Week Five Poll: New Faces

Week Five brought new faces to the top of Collgefootballtopten.com. With five upsets in the top ten, the challenge was finding teams to fill those slots. West Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Rutgers all lost last weekend, and only West Virginia lost to a team ranked in the Top 25 (South Florida).

Of the others, only Texas lost to a team who was ranked in the new AP poll. Which makes me ask, "Why did the Longhorns drop all the way to 19th?" Texas lost to Kansas State who debuted in the Top 25 at 24. Not that bad of a loss, especially if they are good enough to be ranked this week. Where's the love for the Longhorns? I guess the close calls earlier in the season weren't forgotten.

Florida lost at home to Auburn who is not ranked this week. Florida only fell to 9th in the AP. Of course, Auburn beat Kansas State earlier in the year. Shouldn't that put Auburn ahead of Kansas State?

Oklahoma lost to Colorado close and on the road, but the Buffs aren't in the Top 25 this week either. The Sooners only dropped to 10th (AP).

Rutgers lost to Maryland who is also not ranked this week. The Scarlet Knights dropped further than Texas, all the way down to 21st (AP).

Those who didn't lose, including Wisconsin, moved up giving Cal a number 3 ranking and LSU finally at number 2. Wisconsin has been flirting with disaster, but outlasted an undefeated Michigan State team. Ohio State seems to be getting better. Then, Kentucky, S. Florida, Boston College, S. Carolina, and Oregon entered into the mix.

I had to consider many one loss teams. I decided not to include Oklahoma and Florida because they lost to unranked teams. I believe that Oklahoma's loss was a focus loss, meaning they weren't focused. The Colorado game was the first game the Sooners played outside of the state of Oklahoma (OU played at Tulsa the week before, which is, of course, in Oklahoma).

Kentucky, and S. Florida have beaten top 10 teams and are undefeated. BC, who is undefeated, beat Georgia Tech who was ranked 15th on the road a few weeks ago. So, they are in.

As for S. Carolina, their only loss is at LSU, and they beat Georgia earlier this year. Oregon has kept on winning, and they matched Cal Saturday before losing at the very end, a lost to a top 5 team. So, I included them in my top ten in front of Florida and Oklahoma. However, five weeks is just not enough time to know who is really good. Some of the teams who are undefeated haven't played significant competition. The coming weeks will be helpful as teams enter into conference play.

See my poll here.

Week Four Poll

The top ten teams made it easy for me because they all won (Rutgers did not play). There were some close calls, but all made it past another week with a win.

Florida struggled on the road against Ole Miss, but Coach Meyer warned us about this being a tough game for his young defense and their first on the road. One guy which it wasn't tough for was Tim Tebow. Many now have him as their favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

Wisconsin struggled at home with Iowa. It's clear that the Badgers are not quite as good as many thought at the beginning of the year (including me!).

LSU struggled a little to beat South Carolina. But, I imagine a few teams will struggle to beat the Gamecocks this year. Besides, LSU can't blow out every team every week.

Oklahoma didn't struggle, but Tulsa provided them with the biggest challenge for their Defense. And, the Golden Hurricane delivered putting up 21 points on the Sooners, more than any other opponent this year. As much as I like this year's Sooners, they have yet to play a top rated team. North Texas, Miami, Utah State and Tulsa is not a tough opening slate. That's 79 (North Texas), 51 (Miami), 54 (Utah State), and 62 (Tulsa) points they have scored in their games. They have a very favorable schedule (5 out 12 games on the road) along with their biggest conference games at home (Missouri, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State). Their game with Texas is on "the road" in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. They play there every year, so it is just as much a "road" game for them as it is for Texas. However, Bob Stoops has this team poised for a legitimate run at the National Title Game. The Trojans and the Tigers can't really afford a loss, especially late in the season, if either one wants to play for the Title. The Sooners will be waiting to take their spot. This is why we need a playoffs.

Look for Oregon vs. Cal to settle the number 2 team in the Pac 10 this week. I am not sure if either team will knock USC off their perch. Cal has the tools, but I am not sure they have the focus. They seem to be floating along until they have their big game with the Trojans on November 10. Cal still has two road games against Top 25 teams (Oregon this week and Arizona St. Oct. 27). In between is a dangerous but baffling UCLA team. If Cal wants to be number 1 in the Pac 10, they have to take care of business.

