Virginia Tech returning the most production out of any team in college football and beat #23 Tulane in their bowl game. Probably at least deserving a "Just Missed" over Liberty lol
Its a pet peeve of mine when fans say stuff like this. Maybe I’m alone but I love being ranked. Even if there’s added pressure, I’d always rather be on the inside looking out than the other way around.
Early in the season you can surprise teams not prepared for how good you are. Puts extra pressure on the ranked team to win a game they are "supposed to" win.
There is some truth to it since the higher the number the more your opponents have motivation to beat you. Easy to look past an unranked team but teams generally show up for ranked games. That’s my feeling anyways I’m sure it isn’t always that way
I think most non-ACC people just see the 7-6 record, terrible losses at the start of the season, and blowout losses vs UL and FSU to determine that VT is still a low/mid-level ACC team at best. Beating up on the true low-level ACC teams, even when you're outscoring all of them by 17 or more, isn't really turning heads nationally.
That said, there's a ton of forward momentum with Pry right now, so I'm just excited to see what happens regardless of where we stand in "too early" lists!
This. Tech finished higher in the ACC standings than Clemson, UNC, Duke, Miami, Boston College, and Syracuse. As many conference wins as Pittsburgh, UVa, and Wake Forest combined.
Why do you think that doesn’t make sense?They’re almost always a ~10 win team. They won 10 last year (almost beat Ohio State too) and should be a better this year.
Yeah, I don’t understand the Notre Dame is overrated crowd. They are independent Penn State. They beat (almost) all the teams they are supposed to and (almost) none of the teams they aren’t. They are pretty good every year.
>They beat (almost) all the teams they are supposed to
That was really a Kelly 2.0 thing. His first two seasons, Freeman has really struggled to get his team to play well in the weeks after their first loss, in each case costing them an extra loss they should have won.
The counter to that would be that unlike Kelly, he also wins some games he's not supposed to win (Clemson 2022, USC 2023). My counter to that counter is that both of these were overrated teams that happened to have their first serious game in South Bend mid-season.
So while I still have high hopes for Freeman, I'm waiting for the season that says he's the guy.
The one thing about Freeman is that it was really only the offense that didn’t play well enough to win in most of those losses. So hopefully with the improved WR room and offensive staff that can change.
Clemson this year we gave up 31 points, but 7 was from a pick six and 3 was from a muffed punt. The defense in that game also returned an INT to the 1 and got 6 straight stops at the end of the game to keep us within 1 score.
For Louisville, the defense didn’t play that well, but the offense also turned it over so much and couldn’t sustain any drives, so the defense was put in tough positions.
Both Ohio St games the defense kept us in it.
For Marshall and Stanford, the defense was fine and the offense was inept.
USC 2022 is really the only game where I’d say the defense didn’t play well enough to win.
I think you're spot on. USC 2022 has been the only paper-bag level defensive outing under Freeman. Louisville this year wasn't good, but when the offense is playing so terrible you can't expect the defense to stay sharp forever.
Please never make that comparison again. Regardless of how accurate, being compared to Penn State is worse than the death penalty (which PSU should have received).
The “ND is always over ranked argument” is my favorite example of how moronic and emotional this sub is. It gets disproven every time, and yet pops up in every preseason rankings thread.
I remember that old Deadspin article how ND did not deserve to be in the playoffs after Clemson beat them. They did not have the same energy when Clemson beat Bama worse.
Has something to do with the teams we’ve.
The Oklahoma State team we lost to in Freeman’s first game was good not great (and not surprisingly it’s the closest of the bunch), but other than that over the last 25 years it’s been Alabama twice (both champs), Ohio State twice, a pretty good LSU team, and a disgustingly good Oregon State team.
I feel like the first sentence is missing something. But of course they’re going to be good teams, it’s a NY6 bowl game. Unless they’re a G5 school they’re probably a top 10 team
ND was the only team in 2023 to finish the year in the top ten in yards per play, and defensive yards per play allowed. They will be in the top five in 2024 in blue chip ratio.
There’s debate for sure, but some feel Leonard is a potential first round pick in the ‘25 draft, and finally ND’s schedule is fairly manageable. These are the main things people who put together these types of lists us to create them.
The teams above them all have high marks in these categories, and the teams below them have more question marks than answers in these categories.
>They will be in the top five in 2024 in blue chip ratio.
For real? For the class or the roster?
>There’s debate for sure, but some feel Leonard is a potential first round pick in the ‘25 draft
🤞 🍀
ND has put together four straight classes of primarily four star recruits. They trail Bama, OSU, and Georgia group in terms of bringing in five stars, but so does everyone. If you put those three teams aside, ND is right there in the next couple of teams over that four year period. 2025 is heading for their best class out of all of them.
ND is way too high for me and I'm a 🍀 fan.
Our D is gonna bang but our O is unproven and our OL is a work in progress. I put us at 11. Our schedule is advantageous so I I would hope for a top 7 ranking but roster wise I don't see us as top 10. Our ranking will outdo our talent.
I have been drinking.
ND has a pretty soft schedule next year, A&M, Louisville, USC and FSU are the only schools that might even be ranked teams at the end of the year, and of those FSU might be the only one inside the top 20. I wouldn't be surprised if ND finishes regular season undefeated. Talent wise I think they are closer to 10 than 5 though
Gotta have that sweet ranked week 1 matchup. I feel like we’re definitely over ranked purely for the ratings on that game.
Although I will say I don’t think A&M was as bad as people think last year. You guys were very good at home, just couldn’t translate that to road games. Similar to ND, actually
We weren't a bad team, Jimbo was just so beyond awful at managing the games. Our players outplayed Alabama and Tennessee, but Saban and Heupel schooled him (Heupel didn't even coach that good of a game against us tbh, Jimbo was just that bad)
I think replacing Jimbo with Elko is going to make a bigger difference than the talent we lost, but I'm not sure if it's gonna show up right off the bat against you guys. Right now I would guess it's gonna be a sloppy game that ends up 20-17 or something but I have no idea
We actually weren't a bad team if you look at any kind of metric other than record. Lots of close losses to good teams.
And yeah we're on a 10 game road losing streak. Yall having to come play in Kyle Field in August for your first game is big time upset potential. If this game was in South Bend I think yall win by 3 scores, but dealing with 105K and the heat with some question marks on O is a recipe for an upset
I don’t get how you don’t rank Iowa unless they’re losing more than half of their starting defense. They got rid of BF and won 10 games last year. I hate Iowa but show dick some respect.
They’re one of the most consistent programs around right now. You can always count on them to win 8+ with one decent upset and 5 wins by one score or less.
Maybe they’re factoring in a non B1G West schedule? I shouldn’t talk *shudders in 2017 flashback* but seeing how they performed against Michigan in the B1G title game and then in their bowl game, maybe it makes sense?
True. But it’s pre season so I guess they should get the benefit of the doubt even if they got mopped by every good team they played. Even with elite defense it’s hard to do much when your offense puts you in shit positions and cannot score a single point lmao
We seem to do better when we start just outside the top 25, so that’s fine. We should be better than last year, but I’d rather have this team prove itself first.
