Tigers Check in at 24 In Coaches Poll

The first Amway/USA Today Coaches Poll was released today, with LSU checking in at No. 24 overall.

2018 Preseason Amway Coaches Poll

Rank, Team (1st place votes), Points

1. Alabama (61), 1,621
2. Clemson (3), 1,547
3. Ohio St. (1), 1,458
4. Georiga, 1,452
5. Oklahoma, 1,288
6. Washington, 1,245
7. Wisconsin, 1,243.
8. Miami (Fla.), 1,091
9. Penn State, 1,050
10. Auburn, 1,004
11. Notre Dame, 892
12. Michigan State, 870
13. Stanford, 768
14. Michigan, 752
15. USC, 691
16. TCU, 530
17. Virginia Tech, 524
18. Mississippi State, 407
19. Florida State, 328
20. West Virginia, 310
21. Texas, 265
22. Boise State, 261
23. UCF, 259
24. LSU, 254
25. Oklahoma State, 168

Dropped out: No. 17 Northwestern (10-3), No. 21 South Florida (10-2), No. 23 NC State (9-4), No. 24 Memphis (10-3).

Other receiving votes: South Carolina (9-4) 138; Florida (4-7) 135; Oregon (7-6) 105; Utah (7-6) 81; Northwestern (10-3) 67; Texas A&M (7-6) 67; Kansas State (8-5) 35; Florida Atlantic (11-3) 27; Boston College (7-6) 23; Memphis (10-3) 23; North Carolina State (9-4) 22; Arkansas State (7-5) 19; Troy (11-2) 19; Appalachian State (9-4) 16; San Diego State (10-3) 15; Iowa (8-5) 8; Iowa State (8-5) 8; Kentucky (7-6) 8; Washington State (9-4) 7; South Florida (10-2) 6; Duke (7-6) 5; Fresno State (10-4) 4; Louisville (8-5) 3; Arizona (7-6) 2; Houston (7-5) 2; Army (10-3) 1; Northern Illinois (8-5) 1.

The Amway Board of Coaches is made up of 65 head coaches at Bowl Subdivision schools. All are members of the American Football Coaches Association. The board for the 2018 season: Blake Anderson, Arkansas State; Major Applewhite, Houston; Dino Babers, Syracuse; Mike Bloomgren, Rice; John Bonamego, Central Michigan; Terry Bowden, Akron; Jeff Brohm, Purdue; Neal Brown, Troy; Troy Calhoun, Air Force; Rod Carey, Northern Illinois; Bill Clark, Alabama-Birmingham; Dave Clawson, Wake Forest; Geoff Collins, Temple; David Cutcliffe, Duke; Mark Dantonio, Michigan State; Bob Davie, New Mexico; Butch Davis, Florida International; Dana Dimel, Texas-El Paso; DJ Durkin, Maryland; Herm Edwards, Arizona State; Luke Fickell, Cincinnati; Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M; P.J. Fleck, Minnesota; James Franklin, Penn State; Willie Fritz, Tulane; Scott Frost, Nebraska; Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech; Turner Gill, Liberty; Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State; Bryan Harsin, Boise State; Clay Helton, Southern California; Tom Herman, Texas; Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia; Mike Jinks, Bowling Green; Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech; Brad Lambert, Charlotte; Mike Leach, Washington State; Lance Leipold, Buffalo; Tim Lester, Western Michigan; Seth Littrell, North Texas; Rocky Long, San Diego State; Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern; Mike MacIntyre, Colorado; Gus Malzahn, Auburn; Doug Martin, New Mexico State; Urban Meyer, Ohio State; Jeff Monken, Army; Dan Mullen, Florida; Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh; Ken Niumatalolo, Navy; Jay Norvell, Nevada; Barry Odom, Missouri; Ed Orgeron, LSU; Gary Patterson, TCU; Chris Petersen, Washington; Bobby Petrino, Louisville; Nick Saban, Alabama; Scott Satterfield, Appalachian State; Kirby Smart, Georgia; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee; Charlie Strong, South Florida; Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Jeff Tedford, Fresno State; Kyle Whittingham, Utah; Everett Withers, Texas State.

This marks the Tigers’ lowest ranking in the poll — which is, allegedly, not a factor in the College Football Playoff ranking structure — since 2000. Of bigger issue are the five teams on LSU’s schedule ranked ahead of the Tigers: 18th-ranked Mississippi State, No. 10 Auburn, No. 8 Miami, No. 4 Georgia and No. 1-rated Alabama.

Time will tell if the Tigers can make fools of this initial ranking.