The poll voters have been put in an unenviable position this
season. Reconciling what has happened on the field with what traditionally
makes football teams successful has been confusing and difficult. Each of the
top four teams in the rankings has an argument for being number one… or number
four. That’s before you even get to fifth-ranked Notre Dame and the other
undefeateds (Oregon State , Mississippi
State, Louisville , Rutgers ,
Ohio and ineligible Ohio State
To be cruelly honest, you can toss the mid-major (Ohio ) and the Big East squads (UL, Rutgers )
out. None is likely to play for a title and the voters know it. MSU is a joke;
they’ve played no one. Oregon
State
The top four teams are the easiest to determine, but the
order is vexing. By virtue of current accomplishments, Florida
and Kansas State
should be ahead of Oregon .
In fact, I’d go so far as to say they should both be 1-2 (respectively) ahead
of Alabama as
well. People are making light of Oregon ’s
schedule to this point, but Alabama
has faced no one either. The Crimson Tide’s best win is either over Tennessee or, in hindsight, a vastly overrated Michigan team. Oregon has Arizona
and ASU.
But just getting W’s isn’t the best criteria, because both Oregon and ‘Bama have
looked a lot better than K-State and UF. The buzzword this season is
“complete,” as in “complete football team,” and it applies to the first two
schools much more than the second. The Tide and Ducks have shown the ability to
run and pass on offense, consistently gets stops on D and close out opponents
early. The Gators and Wildcats can both play defense and run the ball. That’s
about it. They’ve won their games by out-toughing their opponents, not by
blowing them away.
So while Oregon and Alabama have both been more impressive, it’s not
surprising at all that the BCS computers would favor Florida
or Kansas State
What we learned this week: South Carolina wasn’t as good as
we believed; by proxy Georgia really isn’t very good; West Virginia was a
fraud; so was Texas A&M; neither Stanford nor Wisconsin nor LSU is dead
yet; Arizona State is still waiting to “wake up,” the Big Ten is still awful.
Next week: Few big games, but the ones we get are important.
Florida should hammer Georgia , K-State should handle Texas Tech, Alabama will crush Mississippi
State and Oklahoma will beat Notre Dame. Other
significant conference clashes include UCLA – Arizona
State and Michigan
– Nebraska .
Top 25
1) Florida
This kills me. I’ve watched Florida and despite the score last weekend,
they are not the nation’s best team. But going by current resume, the Gators
have wins over three ranked teams and deserve to be number one. It’s no wonder
the BCS loves them so much.
2) Kansas
State
Once again, not the country’s second-best team. West Virginia was
probably overrated. Oklahoma ’s good, though,
and Iowa State
3) Alabama
There’s a chance, however remote, that Alabama has played a bunch of patsies and
will get exposed soon. I’m not holding my breath. Once the Tide notch a couple
of real victories I’ll be more than happy to move them back to numero uno.
4) Oregon
ASU clearly wasn’t as good as the stats showed… but come on.
The 18 minutes after UO coughed up the ball on the game’s second play were
ludicrous. 43 points? The starters were gone by halftime. That’s domination.
5) Oregon
State
To reiterate my earlier point, OSU has wins over Wisconsin , UCLA, Arizona
and BYU. The Beavs beat the Cougars much more impressively than Notre Dame and
since we’ve established the Big Ten is garbage the Irish’s Michigan-school wins
don’t look nearly as good. Beavers deserve to be top five.
6) Notre Dame
While getting to 7-0 with no offense against a pretty good
schedule is laudable, I strongly believe the ride comes to an end this week. Oklahoma is talented and
at home, where the Sooners almost never lose. To see the visitors pull this off
would be a minor miracle.
7) LSU
The entire time A&M was building that lead I kept
thinking to myself, “No, you need touchdowns.” Verily, I was proved right in
time, as LSU stormed back from a 12-0 hole to actually take the lead before
halftime in stunning fashion. It was all over at that point. Thanks for
playing, Aggies, you’re not ready.
8) Oklahoma
The Red River blowout was
one thing, but I have a feeling OU is getting ready to jump back onto the
national scene this week. Seemingly everything is in the Sooners’ favor, the
only real problem is that most people seem to expect them to win. Play their
game, and they will without issue.
9) USC
Ah, another stat-padder against Colorado , eh? It worked last season. This
week the Trojans get somebody who can actually bite back, though to what extent
remains to be seen. It is notable that ‘Zona put up 50 on the same UW team SC
struggled to break 20 on the week prior.
10) Florida
State
It wasn’t entirely pretty but the Seminoles ground out a win
over rival Miami (FL) Saturday night. If only the team had showed that kind of
will against NCSU. Then again, I seem to say that every season. FSU should run
the table the rest of the way.
11) Ohio
State
Another great escape, this time partially without Braxton
Miller. If the Big Ten were at its normal level of quality, I don’t know if
this Buckeyes team would be 8-0. But it is and they are – the only 8-0 team in
the country, in fact.
12) Clemson
It’s doubtful the Tigers should be this high on the list,
but until they have another close game or loss you can’t fault them too much
for the schedule. Right now Clemson is winning by double digits regularly,
which is what good teams should do to inferior competition.
13) Texas
Tech
What do Tech and Kansas
State West Virginia .