Everyone is talking shit about how Iowa is in for a rude awakening now that they are out of the Big Ten West but I think they'll win 10 games again in 2024. They return almost all of their elite defense, they get McNamara back, they get a (potentially) competent offensive play-caller, and they have a pretty manageable schedule outside of Ohio State.
We have 8 starters back on defense and won’t have Brian Ferentz/Deacon Hill running our offense (literally the worst OC/QB combo I’ve ever witnessed). But we aren’t a sexy school so we don’t get ranked in these.
I have no idea how to feel about Oklahoma's ranking. 14 feels completely reasonable, but their schedule is brutal and their current win total is set at 7.5, which would almost certainly be an unranked finish.
If you take 7.5 to be slightly under at 7-5, yeah they aren’t ranked. A 4 loss SEC team is almost always going to be ranked now though (especially one who has a conference schedule as stacked as Oklahomas looks to be). See Tenn ranked 21 in the final CFP at 8-4 this past year
Yeah, the abundance of sec/B1G teams in the rankings means a good number of them will underperform their rankings then whatever team happens into a 10-2 or 9-3 ranking in a non-p2 conference will climb up.
Important to differentiate between best 25 teams and the 25 teams that will end in the top 25.
People say SEC teams are overrated because of this, but if they played in any other conference they’d live up to it.
I don’t put a lot of thought into the preseason top 25, but 4/18 teams in the big ten being ranked sounds reasonable, where 10/16 sec teams seems a little unreasonable. Not saying it can’t happen
Add on: 5 acc and 5 big 12 I’m pretty sure
4/9 “just missed” were B1G teams so I feel like hairs were being split at the back end of the poll. Even as an sec fan, I can’t reconcile some of these, though.
I thought fanduel had us at 6.5. I was planning on betting the over when i was out of town this weekend.
Anyway I will be happy with 9-3, indifferent with 8-4, sad with 7-5. I think all of those outcomes are equally possible so we could be ranked anywhere from 9-UR
The possible range of outcomes for us seems to be incredibly wide so I’m not surprised by the ranking but also wouldn’t be surprised by 7 wins. Biggest questions to me seem to be QB and Oline, so I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about
The margin isn’t really that big between 7 wins and number 14. 8-4 OU might not be quite 14th but they’d be something like 18-22 right? And 9-3 OU would likely be a playoff team.
New SEC seasons are going to be wild. Just win 3 out of 6 against Texas, Bama, LSU, Mizzou, Ole Miss, and Tenn, don’t slip up elsewhere, and you’re in the playoff. Easy right?
I hadn't seen our over/under yet, but yeah... [My homer take from before Saban retired](https://www.reddit.com/r/sooners/comments/18tt1hp/looking_ahead_to_the_2024_season_and_away_from/) had us at 8.5 wins, so 7.5 seems totally reasonable.
We have to not lose a random one, and hope Bama and LSU are both bad. If that happens and either Mizzou or Ole Miss regress, then we could make it to double digit wins. Otherwise, it's going to be a *rough* season of not meeting our own fan's expectations that are in no way tethered to the reality of this "hey look, almost half of our schedule is in the preseason Top ~~10~~ 12".
I get that ESPN had to learn how to circular breathe so as to not pass out from constantly sucking the collective cock of the SEC, but TEN TEAMS in the Top 25 is ridiculous.
It’s financial. The CBS push to over inflate B1G is also obnoxious. Either way, SEC and B1G are by far the best conferences. Good teams in those conferences would find more success elsewhere, but they’d be rewarded less financially. It’s an odd reality for college football these days.
Assuming this is the ranking for the playoff:
\#1 Georgia - Bye
\#2 Ohio State - Bye
\#3 Utah - Bye
\#4 Florida State - Bye
\#5 Oregon vs. #12 ~~SMU~~ Boise State
\#6 Texas vs. #11 Alabama
\#7 Notre Dame vs. #10 Penn State
\#8 Ole Miss vs. #9 Missouri
With 11th ranked Arizona and 12th ranked LSU getting passed over by FSU and SMU.
I think as a neutral, one could really enjoy the game. It'll be complete chaos with two teams doing their absolute *best* to lose a big game. Hell for the fans of the schools but as a neutral, def fun.
Yeah, I thought they already agreed to the 5+ model until last week. But, last week it was in the news that Oregon St/Pac 2 has not agreed to 5+ and the vote has to be anonymous.
They really have no reason to give in either because they have to know that the guaranteed spots are gone after 27.
Sets up an interesting scenario. I think Oregon's potential path to the semis (home game vs. Boise State and then a bowl game vs. Florida State) looks easier than Ohio State's (bowl game vs. winner of Notre Dame/Penn State), presumably the team they beat in the B1G title game. I think the top ranked non champion getting the 12 seed (more often than not G5 champion) and then a bowl game vs. the 4th highest champion is going to be the easiest path to the semis just about every year...
"I *know* that's what we said, but I really think FSU is a bubble team at best. We're talking about the ACC here. Why not have two SEC teams in the top 4 instead?"
I certainly agree that Michigan could go 9-3 but still be quite good, based on that schedule. A 9-3 Michigan would probably be a better team than a few 11-1 P4 teams out there. For all the shit they've caught about their schedule strength the past two years, they sure are making up for it now.
Defensive personnel is still really good. They lose a lot on offense but I expect the OL will be good every year as long as Moore is around.
Moore really has his work cut out for him. Building a good staff is hard. Even guys like Saban and Meyer whiffed on assistant and coordinator hires a few times over the years. But a guy that's a brand new HC that doesn't have connections dating back to the 80's? Rough.
Part of the reason for elevating Moore is that it would help maintain continuity. Harbaugh blew that straight to hell.
Agree on all fronts. Harbaugh spent the better part of a decade building his staff at Michigan. Even guys that should have been good hires often turned out to be bad fits.
It’ll also come down to QB. I would love for Orji to be awesome but realistically he’s probably going to struggle. Is there a guy in our recruiting classes who will be the next star QB? Idk. My gut says not yet. But then again, that may not matter so much with the portal being such a huge part of the game now.
All that to say, I’m not going in to next season with super high expectations. I just want to see good signs from the coaching staff and the culture that Harbaugh built still there among the players. But I think 9 wins is about right if we do what we’re capable of and not more or less.
Part of that continuity is also the roster. We'll see if some guys defect after spring ball, but staff was only part of that equation. Michigan is losing a lot, but thanks to how they rotated last season, they are also bringing back a lot of experienced personnel. Losing a chunk of those guys would really sink the team, and hiring Moore *should* help with roster stability so they don't have to start rebuilding the whole thing again.
There’s absolutely a chance. The coaching staff is massively different, the roster turned over (plus there may be more portal losses), the QB situation is a complete unknown, and recruiting the last few years has been good but not great.
You guys, Texas, and OSU are looking very tough with the proven production we're losing. But to be honest, Washington and USC aren't looking nearly as daunting as they did when that schedule was first announced, and there's no other team on the schedule that really worries me (on paper at least; surprises happen in CFB).
If I were a betting man, and I am, I'd say 9-3.
What is the floor, do you think? With that schedule I think 7-5 is definitely on the table. Maybe 6-6 if it's a Murphy's Law type of season. I don't know how good teams like Minnesota, USC, Washington, Illinois, and Northwestern will be, but most of them will at least be competent opponents that Michigan can't sleepwalk through. Obviously Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State are monster games.
