College Football Playoff: Projected top 4 after Week 2
Texas beating Alabama brought about some changes in our projected College Football Playoff field after Week 2 of the 2023 college football season.
It was another exciting week of college football and once again, we learned much more about the 2023 College Football Playoff race.
The first week of the college football season gave us a signature for the Florida State Seminoles, while this past weekend offered up something similar for the Texas Longhorns, who notched a sea-changing 10-point win over Alabama on Saturday night.
That makes Texas a legit College Football Playoff contender, well, for the first time ever. Alabama isn’t out of it yet but has no margin for error. The Tide needs to win the SEC championship. A two-loss SEC champion could make it if there is chaos, but Bama likely has to run the table, just like LSU after it was blown out by Florida State.
There are plenty of undefeated teams and truthfully, many are set to eventually meet. Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State will play each other. USC, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Oregon State, and yes, Colorado will do the same. The SEC has Georgia and Tennessee going head-to-head.
So these rankings will be determined by what happens on the field. However, we do have a change from our Week 1 College Football Playoff projections.
4. Texas
USC held the fourth spot last week in our College Football Playoff projections and for good reason. The Trojans have been spectacular and dominated Stanford on Saturday night.
Caleb Williams has put himself in a position to repeat as the Heisman winner early. But Quinn Ewers might have a say in that race after his three-touchdown game on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
It was a defining win for Ewers. The same can be said for Steve Sarkisian. His career has gotten plenty of hype but as a head coach, he hasn’t won much.
That changed on Saturday night and Texas will have a playoff spot until it loses a game. Winning at Alabama is about as good a win as you can have on your resume and if the Horns just win the Big 12 title with one loss, they will be in the College Football Playoff.
And even though the offense is getting all the credit, the Texas defense had five sacks, forced two turnovers, and held Alabama under 30 points and 400 total yards. Not a bad day at the office. Anthony Hill also looks like a game-changer after a two-sack game.