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Week 1 of the 2018 college football season is in the books and fans are anxiously awaiting the release of the AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll to see where their favorite team stands following opening weekend. However, while there are still a few hours until the polls officially drop, it’s never too early to give some predictions and take a look at how things may play out.
That’s exactly what ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit does each and every week and on Tuesday, Sept. 4, the college football analyst dropped his top four after Week 1.
For Herbstreit, like everyone else, there is no doubt that the top team in the country is the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide. Sitting behind Nick Saban’s squad at No. 2 is the Clemson Tigers, while the Ohio State Buckeyes and Georgia Bulldogs round out the top four.
The next two teams? Oklahoma and Auburn.
And while those are Herbstreit’s top four teams in the country, he also gave some shoutouts to the five teams and five players he believes had the strongest performances in Week 1. The top five team performances belonged to LSU for their win over No. 9 Miami, Auburn for its win over No. 6 Washington, Virginia Tech for its win over No. 19 Florida State, Maryland for knocking off the Texas Longhorns, and the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The top individual performers were West Virginia’s Will Grier, McKenzie Milton of UCF, Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, Stanford’s JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and Auburn’s Nick Coe.
The AP Top 25 Poll for Week 2 is set to release at noon ET, so keep an eye out for the official rankings as we prepare for another busy weekend of college football action.
