The State of College Football's Blue Bloods
Two weeks into a college football season aren't enough to accurately project where a program is headed, but it does give a snapshot.
So, two weeks into the 2014 season, where do some of college football's premier programs stand? Some, like Alabama and Florida State, sit atop the totem pole.
Others, like Michigan and Texas, have a lot of work to do to climb up that pole.
The following slides contain 10 college football "blue bloods" and their current state. We take into account recent success (or failure), recent games, recruiting and what needs to change, if anything.
How are college football's top-tier programs performing? Click through to see the answers.
Alabama Crimson Tide
1 of 10
Health Meter: Excellent
When you're in the national championship conversation on a yearly basis, it's hard to say that things aren't going well.
Such is the life at Alabama and for head coach Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide have won three BCS championships and two SEC championships since Saban took over the program in 2007.
In that same span, Saban has had 41 players drafted into the NFL. According to Mark Inabinett of AL.com, the 2014 NFL season opened with 36 former Alabama players spread out over all 32 pro rosters.
The program is stable, Saban has 100 percent job security and Alabama is yet again a Top Five team in search of another national title.
While the Crimson Tide haven't looked as unstoppable as they have in other years, especially in the secondary, this program still hasn't lost more than three games in a season since 2008.
Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports predicted Alabama will have its worst season yet under Saban in 2014, but so far, so good.
There simply isn't much to complain about right now with Alabama. This is as good as it gets in college football.
Florida Gators
2 of 10
Health Meter: Average
My Bleacher Report colleague Barrett Sallee had been higher on Florida than most during the offseason, despite the fact that the Gators are coming off an atrocious 4-8 season.
That's not to say Florida is going to be a national power in 2014, but in fairness, things could be looking up. The '13 Gators were devastated by injuries, and head coach Will Muschamp made an important move by hiring offensive coordinator Kurt Roper from Duke.
Whether that move on offense pays long-term dividends remains to be seen, but Florida took care of business in a 65-0 shutout over Eastern Michigan last Saturday.
Yes, it was "just" Eastern Michigan, but strolling through cupcake games without incident was something last year's team couldn't do.
It's a sign of progress, even if it can only be taken with a grain of salt.
We'll see how much progress this program really has made as it gets into the meat of the SEC schedule. Without completely overlooking Kentucky, that'll start with a bang on Sept. 20 against Alabama.
Florida played in the Sugar Bowl two years ago and won a national championship six seasons ago, so there's still a fairly recent history of success.
When you're a program in a talent-rich state in the best conference in college football, you have a lot going for you.
Not everything is doom and gloom for Florida, but it has to hit its championship ceiling soon. The question is whether Muschamp is the guy to do it.
Florida State Seminoles
3 of 10
Health Meter: Excellent
Coming off of a national championship with a Heisman winner (quarterback Jameis Winston) and being in the running for another in each category sums up Florida State's status.
While former coach Bobby Bowden will be remembered as one of the all-time greats, current coach Jimbo Fisher has the Seminoles back on top of college football. The recruiting efforts Fisher put together in his first few years as a head coach are paying off.
Now, when Florida State loses 11 players to the NFL draft, like it did in 2013, it replaces them with a national championship squad.
Florida State's resurrection has nothing to do with how well it sizes up against the SEC. The Seminoles are a tank capable of crushing any team, anywhere.
Will Florida State win back-to-back national championships? It's hard to win every game two years in a row. But as long as Fisher is there and recruiting as well as he is, this program will be in the upper-echelon conversation.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Michigan Wolverines
4 of 10
Health Meter: Below Average
Coming off a 31-0 loss to rival Notre Dame in the last game between the two for the foreseeable future isn't a great place to be if you're Michigan.
It also signaled how the Wolverines and Irish met at a crossroads (more on that in the next slide).
Michigan is still recruiting well. In 2012, head coach Brady Hoke hauled in the No. 6 recruiting class in America, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. In 2013, Hoke landed the No. 4 class in the country.
The results just haven't matched those efforts on the recruiting trail, yet. Michigan's win total has declined in each of Hoke's three full years as a head coach. Last season, the Wolverines lost six of their final eight games.
There's young talent in Ann Arbor, from freshman defensive back Jabrill Peppers to sophomore quarterback Shane Morris. But this team still appears to be finding its identity. Doug Nussmeier was hired from Alabama to turn the offense around, and that is obviously still a work in progress.
Much to the chagrin of fans, a turnaround could take some time. It starts with the offensive line, which has been poor.
Perhaps Hoke isn't the guy to take Michigan back to its glory days, but athletic director Dave Brandon is apparently willing to give his head coach the time he needs to try.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
5 of 10
Health Meter: Good
Now, for the other side of the rivalry.
Whereas Michigan still appears to be a year away—at least—from getting back into the national discussion, Notre Dame is already there.
The Irish look like a completely different team—a better team—with quarterback Everett Golson back on the field.
One season away from football because of academic misconduct didn't result in Golson losing his touch. Quite the opposite, actually; Golson looks better than ever and is a much-improved passer.
The defense looks just as impressive. Linebacker Jaylon Smith has built on his impressive 2013 campaign in which he had the most tackles by a Notre Dame freshman since 1975 (67) and is one of the premier players on that side of the ball for Irish.
