Week Three BlogPoll Ballot

Moving forward. We really wanted to have a rough draft and let you help us with a final ballot. But time ain't on our side there. From here on out, we'll post our ballot early week and the national ballot when it is released. My ballot for the week and comments after the jump.

 

LSU- Two quality wins and one annihilation. I should have saved the four quarters thing for this week. I'm not putting them here because that's who we're playing. I'm not sure even Les Miles can screw this one up for them.

 

Wisconsin- Too Bad they don't play important bowl games in cold weather climates. This team is so balanced between run and pass. The defense looks to be solid. Nebraska might be the next and last real test for this team on the schedule. It may look different next week, though. Injuries and themselves is the only thing I see keeping Wisconsin from the MNC.

 

Oklahoma St- This team is where we want West Virginia to go. That offense is unfreaking believable. The defense still gives me pause to put them number two. They gave up way too many points to teams they were expected to beat handily.

 

Oklahoma- That win over Tulsa looks better this week, and the win at FSU showed me enough to believe this team is for real.

 

Boise St.- Georgia and Toledo by themselves are decent enough wins. Toledo did take tOSU to the brink last week. But Boise did have to travel across the country twice to get those wins. Once can be bad without the proper leadership. So, I'm still holding them up pretty high, at least until a few more of the heavy weights come through.

 

South Carolina- How bout Navy? I think that was a quality win. So does Notre Dame. The way I look at it, that's a fairly comparable schedule to the rest of the top teams. My only concern is that they are just doing enough.

 

Alabama- The schedule hasn't been that demanding to this point, other than the trip to Happy Valley. Which I still consider no small feat. So I don't feel compelled to put them too high. After the next two weeks, there won't be any doubt.

 

Stanford- The win at Arizona was quality. But not quite OMG enough for me. They seemed to lose three key players during that game. One carted off, season ending. I have my doubts that they have the same quality in their backups to beat Oregon and Notre Dame. Maybe even USC. I think this win really cost them. But hey, that Duke win wasn't so bad. HA! HA!

 

Nebraska- The defense has not been so great the past couple games against weaker opponents. I saw enough of the offense. But I can't put them any higher based on that.

 

Florida- We saw a little something out of Florida this weekend. The final score isn't a true indicator of the control Florida had. A win like that against a rival is always a quality win.

 

South Florida- Notre Dame isn't that bad, I guess. I think USF is probably closer to the 15^th best team in the country. For now, they are number 11. When I can say that in late November it will mean something.

 

Oregon- By my math, they scored 27 on LSU. Didn't look so good then, but it looks pretty sharp about now. They still haven't beat anyone. Nevada isn't last year's Nevada. So I can't even say anything nice about that. They are winning the way they are supposed to, though.

 

(From here on down, you can shuffle them how you please. There really isn't much difference.)

 

Iowa St.- I know, but they just keep winning. Beating anyone after beating Iowa last week was probably asking a lot. Probably hard to come down off that win and get ready for roll call, let alone a real college football team. Or even UConn.

 

Clemson- Well, looks like this team has some fight in it. They had to come back from 21-7 against a team that hadn't lost in a couple years. They did so in spectacular fashion with 620 yards of total offense. Still counts as one, but it was a beautiful display. Too bad this was the only tough game on their schedule to date. I could see them being much higher. No...wait...never mind.

 

Georgia Tech- Scoring like crazy. Not against anyone particular, other than Kansas. But still.

 

Texas A&M- I don't know why I keep thinking they need to be in the top ten. For some reason, I keep running that Quentin Coryatt hit through my head. Thankfully for slow people running across the middle all across America, he's not an Aggie anymore. They just haven't played anyone yet. So they sit with the rest of the pack.

 

Baylor- Well, they can score on the good ones and the bad ones. A week off then a cupcake takes some of the shine off the TCU win. Everyone should have to play the first five weeks of the season.

 

Arkansas- 3-0 but something smells fishy.

 

TCU- I'll take them over some of the teams that haven't played anyone yet. At least they do everything big. Win or lose.

 

Texas- Just does enough. No matter how good or bad the competition.

 

USC- It's a somewhat impressive 3-0. They could have very easily lost the Minnesota and Utah games. It's like South Carolina, but worse.

 

Michigan- I'm almost buying it. Almost. They shouldn't have won that Notre Dame game. They did when it counted. But you won't get five gifts a game every week.

 

West Virginia- Thunderstorms and ourselves is the only thing holding us back. It needs to come together big time this week. We've only seen the offense really work here and there. We need it the whole game this week.

 

Florida St.- If they're any good, they'll move back up.

 

Notre Dame- I've based half the poll on them because they've been out playing people. A little less KFC, and this team is 3-0.

 

 

 

 

Others looking in

 

UNC- They haven't lost, but they haven't really won yet either. We'll see.

 

Virginia Tech- Their big win was ECU, 17-10. I can't. What are people basing their rank on? They're already in the top 15. Why?

 

Vanderbilt- Not just yet.

 

Iowa- Same reason as Ohio but a little different.

 

Ohio- Anyone that beats Marshall that bad gets a mention.

 

Navy- so close