UK & Ireland College Football Media Top 25 Rankings: Week 2

Group Of Five Being Acknowledged –  USF may be the only non-autonomous school to find it’s way into the Top 25 in Week 2, but that doesn’t mean the panel weren’t giving the smaller schools the respect they deserve. We had four upsets over Power-4 schools this past weekend; the aforementioned shocker in the Swamp, MAC challengers Ohio taking down WVU, Army ending Kansas State’s season before it’s begun, and UNLV embarrasing UCLA. Three GO5 schools (Tulane, Navy, UNLV) came close to cracking the rankings – expect to see some of these names appear as the Power 4 schools thin themselves out in conference play.

Bulldogs Shapen Up For Better Things – Mississippi State have had a torrid time since Mike Leach prematurely departed this earth. The Pirate’s sudden death led this program into a tailspin at a time where programs with less money really needed to lean on stability and elite scheming and play calling – everything Leach brought to the table. The Bulldogs bottomed out in 2024 with just two wins, but this year is already looking a lot better. Quarterback Blake Shapen, who had 1,000 yards and a 8:1 TD:INT ratio before getting injured last season, is back and firing on all cylinders. Saturday’s impressive victory over Big 12 reigning champs Arizona State suggests a brighter future in Starkville.

Give Venables Credit – 2024 was, by anyone’s standards let alone Oklahoma’s extremely high ones, a dumpster fire for the Sooners. Poor staff hires and throwing Jackson Arnold under the bus are criticisms that can be levelled at Brent Venables, whilst the worst injury list since the Civil War at receiver and offensive line were also huge factors for a year to forget in Norman. Well, Venables licked his wounds and fixed the fixable this offseason, replacing Seth Littrell with Ben Arbuckle and getting their new OC to bring John Mateer with him from Washington State. In the blink of an eye, the Sooners are back again, and Michigan found out to their cost on Saturday. The game against Auburn in Week 4 should be circled on your calendar.

Iowa: The Place QB’s Go To Die – We thought it would be so different this season… Kinnick Stadium has been starved of a passing game since most of the UK & Ireland voting panel were in short pants. Indeed, I’ve seen rugby teams attempt more forward passes than the Hawkeyes in recent years. After being forced to fire his son Brian, it was thought that Kirk Ferentz would relent a little on his limited offensive outlook. And when Iowa went out and secured the ‘FCS Heisman’ winner Mark Gronowski, who had thrown for 10,000 yards and 93 TD’s at South Dakota State, Hawkeye fans were ouright giddy. Well, it’s taken two games to break him; Gronowski had 83 yards passing against rivals Iowa State as the Cyclones took home the CyHawk Trophy. Iowa can have nice things, as long as it’s not a quarterback.