Sunday, September 13, 2009

Preliminary BlogPoll Ballot Thinking

Here's my preliminary BlogPoll ballot thinking, and it is informed both by a second week of information and by a transitive property based on how their opening-week opponents did:

1. Alabama
Win over VT looks better this week.
2. Houston
This week's BYU -- best win of the CFB season so far.
3. BYU
Affirmed last week's win as no fluke, esp. on D.
4. Florida
Steamroller...but Troy was hardly comp.
5. Texas
Shaky early, then pulled away.

6. USC
(Mostly) handled by a team that barely put away Navy.
7. Cal
Steeling themselves for chance vs. USC.
8. Cincinnati
Most underrated team in the country. 70!
9. Boise St
Like BYU, another "affirmation" result.
10. Penn St
Great D. The comp has, thus far, been iffy.

11. TCU
Beat UVA only slightly better than W&M did.
12. Ole Miss
Bye week. Eh...waiting to see reality match hype.
13. GA Tech
Barely put away Clemson, but a good win.
14. LSU
Win over 1-1(!) Washington looks better now.
15. Nebraska
Crappy comp. But after UT, Big 12 seems wide open.

16. VA Tech
Bama was that good.
17. Kansas
Like Nebraska, seeing an opening in B12?
18. Utah
Tempted to put them lower -- not impressed yet.
19. Baylor
Off, but last week's win looks better this week.
20. Pitt
Too high, but two impressive wins (D-first).

21. Michigan
Debut! ND ain't great, but it was a great win.
22. B.C.
Debut! As usual, quietly plugging away at Ws.
23. UCLA
Debut! Too high, but win at Tennessee is solid.
24. Miami
Nearly dropped 'em after FSU turned out to, y'know, suck.
25. Ohio St
Should leave them out. Two uninspiring performances.

I dropped out UNC, after they lucked into a win at UConn. And an ugly win, at that.

Coming off my Houston-over-Oklahoma State pick, I will call it now: Toledo over Ohio State in Cleveland next week.

Is it me, or is Ohio State just really not that good? The D seems solid -- except when getting run over by Navy's option attack... or Joe McKnight. But the offense is pedestrian. And if OSU isn't that good, then USC's eked win over them doesn't really speak that highly of the Trojans this season, either. But watch the AP voters give USC all sorts of credit for "gutting it out," rather than "not playing all that well against a good-but-not-great team."

(I'm with everyone else: Terrelle Pryor is absolutely wasted talent under Jim Tressel. "Turning platinum into pennies," Spencer Hall called it. I wonder if Pryor is regretting his decision to go to Ohio State. I would be.)

Thoughts?

-- D.S.

3 comments:

Steve said...

Purdue blew Toledo off the field in week 1, so I guess if you think Purdue is better than Ohio St. you should pick Toledo. Although Purdue almost won at Oregon too.

DougOLis said...

How can Houston have the best win of the season if it came against a team you don't even have ranked?

Will said...

I was griping about it two years ago that he needed to go to Michigan with Rich Rod. I still think that he would have been better off trying to play basketball than go to OSU to play QB...who was the last pro QB to come out of OSU?