Well, the coaches definitely didn’t pull any punches. Oregon drops 12 spots from No. 6 to No. 18 after the loss at Oklahoma State.

Honestly, it’s hard to argue too much with the drop. Losing 39–31 to an unranked Oklahoma State team, especially one coming off the kind of stretch they’ve been on, is a bad loss. Oregon started the year No. 2, slipped to No. 6 after an unimpressive win over Boise State, and now they’re sitting at No. 18. Two games into the season and essentially all of the preseason benefit of the doubt is gone.

The interesting part to me is everything happening around them.

Texas jumps to No. 1 after knocking off Ohio State, while OSU only falls to No. 6. Indiana is all the way up to No. 4. USC has quietly climbed to No. 11, Penn State is No. 15, and Michigan went from unranked to No. 19 after beating Oklahoma.

Washington, meanwhile, is barely hanging on at No. 24 despite being 2–0.

For Oregon, some of those moves could actually become important. The Ducks still play No. 11 USC, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 19 Michigan and No. 24 Washington. So as ugly as No. 18 looks right now, the schedule gives them plenty of opportunities to repair the damage.

The USC game in two weeks suddenly looks enormous. Take care of Portland State, then go into LA and beat an undefeated No. 11 USC team, and this conversation changes pretty quickly. Lose that one and Oregon is 2–2 with the really difficult portion of the Big Ten schedule still ahead.

There’s also a weird silver lining to Ohio State losing. Going into Columbus and beating an undefeated No. 1 Ohio State would obviously have been the dream résumé win, but they’re still No. 6 and very much a marquee opponent. Michigan getting back into the poll helps Oregon’s future résumé too, assuming they keep winning.

So No. 18 sucks. There’s no sugarcoating it. But Oregon isn’t remotely out of anything yet. At this point the preseason ranking is irrelevant. They have to earn their way back up, and fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the schedule gives them every opportunity to do exactly that.

Beat USC and we’re having a very different conversation on September 27.

Edited 57 minutes ago57 min by Krsmqn

Oops, I jumped to conclusions. That's the coaches poll, not the AP. Corrected

21 in the AP

Agree with the potential road ahead. But that hinges on a ton of stuff being fixed very quickly. Biggest obstacle right now is whether the coordinators grow up in 2 weeks. Right now it feels like a really tall order for them.

13 minutes ago, Log Haulin said:

21 in the AP

Both feel generous right now, given how they have played. Let's hope for the best moving forward.

How in the world are the Ducks ranked higher than Michigan who just beat a currently ranked team?