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

See you Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletics‘s college football newsletter. Sign up here to get Until Saturday delivered straight to your inbox.

After five straight days of college football, Week 1 is officially over and The AthleticsThe 12-team College Football Playoff forecast is up to date.

Most notable in the updated projection: Florida State has dropped from a 54 percent chance of making CFP to a 1 percent chance. Let’s talk about the Seminoles…


Press the panic button

Florida State starts 0-2

It’s not an overreaction in Week 1 to say that things are looking really, really bad for Florida State. The Seminoles were ranked No. 10 in the AP poll before the season and fell out of the rankings entirely after losing two games they should have won by double digits.

A Week 0 loss could be dismissed as one of those strange Week 0 things. But last night’s 28-13 loss to Boston College made it clear that the wheels could be falling off in Tallahassee. What Mike Norvell saw as a powerful reload — replacing 10 NFL Draft picks with veteran transfers in the offseason — is looking more like a painful rebuild at this point. ​​I asked The Athletics‘s Manny Navarro, who wrote today about Florida State living and dying by the transfer portal, set out to rank three of the Seminoles’ shortcomings. Here’s what he said:

  1. DJ Uiagalelei’s inconsistency as a QB
  2. Defense line does not meet standards
  3. The lack of a running game

Florida State rushed for just 21 yards against BC with freshman Kam Davis leading the running game with three carries for 11 yards. Meanwhile, a D-line that should be one of the best in the country has been run to the ground, giving up 190 yards against Georgia Tech and 263 yards against Boston College.

But the quarterback has taken much of the blame for Florida State’s early downfall. Uiagalelei’s accuracy issues remain — they were largely the cause of his original transfer from Clemson to Oregon State two years ago. He completed only 50 percent of his passes against the Eagles, was sacked three times and threw an interception that turned into a BC touchdown two plays later. It’s a harsh reality for a Florida State team that relied on Uiagalelei to make an immediate impact.

While it was an uneventful start, the Seminoles’ legal battle to trade the ACC for a conference with a more lucrative media rights deal is becoming increasingly uneasy.


New Top 25

Risers and fallers

The new AP poll finally dropped this afternoon, and Week 1 caused quite a stir in the rankings. A few other notable risers and fallers:

📉 Oregon dropped from No. 3 to No. 7 after a disappointing 24-14 win against Idaho, and LSU dropped five spots to No. 18 after another Week 1 loss for Brian Kelly, this time to USC. Former No. 20 Texas A&M dropped from the rankings after losing to Notre Dame. Clemson from No. 14 to No. 25 after a barely competitive performance against Georgia. But the biggest faller was State of Floridawho dropped from #10 to unranked. The Seminoles essentially received ZERO votes.

📈 Notre Dame rose two spots to join the top five, while Missouri made a deserved jump into the top 10. USC saw the biggest climb, from No. 23 to No. 13 after a promising 27-20 win over LSU. And we can’t forget Miamiwhich now sits at No. 12 after a 41-17 win over Florida. The Hurricanes appear to be the clear favorites in the ACC.

👋 Welcome to the poll, No. 22 Louisville And No. 23 Georgia Tech! The Cardinals shut out Austin Peay 62-0, making some noise right away as their fellow ACC contenders struggled. Georgia Tech is ranked for the first time since 2015 after starting 2-0 against Florida State and Georgia State. Dominating the “other receiving votes” category is Boston College, which received the second-most votes behind Texas A&M among those outside the Top 25.


A new No. 134

Bad start for Owls

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

Meet the Temple Owls: The Owls find themselves here after a 51-3 loss to Oklahoma, which fell from No. 16 to No. 15 in the AP poll this week. Temple wasn’t the only program to suffer a blowout loss in Week 1 (Akron 52-6 to No. 2 Ohio State, UConn 50-7 to Maryland), but it was the Owls’ six turnovers that vaulted them to this spot. Temple is coached by Stan Drayton, who coached running backs in college and the NFL before taking the head coaching job at Temple in 2022. He is 6-19 with the Owls.

To get out of #134: Drayton said the Owls will keep junior Forrest Brock at QB, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Brock didn’t complete a pass for positive yardage until the second quarter against the Sooners and threw two INTs, but he won the starting role over Rutgers transfer Evan Simon. Temple will need Brock to get past some of those first-game jitters as it approaches its AAC opener against Navy, which just defeated FCS Bucknell 49-21 and is ranked No. 114 in Chris’ evaluation.


Quick Snaps

USC at the GVB? Nebraska starting 8-0 … with a win against Ohio State? Jesse Temple and Austin Meek rank Big Ten Overreactions from least to most bizarre after week 1.

Also from Austin today, how was it? Michigan build the Big House to a place that embodies everything about college American football?

ESPN’s Holly Rowe who takes us inside this past weekend’s coach-to-player helmet communication via a Notre Dame reserve QB’s helmet that ranks among the best broadcasting moves of the weekend. Read more about which networks called it the best in Week 1 here.

The Pac-12 and Mountain West’s self-imposed deadline for a 2025 football schedule agreement has passed without an extension, leaving the future open for Oregon State And Washington State in the air.

Here you can buy tickets for all American football matches.

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