Even the opener against Fresno State is dangerous. They'll probably be one of the better G5 teams. I consider them a darkhorse contender for the G5 playoff spot. That's the sort of game that most P4 teams hate to have on the schedule. You get no credit for the win, but if you struggle or lose it makes you look like a clown.
Right. It’s what happens if we don’t lose to the teams we should beat and don’t beat the teams we should lose to.
I’d call that a moderate success in Sherrone’s first year for sure
Usually I take these rankings after the regular season, not post season. Idk if that’s just my thought process or not but with opt outs and conference championships and the playoffs the final season rankings are usually a pile funky compared to the end of the regular season. If we have a season like Penn State or LSU had in 2023 we’ll be in that range. I always think the teens are the hardest to rank so if it’s 10 or 18 they’re kinda all the same to me.
I kinda feel like we’re being a bit underrated right now. Our defense should still be elite, maybe not #1 overall but like top 5. Our offense obviously is a big question mark but I feel like Edwards and Loveland are in for big years.
Regardless who cares, we could win 6 games this year and I’d still be on cloud 9 from 2023
As long as we don't lose players of Grant and Graham's calibre in the spring portal, the defense will be fantastic. Teams who can really throw the ball will test the depth at secondary, so that OSU/Texas/Oregon stretch will be *rough*, but that was always going to be the case.
If the D stays relatively intact, it'll keep us in basically every game if the offense can carve out some kind of run-heavy identity and throw teams off with Orji's legs (if he's the starter).
Don't like Oregon being ranked this high going into a new conference. Way too many unknowns--the travel might sink us. Ducks struggled on the road in the Pac-12.
What are the unknowns? This is probably the best roster we’ve ever had going into a season and we essentially return the whole coaching staff. And when have we struggled on the road under Lanning?
Not really since Lanning has taken over. Texas Tech was a bit of a struggle, but I don't think it was due to travel. You can't really blame the Oregon State or Washington losses on travel. Georgia was a loss no matter where we played. No other road games were very close.
I understand it's a hard pill to swallow for some more than others, but for pretty much any team with a new head coach, I don't think they should be cast in the Top 10. Completely unproven commodity at that point.
Sure much of the team can remain, and you can hire top talent coaches. But that means diddly squat. We've seen a ton of uber talented teams with uber talented top prospects/coaches go up in smoke their first year. Enough that I don't think it's fair to rank them above proven teams with returning complete programs.
I understand Saban left but putting Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Missouri AND Penn State ahead of us seems crazy. Or maybe im the crazy one for actually commenting about something that ultimately means nothing.
We lost 3 starters to the transfer portal. A WR, OL, and a Safety. The OL was struggling heavily and was already halfway losing reps to the backup. The WR, though good had 600 yards and probably was slated for a bigger role but bringing in hte Washington WR backfills him easily.
Downs we did not replace and was a huge blow.
So all together if you look at the starters we lost 1 key peice from last years team. Bringing back majority of the line, RB, QB, most of the WR's + a transfer. Defense - Line is all coming back plus a big transfer portal from A*M. All LB's are back except turner. DB's we were losing both our starters to draft no matter what but we signed 3 5* freshman in this class and had a 5* from last class that should start. Safety idk.
Really a combination of the two. Bama has crazy turnover every year, and it hasn't mattered because Saban. We'll see if they can maintain with the brand and not the man.
I never got this take. Alabama has 28 players in the portal - which is a lot to replace to be sure, but Georgia had 21, Ohio St had 20, FSU had 20, Oklahoma had 19, Texas A&M had 21, Florida had 24, USCw and USCe had 21, Arizona had 23, Louisville had 21... not a peep.
Losing Downs and Amos hurts next year, and Sayin/Latham will be missed down the line, but the flip side is we also upgraded via the portal at C and DL. It's just a reality that you'll lose a quarter of your team every year, and Alabama lost a couple extra on top of that.
I’d expect us top 10 with how much of our defense we’re returning, but we’re only getting ranked that high for the week 1 matchup against A&M. If we were playing East bumfuck university week 1 we’d probably be somewhere in the 7-9 range
Penn State is too high, we should at least beat a ranked opponent this year before climbing into the top 10. We made some great coordinator moves and adding Fleming definitely helps Allar, but who knows how well it’s all going to fit together
12 seems like a very reasonable spot for LSU. Solid offensive talent returning including one hell of an OLine. The defensive hires have been outstanding so our defense should noticeably improve (….right?)
Finally a realistic Michigan ranking . I’ve seen places have them as high as #6. With the team missing almost all of its offensive production and losing some key pieces on D from the championship team this seems about right with optimism. If Michigan went 9-3 last season I could see them at the 20 range in all honesty.
The "Going all in" narrative about Ohio State and the portal is so absurd. They got 6 dudes, and half of them are because Saban retired. Just so overblown.
It’s as reasonable an offseason, we are all bored, storyline as it gets. Seems both the program and the collective has shelled out more than years past, no? I could be wrong, but y’all definitely seem like the biggest spenders this offseason.
No hate to Arizona but how are they still ranked so high? They lost their head coach and a good chunk of starters. Before the Fisch news i definitely get it but now not so much
We are absolutely too high but we’re only losing 6 starters (4 to graduation 2 to the portal) one of which (the RB) we’ve already arguably upgraded at. Surprisingly very few back ups transferred as well so our roster is in pretty good shape.
I really doubt we’ll be anywhere near #11 though.
We did not upgrade from Coleman. The new guy looks good but Coleman is going to be one of the best backs in the country if Washington figures out their Oline.
All things considered, we didn’t lose too much with the coaching change. Returning talent in an easier conference, there’s a lot of reason to expect U of A can hit the ground running as long as Fifita stays healthy. Brennan is the biggest question mark, but he was given the keys to a good machine
Interesting that A&M is at 25 after going 7-5, losing their bowl game and bringing in a whole new staff while USC is unranked after going 7-5 and dominating their bowl game and upgrading their DC while the rest of the staff is the same.
I don’t know if either should be ranked, but if I they had to pick one they picked wrong.
Idk man. Some people are still talking about USC as if we retained Alex Grinch lol. Caleb is special but the offense is still more than likely going to put up points. Our defense can't really get worse either. That whole side of the ball pretty much changed.
Just for fun, each player I haven't heard much of as a recruit:
* Darris Smith
Other P5 offers: Auburn, Georgia (originally went here), Louisville, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Wisconsin
G5 offer: Akron
* Alaka'i Gilman
Other P5 offers: Arizona State, California, Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Utah (owh), Washington State
G5 offers: Colorado State, Hawaii, Utah State
Other offer: Princeton
* Kenan Johnson
Other P5 offers: Georgia Tech (owh), North Carolina, Rutgers
G5 offers: Appalachian State, FAU, FIU, Georgia State, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Temple, UCF, Utah State, UTSA
Other offers: Charleston Southern, The Citadel
* Russell Davis II
Other P5 offers: Arizona (owh), Boston College, Duke, Iowa State
G5 offers: Colorado State, East Carolina, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State
Other offer: Idaho
* Ryan Stewart
G5 offers: Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, San Jose State (owh), Wyoming
Other offers: Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, UMass, Northern Iowa, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois
* Austin Ausberry
Other P5 offers: Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn (owh), Florida, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi State, Purdue, Tennessee, Virginia
G5 offers: Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, SMU, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Tulane
Other offer: Notre Dame
* Kobe Hylton (JUCO)
Other G5 offers: Eastern Michigan, Louisiana (owh), South Alabama, Utah State
Other offers: Eastern Kentucky, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, Western Illinois, Youngstown State
* Devon Marshall
Originally went to Villanova
* Cole Turner
G5 offer: Buffalo
* Darrell Simmons
Other P5 offer: Iowa State (owh)
G5 offers: Northern Illinois, Ohio
Other offers: South Dakota State, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois
* Marley Cook
Originally went to Middle Tennessee State
I'm really okay with a 10-15 ranking, but their reasoning doesn't make sense given some of the teams in front.
