Well, that’s a new one. Vanderbilt is in the Top 10!
You read that right.
College football kept its wild and crazy nature alive on the season’s true opening weekend. The Miami Hurricanes crushed Gainesville with an unexpected loss; Iowa City’s offense was reshaped; the Oregon Ducks survived a scare from Idaho (yes, Idaho); and the Vanderbilt Commodores upset Virginia Tech in Nashville, a win that propelled them into the first top 10 of the 2024 season.
How long will the Commodores stay here? Well, we’ll see. The Dores have a legitimate chance to be 3-0 before they travel to Missouri on Sept. 21. This is a pivotal year for Vandy coach Clark Lea to right a ship that went off the rails in his third season last year (they were 2-10).
But enough about Vandy. In Austin, Arch Manning, in a backup role, threw his first college touchdown, and in Georgia, the Top-ranked Bulldogs beat Dabo Swinney’s squad. Also in Georgia, Boise State, a Group of Five CFP favorite, made the cross-country trip to showcase perhaps the most important offseason retainer of all time: running back Ashton Jeanty, who broke the school record with 267 rushing yards and six touchdowns in a 56-45 win over Georgia Southern in a performance that could kick off the G5’s rare Heisman campaign.
In Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s new coach produced a familiar result (a big win). And on GameDay in College Station, Alabama’s former coach dropped an S-bomb on live television.
And finally, after a slow start in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes’ new offense under Tim Lester finally took flight, scoring three TDs in a single game for the first time since… 2021!
But you’re not here for the recaps. You’re here for the Top 10.
There’s something very important to keep in mind about our Top 10. This is a judgment-free zone! When we rank teams, we don’t take into account preseason polls or results from previous seasons. What happened in the past is, well, in the past.
For example, you won’t find Ohio State (it played against Akron) or Texas (it played against Colorado State) here. However, you will find, as mentioned before, Vanderbilt!
This system typically rewards teams that have tougher opponents early in the season, but it also creates an unusual group in the first few weeks. By mid-season, our Top 10 may not look much different than many others. But for now…
1. Georgia
This week: beat Clemson 34-3
Next week: vs. Tennessee Tech
There’s a debate about which team had the better performance against the best competition in Week 1 — Georgia (over Clemson), Miami (at Florida) or Notre Dame (at Texas A&M). We’re going with the Bulldogs, who floored the Tigers with a 31-point second-half drubbing that prompted coach Dabo Swinney to use colorful language — “kick ass” — in his postgame press conference.