BYU Football survived a rally by Arizona to take down the Wildcats 24-16 in Las Vegas to remain ranked in the Lawless Republic Top 25.
Like every year in college football the first week showed that many of the “automatic bids” to the preseason Top 25 were not up for the challenge including teams like Miami, LSU, and Washington who all suffered embarrassing losses on Saturday. Teams outside the AP Top 25 including BYU Football and UCF proved they should be ranked.
With my Top 25, I choose who I believe are the Top 25. Fortunately, not everyone is paid and sponsored by the P5, including Lawless Republic. As a fan of the game, I watch hours upon hours of game footage to gain a grasp of who I believe is truly in the Top 25.
For the entire 2021 season I will put out my Top 25 poll, whether BYU Football is in it or not. Again, my polls are based off of what I see, not what the AP/Coaches Poll says. In fact, I don’t even reference them while making my ranking.
Below are my Week Two rankings with the preseason rankings in parenthesis.
WEEK ONE RANKINGS
1. Alabama (1)
2. Cincinnati (3)
3. Georgia (2)
After a very low scoring win against Clemson, the Bulldogs switch spots with Cincinnati. Although there is no debate at all that Georgia will have very elite defense this year, teams will find a way to score on the Bulldogs and if Georgia has no offense they will lose games.
4. Ohio State (7)
5. Oklahoma (4)
6. Texas A&M (6)
7. Penn State (7)
Penn State proved me wrong against Wisconsin. I thought they would potentially be an upsetting team again this year, but they proved me wrong. Well done.
8. Coastal Carolina (10)
9. Florida (10)
10. Clemson (5)
Clemson did not look like the team that they have been since the mid 2010’s on Saturday. The offense was stagnant, the defense was really good, but they didn’t look unbeatable. While Clemson will likely win a ton of games this year with a weak schedule, The TIgers likely finish with two or three losses.
11. USC (12)
12. UCLA (NR)
UCLA is the surprise team of the year to this point. As I pointed out in the previous poll I made, LSU was a huge question mark team this after finishing (5-5) last season and that remains a question. Is UCLA back after taking down Hawaii and LSU in convincing ways, or is UCLA the Indiana of this year beating a LSU team that isn’t a good as most projected in the preseason. For now, UCLA has a good resume and deserves to be at No. 12.
13. Iowa State (11)
14. Oregon (15)
15. Texas (17)
16. BYU (16)
The Cougars had a good chance to move up into the Top 15 this weekend, however they didn’t look all that great in their win over Arizona. While the Cougars controlled the game in the middle two quarters, in the first and fourth quarter, BYU Football gave horrible flashes of 2017.
17. Virginia Tech (NR)
18. Liberty (21)
19. Iowa (NR)
There was not a more validating win for me all weekend than Iowa’s total domination against Indiana. Last year I claimed that I didn’t think Indiana was all that good but a very fortunate team that took advantage of beating a bunch of bad teams that appeared at the time to be good (Michigan, Penn State). That idea was confirmed on Saturday.
20.Notre Dame (22)
21. Utah (24)
Utah like BYU did not look very impressive in their first game of the year. Although they ended up running away in the end, the Utes did not look like a team that is going to run through the Pac 12 unblemished this season with issues on Special Teams, catching passes and finishing drives. They have the tools to be great, but until they get that fixed, this team is looking like an 8-4 squad.
22. Oklahoma State (23)
23. UCF (NR)
The Gus Malzahn era is off, and it came with a huge comeback win against Boise State. While UCF didn’t appear to be as efficient as teams in recent years, their potential is sky high and if they can continue to play how they did in the second half against the Broncos, watch out!
24. TCU (NR)
25. Arizona State (NR)
On the Fringe: Buffalo,Tulane, Ole Miss, LSU, Ball State, Boise State
Dropped Out: LSU (13), North Carolina (17), Boise State (19), Wisconsin (20), Tulsa (25)
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What do you think? Which teams did I miss, are there any teams ranked too high or low? Let us know in the comments!