Just a question. Does West Virginia ever play on any night other than Thursday? That is a shame, because I would like to see them play Saturday night on ABC. I don't care who they would play. However, let me offer a couple of suggestions: at Rutgers Oct. 27 and/or at Cincinnati Nov. 17. I know I would be watching.

Check out the poll.

Week Three Poll: Why Buffalo Matters

The new poll has been released for Collegefootballtopten.com. With the loss of Louisville, which I suspected might happened (see my last post and look under "trap games"), I had to include a new team in the top ten. The two finalists were Penn State and Rutgers, neither of which were on my radar in the beginning. However, those two teams have a common opponent. Both played the University of Buffalo. Penn State played them this week and won fairly handily, but Buffalo's offense clicked in the second half making it a little closer than they would've liked (45-24). In Buffalo's first game they played at Rutgers. Rutgers beat them by 35 points (38-3). I know it's the first game of the season and teams improve by their third game and Buffalo was better by the time they played Penn State, but wouldn't the same be true about Rutgers? Rutgers seems to have a solid and improving defense, and the offense seems to be getting more explosive with each game. Therefore, by virtue of Buffalo, Rutgers gets the 10th spot.

Texas drops in the poll after they struggled with UCF. Ohio State looked impressive at Washington and is showing why Jim Tressel is the best coach in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes are now ahead of Wisconsin after their lousy showing against the Citadel. Cal faired better against LA Tech than Hawaii did earlier this year. The top five is basically everybody's top five. I am waiting to see Oklahoma play against a team with substance to see how good they are. This week they are at Tulsa where the defense should get it's best challenge to date. Tulsa runs a wide open spread attack directed by former Razorback Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn. I am extremely interested in how Spurrier's South Carolina team lines up against LSU. LSU set several starters and still thumped Middle Tennessee Saturday. Do you remember them? The almost beat Louisville. West Virginia keeps winning, but is their defense BCS worthy? Finally, USC looked December good against Nebraska. They seem to have an improved running game, and that will only help QB John David Booty's success. Their defense was "lights out" against the run forcing Nebraska to pass on almost every play. Nebraska QB Sam Keller played well, but didn't have enough weapons to play from behind. The Cornhuskers were still playing to win when they couldn't showing an incredible amount of resilience and refusing to quit. That may be the kind of character that gives Nebraska the Big Twelve North Title and challenge for the conference championship in December.

Week Two Poll

Two weeks of football and we don't know much more than we did before. Four teams, according to Terry Bowden look real good. They are LSU, Oklahoma, Florida and USC. Of those four schools, well, no one has played on the road. USC gets the first road test this week at Nebraska. Cal, Louisville, Wisconsin, and Nebraska struggled to get a win. Only Louisville's win was at home. LSU does look really good, however, with a big win over Virginia Tech. I am waiting to see, however, how these teams respond to a road game. Road game troubles seems to be the theme so far.

You'll see in my poll that LSU, Oklahoma and Florida all moved up significantly. There is no sense leaving them at the bottom of the poll if they are that good. The teams that dropped struggled to win. But let's not be harsh, they did play on the road. And, as we have seen, focus does tend to fade sometimes when college students are playing. There are a few "trap" games this week. They are West Virginia at Maryland, Texas at UCF, Louisville at Kentucky, and Ohio State at Washington.

Bounce Back

A couple of teams bounced back in week two in a big way. After taking a big wallop against Oklahoma, North Texas traded touchdowns with SMU in Dallas before falling 45-31. North Texas QB Daniel Meager passed for an astounding 601 yards. Meager had never passed for 200 yards in a game at North Texas.

After struggling against Arkansas State in its first game, Texas found its mark against TCU in the second half. The defense played well and Colt McCoy got untracked as the Horns beat the Frogs 34-13. The Frogs had the Horns down 10-0 at halftime on two McCoy interceptions. But, McCoy found his receivers and his legs to rally Texas past TCU who may be Texas' second best college football team.


