The College Football Clean-Slate Top 25: South Florida, Fresno State Ranked in Week 3

The AP Top 25 is a creature driven by inertia, where past rankings impact future ballots more than I (someone who is not and probably never will be an AP voter) think they should. I don’t believe Past Me, frankly, is smart enough that I should care where he ranked anybody! But Present Me is wise enough to put together what I’m calling the Clean Slate Top 25, a ranking based on what happened this week and not any prior results.

Your team’s not here? Great news; there’s no reason they can’t be next week. Your team is on my ballot? Awesome; please enjoy it while it lasts because they carry forward no goodwill into my Week 4 vote.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 02: Michael Penix Jr. #9 of the Washington Huskies throws the ball during the first quarter against the Boise State Broncos at Husky Stadium on September 02, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images) — The Washington quarterback was pivotal in the Huskies’ 41-7 win over Michigan State.Alika Jenner/Getty Images

Washington: Maybe the most thorough domination of any P5 vs. P5 matchup, as the Huskies crushed Michigan State 41-7. Michael Penix Jr. didn’t throw a pass in the last 21 minutes of the game and still wound up with 473 yards and four touchdowns. Michigan State didn’t get the ball past the Washington 34-yard line until their final drive, where they scored to avoid their first shutout in a nonconference game since Alabama stomped them in the 2016 playoff semifinal.
LSU: Jayden Daniels, throwing and running, put up 425 yards and four touchdowns. Mississippi State, throwing and running, put up 201 yards and two touchdowns and lost a palindrome game, 41-14. (The Blank Slate Top 25 is the ideal tool for LSU in this and many other seasons.)
Florida: Would I, a Florida fan, have preferred to see the Gators maul the Volunteers in the third and fourth quarters and run away with a blowout instead of steadily draining time out in a 29-16 win? Yes, but I can also appreciate that Florida got three fourth-down stops in the second half, didn’t turn the ball over all game and scored touchdowns on all four of their red zone possessions.
South Florida: USF lost 14-3, and the Crimson Tide may be wobbling towards one of its worst-ever seasons during the Saban era. But when you’re a 34-point underdog, and you sack Alabama five times while limiting its quarterbacks to 107 yards on 23 pass attempts, you get to be highly ranked for the week.
Maryland: Fell in a 14-point hole against Virginia on Friday night, then scored touchdowns on five of their last seven possessions to easily skate away from the Hoos. Maryland intercepted Virginia on three consecutive possessions during one stretch in the fourth quarter.
Missouri: When you kick an SEC-record 61-yard field goal to beat Kansas State at the buzzer in your 99th meeting all-time and you don’t have any future games scheduled with the Wildcats so they might just have to stew on that for decades? Buddy, that’s some top-notch college football. The Tigers couldn’t run the ball particularly well, and that doesn’t matter when you complete six passes of 20+ yards.
South Alabama: A 33-7 win over Oklahoma State on the road somehow undersells how badly the Jaguars stuffed the Cowboy offense into a dumpster. Oklahoma State’s passing line on third down was nightmarish: 1/7, nine yards gained, and four sacks taken.
North Carolina: The Tar Heels never trailed against Minnesota and ultimately won by another palindrome, 31-13, and yet there were stretches where it felt like things might spiral out of UNC’s control. But after the offense threw picks on back-to-back drives in the first half, the Carolina defense kept the Gophers from converting those interceptions into touchdowns, forcing a field goal and a punt.
Penn State: Playing Illinois is a lot like changing a baby who’s blown out a diaper; you’re not gonna look cool doing it. 30-13 is a very workman-like win over the Illini, especially when your defense holds the opposing running backs to 3.4 yards per carry while forcing five turnovers.
Fresno State: Arizona State was the only FBS team that got shut out this week, and all it took was maybe the sloppiest game in Sun Devil history to get there. Fresno State coughed up zero turnovers to ASU’s eight and got another possession when they stopped the Sun Devils on a fourth-and-goal from the one. Is this sustainable for Fresno? No, but the Clean Slate Top 25 doesn’t care about that one bit.
