1. Alabama. The SEC’s clearcut No. 1 team. Who happened to take 55 minutes to score an offensive touchdown at home. Not a vintage year for the league, I’m thinking.
2. Florida. As the Gator D bails out Meyer’s sputtering Wundermachine yet again, it’s time (again) to hail Charlie Strong as the best assistant coach in this conference.
3. Arkansas. It’s not like the Hogs didn’t know Alex Tejada was shakier than a bobblehead at the San Andreas. If you don’t replace him or get him closer than 35 yards, that’s what you get.
4. LSU. Tigers en route to one of those 2006 Auburn-style “We’re not all that good, but somehow we ended up winning 11 games anyway” kind of seasons.
5. South Carolina. If this team could actually score touchdowns in the red zone, they’d be in the national championship hunt right now. For reals.
6. Kentucky. Who knew that playing Florida and Alabama in back-to-back weeks could distort how good a team actually might be?
7. Tennessee. Vols managed to bounce the check Kiffin’s mouth wrote to Meyer, but don’t forget he had some words for the Coachbot, too. And coachbots have no capacity for mercy.
8. Georgia. Recovering from midseason devastation is still kind of Mark Richt’s thing, isn’t it?
9. Ole Miss. Time for the Rebels to play their every-third-week game against real competition, and quite possibly accept their every-third-week defeat.
10. Auburn. So, Dr. James Andrews, that offseason stuff you did for Chris Todd’s shoulder worked like a charm. You got anything similar for the middle of the season?
11. Mississippi St. Underrated Bulldogs vs. overrated Gators with an ex-Gator on the MSU sideline? Upset’s out of reach, but this looks like one exceedingly likely cover.
12. Vanderbilt. Can anyone give me one good reason Vandy shouldn’t be running the option? Hell, didn’t Johnson himself oversee the option back at Furman?
On to …
 |
||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | |
| 2 | Florida | |
| 3 | Iowa |  2 |
| 4 | Texas | |
| 5 | Cincinnati | 3 |
| 6 | TCU | 5 |
| 7 | Miami (Florida) |  1 |
| 8 | Georgia Tech | 6 |
| 9 | Southern Cal | |
| 10 | Boise State | 3 |
| 11 | Oregon | 2 |
| 12 | Houston | 4 |
| 13 | Oklahoma State | 4 |
| 14 | Virginia Tech | 11 |
| 15 | LSU | |
| 16 | Arizona | |
| 17 | Texas Tech | |
| 18 | Notre Dame | 3 |
| 19 | South Carolina | |
| 20 | Oregon State | |
| 21 | Brigham Young | 1 |
| 22 | Central Michigan | |
| 23 | Michigan | |
| 24 | Pittsburgh | |
| 25 | Ohio State | 15 |
| Last week’s ballot | ||
Dropped Out: Nebraska (#12), Auburn (#18), Kansas (#22), Wisconsin (#23), South Florida (#24), Arkansas (#25).
Let’s get this wad of madness out of the way:
1-4: Wins vs. Arizona, at Penn St., at Wisconsin, three teams that have combined for two losses to all other teams. Yes, Iowa’s more deserving of No. 3 than the ‘Horns, and it’s not even close.
5-6: TCU gets a boost from Clemson and Virginia both looking like solid wins again. Routing a decent Colorado St. team by 38 points doesn’t hurt, either.
7-10: Southern Cal has better wins than the two ACC teams in front of them, but their loss doesn’t look nearly as understandable these days. Miami likewise doesn’t have the overall resume of Tech, but head-to-head keeps them ahead of the Jackets. As for Boise, one home win and a bunch of chaff doesn’t cut it in the top 10 anymore.
11-13: Houston has dealt Okie St. and Texas Tech two of the only three losses those teams have suffered, and the other was to Texas.
14-20: WHEEEEEEE two-loss brigade! You could shuffle these teams into just about any order you wanted–I tried to get them as close to correctly in line as I could based on the quality of their wins and the quality of their losses. Note that the difference between these teams and the two two-loss Big 10 teams at the back of the ballot (and the horde just outside it) was that all of these have more than one worthwhile win. (Why the boost for ND after a loss? The Nevada, Michigan St., and Purdue wins all got better while a close loss to USC isn’t all that damaging.)
21-22, 24: All one-loss teams with one good win to their credit. Neither Florida St. nor Oklahoma doing BYU any favors these days.
23, 25: Keeping Michigan behind the ND team they beat head-to-head makes me a little itchy, but M’s second-best win is Indiana and the loss to Mich. St. is worse than either of the Irish’s. I looked at a dozen different teams for the No. 25 spot–Georgia, West Virginia, Arizona St., Utah, Nebraska, the cupcake-masters at Penn St. and Ole Miss, even Auburn (who frankly still has a better overall resume than WVU)–but decided that wins over Wisconsin and Navy along with a loss to a top-10 team gave the Buckeyes the best argument.
Weekly poll gripe: It pains me to see teams like Penn St. and Utah ranked so highly by virtue of beating absolutely no one, but at least they haven’t been exposed yet by losing to an inferior team. Kansas, meanwhile, has beaten Northern Colorado, UTEP, Duke, Southern Miss, and Iowa St. That’s weak-sauce enough, but then in their first actual test of the season, they laid an egg and lost to previously 1-4 Colorado.
And, somehow, no wins + a bad loss = the No. 21 team in the country to the coaches and No. 24 in the AP. I hope Oklahoma beats them by 50.
On the Florida – MSU game, can anyone remember the last time Florida won in Starkville? Try 1985. Today’s players weren’t even born then. Although, I personally hope Florida pounds the Bulldogs, then Auburn will be the loan SEC team Tebow never beat.
Jerry,
I have heard rumors of Rollison getting some snaps with the first team. Have you heard anything? I am not advocating it or cursing it or looking to get into a big Chris Todd discussion. I actually think it is the wrong thing to do but would still be excited about it, I can’t help it. Thanks.
AE, 1985? Whoa. Would not have guessed that.
auburnstr, I haven’t heard anything, but I’m the very furthest thing from an insider. My gut says that until there’s a little more weight behind it this is the sort of thing that some random fan would naturally make up as a response to Todd looking so wobbly the last two weeks. But as I said in the preseason, if the coaches are convinced they can’t win with either Caudle or Todd, I don’t think they can flush the rest of the season just to preserve a year of Rollison’s eligibility.
I’m also not trying to start anything- -however, it sure would explain some things if Todd had been hurt in UT game, and the coaches finally figured out that a change needed to be made. IF (big if) that is the case, you’d hope that Todd would pull a “Kodi” and do what’s best for the team. However, Kodi’s decision was made for him, and then he reacted positively to it. It’s probably pretty hard to make that decision of your own volition. It sure would make me feel better about Arky and KU if it was injury related. Not sure why, but I think it would.
Now, let’s presume we are correct. Why would Caudle not be the answer? I think starting a true frosh, in death valley, on Saturday night- -could be disastrous. And potentially damage Rollison long term.
Having said that- -I will say that in warmups Saturday night, Rollison throws a dart. Whereas all of Todd’s passes seemed to be high and/or wide.
Good point, I would not think there would be any way we would throw a true freshman to the wolves in Baton Rouge. However, if Todd rang up strike #3 and looked bad Saturday night… At home against the mrs with Furman the week after looks to be the only possibility of using another QB this year outside of an injury situation.