BATON ROUGE – LSU, winners of the 2019 national championship, enters the 2020 season ranked No. 5 in the Amway Coaches Poll which was released on Thursday by USA Today.
The No. 5 ranking marks the 20th consecutive year that LSU will open the season ranked in the Coaches Poll Preseason Top 25, a streak that dates back to 2001. Last year, LSU started the season ranked No. 6 in the Amway Coaches Poll.
The Tigers are coming off the most dominant season in college football history a year ago after posting a 15-0 mark and winning 12 games by double-figures. In 2019, LSU became the first team in the history of the Associated Press poll to beat seven Top 10 teams in one year.
The Tigers claimed the school’s fourth national title in football with double-figure win over No. 4 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, followed by a 63-28 victory over No. 4 Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff Semifinal and then a 42-25 win over No. 3 Clemson in the national championship.
LSU enters the 2020 season having won 16 straight games.
Amway Coaches Preseason Poll
Aug. 6, 2020
Rank, Team (First-Place Votes), Points
1, Clemson (38), 1589
2, Ohio State (17), 1555
3, Alabama (4), 1495
4, Georgia, 1345
5, LSU (6), 1330
6, Oklahoma, 1315
7, Penn State, 1199
8, Florida, 1176
9, Oregon, 1164
10, Notre Dame, 1012
11, Auburn, 898
12, Wisconsin, 887
13, Texas A&M, 807
14, Texas, 703
15, Michigan, 687
16, Oklahoma State, 524
17, Southern California, 521
18, Minnesota, 494
19, North Carolina, 415
20, Utah, 241
21, Central Florida, 232
22, Cincinnati, 229
23, Iowa, 204
24, Virginia Tech, 143
25, Iowa State, 135
Others Receiving Votes:
Tennessee 111; Boise State 111; Arizona State 88; Kentucky 73; Memphis 71; Baylor 66; Washington 65; Louisville 62; Miami 58; Appalachian State 31; Navy 17; Virginia 13; Air Force 12; Mississippi State 9; Texas Christian 7; Washington State 6; Tulane 5; California 5; UL Lafayette 3; Southern Methodist 3; Nebraska 3; Stanford 2; Pittsburgh 1; Kansas State 1; Indiana 1; Duke 1.
List of Voters
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 2020 season: Dino Babers, Syracuse; Craig Bohl, Wyoming; Neal Brown, West Virginia; Troy Calhoun, Air Force; Matt Campbell, Iowa State; Steve Campbell, South Alabama; Jason Candle, Toledo; Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina; Paul Chryst, Wisconsin; Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech; David Cutcliffe, Duke; Butch Davis, Florida International; Manny Diaz, Miami (Fla.); Dana Dimel, Texas-El Paso; Sonny Dykes, Southern Methodist; Luke Fickell, Cincinnati; Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M; Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern; James Franklin, Penn State; Hugh Freeze, Liberty; Willie Fritz, Tulane; Scott Frost, Nebraska; Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech; Todd Graham, Hawaii; Jeff Hafley, Boston College; Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois; Bryan Harsin, Boise State; Will Healy, Charlotte; Clay Helton, Southern California; Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky; Tom Herman, Texas; Skip Holtz, Louisiana Tech; Mike Houston, East Carolina; Brian Kelly, Notre Dame; Chris Klieman, Kansas State; Lance Leipold, Buffalo; Tim Lester, Western Michigan; Seth Littrell, North Texas; Mike Locksley, Maryland; Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green; Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern; Gus Malzahn, Auburn; Doug Martin, New Mexico State; Jeff Monken, Army; Dan Mullen, Florida; Billy Napier, Louisiana-Lafayette; Ken Niumatalolo, Navy; Jay Norvell, Nevada; Ed Orgeron, LSU; Gary Patterson, TCU; Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee; Nick Saban, Alabama; Scott Satterfield, Louisville; Jeff Scott, South Florida; Kirby Smart, Georgia; Lovie Smith, Illinois; Jonathan Smith, Oregon State; Frank Solich, Ohio; Jake Spavital, Texas State; Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee; Kevin Sumlin, Arizona; Dabo Swinney, Clemson; Mel Tucker, Michigan State; Matt Wells, Texas Tech; Kyle Whittingham, Utah.