Half the BlogPoll Ballot
by Year2 on Sep 11, 2011 2:49 PM EDT
in SEC Football
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PrintI definitely overreacted to the Week 1 results in evaluating Week 2, so I'm torn as to how much to trust my preseason feelings or what I've seen. It's too early yet to do a full resume poll, so here's what I got right now.
1. LSU
2. Oklahoma
3. Alabama
4. Arkansas
5. Wisconsin
I think these are the top five teams in the country, and they could be put in any order. Well, any order with LSU at the top at least, as the win over Oregon is easily the best result of any of the games these five have had so far.
6. Boise State
7. FSU
8. Oklahoma State
9. Texas A&M
10. Stanford
Georgia's resurgence against South Carolina makes Boise look better. The win over Arizona pushes Oklahoma State ahead of its Central time zone friends, but most of these teams are also interchangeable at this point.
11. South Carolina
12. Nebraska
13. Virginia Tech
14. Oregon
15. Baylor
The Gamecocks got a big win, but they didn't look dominant. Nebraska also looked more human against Fresno State. Virginia Tech has to slide behind South Carolina given the ECU games between them. Oregon just proved that Nevada lost a lot. Baylor is too high here, but the TCU win is holding up well.
16. Michigan State
17. West Virginia
18. UCF
19. Houston
20. TCU
Michigan State looked better, but West Virginia is waiting to get exposed by a better team (paging Dr. Miles). UCF and Houston and pretty good, and TCU is better than it looked last week.
21. Arizona State
22. South Florida
23. Ohio State
24. Auburn
25. Mississippi State
You can take or leave these teams. There are 10 teams I could consider for these spots, and I really don't care much who goes here.
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Question.
LSU is #1 in my own poll as well, but are their merits because they played Oregon any better than Boise State’s because they played Georgia? I, personally, don’t put a lot of stock in an Oregon team that has rarely shown defense. Maybe there is a bit of bias in my feelings, but Georgia does have a good defense, holding South Carolina’s offense to only to 3 TD’s and a FG, the rest of the score resulting in special teams and defensive scoring.
I suppose my point is that I’m not quite sure why the nation (and your poll) continues to put Boise State outside of the “elite” so early in the season when they showed as much dominance as the team you (and I) so clearly ranked #1.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
If I can clarify.
What don’t you see Boise State that you do in other untested but hyped teams you ranked 2-4?
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
I think that's a legitimate question
but the answer has to be: “the rest of their schedule”
O..k?
But isn’t Boise State’s 1 win against Georgia better than all the combined wins of Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, & Wisconsin to this point?
Unless Year2 is doing their poll based on what they think the year will end out on, that’s fine. But after week 2, nobody has a better resume than LSU, Boise State, and maybe Baylor (they can thank TCU for showing up in week 2).
In my homerish opinion, this is about the only time I can defend Boise State’s schedule to the nation. So I find it, let’s call it interesting, that the nation seemingly already has a biased perception on Boise State when the only thing against them this year might be their schedule.
Oh, well. It’s only week 2 and I’m not that big a fan of polls. But being a fan of defense and football I also love the SEC, and it’s hard to see other fans of good quality football teams throw Boise State under the bus right from the start.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
SInce I wrote this post
I’ll explain myself.
I am basing the top six largely on my preseason expectations, with the exception of LSU being at the top. The impressive Oregon win vaulted the Tigers up there. The rest of the top five don’t have any wins of that caliber yet, and in fact, Boise’s win over Georgia is better than anything they have. Because my preseason evaluations still have a great deal of weight here, that’s why BSU isn’t higher. Also, for the record, I don’t vote based on future schedules, so the relative value of BSU’s opponents to come doesn’t matter here.
I re-watched Boise’s win over Georgia very closely last week. The passing game was crisp and effective, but the running game was iffy (especially in light of what Lattimore did to UGA’s defense this past weekend). The Boise front four were monsters, but the secondary was able to be beat and beat badly when Murray had time to throw. He wasn’t the sharpest I’ve seen him and some receivers had bad games (King in particular). The game could have been closer had they been on their A games.
Boise’s offense is much better than LSU’s and Alabama’s, but those two have much better defenses. I have no hesitations putting those two ahead of BSU on the “defense wins championships” clause. Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Arkansas are less of sure things in that regard as they don’t have dominant Ds. OU we’ll know a lot more about after this coming week. Wisconsin’s defense is probably not quite as good as Boise’s, but the offense looks bulletproof with the monster running game and Russell Wilson always (and I mean always) having high percentage passing opportunities. Arkansas is almost exactly like Boise in terms of strengths and weaknesses. The Hogs have a longer list of skill position players that I trust though.
My voting is very fluid, and I am not opposed to putting Boise State at the top if I think they deserve it. Don’t take it personally. I’ve considered BSU a secondary rooting interest ever since I discovered them during the Dinwiddie era. I can’t hate a team wearing those shades of orange and blue.
Team Speed Kills -- SBNation's SEC Blog
If you're so inclined, follow me @Year2
Sounds good to me.
It’s nice to know you can be fluid, which is very difficult for most votes that actually matter in the sport.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
~voters
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
Because Oregon was 12-1 last year...
with their only loss being by 3 in the NC game. Georgia went 6-7 last year, and lost to UCF in the Liberty Bowl.
Oregon returned all their big playmakers, and UGA lost all their TBs with any experience… You have to assume Oregon is the better win right now.
Alabama’s win at Penn State is possibly a better win right now, although I don’t expect Penn State to finish with a winning record unless their QB play improves dramatically.
As for Arkansas I don’t think they are really that good right now. They’ve had arguably the easiest schedule in the country at this point, and their stats should look better than they do. I’d have them somewhere ~15 right now.
The same applies to Oklahoma, with the caveat that they could be the 15th best team and still do well in the Big 12 this season. Their offense looks good, but I suspect more than a few teams could carve their defense up.
And we won’t really know how good Wisconsin is until October… talk about a weak opening schedule too. UNLV, OrSt, No.Ill, and South Dakota.
Yeah. I'm unsure of Bama yet.
In the SEC, I have LSU, S Car, then Bama. I always love the Tide’s defense, but their offense still has some questions.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
"It takes no talent to give great effort." | "We’re not going to play to the outside noise." -- Chris Petersen
"[Kellen] Moore is a walking Staples® button." -- Ivan Maisel
"I’ve never seen a better prepared team than the Boise State Broncos and it was a privilege to watch them play." -- Lou Holtz
SoCar's O over Bama's?
Your knock is that Alabama’s offense has some questions and yet from week to week no one will ever know which Garcia will show up or how Spurrier will react. For those two reasons I’d question So.Car before Alabama…the Tide’s offense might not have show flash, but you can bank on getting ’workman-like" each week and teamed with that defense, “workman-like” should win almost every game.
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