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Joel Klatt put out his new top 9 teams coming out of Week 1 even before Sunday night’s USC-LSU showdown in Las Vegas, and he didn’t need to see Monday night’s Florida State-Boston College game, either. According to Klatt, those games did not impact the top of his rankings.
Klatt was content to put out his brand-new list after Saturday’s action, and not surprisingly Klatt had top-ranked Georgia as the top-ranked team on his list after the Bulldogs blew out No. 14 Clemson, 34-3, in a neutral-site takedown in Atlanta.
Tonights result will not have an impact on my following rankings so here is a quick look at my new Top teams after week 1
1) @GeorgiaFootball
2) @OhioStateFB
3) @TexasFootball
4) @NDFootball
5) @AlabamaFTBL
6) @CanesFootball
7) @OleMissFB
8) @PennStateFball
9)…— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) September 1, 2024
From there, Klatt’s list wasn’t filled with many surprises, considering the current AP rankings, except for 1 team. Klatt had Ohio State at No. 2 after it stomped all over Akron, 52-6. Texas was at No. 3 after the Longhorns blanked Colorado State, 52-0, and they were followed by No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 5 Alabama, which began the Kalen DeBoer era with an impressive 63-0 shellacking of Western Kentucky.
But at No. 6 came the team that made the statement on Saturday. It was Miami, who went into The Swamp and took out Florida, 41-17, behind transfer quarterback Cam Ward.
Klatt had Ole Miss at No. 7 after the Rebels began a season of high expectations with a 76-0 rout of Furman.
Then came Penn State at No. 8, after the Nittany Lions slogged their way through a weather-delayed 34-12 victory at West Virginia.
Finally, at No. 9, Klatt had defending national champion Michigan, which took care of Fresno State, 30-10, on Saturday night in Ann Arbor.
We’ll see how these rankings look after Week 2, especially with Michigan and Texas prepared to go head-to-head in Ann Arbor on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
