Outkick's Weekly Top Ten
Rejoice, college football has returned.
And with it, Outkick's Sunday morning top ten has returned as well. The rules of Outkick's top ten are simple -- even though many continue to be confused by them -- we only judge teams based on the games we've actually seen. That is, Outkick doesn't take a poll before a game is played.
Each week we continue to rank our teams based entirely on the games that have taken place on the field.
I know, what a novel concept.
Before we begin the countdown, a couple of additional points:
a. I discount all games against FCS opposition. So if your team dominated an FCS opponent, congrats, but you'll probably have to wait until we see your team against FBS opposition for them to be ranked.
b. While we haven't seen every team play, big five conference wins are more impressive than non big five conference wins. And a big five road or neutral win is more impressive than a home win.
With that in mind, here we go:
1. Texas A&M
The Aggies were the most impressive team in college football in week one. They throttled a Pac 12 South team, at times blowing up the offensive line as if it weren't there, en route to nine sacks.
Nine!
Go ahead and pencil this one in -- Myles Garrett will be the number one NFL draft pick in 2017. I'm not sure he's 100% human. The same is true for Christian Kirk, holy hell, he looked like Reggie Bush out there.
We always knew that A&M could score, but what happens when they have a defense too? The answer: A&M looked like a legit playoff contender in week one. The Aggies will now be 3-0 when they head to Dallas to take on undefeated Arkansas. Get ready, that game will be a war.
By the way, is it too early to give defensive coordinator John Chavis a raise?
2. Alabama
The Tide rolled all over Wisconsin and Jacob Coker looked pretty good at quarterback. More importantly, who is shutting down Derrick Henry this year? (Other than Lane Kiffin, who might not give him the ball enough). Bama won by 18 and the game wasn't even as close as the score.
The next big test for Bama will be in two weeks against Ole Miss, but looking at the schedule I'd be pretty surprised if the Tide and Georgia aren't both undefeated on October 3rd in Athens. Think that might be a tough ticket?
3. UCLA
Meet Josh Rosen, the true freshman UCLA quarterback who threw for 351 yards, three touchdowns and was 28-35 passing in his debut. This is the most impressive true freshman debut since...I'm not even sure if I can think of a more impressive debut for a quarterback. (Remember, Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston were redshirt freshmen). Granted, Virginia isn't a heavyweight program, but Rosen was virtually perfect all day.
If you could buy stock in a program right now, Jim Mora's Bruins are set for the next three years at quarterback. And I wish I'd picked them to make the playoff.
4. Auburn
I know, I know, the end of the game was a total mess and Jeremy Johnson didn't play very well and if Bobby Petrino had used his final timeout better there would have been even more nail biting among the Tiger faithful, but let's give some credit here -- Petrino had nine months to prepare for this football game and aside from the final quarter, the Tigers pretty much throttled his team.
So even with Jeremy Johnson playing awful at quarterback Auburn still beat a top coach and a pretty good team in a neutral site game.
And, yes, this means that the "overrated" SEC West posted three of the four most impressive wins of the opening college football weekend.
5. BYU
I know they won on a hail mary -- what's the Mormon equivalent of a hail mary? -- and they lost their starting quarterback for the season. But no other school came close to winning as impressive of a road victory in the opening weekend of college football as BYU.
Poor Nebraska, their fans still haven't realized that joining the Big Ten -- leaving behind the fertile recruiting regions to the South -- has doomed their program to perpetual irrelevancy.
6. Notre Dame
Wake up the echoes, the Irish trounced the Texas Longhorns in South Bend. While I think Notre Dame is perpetually overrated, it's hard to ignore that the Irish made Texas look like an FCS program.
Of course, based on its past several games, are we sure that Texas isn't an FCS program?
7. Utah
So much for Jim Harbaugh's debut and -- when you look at what happened to the rest of the Pac 12 -- Utah was the only team in the conference other than UCLA and USC who was impressive in week one.
8. Northwestern
Raise your hand if you thought Northwestern would hold Stanford to six points and post a double digit win against David Shaw's team? My hand is certainly not up.
This is what happens when a coach finally embraces shorts on the sideline, his team posts its best victory in years. As for Stanford, will the whispers begin that David Shaw hasn't sustained the level of recruiting that Jim Harbaugh did? The Cardinal are now a pedestrian 8-7 in their past 15 games.
9. Boise State
They nearly collapsed down the stretch, but Boise held on to beat Washington, meaning that five of the 12 Pac 12 teams didn't survive week one without a loss.
Could Boise make a run at an undefeated year again? It certainly appears so, that game at BYU next weekend looms large for both teams.
10. TCU
I know they didn't play great, but they went on the road and beat a big five conference opponent. Do you know how many big five conference teams went on the road and beat a top five conference opponent in week one?
One!
So the Horned Frogs get our tenth spot for now.