After a wild first week of the college football season, here’s the projected top four for the College Football Playoff.
The long wait for college football was totally worth it. From last Thursday until Monday night, it was non-stop action.
Utah dominated Florida last Thursday to start College Football Week 1, while Nebraska did what Nebraska does and choked a win away late.
Colorado stole the show with its upset of TCU and Florida State scored probably the most impressive win during the first week of college football, beating fifth-ranked LSU 45-24.
To cap it all off, Clemson, a team many believed woud be a College Football Playoff contender, was thumped by Duke. The Blue Devils beat the Tigers for the first time since 1992 in one of the biggest wins in the history of Duke football.
The 2023 season will be the final time that we have a four-team College Football Playoff. Next year, it goes to 12 teams which is going to be awesome for college football.
Yet, we have one final season of the four-team format, and here’s our opening College Football Playoff projection after Week 1.
College Football Playoff contenders
Teams that just missed the cut this week are Alabama and Ohio State. Utah, Oregon, Texas, and others are right there too, but it’s pretty early.
Alabama and Texas will square off this week. We’ll also have more ranked teams playing legitimate opponents. So the race will start taking shape even more, but right now, we have just one team per league and we’ll explain why.
4. USC
The Trojans have looked really good through two weeks, although they haven’t played anybody of consequence. San Jose State is a solid program and they actually hung around for a bit, so I still have questions about the USC defense.
Caleb Williams is as good a player as there is in college football. The offense looks just as good and if the defense is actually better, the Trojans should be a playoff team.
Working in their favor is the fact that the Pac-12 is looking stronger after Week 1. Colorado could be a good win in a few weeks. Notre Dame is also looking strong, so if USC wins the Pac-12 win and finishes with just one loss, my bet is they make the field.
3. Florida State
Nobody was more impressive during the opening (first full) week of college football. The Noles defense was dominant and Jordan Travis, despite a few struggles in the first half, showed why he’s been talked about as a Heisman Trophy contender.
Travis was 23-of-31 for 342 yards and four touchdown passes — three of which went to Keon Coleman. The former Michigan State transfer looks like one of the offseason’s best pickups. Johnny Wilson caught seven passes for 109 yards and those two are tough to stop.
Trey Benson only rushed for 47 yards but kept the LSU defense honest and so did Travis with 38 yards and a score. FSU notched two takeaways and four sacks against an LSU team that many pundits expected to compete for a College Football Playoff berth.
The Clemson loss might ding Florida State’s strength of schedule a bit, but there are enough impressive wins on the resume to be had, especially with the way the Noles dismantled LSU.
2. Michigan
The Wolverines did what they needed to do in Week 1 of the college football season. Michigan football didn’t cover the spread, but the game was never in doubt and East Carolina only avoided a shutout by a last-second field goal in the fourth quarter.
Michigan’s running game was a little disappointing in Week 1. The Wolverines vaunted rushing attack averaged just 3.9 yards per carry. East Carolina loaded the box and used lots of stunts to slow down Michigan. ECU also had a top-20 run defense in 2022.
However, J.J. McCarthy showed his development and completed 26-of-30 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns as well as zero interceptions. It was a spectacular showing and set a Michigan football record for completion percentage (minimum of 25 attempts).
The run game will be fine. But Michigan’s defense looked even better, without Will Johnson, its best player last week. And if McCarthy plays like he did last Saturday, all season long, this team can win a national championship.
1. Georgia
Some Bulldogs fans weren’t super happy with offensive coordinator Mike Bobo in the first half of Georgia’s 48-7 win over Tennessee-Martin, an FCS program.
Sure, the Bulldogs started a little sluggish and led just 17-0 at the end of the first half. But remember, it was the first game of the season and the first start for Carson Beck.
Beck turned in a solid showing, completing 21-of-31 passes for 294 yards and one touchdown. Brock Bowers caught five passes for 77 yards and the Bulldogs had seven different receivers — yes seven — with at least one reception that went for 20 yards or more.
That should quash some concerns about the offense. The bottom line is that we didn’t see anything in the first week of college football to think Georgia won’t be back in the College Football Playoff.
The Bulldogs could be beaten, but they are going to be No. 1 on this list until another team ends their 18-game winning streak.