What You Need to Know About the Initial 2023 USA Today Coaches Football Poll

STILLWATER – The first edition, preseason of the USA Today Coaches Poll in football was released on Monday, Aug. 7 and there weren’t really any surprises. Georgia is the overwhelming favorite to win a third straight CFP Championship. Kirby Smart is one of the coaches on the panel doing the voting this year. That didn’t matter as Georgia was going to be first regardless. The Bulldogs garnered 61 of the 66 first-place votes. Cutting to the quick, Oklahoma State did not make the preseason top 25 with the coaches for the first time since 2019. The Cowboys did receive votes that placed them at No. 43.

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Kendal Daniels is a good reason to think Oklahoma State will move up to the Top 25.

Georgia headed up a surprising number of only six teams from SEC with Alabama at No. 3, LSU at No. 5, and Tennessee at No. 10 making it a group of four SEC schools in the preseason top 10. The Big Ten Conference was next with Michigan at No. 2, No. 4 Ohio State, and No. 7 Penn State for three in the top 10. 

One suprise to me was Florida State being ranked No. 8 just 67 points ahead of Clemson at No. 9. I would not have put the Seminoles above the Clemson Tigers. USC of the soon to be defunct Pac-12 was No. 6 in the top 10. 

There were five Big 12 teams in the USA Today Top 25 with Texas (12), TCU (16), Kansas State (17), Oklahoma (19), and Texas Tech (24). Receiving votes were Baylor (33), Oklahoma State (43), Houston (53), BYU (54), and Kansas (57). South Alabama, Oklahoma State’s third non conference game at the start of the season received votes at No. 46.

Robert Allen - Pokes Report

Mike Gundy votes on the USA Today Poll.

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy is a voter this year on the USA Today Board of Coaches. He is joined by seven other Big 12 coaches including Neal Brown (West Virginia), Sonny Dykes (TCU), Dana Holgorsen (Houston), Lance Leipold (Kansas), Gus Malzahn (UCF), Joey McGuire (Texas Tech), and Scott Satterfield (Cincinnati). 

That is the most coaches voting of any conference. The ACC has seven coaches voting as does the SEC. The Big Ten has five coaches on the panel and the Pac-12 has four.