Rankings, Week 2

A sample set of 1 isn’t much better than 0, but it’s something at least. Trying to put this poll together shows why not attempting polls until somewhere in the middle of the season is such a great idea. Ignoring that point, here goes…

1. Oklahoma (+3)
2. USC (-1)
3. West Virginia (+2)
4. LSU (-2)
5. Florida (+1)
6. Louisville (+3)
7. Georgia (+9)
8. Wisconsin (+2)
9. Penn State (+5)
10. Virginia Tech (-3)
11. California (+6)
12. Ohio State (NC)
13. Texas (-6)
14. Boston College (+1)
15. Nebraska (+3)
16. Tennessee (-5)
17. Auburn (-4)
18. Rutgers (+2)
19. Arkansas (+2)
20. TCU (+2)
21. Oregon State (+2)
22. Hawaii (-3)
23. Boise State (+2)
24. South Florida (NC)
25. Georgia Tech (+1)

Dropped Out: Michigan (-24)
This was really hard because there were a lot of teams I wanted to drop, and almost none I wanted to bump up. Most of the gains here are a result of not losing or not outright sucking, not because of true merit.

Oklahoma gets #1 because I have predicted the Sooners to win the national title. After an impressive win, I figured I should bump them up to #1. After an ugly win versus Idaho, USC falls a spot. Think of it like a slap on the wrist for not dominating. West Virginia moves up two spots by default. LSU falls a spot for uninspiring offense when not aided by turnovers. The defense is fearsome, but I have doubts about the offense. Florida jumps a spot because of Michigan falling.

Florida runs out for the second half against Western Kentucky.

Louisville jumps 3 spots for showing that it will be business as usual under Steve Kragthorpe. Georgia is the week’s biggest leaper at +9 because it was impressive in dismantling Oklahoma State. The defense looked sharp, and Matt Stafford showed signs of significant improvement. Wisconsin gains two spots for demolishing Washington State. Penn State gains 5 spots for being thoroughly impressive in beating FIU and also for now becoming the second-best team in the Big Ten. Virginia Tech slides three spots to 10 for being wholly unimpressive in beating East Carolina by 10. I know it was emotional, but you have to beat ECU by more than 10 to keep your spot.

Cal moves up a cautious 6 slots to 11, keeping in mind that its 45-31 victory becomes a 31-31 tie if you throw out the fluky fumble and punt returns of the first half. This is probably too high. Ohio State is neither rewarded or penalized for gently destroying Youngstown State. Texas falls 6 places to 13th for being lousy against Arkansas State and putting itself on red alert upset watch against TCU this weekend. BC hops up a spot because of Michigan losing. Nebraska moves up 3 places, but only because of teams ahead of it losing.

Tennessee falls 5 places to 15 because I probably had them overrated, and I now see Georgia as better than the Vols. Auburn is penalized four spots for sleepwalking through an unwatchable game against Kansas State. Rutgers gains two spots at random. Arkansas did too. TCU gained two spots to 20 for a shutout, and could jump a lot higher for knocking off Texas.

Oregon State looked impressive in beating a Utah team that is not that bad at all. Hawaii loses 3 places for playing a terrible team and because I probably had the Warriors overrated. Boise State gained two places because I probably overestimated the loss of Jared Zabransky. South Florida stays unchanged, and Georgia Tech enters the poll for beating the tar out of a mediocre-at-best Notre Dame team. Normally, beating a mediocre-at-best team won’t get you anywhere, but anyone who gives Notre Dame the worst season opening loss in history has a place in my poll.

Michigan drops out of the poll for losing to a I-AA team. You lose to a I-AA team, you’re out of my poll no questions asked.

A lasting image from this weekend, and also the reason why Michigan is gone.

Bowden Bowl 9

My goodness, what a horrid game. FSU came out completely flat and looked like a helpless team in falling behind 21-0. Then, a snap over the punter’s head by Clemson led to a momentum change in FSU’s favor which led them to a deficit of just 6 at 24-18. Then, it became an epic battle between Tommy Bowden’s proclivity to give away games and Drew Weatherford’s uncanny ability to get sacked in the worst possible times.

ESPN’s Lou Holtz and Mark May didn’t have their A games either when it came to picking the winner in this stinkfest.

The most exciting part of this game was watching the students run on and off of the field as the final play was reviewed and the stadium announcer told them to get off of it. Now, maybe the Clemson students were just looking for an excuse to rush the field, but a word to Tiger fans: beating FSU doesn’t mean much anymore.

The GameDay guys both missed it too.

The FSU defense only looked fast and nasty for about 10 minutes on the game clock. Players were routinely missing tackles, leading to numerous stat boxes showing that something around 80-85% of Clemson’s rushing yards came after the first contact. The FSU offense wasn’t much to speak of either. FSU had only 1 first down in the first half. Drew Weatherford had only one good drive, and the Noles couldn’t run for most of the game. So much for Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett coming in and having an immediate impact. There was a priceless shot of Jimbo right before halftime talking to Weatherford from the booth looking like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and not in the good way.

Jimbo Fisher, center, had no idea what he was getting into. Then again, which is worse: working at FSU, or working for Les Miles?

Hopefully this will put to rest the idiocy that FSU is a good team. I was surprised to see such a smart guy as Phil Steele predict that FSU would compete for a national title this year. In addition, the Semis were names as the most underrated team by the BlogPoll roundtable, though that was heavily influenced by Mr. Steele. I still don’t understand why because as I pointed out on my rankings, while many coaches are new it’s still the same old players who went 7-6 last year on the field. Add on to that bit the fact that offenses usually struggle under new offensive coordinators, and any talk of FSU deserving to be ranked – much less be a title contender – are absurd.

As it is, I know why the ACC puts Florida State on Labor Day evening. It’s because it has the strongest brand in the conference and probably drives the best viewer ratings (I don’t have any stats to back that up, but it’s a pretty safe guess). It’s a risk though, since FSU has been in decline and has offered up some truly eye-scarring games the past couple Labor Day evenings. It may be time to pick someone else to feature. You know, someone who will likely finish over .500 in the conference.

On a side note, bravo to ESPN for the revamped on-screen graphics where the each team’s timeouts appear under its name and the relevant stats for the relevant players appear above the score after each play. It managed to add two very useful things without adding clutter or annoying sound effects. A lot of people around the net hate ESPN, but you have to give it credit for the new graphic.