Brian Kelly's Final Coaches' Poll Ballot

by negativeEV on Dec 7, 2009 4:57 PM EST

I'm not taking issue with him voting his own team number #1. They went undefeated against the schedule they were given and if he feels they are the best, I have no problem with that. What I find curious is where he ranked his likely (now certain) future opponent.

Calhoun, of Air Force, voted Florida #2 on his final AP Ballot, which I have no problem with.

Fedora, Bowden, Stoops, Tressel, Mullen, Miles, and Richt voted Florida #3 on their ballots, which I have no problem with.

All other coaches save 2 voted Florida somewhere between #4 and #6, #6 of course being behind the 5 undefeated, which I have no problem with.

Brian Kelly and fired Memphis coach Tommy West (whose ballot may be most accurate since he may actually have time to watch games!!) voted Florida #7, behind the 5 undefeated and 2-loss Oregon.

Now I have no problem with Kelly and West's assessment either, given the many weaknesses that Florida has displayed this year and the football Oregon has played, you can make a legitimate argument that Oregon is the better team on a neutral field. Whether or not I agree with that conclusion, I can accept it.

Alabama quite obviously did not show up for the Sugar Bowl last year. We wouldn't expect quite the same out of a Tebow/Spikes/Stamper/etc. led team playing for pride, but nonetheless I'm sure much of Florida's roster will struggle to find as much motivation as Cincinnati's roster will have. So why hand them bulletin board material? Kudos to Kelly for voting it how he sees it, it just doesn't seem to be the first thing I would do considering the likely impending match-up. Or is Kelly taking things all second-level on us by not wanting there to be a "Florida had no motivation for this game" excuse out there if Pike/Collaros and crew hang half-a-hundred?

A FanPost gives the opinion of the fan who writes it and that fan only. That doesn't give the opinion more or less weight than any other opinion on this blog, but the post does not necessarily reflect the view of TSK's writers.

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Florida #7 is ridiculous

And I don’t care who you are. There is no excuse for it. #6 is even iffy, but somewhat acceptable. #7 is ridiculous.

They lost a game, but look at who they lost it too, another undefeated team. If it was a 1 loss Oregon team, then there might be some validity to it, but they lost 2 games.

Won’t be any motivation for Florida though, because Brian Kelly won’t be there.

by cal n on Dec 11, 2009 12:47 PM EST reply actions

Spot on there.

Anything lower than #3 is moronic. I understand why they would drop outside of the second spot due to their loss, but if we treated all things equally they probably shouldn’t. They’re better than Texas, TCU and Cincy and of those three I think only TCU would present a legitimate challenge to a motivated UF team.

by TheRZA on Dec 14, 2009 7:48 PM EST up reply actions