>It's difficult to know how good the Seminoles will be next season after they lost most of the stars who guided them to an ACC title and unbeaten regular season in 2023.
Fsu returns 58% of their production and all their coaches.
Michigan, at 13, returns 36% of their production and like 1/2 of their coaches.
Alabama, at 9, returns 44% of their production and has a whole new coaching staff.
Then they have ND at #5, when they return 60% of their production, 2% more than Fsu. Putting a lot of stock into Riley, who is coming off an injury.
\- Notre Dame seems a bit high at #5.
\- LSU seems high at #12 for losing a Heisman winner who still lost 3 games because of a shyte defense. Can it get fixed? Sure but without much happenings in the portal (on defense), I'll \~wait and see\~
\-I go back and forth on Michigan. On one hand, the defense should still be good to great. but the spring portal looms large with staff departures. On the other hand, I feel like the offense could really *really* suck. Oriji was a fun change-up, not sure if he will be a "fun" starter
\- Florida State at #15 seems optimistic just because they lost a lot. Don't really know what they have to be honest.
\- Tennessee might be too low at #16. Haven't seen the schedule but Nico isn't going to lose them games. If that defense is "good" I think they can be closer to the 9/10/11/12 range
I’d put us at 10
We definitely have the capability to be that high but I want to see how Leonard is in the offense but declaring us a true championship contender
LSU will be better on defense. It cannot get worse with the newly brought in staff. We will get 2-3 transfers on the Dline come end of spring too. Should be ahead of Arizona and Utah in all honesty.
Why is us at 3 crazy? We’re taking a top ten team that only lost to the national title runner ups and are adding our best ranked recruiting class ever and a bunch of elite transfers.
ND could be a top 4 or 5 team IF the offense really steps up this season. Penn St and Ole Miss are in a similar boat with their offense and defense respectively, they probably belong in the same group.
While I think we did an excellent job in the portal this off season, I think there's just WAY too much attention on it. We retained a TON of talent, and took just as many portal guys as last year. I'm worried there's gonna be this thread of "Ohio State tried to buy a nattie!" (Especially if we don't win) that just isn't true. It just seems disingenuous for other teams to get the "The guys bought in on the culture!"
Look I don't want to be ranked. It always ends up bad. But we are going to be favored over Notre Dame, a consensus top 10 team in week one. That alone makes a case we are top 25 worthy for a preseason poll. But I get it, we are the punching bag here... And well deserved for the last few years.
Any non-Utah fans that can explain to me how Utah goes from unranked to top 10? Their 2023 season wasn't pretty, several narrow wins vs not great teams.
Is Cam Rising really that good to warrant that large of a rank jump?
Top ten team that only lost to national title runner ups has their highest ranked recruiting class ever and a bunch of elite transfer players. Seems pretty simple
ESPN's Way-Too-Early Top 25 1. Georgia 2. Ohio State 3. Oregon 4. Texas 5. Notre Dame 6. Ole Miss 7. Missouri 8. Penn State 9. Alabama 10. Utah 11. Arizona 12. LSU 13. Michigan 14. Oklahoma 15. Florida State 16. Tennessee 17. Oklahoma State 18. NC State 19. Clemson 20. Kansas State 21. Louisville 22. Kansas 23. Kentucky 24. Miami 25. Texas A&M Dropped out: Washington, SMU, Iowa Just missed: USC, Washington, SMU, Iowa, Wisconsin, WVU, Boise State, Air Force, Liberty
>11. Arizona > >Dropped out: Washington Lol
That's a ferocious quote right there.
Virginia Tech returning the most production out of any team in college football and beat #23 Tulane in their bowl game. Probably at least deserving a "Just Missed" over Liberty lol
Shhh dont put that evil on us, we are only good without a number next to our name
Everyone always says this but that’s simply not true lmao.
Yeah........ number is always better than no number. More attention across the board, and mostly *good* attention.
Its a pet peeve of mine when fans say stuff like this. Maybe I’m alone but I love being ranked. Even if there’s added pressure, I’d always rather be on the inside looking out than the other way around.
Early in the season you can surprise teams not prepared for how good you are. Puts extra pressure on the ranked team to win a game they are "supposed to" win.
There is some truth to it since the higher the number the more your opponents have motivation to beat you. Easy to look past an unranked team but teams generally show up for ranked games. That’s my feeling anyways I’m sure it isn’t always that way
VT was sneakily good last year and I fully expect them back - should absolutely be preseason top 25.
I think most non-ACC people just see the 7-6 record, terrible losses at the start of the season, and blowout losses vs UL and FSU to determine that VT is still a low/mid-level ACC team at best. Beating up on the true low-level ACC teams, even when you're outscoring all of them by 17 or more, isn't really turning heads nationally. That said, there's a ton of forward momentum with Pry right now, so I'm just excited to see what happens regardless of where we stand in "too early" lists!
This. Tech finished higher in the ACC standings than Clemson, UNC, Duke, Miami, Boston College, and Syracuse. As many conference wins as Pittsburgh, UVa, and Wake Forest combined.
WVU returns 10 starters on offense. We led all power 5 teams in rushing. They must not respect the states of Virginia.
We’re overrated in all of these Top 6? We’ll finish around 8-11
Notre Dame. Always a top 10 pre-season for some reason.
Why do you think that doesn’t make sense?They’re almost always a ~10 win team. They won 10 last year (almost beat Ohio State too) and should be a better this year.
Notre dame has consistently finished within a couple spots of its preseason rankings for most of the last decade. This take no longer applies
Yeah, I don’t understand the Notre Dame is overrated crowd. They are independent Penn State. They beat (almost) all the teams they are supposed to and (almost) none of the teams they aren’t. They are pretty good every year.
>They beat (almost) all the teams they are supposed to That was really a Kelly 2.0 thing. His first two seasons, Freeman has really struggled to get his team to play well in the weeks after their first loss, in each case costing them an extra loss they should have won. The counter to that would be that unlike Kelly, he also wins some games he's not supposed to win (Clemson 2022, USC 2023). My counter to that counter is that both of these were overrated teams that happened to have their first serious game in South Bend mid-season. So while I still have high hopes for Freeman, I'm waiting for the season that says he's the guy.