Georgia: Life is all about perspective. Sure, you can say Georgia looked listless in the first half as South Carolina took a 14-3 lead despite the Gamecocks losing one of their best offensive weapons, Antwane Wells Jr., after their first possession. Or! You can say Georgia showed the grit and determination necessary to adjust in the second half to shut out South Carolina and win 24-14. I won’t say this is a win over a good opponent, but South Carolina football is a cursed object known to bring misery to many who cross its path. (Most especially Gamecock fans.)
Syracuse: Maybe Syracuse’s plan all along was to rely on quarterback Garrett Shrader running the ball 25 times for four touchdowns and nearly 200 yards; he’s had four other games with the Orange where he picked up at least 100 yards on the ground. Purdue’s plan definitely wasn’t to get gashed that badly at home, though, nor was it to lose two fumbles inside Syracuse territory in a 35-20 defeat.
Sacramento State: Stanford, like Arizona State, is clearly rebuilding in the first year of a new coach’s tenure, but in the case of the Cardinal, said coach had to face the team he just left after leading them to a 12-1 season. Sacramento State averaged 6.5 yards per play on offense, went 11 of 16 on third down and sacked Stanford six times. And Stanford paid the Hornets $625,000 for the trouble of losing 30-23!
Ole Miss: Didn’t stress for most of the first three quarters of beating Georgia Tech 48-23, though the Yellow Jackets did cut the Ole Miss lead from 21 to seven points with ten minutes left in the fourth. The Rebel offense took over from there, scoring on their last four possessions to close things out. Sometimes we just have to be thankful for the teams that win without forcing us to make tough choices about our late-game television attention.
BYU: A ranking awarded mostly for beating an often-troublesome SEC team on the road because most of the numbers from this game are … interesting, to put it diplomatically. The Cougars were outgained by 143 yards, gave up a punt return touchdown, and surrendered nine tackles for loss. But timely big plays and brutal mistakes by the Razorbacks helped BYU triumph, 38-31.
Oregon State: The Beavers moved the ball well until they approached the San Diego State 20; Oregon State only ran five plays in the red zone on two possessions. But the defense didn’t allow San Diego State past the Beaver 30 until the fourth quarter and Oregon State walked away with a 26-9 win.
Ohio State: Crushing a Conference USA opponent 63-10 won’t answer any long-term questions about this edition of the Buckeyes, but it doesn’t need to for our purposes. A fumble was the only thing that kept Ohio State from scoring touchdowns on every possession in the first half.
Oklahoma: Tulsa’s not a strong enough opponent to prove that much against, even with a 66-17 win, and yet 595 yards is such a big number. Here’s a smaller one that’s nearly as impressive: Oklahoma only faced nine third downs and converted seven of them.
Clemson: Let’s just clump all the Giants That Crushed a G5 Opponent together. Clemson beat Florida Atlantic 48-14, ran the ball well (4.9 yards per attempt), only turned the ball over once and didn’t let the Owls score until the fourth quarter. Again, the Duke game doesn’t matter in this universe!
Oregon: You sensing a theme here? A 55-10 win that was basically over after the first quarter when the Ducks jumped out to a 24-point lead, though Oregon gets some extra credit for bottling up a Hawaii passing attack that had given two other Power 5 opponents trouble.
Rutgers: Basically played the same game Ole Miss did — comfortable lead through most of three quarters, gave up two scores to make things close again, finished off Virginia Tech with a strong offensive fourth quarter to win 35-16. (Look, I know the Hokies aren’t what they once were, but what if they’re reading this? They don’t need to feel worse about things.)
Notre Dame: Played unsteadily enough in the first half to only hold a seven-point lead at the break, but held Central Michigan to three points after that to win 41-17. If you want to know how a three-score win where the offense averages 8.8 yards per play can convince fans that something is terribly wrong, this is the game for you.
Iowa: In the distortion of space and time we’ve constructed here, yes, a 41-10 win over Western Michigan gets you ranked and spared of any longer-term concerns about the Hawkeye offensive direction.
UNLV: Vanderbilt’s an SEC team (and not a terrible one) and UNLV managed to beat them after surviving a bananas last 2:30 that included one long touchdown pass from each team, UNLV throwing an interception, Vanderbilt missing a 33-yard field goal and the Rebels hitting a 48-yard bomb to set up the game-winning kick.
Kansas State: Look, man, they needed a 61-yard field goal to beat you! You can’t be that bad!

The College Football Clean-Slate Top 25: South Florida, Fresno State Ranked in Week 3

LSU, Washington and more provided ample content to rank CFB teams based only on this week's results