Predictions

I'm glad I don't make money predicting these games. I had Michigan number two in my preseason poll. Well, they made me look dumb. The Wolverines should beat Notre Dame because they have a better defense (I think) and more offensive weapons (Hart and Manningham). However, Jimmy Claussen has had a start under his belt, and I doubt the Irish will try to run over Michigan. Maybe Coach Weis will run a spread attack to torch the Michigan defense. We know how that worked out for Appalachian State and Oregon.

For What it's Worth: Some Things Are More Important than Football

On a day like today (9/11), we remember that football isn't the most important thing. It was six years ago that our world changed forever. 9/11 serves as a new generation's "where were you?" question. I remember where I was, and it didn't involve football. Some things are just more important. I watched in horror as the twin towers fell while I was listening to the late Peter Jennings' coverage on ABC News. It was so surreal that Jennings didn't immediately notice that the towers were falling. I later learned news that made the events even more personal. I friend and high school classmate told me that another classmate of ours (from Pakistan no less) was in the second towers. Fortunately, he made it out of the tower before the second plane hit the tower he was in. Unfortunately, another classmate of ours sister who was just two years behind us was a flight attendant on one of the planes. I saw her name scroll on the jumbo screen during the Super Bowl halftime performance by U2 that honored the victims of 9/11.

So, we remember. The victims. The police and firefighters who rushed to the scene to try to save lives. The NY Fire Department Chaplain who paused give last rites and lost his life. To those who saved thousands of lives by taking over United Flight 93 even though it meant the loss of theirs. To the thousands of soldiers who continue to serve to keep all Americans safe. To all service personal who serve every day putting their life in harms way. To the young lady I went to high school with and her family. To the families who all perished. I wanna cry every time I see another story. God bless them all.

Todd

For What it's Worth: Football is Still a Team Sport

What do I see after week one in College Football? Football is still a team sport. If you don't believe me, just ask Michigan or Texas. I don't have to tell you by now that Michigan lost their game with Appalachian State. Texas, struggled to get by at home against Arkansas State, a "powerhouse" one Fort Worth TV sports reporter called them with sarcasm. Appalachian State is the two time defending Division I-AA Champs (the NCAA now calls it the Championship Division because they play playoffs to determine the national champions). Arkansas State was a Sun Belt Conference Champs two years ago, and beat last year's champs, Troy, on the road. Neither, however, would be considered teams who belong at the top in the BCS conferences.

The fact is when we are in the offseason, and everyone is debating who signed the best recruiting class, these two teams aren't mentioned because there isn't news of recruiting for either school. Why? Because they don't sign "blue chip," "five-star" recruits. Go ahead and get the talent. I hope they remember how to play football, avoid penalties, block for extra points, etc. These great recruits still have to perform, and execute the fundamentals. For example, DeShaun Jackson looked solid in Cal's win against Tennessee. Yes, he is that good. His punt return was something that makes a legend.

We saw modest performances from the two top rated recruits of last year, Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame) and Joe McKnight (USC). McKnight even had a fumble. Do you remember those guys? Clausen shows up in a stretch hummer to announce he was going to be an Irish, and Joe McKnight broke every LSU fan's heart when he chose USC over them. I remember Cedar Hill's (Texas) William Cole make his announcement on a local TV in an almost gaudy like fashion when chose Oklahoma State. As far as I know, Cole had no significant stats Saturday against Georgia.

At the end of the day, these guys need the other 10 on the field. And, they have to execute the fundamentals before they can put on the show. Hype doesn't win games, teams do. And, sometimes you never know who will be a star when the lights are turned on. Does anyone remember a high school fullback from Waco named LaDainian Tomlinson? He did alright didn't he?

Guys like Rich Rodriguez has made a living recruiting guys like these, and he has built a pretty good program with a system that fits these guys at West Virginia. These days, the way the Appalachian and Boise States have leveled the playing field to compete with the Michigans have been to run unorthodox offenses that take advantage of defensive vulnerabilities and score points. Remember Florida? They take advantage of speed, spread the field and throw the defense off balance. It's happening all over the country, but it has yet to happen in the NFL where the talent is so deep and players study all the time. Now, more than ever, the BCS teams have to come to play when they step on the field with Arkansas State, Boise State, Appalachian State, or whomever they might be playing.

The more the playing field becomes leveled, the more there is a need for a playoffs. And, the way Appalachian State played on Saturday, maybe there is a need for a winner takes all between the two Division I champs.

Check out my top ten here.