The AP Top 25 Poll update was released on Sunday night with minimal shake-up in the Top 5, largely dominated by SEC Football with Texas remaining at #1.
Texas Still #1: AP Top 25 Movers & Shakers
For the first time in 16 years, Texas earned the #1 spot atop the AP Poll after the Week 2 win over Michigan. Despite sitting star quarterback, Heisman front runner, and future 1st round draft pick, Quinn Ewers, Texas still trounced Louisiana Monroe 51-3 in Week 4. While Texas dominating a Sun Belt school doesn’t come as much of a surprise, the Longhorns did draw some extra eyes to a lopsided game by starting their highly touted backup quarterback: Arch Manning. Manning’s performance was a blend of truly impressive arm talent and average stats (258 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions) but was successful enough to stomp UL-Monroe and keep Texas at the top of the AP Top 25 Poll.
Meanwhile, Georgia Bulldogs dropped to the #2 spot in the rankings after sneaking past Kentucky 13-12 in Week 3. In what was an ugly game full of punts (10) and penalties (13), the question of whether Georgia deserves a top-five ranking is a legitimate curiosity for the first time in years. While they still beat a fellow SEC school, one who likely had Georgia circled on their calendar for months, Georgia’s struggles on offense against an inferior opponent warranted a drop down the rankings.
Ohio State and Alabama both handled their business in Week 4, winning 49-14 over Marshall and 42-10 over Wisconsin, and held their spots at three and four, respectively. More interestingly, though, is the newcomer to the top five: Tennessee. The Vols cracked the top five after an impressive win on the road against Oklahoma. While freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava has been the talk of the SEC, it was the ground attack that carried Tennessee past a formidable test and into the top five. As Knox News reported, being able to combine explosive offense and a stout defense shows that Tennessee is a complete team that could make some noise in the college football playoff and make a real push for the SEC Championship.
It’s not just an offensive juggernaut. It’s a complete team, which was apparent as the Vols rolled past their first three opponents 191-13
Perhaps the most controversial move in the AP Top 25 was Ole Miss dropping one spot despite another dominating win: 52-13 over Georgia Southern. John Sokoloff represented the frustration of Rebels fans in his tweet exemplifying the dominance of Ole Miss.
Following its 52-13 win over Georgia Southern, Ole Miss dropped from No. 5 to No. 6 in the @AP’s Top 25 Poll.
Rebels are 4-0, have outscored opponents 220-22 and the defense has allowed just one TD this season.
— Jon Sokoloff (@JonSokoloff) September 22, 2024
Outside the top five, the biggest drop was Missouri who fell four spots after squeaking past Vanderbilt, 30-27. Vanderbilt has historically been seen as the laughing stock of the SEC with no home-field advantage. In fact, the famed coach of Alabama, Nick Saban, was quoted by AlthonSports saying that Vanderbilt is the only school in the SEC that doesn’t pose a challenge to travel to.
“The only place you’re going to play in the SEC that’s not hard to play, Vanderbilt. When you play at Vanderbilt, you have more fans there than they have, and that’s no disrespect to them, it’s the truth.” said Saban.
That home-field advantage may be improving as Vanderbilt currently has a 2-2 record and is 2-0 at home. However, they are still at the bottom of the SEC with a slowly, at best, improving program that Missouri surprisingly struggled against. Despite Missouri head coach, Eli Drinkwitz, taking responsibility for the near loss, Missouri will have an uphill climb to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.
“We’ve got to take a hard look at what we’re doing in the red area to figure out why we can’t sustain drives and why we’re not able to convert third downs,” Drinkwitz said. “That’s on me as the head football coach, and I’ve got to do better.”
Outside of the SEC, the Big Ten made some noise with two big wins for the conference. Michigan out-bullied newcomer to the Big Ten, USC, 27-24 in a classic slugfest. The Wolverines seemed to figure out some things on offense after switching to Alex Orji behind center. They rushed for 290 yards and will look to continue to push around opponents en route to another Big Ten Championship appearance.
With more Big Ten-on-Big Ten crime, Illinois upset Nebraska on the road 31-24 and propelled themselves to #19 in the AP Top 25 Poll. Illinois have their team in rhythm with another big opportunity next week on the road against Penn State.
