With a dominant win over Tennessee State, Georgia has moved up in the AP rankings.

The Bulldogs now sit at No. 2, rising one spot from the preseason. Their upward movement was aided by Oregon’s four-spot slide to No. 6.

“I thought our guys, the message was, you know, first impression,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “And first impression of this team would be judged by how they handled the opponent and how well they played to our standard or not. And I thought, you know, for three quarters there — first, third and fourth — we did that. Second, we had some sloppiness, didn’t do some things well.”

The Bulldogs were also ranked No. 2 in this week’s Coaches Poll.

Ahead of Georgia is Ohio State at No. 1, with Notre Dame, Texas and Indiana filling out the top 5.

There were nine ranked teams from the SEC in the AP. The Bulldogs have games against No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 12 Alabama, No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 23 Missouri.

The only ranked team to lose this weekend was Louisville, which fell 41-38 to Ole Miss. Michigan dropped out of the AP Poll after its narrow win over Western Michigan.

There wasn’t much top action to open the season, but that changes going into this week. Ohio State visits Texas, while Oklahoma travels to Michigan. Other games of note include Arizona State visiting No. 10 Texas A&M, and Arizona playing No. 15 BYU.

As for Georgia, the Bulldogs once again have a nonconference game, hosting Western Kentucky, who lost 49-14 to Nevada.

“Should be a great opportunity for us to continue to get better,” Smart said. “And we have a saying around here, ‘You don’t have to be sick to get better.’ And that’s been the motto of last weekend this week.”

Georgia’s game against Western Kentucky is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. Saturday and will air on SEC Network.

AP Poll Top 25 rankings for Week 2

  1. Ohio State
  2. Georgia
  3. Notre Dame
  4. Texas
  5. Indiana
  6. Oregon
  7. Miami
  8. LSU
  9. Ole Miss
  10. Texas A&M
  11. Oklahoma
  12. Alabama
  13. Texas Tech
  14. USC
  15. BYU
  16. Penn State
  17. SMU
  18. Tennessee
  19. Washington
  20. Utah
  21. Iowa
  22. Houston
  23. Missouri
  24. Louisville
  25. Virginia

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