Blog Poll v.1.1

Looks like the partisans are fearing a rematch with Fla Atl. .....

But what;s your justification for the way you ranked Nos. 7 and 8, particularly in the order you did?

After the first handful of teams I didn’t look as closely at each team. Mizz losing twice to OK last year turned me off a little and I feel as though TT is this year’s Mizz. This is not great justification I know. I also went with TT returning more starters (18) and an offense that is very dangerous.

Upon further review Mizz has potentially the best offensive AND defensive players in the conference. And they have a favorable schedule with road games used up on the likes of Baylor and ISU. I’m not willing to put them nearly as high as some others have, but ahead of TT maybe they should be.

I’ll look more closely before I submit my final, first poll.

So you’re not on the “Dogs lose star tackle, lose SEC East” bandwagon, eh? Interesting…

nobody would have put Missouri ahead of Nebraska a year ago or even have Kansas receiving a vote. But that is no excuse for not using the data I currently have at my fingertips.

Returning everyone on defense might not be good if your defense got burnt extra-crispy on a regular basis last year. Florida might get bumped down a bit for that.

Skeptical on Clemson (wake me when they win something) and Pitt (I think too many people are overvaluing them after the WVU choke job). Extremely skeptical of Texas Tech (63-56 games are entertaining but not a formula for a BCS appearance). I think Illinois has a decent shot at least at the low end of the top 25, though leaving them out isn’t crazy. I know absolutely nothing about Wake Forest, so I’ll defer to your judgment there (though I refuse to believe the ACC deserves more teams in the top 25 than the Big Ten).

The first one’s always the hardest to do – all you have to go on is what happened last year and who’s back. I don’t see anything too absurd (aside from TTU in the top 10), which is about all that can be hoped for with preseason ballots.

All they need to do is get past USC – can’t see them losing in the Big 10

and especially as a Cal fan, I just don’t see Oregon as being a better football team than Cal. I just don’t see it. And I really don’t see how Florida got to #3 ahead of Oklahoma and USC.

There is NO way they will be close to as good as they were last year. Juice is still QB’ing, which is the handicap.

Switch Mizzou and Tech, and we’re good on the poll. Of course, I’m biased.

Why the hell is Pittsburgh anywhere near the top-25? Maybe if this were the top-25 underachieving programs in college football, but yikes, really? I mean, has Dave Wannstedt really given you that much confidence to put them there? Ok, I guess their win over West Virginia, knocking them out of the title hunt, was good. But worth a vote?

Never.

I also suggest two teams for your top-25: Utah and BYU.

BYU is coming off an 11-2 season, where they return most of their offense. And even though they replace some key players on defense, they’re easily the favorite to crash the BCS out of all the non-BCS teams.

As for Utah, well this is a homer pick, but the Utes are coming off a 9-4 season, return nearly their entire offense and defense (from the same team that finished the season 8-1). Had their quarterback not gone down at the start of the season last year, Utah very well could have been 11-2, as they went 7-1 with him starting.

Just my opinion.

I was viewing BYU and Utah as closer to the Hawaii’s and Fresno States in recent years rather than Boise State. It is just a preseason poll and after getting a chance to see them, I’ll potentially vote for them. Pitt was my throw away vote based on a strong finish to 2007 and a few consecutive good recruiting classes. Talent goes a long way.