The suspension of five players for academic fraud prior to the season could have been a distraction. Instead, the Irish have taken care of business in the first two games. There are challenging games ahead, including showdowns against Stanford, Florida State and USC. But Notre Dame should be favored most of the time.
Following a somewhat disappointing 9-4 season in 2013, Notre Dame appears to be back in the discussion for a playoff appearance.
Ohio State Buckeyes
6 of 10
Health Meter: Good
The world isn't being sucked into a black hole. Yet.
Ohio State has lost three of its last four games, after winning the previous 24, dating back to last season. These are indeed unusual times in Columbus, but the state of Ohio State's football program shouldn't be seen as anything other than healthy.
That said, there are some things that need addressing. It starts on the offensive line, which is understandably struggling trying to replace four starters from last year.
In Saturday's loss to Virginia Tech, the Hokies played in a 46 defense that got all kinds of pressure on quarterback J.T. Barrett.
"I don't know if you'd do that against last year's team," head coach Urban Meyer said, via B/R's Ben Axelrod.
Starting quarterback Braxton Miller is out for the year after re-injuring his shoulder in preseason practice. While you can never fully account for the impact of injuries, it lends itself to another point:
Perhaps the days of the true mobile quarterback are numbered. David Jones of PennLive.com had an interesting explanation in early August:
"Meyer's spread option was the most successful version of the offense that swept college football in the '00s. It is now not only far from a fresh scheme and ably defended by most every DC in the country, I believe it is in the early stages of becoming passé.
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It may be time for Meyer to rethink his recruiting strategy in regard to quarterbacks. Or, at the very least, the types of situations in which he puts his quarterbacks. Last year alone, Miller ran the ball an average of just over 14 times a game.
Oklahoma Sooners
7 of 10
Health Meter: Good
Perhaps I'm more cautiously optimistic about Oklahoma's playoff chances this season rather than ready to go all in just yet.
That said, the Sooners were the overwhelming favorites to win the Big 12 and are certainly in the early playoff conversation after beating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Life's pretty good right now around Oklahoma. When it's not dealing with off-field storylines, that is.
Oklahoma has changed philosophically from a pass-first offense with a more pro-style quarterback to a different type of spread that emphasizes a quarterback's mobility.
Assuming quarterback Trevor Knight continues to progress as a passer, he'll become one of the more dangerous weapons in the conference.
Head coach Bob Stoops has shown he can still win big games, and expectations are as high as they've ever been around Oklahoma.
While the Sooners coaching staff did a great job of closing with the 2014 recruiting class following the bowl win, I have reservations about the Big 12's long-term recruiting ability now that Texas has an SEC school (Texas A&M).
That includes Oklahoma.
Penn State Nittany Lions
8 of 10
Health Meter: Good
Penn State's health meter would have been "Average" had this been written Monday morning.
But, some amazing breaking news revealed that the NCAA Executive Committee decided to lift Penn State's postseason ban, effective immediately, that came about in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Additionally, the NCAA will return the full complement of football scholarships to the program in 2015-16.
The Nittany Lions are recruiting well under first-year coach James Franklin and are 2-0 to start the 2014 season.
This is not the program on the verge of collapse depicted two years ago when NCAA president Mark Emmert levied sanctions against the program in unprecedented fashion.
As the esteemed Mark Twain once said, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
Texas Longhorns
9 of 10
Health Meter: Poor
Few, if any, blue bloods have underachieved over the past four years like Texas has. Within the past year, the school's head coach (Mack Brown) and athletic director (DeLoss Dodds) have stepped aside.
New coach Charlie Strong has the tough mentality to right the Longhorns ship. The question is how long will it take, and will Texas give him the time to do it?
Strong has already dismissed or suspended several players and seems more than comfortable with the "my way or the highway" mentality.
Perhaps that's what Texas needs, but the on-field results are still lagging. One year after being embarrassed by BYU, the Longhorns still had no answer for the Cougars, losing 41-7.
Texas still has some talent on its roster, but it can't keep getting outclassed in games.
That's Strong's job to fix, and he didn't do a good enough job against BYU.
Ultimately, Strong's track record as a longtime assistant and head coach at Louisville suggests he'll do great things at Texas. It'll take a while for the culture change to come to a completion, however.
Strong also needs to seize the State of Texas as a recruiter, a grasp that has been slipping for the past couple of years with the rise of Texas A&M and Baylor. For what it's worth, the Horns currently have the No. 16 class in the country.
USC Trojans
10 of 10
Health Meter: Good
Steve Sarkisian wasn't considered by some, including B/R's Michael Felder, to be the best possible hire for USC last December.
Time will tell if that's true, but the Trojans are off to a good start in Sarkisian's first year. USC handled Fresno State without issue and won a tough road game against Stanford, 13-10, in Week 2.
Talent isn't a concern for USC; depth is, however. That's a result of the scholarship losses the program dealt with post-Reggie Bush.
It's still possible to win at USC—the Trojans won 10 games last year, mostly with interim coach Ed Orgeron—but it's also reasonable to wonder if a lack of depth will hurt this team down the stretch.
After all, USC had fewer than 70 scholarship players on the roster coming into the season.
All things considered in the aftermath of the NCAA investigation, USC is doing alright. Once it builds its scholarship numbers back up, it could force its way into the championship discussion.
If it doesn't enter that discussion this year, that is.
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football at Bleacher Report. All recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
