Panic time for Florida State, plus a new AP Top 25 and more rankings

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After five straight days of college football, Week 1 is officially complete and The Athletic’s 12-team College Football Playoff projection is up to date.

Most notable in the updated projection: Florida State has fallen from a 54 percent chance to make CFP to a 1 percent chance. Let’s talk about the Seminoles …

Hit the Panic Button

Florida State starts 0-2

It’s not a Week 1 overreaction to say things look very, very bad for Florida State. Ranked No. 10 in the preseason AP poll, the Seminoles fell completely out of the rankings after losing two games they were favored to win by double digits.

A Week 0 loss can be pushed aside as one of those weird Week 0 things. But last night’s 28-13 loss to Boston College made it clear the wheels might be falling off in Tallahassee. What was chalked up to be a powerful reload by Mike Norvell — replacing 10 NFL Draft selections with experienced transfers in the offseason — looks more like a painful rebuild at this point. I asked The Athletic’s Manny Navarro, who wrote today about Florida State living and dying by the transfer portal, to rank three of the Seminoles’ shortcomings. Here’s what he said:

1. DJ Uiagalelei’s inconsistency at QB
2. Defensive line not living up to standards
3. The lack of running game

Florida State rushed for just 21 yards against BC with freshman Kam Davis leading the running game with three carries for 11 yards. Meanwhile, a D-line that was supposed to be one of the best in the country has been run to the ground, giving up 190 yards against Georgia Tech and 263 yards against Boston College.

But the quarterback has taken much of the heat for Florida State’s early downfall. Uiagalelei’s accuracy issues have continued — they were much to blame for his original transfer from Clemson to Oregon State two years ago. He completed just 50 percent of his passes against the Eagles, was sacked three times and tossed an interception that turned into a BC touchdown two plays later. It’s a tough reality for a Florida State team that was relying on Uiagalelei to make an immediate impact.

Amid the dull start, the Seminoles’ overarching legal battle to ditch the ACC for a conference with a more lucrative media rights deal is getting more and more awkward.

New Top 25

Risers and fallers

The new AP poll finally dropped this afternoon, and Week 1 caused plenty of shakeups in the rankings. A few other notable risers and fallers:

📉 Oregon dropped from No. 3 to No. 7 after a lackluster 24-14 win against Idaho, and LSU dropped five places to No. 18 after another Week 1 loss for Brian Kelly, this time against USC. Former No. 20 Texas A&M fell out of the rankings after losing to Notre Dame. Clemson spiraled from No. 14 to No. 25 after a hardly competitive showing against Georgia. But the biggest faller was Florida State, which plummeted from No. 10 to unranked. In fact, the Seminoles received ZERO votes.

📈 Notre Dame rose two spots to join the top five while Missouri made a rightful jump into the top 10. USC saw the biggest climb, jumping from No. 23 to No. 13 after a promising 27-20 win against LSU. And we can’t forget Miami, which is now No. 12 after crushing Florida 41-17. The Hurricanes look like the clear ACC favorites.

👋 Welcome to the poll, No. 22 Louisville and No. 23 Georgia Tech! The Cardinals shut out Austin Peay 62-0 to make some immediate noise as their fellow ACC contenders struggled. Georgia Tech is ranked for the first time since 2015 after starting 2-0 against Florida State and Georgia State. Looming in the “others receiving votes” category is Boston College, which received the second most votes behind Texas A&M of those outside of the Top 25.

A New No. 134

Bad start for Owls

New FBS member Kennesaw State debuted at No. 134 in Chris Vannini’s preseason rankings last week. And while the Owls lost 24-16 to UTSA on Saturday, their second-half adjustments were promising enough to pull them out of spot No. 134. This means, there’s a new No. 134 in town: the Temple Owls. Yep, it’s a bad year to have an Owls mascot.

Get to know the Temple Owls: The Owls find themselves here after a 51-3 loss to Oklahoma, which moved from No. 16 to No. 15 in the AP poll this week. Temple wasn’t the only program to suffer a blowout Week 1 loss (Akron 52-6 to No. 2 Ohio State, UConn 50-7 to Maryland), but it was the Owls’ six turnovers that dropped them to this spot. Temple is coached by Stan Drayton, who coached running backs in college and the NFL before taking the head coaching job at Temple in 2022. He’s 6-19 with the Owls.

To get out of No. 134: Drayton said the Owls will stick with junior Forrest Brock at QB, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. Brock did not complete a pass for positive yardage until the second quarter against the Sooners and threw two INTs, but he won the starting role over Rutgers transfer Evan Simon. Temple needs Brock to move past some of those first-game jitters as the AAC opener looms against Navy, which just beat FCS Bucknell 49-21 and is ranked No. 114 in Chris’ evaluation.

Quick Snaps

USC to the CFP? Nebraska starting 8-0 … with a win against Ohio State? Jesse Temple and Austin Meek rank Big Ten overreactions from least to most outlandish after Week 1.

Also from Austin today, how did Michigan build the Big House into a place that embodies all things college football?

ESPN’s Holly Rowe taking us inside the coach-to-player helmet communication last weekend via a Notre Dame backup QB’s helmet ranked among the best broadcasting moves of the weekend. Read more about which networks called it best in Week 1 here.

The Pac-12 and Mountain West’s self-imposed deadline for a 2025 football schedule agreement has passed with no extension. That leaves the future for Oregon State and Washington State up in the air.

You can buy tickets to every college football game here.

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(Top photo of Justin Cryer: Melina Myers / USA Today)