Now we’ll see how much more they have in common, as the Red Raiders travel to
the Little Apple this week. I’m picking K-State, but you never know…
14) Rutgers
I’m biting. I like what I’ve seen out of this defense and
the offense is definitely coming along. After a sloppy start Saturday the
Scarlet Knights blew out and shut out Temple .
Quality teams find a way; Rutgers does just
that.
15) Louisville
I remain skeptical, even though these guys were my
preseason Big East pick. Cincy isn’t great but they’re not bad either, so the
Bearcats should provide a solid test for Teddy Bridgewater and Co. This league
has parity, that’s for sure. Quality, that’s another story.
16) Boise
State
Too high for the Broncos? Possibly. My dirty secret is that
I know I can’t be proven wrong here, because BSU’s next few opponents are
horrendous. If they’re not at least a 10-win team in 2012, something will have
gone horribly wrong.
17) Oklahoma
State
I've kept the Cowboys up here despite their lack of love from
the pollsters and they keep rewarding me. Iowa State
18) South Carolina
I wanted to like South
Carolina after that hot start. Now they’ve
disappointed me two weeks in a row and look a lot more like the team I saw
opening night. Maybe I was right after all. The Gamecocks are all but finished
in the SEC race.
19) West Virginia
What happened? You would have thought that after the
national embarrassment that was Texas Tech, the Mountaineers’ defense would
have showed up against K-State. You’d have been wrong. Not to sound
melodramatic, but the season’s over for WVU.
20) Stanford
All things considered, not a bad win over Cal. Harder games
remain, but not for at least a couple weeks. Wazzu and Colorado shouldn’t be too much of a
challenge. The Oregon
schools, well, that’s a different story.
21) Georgia
I expect Georgia
to lose this week to Florida anyway, but the
Bulldogs have to drop after barely beating Kentucky this week. Really? This is a top 10
team? Has anyone actually watched them play? Each win has been underwhelming.
22) Texas
A&M
Props to the Aggies for jumping out to a quick lead on LSU,
but once the emotion wore off it became abundantly clear who the better team
was. A&M’s not bad, but the offense isn’t as explosive as it seemed against
a bunch of bad defenses.
23) Mississippi
State
Once Alabama
manhandles the Bulldogs this charade will be over. Outside of the four wins
over garbage nonconference teams, MSU has beaten the three worst teams in the
SEC (Auburn , Tennessee
and Kentucky ),
who are a combined 0-14 in conference. This will be a slaughter.
24) Ohio
The Bobcats had a week off, so hopefully they’ll get their
heads right for this scheduling oddity – Saturday will be the last time Ohio plays on a weekend
this season. The final four games, in order, are on Thursday, Wednesday,
Wednesday and Friday. Goofy. But this team might go 12-0.
25) Nebraska
I stand by my preseason pick of the Cornhuskers to take the
Legends division. This week will probably decide it as Michigan comes to town. If the Wolverines
win they’ll take over this spot. With Ohio
State and suddenly decent Penn State
Pac-12 Report
It’s a grab bag this week on the Best Coast
UO and Colorado
is a no-brainer. A Buffaloes upset would be one of the biggest upsets in the
history of college football. Stanford should likewise have no trouble with
Wazzu… even though the Cougs can get hot throwing the ball… which is Stanford’s
weakness… but no. Game’s on the Farm, Wazzu has no defense, case closed.
USC at ‘Zona is intriguing. Some people are predicting a
shootout because of the potential of both offenses, but it seems SC should come
out of this one fairly unscathed. The Trojans have struggled at times to move
the ball, true, but the Wildcats’ D is pretty bad. I don’t see this being too
close.
By far the best games of the week – at least on paper – are
the final two contests. Cal versus Utah is a game that
features bottom-feeders, but it should be competitive. Much more can be said
about the other matchup, which actually carries some weight.
As predicted, the
UCLA – Arizona State
ASU is still reeling from getting hit by the hammer that is Oregon , as coach Todd
Graham put it. Can/will the Sun Devils bounce back right away? Having an extra
couple of days can’t hurt, although UCLA trumps that by having a whole extra
week off. That, combined with the luxury of watching the Ducks beat ASU last
week, has me leaning UCLA.
Heisman Watch
Collin Klein, QB, Kansas
State
Klein is the only real candidate right now because no one
has stepped up to provide competition. Until last week Geno Smith was the
obvious choice, but losing twice in blowout fashion means that his chance is
gone. Even if WVU runs the table the rest of the way, people won’t forget those
games. Klein isn’t my favorite player but he does win games. More importantly,
no one else has stepped up, so right now he has to be the frontrunner.
Random Thoughts and Observations
Braxton Miller left Ohio State Florida
he did a very similar thing in 2009, allowing Tim Tebow to play in the next
game after suffering a brutal concussion. The difference was that Florida had a bye week
between games; Miller’s not even getting that.
Interesting little story here, as the L.A. Times’ T.J. Simers
reports Lane Kiffin had a backup QB swap jerseys with a running back in order
to run a fake against Colorado. It’s still up in the air whether this is a
penalty-worthy move, but in any case it’s undoubtedly a dubious attempt to
trick opponents and a violation of the spirit of the rules. Seeing that it’s
Kiffin, though, most people probably aren’t surprised.
Next week: Ultra-mega-super showdowns abound.
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