Goz’s College Football Top 25 (Week 2)

For the second consecutive season I’ll be providing my own personal Top 25 poll each week during the college football season. This week marks the first poll of the season. I decided to let Week 1 play out before ranking teams on preseason "hype" My poll philosophy all season long has been ranking the teams I believe are the best twenty five best in the country following that given week’s games. Below are my rankings and comments about each week’ biggest shake up and changes. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know below or on Twitter @TomGozz

1) Alabama

2) Clemson

3) Ohio State

4) Penn State

5) Oklahoma

6) Florida State

7) Oklahoma State

8) Washington

9) USC

10) Michigan

11) Wisconsin

12) Georgia

13) LSU

14) Auburn

15) Virginia Tech

16) Louisville

17) Washington State

18) South Florida

19) Kansas State

20) Florida

21) Miami

22) Notre Dame

23) Utah

24) TCU

25) Colorado

Why is Florida State ranked 6th?-I understand the AP poll ranked the Seminoles 10th after their opening season loss to Alabama but to me that seems too harsh for Coach Jimbo Fisher's team. The score was just 10-0 at halftime and the final was 24-7. It feels that voters looked at the season ending injury to starting quarterback Deondre Francois as a death blow to the Seminoles season. I feel like I'm in the minority on this but.... It's Florida State Football! They get five and four star recruits every year. James Blackmon will be the new QB and his team will be favored in close to 90% of the team's next nine games. Until I see a drop off, the Seminoles are a top 6 team.

Why USC at 9?- The Trojans did not look great against Western Michigan. The Broncos lost their head coach PJ Fleck and their NFL wide receiver Corey Davis and still USC had to fight in the fourth quarter to win that game. I will become a believer in the 2017 Trojans after their matchup with Stanford this weekend. The Cardinal's style of offense is likely to keep NFL draft prospect Sam Darnold off the field for a large chuck of the game. Can they win without a huge effort by him remains to be seen.

Louisville, Georgia, Oklahoma State Over rated? Miami, Clemson, Notre Dame Under rated? This is usually the early part of contention for September polls. Schools that have had a great history of college football teams tend to get the benefit of votes from long time sports writers. (Note Texas being ranked last week after finishing last season at 5-7). Miami in 2016 was ranked in the top 12-20 through eight weeks but didn't meet any one. The Hurricanes still have yet to even play in an ACC title game. Notre Dame beat up on Temple but are also playing their second game after losing a NFL starting QB. Clemson won the title last year, but with JT Barrett I have more faith right in him winning a big game than any one on Clemson. As for Louisville, Georgia, and Oklahoma State, they all have impact players poised to help their teams win games later this year.

Tom “Goz” Goslowski is a Heisman Trophy and College Football Hall of Fame voter. You can hear him every weekday 2-7pm on Levack and Goz on 1045 The Team.