USC Leapfrogs Georgia in New Week's Polls

One week into the season, Georgia has already lost its much-discussed No. 1 ranking.

In this week's Coaches' Poll, USC has taken the top spot by 20 points (1,462 to Georgia's 1,442).

The Trojans picked up nine first place votes to lead all teams with 23 total.  Georgia lost two first place votes to drop back to 20.  Ohio State lost four to drop back to 10, Florida lost two to drop back to three, and Oklahoma lost one to drop back to two.  LSU stayed even with three first place votes.

I had expected the winner of the Ohio State-USC game to take the top spot from Georgia on the strength of winning the biggest non-conference game of the year.  I did not expect that USC would take it after just one week, but I guess the voters were impressed by USC's big win at Virginia and unimpressed by UGA's win over Georgia Southern.

I also have a feeling that part of the reason the Dawgs fell was the loss of OT Trinton Sturdivant.  There was a wave of pundits getting ready to drop Georgia from the top spot after hearing of that injury, but all of the ballots for the preseason poll had been turned in before that news broke.

I personally would not have made the change if I had Georgia above USC in my preseason ballot since Virginia is not good at all and Georgia Southern scored all its points in garbage time.  It was not a shutout on the scoreboard, but it was a shutout for all practical purposes.  As it is, I didn't make a preseason ranking since they're all mostly junk anyway.

There is no reason for Georgia to worry yet.  The Bulldogs still play the toughest schedule in the country, and if they run the table, no one will be keeping them out of the title game a la Auburn in 2004.  They have a nice gap between themselves and No. 4 Oklahoma, and No. 1 USC and No. 3 Ohio State play a week from Saturday.

The AP Poll has not been released yet as of this writing.

UPDATE

USC has also jumped Georgia in the AP Poll, with 1539 points to Georgia's 1506.  The first place votes were close, with the Trojans gathering 21 and the Bulldogs getting 20.