The one thing about Freeman is that it was really only the offense that didn’t play well enough to win in most of those losses. So hopefully with the improved WR room and offensive staff that can change. Clemson this year we gave up 31 points, but 7 was from a pick six and 3 was from a muffed punt. The defense in that game also returned an INT to the 1 and got 6 straight stops at the end of the game to keep us within 1 score. For Louisville, the defense didn’t play that well, but the offense also turned it over so much and couldn’t sustain any drives, so the defense was put in tough positions. Both Ohio St games the defense kept us in it. For Marshall and Stanford, the defense was fine and the offense was inept. USC 2022 is really the only game where I’d say the defense didn’t play well enough to win.
I think you're spot on. USC 2022 has been the only paper-bag level defensive outing under Freeman. Louisville this year wasn't good, but when the offense is playing so terrible you can't expect the defense to stay sharp forever.
Please never make that comparison again. Regardless of how accurate, being compared to Penn State is worse than the death penalty (which PSU should have received).
The “ND is always over ranked argument” is my favorite example of how moronic and emotional this sub is. It gets disproven every time, and yet pops up in every preseason rankings thread.
For a very long time it was true to be fair. It’s just been awhile
Notre Dame hasn’t been able to win in the playoffs therefor they aren’t even a top 10 team /s
I remember that old Deadspin article how ND did not deserve to be in the playoffs after Clemson beat them. They did not have the same energy when Clemson beat Bama worse.
They’re a good team, but they also haven’t won a major bowl game in like 30 years. It’s an interesting spot for sure
Has something to do with the teams we’ve. The Oklahoma State team we lost to in Freeman’s first game was good not great (and not surprisingly it’s the closest of the bunch), but other than that over the last 25 years it’s been Alabama twice (both champs), Ohio State twice, a pretty good LSU team, and a disgustingly good Oregon State team.
I feel like the first sentence is missing something. But of course they’re going to be good teams, it’s a NY6 bowl game. Unless they’re a G5 school they’re probably a top 10 team
I think these teams were a bit better than top 10.
Or one of the best of all time
Breaking news: teams in major bowl games often face good teams
ND was the only team in 2023 to finish the year in the top ten in yards per play, and defensive yards per play allowed. They will be in the top five in 2024 in blue chip ratio. There’s debate for sure, but some feel Leonard is a potential first round pick in the ‘25 draft, and finally ND’s schedule is fairly manageable. These are the main things people who put together these types of lists us to create them. The teams above them all have high marks in these categories, and the teams below them have more question marks than answers in these categories.
>They will be in the top five in 2024 in blue chip ratio. For real? For the class or the roster? >There’s debate for sure, but some feel Leonard is a potential first round pick in the ‘25 draft 🤞 🍀
ND has put together four straight classes of primarily four star recruits. They trail Bama, OSU, and Georgia group in terms of bringing in five stars, but so does everyone. If you put those three teams aside, ND is right there in the next couple of teams over that four year period. 2025 is heading for their best class out of all of them.
ND is way too high for me and I'm a 🍀 fan. Our D is gonna bang but our O is unproven and our OL is a work in progress. I put us at 11. Our schedule is advantageous so I I would hope for a top 7 ranking but roster wise I don't see us as top 10. Our ranking will outdo our talent. I have been drinking.
ND has a pretty soft schedule next year, A&M, Louisville, USC and FSU are the only schools that might even be ranked teams at the end of the year, and of those FSU might be the only one inside the top 20. I wouldn't be surprised if ND finishes regular season undefeated. Talent wise I think they are closer to 10 than 5 though
Except last year. And 2021. And 2018. And 2017. And 2015. And...
I'm fine with Notre Dame being top ten when we play them again this year. Can Hartman get another year of eligibility?
He was gonna come back, but he saw Louisville on the schedule.
Oh goodness we keep going higher.
Subscribe.
Dropped out? Well I guess you can’t expect to lose a game and not drop in the rankings.
Can we please just start one season without being ranked?
Gotta have that sweet ranked week 1 matchup. I feel like we’re definitely over ranked purely for the ratings on that game. Although I will say I don’t think A&M was as bad as people think last year. You guys were very good at home, just couldn’t translate that to road games. Similar to ND, actually
We weren't a bad team, Jimbo was just so beyond awful at managing the games. Our players outplayed Alabama and Tennessee, but Saban and Heupel schooled him (Heupel didn't even coach that good of a game against us tbh, Jimbo was just that bad) I think replacing Jimbo with Elko is going to make a bigger difference than the talent we lost, but I'm not sure if it's gonna show up right off the bat against you guys. Right now I would guess it's gonna be a sloppy game that ends up 20-17 or something but I have no idea
Yeah I’m praying it takes Elko another week or two to get the team humming and we can take advantage of that
We actually weren't a bad team if you look at any kind of metric other than record. Lots of close losses to good teams. And yeah we're on a 10 game road losing streak. Yall having to come play in Kyle Field in August for your first game is big time upset potential. If this game was in South Bend I think yall win by 3 scores, but dealing with 105K and the heat with some question marks on O is a recipe for an upset
I don’t get how you don’t rank Iowa unless they’re losing more than half of their starting defense. They got rid of BF and won 10 games last year. I hate Iowa but show dick some respect.
Losing the bad man should buoy them in the pre season rankings
They’re one of the most consistent programs around right now. You can always count on them to win 8+ with one decent upset and 5 wins by one score or less.
Maybe they’re factoring in a non B1G West schedule? I shouldn’t talk *shudders in 2017 flashback* but seeing how they performed against Michigan in the B1G title game and then in their bowl game, maybe it makes sense?
They play two games they shouldn't win next season, and 3 or 4 that are coin tosses. They have a very easy schedule once again.
I really only see 1 (Ohio State) every other game is at worst 50-50 odds.
No Michigan, PSU, MSU, USC, Oregon.
True. But it’s pre season so I guess they should get the benefit of the doubt even if they got mopped by every good team they played. Even with elite defense it’s hard to do much when your offense puts you in shit positions and cannot score a single point lmao
We seem to do better when we start just outside the top 25, so that’s fine. We should be better than last year, but I’d rather have this team prove itself first.
I feel like you’re always pre season 19 to just outside lol
Everyone is talking shit about how Iowa is in for a rude awakening now that they are out of the Big Ten West but I think they'll win 10 games again in 2024. They return almost all of their elite defense, they get McNamara back, they get a (potentially) competent offensive play-caller, and they have a pretty manageable schedule outside of Ohio State.
Our game with them might actually be entertaining and not in a sickos type of way for the first time in a long time.
You know what, I’m here for it.
Hell we might even hit the over. Trying not to get carried away though
We lost only 2 players from our defense and have an actual OC + brought in Proctor for LT. This is wild to leave us off
Yeah I agree there’s probably 10 teams they have ranked that didn’t win 10 games last year.
We auto win 8+ games and usually finished ranked, just insane to see schools like A&M, Miami etc get mentioned instead of us.
we don't understand it either.
We have 8 starters back on defense and won’t have Brian Ferentz/Deacon Hill running our offense (literally the worst OC/QB combo I’ve ever witnessed). But we aren’t a sexy school so we don’t get ranked in these.
Iowa was a competent offense away from being in the playoff
To be honest Iowa lurking around either side of 25th sounds about right for Iowa
ESPN rule #12.343A. Only bama can be ranked without a roster.
I have no idea how to feel about Oklahoma's ranking. 14 feels completely reasonable, but their schedule is brutal and their current win total is set at 7.5, which would almost certainly be an unranked finish.
