!
September 5th, 2023 at 3:40 PM ^
The new SEC is even more stacked. It's almost like there's a bias...
September 5th, 2023 at 6:02 PM ^
Dante Moore will have UCLA in the Top 25 if they get a win over Hoke's Aztecs...
September 5th, 2023 at 6:49 PM ^
it's almost like they're trying to pull all the good teams into 1-2 leagues for some reason...
September 5th, 2023 at 5:56 PM ^
For the most part, we have the usual combo of:
1. Elite teams from last year get the benefit as long as they win solidly vs. an overmatched team in Week 1
2. Former Elite teams (Clemson, etc.) get punished but are given a lifeline and stay in the top 25, as long as the loss is to an upstart team like Duke. Had we played Hawaii (a future 12-0 team) instead of App State in 2007 opener, like we should have had not Bill Martin tried to go "easy" on Lloyd's rebuilding defense, we would have fallen to the teens if we lost to the Rainbows at home - instead we can completely flushed into the Portajohn.
3. Colorado deserves the ranking. They looked really good at QB and WR/DB.
4. As for Iowa, the D alone is formidable. And of course, punting is winning! They need to win over a team (Iowa State) that treats the Hawks like Sparty treats us - as their Super Bowl. I still think if Cade can stay healthy and manage games, they can win 9 or 10 with that schedule.
September 5th, 2023 at 9:45 PM ^
About what I expected. FSU looked good and deserves to be #4. I'm not totally sold that CU is a top-25 team because they beat what looks like a 7-ish win TCU team in a game where they threw for 500+ yards and still barely held on. But hey, it's the first week.
September 6th, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^
Deservedly so. Teams are going to stack the box all year on us. Makes sense. While JJ is playing like a Heisman finalist, his receivers are not on the level of Blake and Donovan at their respective positions, not to mention the variance and turn over propensity associated with pass plays/picks.
Sadly Blake and Donovan won't have the numbers they had last year, but JJ is going to light it up. If we can keep turn overs down this year, I like our chances.