But I trust their running game implicitly. I’ll sound like a broken record, but people tend to forget that Brandon Ore was supposed to be their big back last year and losing him was supposed to kill the Hokies. That worked out fine in the end.

Those are distributed on both offense and defense, giving them little to fall back on.

But something valid to consider.

then it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. As long as McElroy doesn’t get hurt, he should be fine. He can at least do what JPW was required to do last year, but I think he’ll might be a bit better. Given the nice touch he seems to have throwing the deep ball (pass to Maze in the Auburn game, throw to Julio in the spring game), I think he can do a pretty decent job this year.

I do think LSU should be ranked higher than 17 (and I think they’re probably better than Ole Miss), but not sure I’d put them higher than Bama.

But I’m still not sure he’s proven enough to put LSU a lot higher. I’m also wary of falling into the talent + coaching = success trap that FSU sets every year. But worth consideration.

When it comes to Southern Cal, they’re 1c. I think any of the top four can legitimately expect to get in.

I agree that they need to move down.

I’m not sure about the Big Ten teams. I keep switching back and forth on them. It might just be Ohio State fatigue winning out at this point.

I kind of resent the comment about southeastern football. I pay attention to the entire country, not just the SEC, even though I will admit to being more familiar with the SEC than other parts of the country. (If I’m allowing some sort of pro-SEC bias to creep in, then why is LSU ranked lower here than in most other places and why is there no way you’re going to convince me to let Tennessee in?) In order:

—You’re right that Cal should be ranked. No. 11 strikes me as a bit high, though. This is an oversight that will be corrected in the final draft, which is why we do these things.
—Pittsburgh will still be ranked, because (as I said) someone has to win the Big East. But they should probably move down.
—At the least, Notre Dame is too high and will go somewhere else.
—I’m not sure about Oregon. I’ll have to think about the Ducks. I don’t like late coaching changes.
—Nevada is staying.
—I’m uncomfortable having Florida State ranked at all given their recent track record. I’d like them to actually prove they deserve a Top 20 ranking before I give them one.
—I’m torn on Illinois. One day I want to drop them, the next day I think they’re fine.
—Arkansas should probably be gone.
—TCU probably should be in there somewhere.
—No, I don’t believe in N.C. State yet.
—An area commonly ascribed to being underneath your feet will freeze over before I will rank Tennessee this year.