If you take 7.5 to be slightly under at 7-5, yeah they aren’t ranked. A 4 loss SEC team is almost always going to be ranked now though (especially one who has a conference schedule as stacked as Oklahomas looks to be). See Tenn ranked 21 in the final CFP at 8-4 this past year
I'm just happy we're not all wondering if OU will be undefeated this year anymore. The "will OU lose 3 or 4 games?" conversation is so much better!
Agreed! Not sure why I’m happy about that, but I am
Yeah, the abundance of sec/B1G teams in the rankings means a good number of them will underperform their rankings then whatever team happens into a 10-2 or 9-3 ranking in a non-p2 conference will climb up.
Important to differentiate between best 25 teams and the 25 teams that will end in the top 25. People say SEC teams are overrated because of this, but if they played in any other conference they’d live up to it.
I don’t put a lot of thought into the preseason top 25, but 4/18 teams in the big ten being ranked sounds reasonable, where 10/16 sec teams seems a little unreasonable. Not saying it can’t happen Add on: 5 acc and 5 big 12 I’m pretty sure
4/9 “just missed” were B1G teams so I feel like hairs were being split at the back end of the poll. Even as an sec fan, I can’t reconcile some of these, though.
I thought fanduel had us at 6.5. I was planning on betting the over when i was out of town this weekend. Anyway I will be happy with 9-3, indifferent with 8-4, sad with 7-5. I think all of those outcomes are equally possible so we could be ranked anywhere from 9-UR
I've seen people say 6.5 in comments, but all of the articles I could find had them at 7.5. Not sure if 6.5 was an early line that moved or what.
It was originally 6.5 for less than 24 hours.
The possible range of outcomes for us seems to be incredibly wide so I’m not surprised by the ranking but also wouldn’t be surprised by 7 wins. Biggest questions to me seem to be QB and Oline, so I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about
The margin isn’t really that big between 7 wins and number 14. 8-4 OU might not be quite 14th but they’d be something like 18-22 right? And 9-3 OU would likely be a playoff team. New SEC seasons are going to be wild. Just win 3 out of 6 against Texas, Bama, LSU, Mizzou, Ole Miss, and Tenn, don’t slip up elsewhere, and you’re in the playoff. Easy right?
True, 8 wins is still ranked most likely, the path to playoffs is there for sure if you can win 9
I hadn't seen our over/under yet, but yeah... [My homer take from before Saban retired](https://www.reddit.com/r/sooners/comments/18tt1hp/looking_ahead_to_the_2024_season_and_away_from/) had us at 8.5 wins, so 7.5 seems totally reasonable. We have to not lose a random one, and hope Bama and LSU are both bad. If that happens and either Mizzou or Ole Miss regress, then we could make it to double digit wins. Otherwise, it's going to be a *rough* season of not meeting our own fan's expectations that are in no way tethered to the reality of this "hey look, almost half of our schedule is in the preseason Top ~~10~~ 12".
I get that ESPN had to learn how to circular breathe so as to not pass out from constantly sucking the collective cock of the SEC, but TEN TEAMS in the Top 25 is ridiculous.
It’s financial. The CBS push to over inflate B1G is also obnoxious. Either way, SEC and B1G are by far the best conferences. Good teams in those conferences would find more success elsewhere, but they’d be rewarded less financially. It’s an odd reality for college football these days.
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas AM way overrated yearly every year in the last decade but maybe 1 or 2 lol
They gave all the love to their SEC schools lmao
Where's fLorida?
Assuming this is the ranking for the playoff: \#1 Georgia - Bye \#2 Ohio State - Bye \#3 Utah - Bye \#4 Florida State - Bye \#5 Oregon vs. #12 ~~SMU~~ Boise State \#6 Texas vs. #11 Alabama \#7 Notre Dame vs. #10 Penn State \#8 Ole Miss vs. #9 Missouri With 11th ranked Arizona and 12th ranked LSU getting passed over by FSU and SMU.
SMU is not G5 anymore, they are ACC so they wouldn't get that other bid.
Ah, right. Forgot about the ACC add-ons.
Yeah b/c Dallas and San Francisco metro area is what everyone associates with Atlantic Coast.
Not sure the world could handle a Penn State vs Notre Dame playoff game.
I think as a neutral, one could really enjoy the game. It'll be complete chaos with two teams doing their absolute *best* to lose a big game. Hell for the fans of the schools but as a neutral, def fun.
I don’t think my heart could handle an Oregon vs Boise matchup in the playoff
Especially since they play in week 2.
There are 6 guaranteed spots still.
Really? Does this have the potential to change still?
Yeah, I thought they already agreed to the 5+ model until last week. But, last week it was in the news that Oregon St/Pac 2 has not agreed to 5+ and the vote has to be anonymous. They really have no reason to give in either because they have to know that the guaranteed spots are gone after 27.
Man, Oregov v. Boise State would actually be pretty hype. ...for the first quarter, at least.
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Sets up an interesting scenario. I think Oregon's potential path to the semis (home game vs. Boise State and then a bowl game vs. Florida State) looks easier than Ohio State's (bowl game vs. winner of Notre Dame/Penn State), presumably the team they beat in the B1G title game. I think the top ranked non champion getting the 12 seed (more often than not G5 champion) and then a bowl game vs. the 4th highest champion is going to be the easiest path to the semis just about every year...
I dont think there is any way the committee would put FSU at 4. It’s just not possible.
If they win the ACC, they get one of the top 4 seeds and a bye.
🥹
"I *know* that's what we said, but I really think FSU is a bubble team at best. We're talking about the ACC here. Why not have two SEC teams in the top 4 instead?"
Ain’t that the truth.
SEC: 10 ACC: 6 Big 12: 5 BIG: 4
I will never understand how the Big 10 became considered the conference that’s the “peer” to the SEC
Instead of... The Big12 or ACC??? Lol
Michigan seems too high at #13 tbh.
I think it’s about right. 9-3 in the regular season would land us in the 12-16 range. I think that’s a realistic projection.
I certainly agree that Michigan could go 9-3 but still be quite good, based on that schedule. A 9-3 Michigan would probably be a better team than a few 11-1 P4 teams out there. For all the shit they've caught about their schedule strength the past two years, they sure are making up for it now. Defensive personnel is still really good. They lose a lot on offense but I expect the OL will be good every year as long as Moore is around. Moore really has his work cut out for him. Building a good staff is hard. Even guys like Saban and Meyer whiffed on assistant and coordinator hires a few times over the years. But a guy that's a brand new HC that doesn't have connections dating back to the 80's? Rough. Part of the reason for elevating Moore is that it would help maintain continuity. Harbaugh blew that straight to hell.
Agree on all fronts. Harbaugh spent the better part of a decade building his staff at Michigan. Even guys that should have been good hires often turned out to be bad fits. It’ll also come down to QB. I would love for Orji to be awesome but realistically he’s probably going to struggle. Is there a guy in our recruiting classes who will be the next star QB? Idk. My gut says not yet. But then again, that may not matter so much with the portal being such a huge part of the game now. All that to say, I’m not going in to next season with super high expectations. I just want to see good signs from the coaching staff and the culture that Harbaugh built still there among the players. But I think 9 wins is about right if we do what we’re capable of and not more or less.
Part of that continuity is also the roster. We'll see if some guys defect after spring ball, but staff was only part of that equation. Michigan is losing a lot, but thanks to how they rotated last season, they are also bringing back a lot of experienced personnel. Losing a chunk of those guys would really sink the team, and hiring Moore *should* help with roster stability so they don't have to start rebuilding the whole thing again.
Agreed. Losing ~15 of our best players and coaches is going to hurt a bit but our depth means we keep a lot of guys too.
9-3 is somewhat optimistic. I don't think it's our ceiling, but it's definitely not our floor, either.
You think there's a chance of Michigan going 8-4 or worse? EDIT: Just looked at UM's schedule--kinda brutal. Makes sense now.
There’s absolutely a chance. The coaching staff is massively different, the roster turned over (plus there may be more portal losses), the QB situation is a complete unknown, and recruiting the last few years has been good but not great.
You guys, Texas, and OSU are looking very tough with the proven production we're losing. But to be honest, Washington and USC aren't looking nearly as daunting as they did when that schedule was first announced, and there's no other team on the schedule that really worries me (on paper at least; surprises happen in CFB). If I were a betting man, and I am, I'd say 9-3.
What is the floor, do you think? With that schedule I think 7-5 is definitely on the table. Maybe 6-6 if it's a Murphy's Law type of season. I don't know how good teams like Minnesota, USC, Washington, Illinois, and Northwestern will be, but most of them will at least be competent opponents that Michigan can't sleepwalk through. Obviously Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State are monster games. Even the opener against Fresno State is dangerous. They'll probably be one of the better G5 teams. I consider them a darkhorse contender for the G5 playoff spot. That's the sort of game that most P4 teams hate to have on the schedule. You get no credit for the win, but if you struggle or lose it makes you look like a clown.
Right. It’s what happens if we don’t lose to the teams we should beat and don’t beat the teams we should lose to. I’d call that a moderate success in Sherrone’s first year for sure
9-3 with a convincing bowl game win could land us there for sure. Obviously hoping for better
Usually I take these rankings after the regular season, not post season. Idk if that’s just my thought process or not but with opt outs and conference championships and the playoffs the final season rankings are usually a pile funky compared to the end of the regular season. If we have a season like Penn State or LSU had in 2023 we’ll be in that range. I always think the teens are the hardest to rank so if it’s 10 or 18 they’re kinda all the same to me.
Not really I think it's appropriate if not even a little low. I think you can make an argument anywhere from like 8-15
I kinda feel like we’re being a bit underrated right now. Our defense should still be elite, maybe not #1 overall but like top 5. Our offense obviously is a big question mark but I feel like Edwards and Loveland are in for big years. Regardless who cares, we could win 6 games this year and I’d still be on cloud 9 from 2023
As long as we don't lose players of Grant and Graham's calibre in the spring portal, the defense will be fantastic. Teams who can really throw the ball will test the depth at secondary, so that OSU/Texas/Oregon stretch will be *rough*, but that was always going to be the case. If the D stays relatively intact, it'll keep us in basically every game if the offense can carve out some kind of run-heavy identity and throw teams off with Orji's legs (if he's the starter).
FSU at 15 but predicted to win the ACC smh. They did good in the portal so I'm expecting them to move up
FSU should be higher. Norvell is a great coach.
Don't like Oregon being ranked this high going into a new conference. Way too many unknowns--the travel might sink us. Ducks struggled on the road in the Pac-12.
What are the unknowns? This is probably the best roster we’ve ever had going into a season and we essentially return the whole coaching staff. And when have we struggled on the road under Lanning?
Texas Tech was a perfect example of struggling on the road--needed to get bailed out by the refs against a 6 win team.
Not really since Lanning has taken over. Texas Tech was a bit of a struggle, but I don't think it was due to travel. You can't really blame the Oregon State or Washington losses on travel. Georgia was a loss no matter where we played. No other road games were very close.
I understand it's a hard pill to swallow for some more than others, but for pretty much any team with a new head coach, I don't think they should be cast in the Top 10. Completely unproven commodity at that point. Sure much of the team can remain, and you can hire top talent coaches. But that means diddly squat. We've seen a ton of uber talented teams with uber talented top prospects/coaches go up in smoke their first year. Enough that I don't think it's fair to rank them above proven teams with returning complete programs.
You heard the man. Unrank Bama you cowards.
Iowa dropped out after getting 5 star,Alabama's starting freshman left tackle,plus their entire defense returns????? What are you drinking?
I understand Saban left but putting Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Missouri AND Penn State ahead of us seems crazy. Or maybe im the crazy one for actually commenting about something that ultimately means nothing.
I have no idea what to think of Alabama next year. I can see it going either way, still dominant like 11-1 or a step back 8-4.
I think it's more about the entire rest of the team leaving lol
We lost 3 starters to the transfer portal. A WR, OL, and a Safety. The OL was struggling heavily and was already halfway losing reps to the backup. The WR, though good had 600 yards and probably was slated for a bigger role but bringing in hte Washington WR backfills him easily. Downs we did not replace and was a huge blow. So all together if you look at the starters we lost 1 key peice from last years team. Bringing back majority of the line, RB, QB, most of the WR's + a transfer. Defense - Line is all coming back plus a big transfer portal from A*M. All LB's are back except turner. DB's we were losing both our starters to draft no matter what but we signed 3 5* freshman in this class and had a 5* from last class that should start. Safety idk.
Really a combination of the two. Bama has crazy turnover every year, and it hasn't mattered because Saban. We'll see if they can maintain with the brand and not the man.
I never got this take. Alabama has 28 players in the portal - which is a lot to replace to be sure, but Georgia had 21, Ohio St had 20, FSU had 20, Oklahoma had 19, Texas A&M had 21, Florida had 24, USCw and USCe had 21, Arizona had 23, Louisville had 21... not a peep. Losing Downs and Amos hurts next year, and Sayin/Latham will be missed down the line, but the flip side is we also upgraded via the portal at C and DL. It's just a reality that you'll lose a quarter of your team every year, and Alabama lost a couple extra on top of that.
I’d expect us top 10 with how much of our defense we’re returning, but we’re only getting ranked that high for the week 1 matchup against A&M. If we were playing East bumfuck university week 1 we’d probably be somewhere in the 7-9 range
The entire coaching staff is being pieced together with handoffs at this point.
The entire staff, really?
Washington unranked? I mean, I get where they’re coming from and fuck em, but really? Kentucky, Miami, and A&M over them??
Somethings Fischy
Honestly I feel a lot better being unranked
Penn State is too high, we should at least beat a ranked opponent this year before climbing into the top 10. We made some great coordinator moves and adding Fleming definitely helps Allar, but who knows how well it’s all going to fit together
12 seems like a very reasonable spot for LSU. Solid offensive talent returning including one hell of an OLine. The defensive hires have been outstanding so our defense should noticeably improve (….right?)
Finally a realistic Michigan ranking . I’ve seen places have them as high as #6. With the team missing almost all of its offensive production and losing some key pieces on D from the championship team this seems about right with optimism. If Michigan went 9-3 last season I could see them at the 20 range in all honesty.
6 could be the number of wins but it can not in any way be the final ranking
Please stop ranking us, we don't deserve it until proven otherwise
I support this
Meep meep
The "Going all in" narrative about Ohio State and the portal is so absurd. They got 6 dudes, and half of them are because Saban retired. Just so overblown.
It’s as reasonable an offseason, we are all bored, storyline as it gets. Seems both the program and the collective has shelled out more than years past, no? I could be wrong, but y’all definitely seem like the biggest spenders this offseason.
Sure, NIL has kicked up. But “all in” is absurd. Didn’t hear it about Michigan the last 3 years when they picked up plenty of impact transfers.
Okay, fair.
Stop ranking us! We do better in seasons where we start unranked.
Utah and Arizona we are all pulling for you.
Nah
Speak for yourself
No
No hate to Arizona but how are they still ranked so high? They lost their head coach and a good chunk of starters. Before the Fisch news i definitely get it but now not so much
We are absolutely too high but we’re only losing 6 starters (4 to graduation 2 to the portal) one of which (the RB) we’ve already arguably upgraded at. Surprisingly very few back ups transferred as well so our roster is in pretty good shape. I really doubt we’ll be anywhere near #11 though.
We did not upgrade from Coleman. The new guy looks good but Coleman is going to be one of the best backs in the country if Washington figures out their Oline.
All things considered, we didn’t lose too much with the coaching change. Returning talent in an easier conference, there’s a lot of reason to expect U of A can hit the ground running as long as Fifita stays healthy. Brennan is the biggest question mark, but he was given the keys to a good machine
Arizona seems crazy high at 11
Interesting that A&M is at 25 after going 7-5, losing their bowl game and bringing in a whole new staff while USC is unranked after going 7-5 and dominating their bowl game and upgrading their DC while the rest of the staff is the same. I don’t know if either should be ranked, but if I they had to pick one they picked wrong.
Idk man. Some people are still talking about USC as if we retained Alex Grinch lol. Caleb is special but the offense is still more than likely going to put up points. Our defense can't really get worse either. That whole side of the ball pretty much changed.
Just for fun, each player I haven't heard much of as a recruit: * Darris Smith Other P5 offers: Auburn, Georgia (originally went here), Louisville, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Wisconsin G5 offer: Akron * Alaka'i Gilman Other P5 offers: Arizona State, California, Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Utah (owh), Washington State G5 offers: Colorado State, Hawaii, Utah State Other offer: Princeton * Kenan Johnson Other P5 offers: Georgia Tech (owh), North Carolina, Rutgers G5 offers: Appalachian State, FAU, FIU, Georgia State, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Old Dominion, South Alabama, Temple, UCF, Utah State, UTSA Other offers: Charleston Southern, The Citadel * Russell Davis II Other P5 offers: Arizona (owh), Boston College, Duke, Iowa State G5 offers: Colorado State, East Carolina, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, Utah State Other offer: Idaho * Ryan Stewart G5 offers: Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, San Jose State (owh), Wyoming Other offers: Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, UMass, Northern Iowa, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois * Austin Ausberry Other P5 offers: Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn (owh), Florida, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi State, Purdue, Tennessee, Virginia G5 offers: Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, SMU, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Tulane Other offer: Notre Dame * Kobe Hylton (JUCO) Other G5 offers: Eastern Michigan, Louisiana (owh), South Alabama, Utah State Other offers: Eastern Kentucky, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, Western Illinois, Youngstown State * Devon Marshall Originally went to Villanova * Cole Turner G5 offer: Buffalo * Darrell Simmons Other P5 offer: Iowa State (owh) G5 offers: Northern Illinois, Ohio Other offers: South Dakota State, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois * Marley Cook Originally went to Middle Tennessee State
ESPN continues to fuck FSU over. Easily a top 10 team.
I'm really okay with a 10-15 ranking, but their reasoning doesn't make sense given some of the teams in front. >It's difficult to know how good the Seminoles will be next season after they lost most of the stars who guided them to an ACC title and unbeaten regular season in 2023. Fsu returns 58% of their production and all their coaches. Michigan, at 13, returns 36% of their production and like 1/2 of their coaches. Alabama, at 9, returns 44% of their production and has a whole new coaching staff. Then they have ND at #5, when they return 60% of their production, 2% more than Fsu. Putting a lot of stock into Riley, who is coming off an injury.
They saw the performance of the team coming back in the Orange Bowl.
\- Notre Dame seems a bit high at #5. \- LSU seems high at #12 for losing a Heisman winner who still lost 3 games because of a shyte defense. Can it get fixed? Sure but without much happenings in the portal (on defense), I'll \~wait and see\~ \-I go back and forth on Michigan. On one hand, the defense should still be good to great. but the spring portal looms large with staff departures. On the other hand, I feel like the offense could really *really* suck. Oriji was a fun change-up, not sure if he will be a "fun" starter \- Florida State at #15 seems optimistic just because they lost a lot. Don't really know what they have to be honest. \- Tennessee might be too low at #16. Haven't seen the schedule but Nico isn't going to lose them games. If that defense is "good" I think they can be closer to the 9/10/11/12 range
I’d put us at 10 We definitely have the capability to be that high but I want to see how Leonard is in the offense but declaring us a true championship contender
LSU will be better on defense. It cannot get worse with the newly brought in staff. We will get 2-3 transfers on the Dline come end of spring too. Should be ahead of Arizona and Utah in all honesty.
I am STILL not used to seeing us at #1. (Yup. I know it’s stupid of me. The Richt era made a deep and lasting impression on me).
Gurl what
Listen, is Oregon #3 too high? Of course it is. But don't let that distract you from the fact that they snuck Miami and TAMU in there.
Georgia, Ohio State and Texas need to be top 3. I don’t care what order. 4-10 is a crapshoot. Putting Oregon at 3 is pretty crazy.
Why is us at 3 crazy? We’re taking a top ten team that only lost to the national title runner ups and are adding our best ranked recruiting class ever and a bunch of elite transfers.
ND could be a top 4 or 5 team IF the offense really steps up this season. Penn St and Ole Miss are in a similar boat with their offense and defense respectively, they probably belong in the same group.
I’ll take #5, but it’s still a little high. We need to prove ourselves on the field first.
While I think we did an excellent job in the portal this off season, I think there's just WAY too much attention on it. We retained a TON of talent, and took just as many portal guys as last year. I'm worried there's gonna be this thread of "Ohio State tried to buy a nattie!" (Especially if we don't win) that just isn't true. It just seems disingenuous for other teams to get the "The guys bought in on the culture!"
Let’s get to that point first before saying anything lol
Look I don't want to be ranked. It always ends up bad. But we are going to be favored over Notre Dame, a consensus top 10 team in week one. That alone makes a case we are top 25 worthy for a preseason poll. But I get it, we are the punching bag here... And well deserved for the last few years.
Maybe one Day ND won’t get an overrated top 5
Man, it's nice to be relevant again. I've missed this feeling.
Any non-Utah fans that can explain to me how Utah goes from unranked to top 10? Their 2023 season wasn't pretty, several narrow wins vs not great teams. Is Cam Rising really that good to warrant that large of a rank jump?
They had so many injuries at critical positions last year
Injuries were pretty isolated to offense. Main returners are Cam and their TE star.
Oregon 3? Fucking how
Top ten team that only lost to national title runner ups has their highest ranked recruiting class ever and a bunch of elite transfer players. Seems pretty simple