Monday, September 10

BlogPoll ballot #3: No, it's all right, I'm fine.

You wouldn't believe how many e-mails and text messages I've received in the last 48 hours asking me about, of all things, my toaster oven.

Oh no wait, you would.

But anyway, just to put y'all's minds at ease, despite Georgia's nerve-wracking loss to South Carolina, my current toaster oven survived the weekend intact. I even toasted some bread just a few hours ago for dinner, in fact.

Now, if we lose to Western Carolina this weekend, that sumbitch is getting launched all the way to Selma. But until then . . .

Games watched: Alabama-Vanderbilt, Georgia-South Carolina, parts of Boston College-N.C. State and Oklahoma-Miami, most of South Florida-Auburn.

1. LSU (last week: 2)
There are 40 sportswriters and 42 coaches out there who really need to be grabbed by their respective lapels and asked, What on earth makes you so positive Southern Cal is better than LSU right now? USC has one mediocre demi-blowout of a piss-poor Idaho team on its résumé; LSU, meanwhile, just dropped 48 points and nearly 600 yards on last year's top-ranked defense. Hello? Anybody? Is this thing on?

2. Oklahoma (6)
Seventy-nine points against North Texas, you could say, "OK, but it was against North Texas." A 51-bomb on Miami's defense, though? That's a big deal.

3. Southern California (1)

4. West Virginia (3)

5. Wisconsin (5)

6. Ohio State (9)

7. California (7)

8. Florida (8)

9. Rutgers (11)

10. Arkansas (10)

11. Texas (24)
Back into respectable territory after adjusting brilliantly from a bad first half and blowing away an obvious upset aspirant. If I'm a 'Horn fan, though, the Red River Shootout scares me silly.

12. Penn State (16)

13. Oregon (26)
OK, so we already knew that Michigan's defense was a joke, but Oregon turned it into a bad one. You roll up 600-odd yards in the Big House, you get ranked.

14. Boston College (17)

15. Louisville (12)
I'm sure there's not a coach in the country who wouldn't love to have the Cards' offensive weapons to play with for a game or two, but that defense is going to get blown apart by West Virginia and Rutgers, and after this past weekend, perhaps South Florida's as well.

16. Georgia Tech (15)
Not to throw cold water on a 55-point blowout, but if they knew their rushing attack was top-shelf while their passing game needed work, why'd they only give Taylor Bennett nine passes to throw the entire game?

17. UCLA (20)

18. Nebraska (14)

19. Alabama (25)
The win in Nashville could've been more impressive, but at least Vanderbilt didn't play Bama as close as they usually do, even with a bad outing by John Parker Wilson to give them a hand.

20. Tennessee (29)
Wasn't sure how much faith I could put in them after the Southern Miss game, but upon further review, the Vols deserve a lot of credit for overcoming a worrisome first half, and for clamping down in a big way on the USM running game after being embarrassed by California's.

21. South Carolina (NR)

22. Georgia (13)
Well, we clearly still have some work to do, guys. Obviously we've got a lot of talent, but a Thanksgiving turkey isn't ready to come out of the oven after only 30 minutes and our offense wasn't quite ready to go against the Gamecocks. Alabama will be a huge test of whether we can get everything operating smoothly in time to make any kind of statement in the SEC East race.

23. Virginia Tech (4)
Ouch. Suffice to say I'll be refraining from making any major predictions on the Hokies for the rest of the year.

24. South Florida (NR)

25. Arizona State (22)

The next five: Hawaii (21), Iowa, Washington, Texas Christian (18), Clemson.

Dropped out: Texas Christian (18), Oregon State (19), Hawaii (21), Boise State (23).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

why in the world would you improve Ohio's ranking, for beating Akron, giving up a safety on that lame kick? Come on!

Anonymous said...

georgia tech ran the ball (as opposed to throwing it) because they were doing everything they could to end the game and running obviously eats up more of the clock.

Anonymous said...

i am a texas fan and the red river shootout scares me silly

Anonymous said...

thanks for the Ariz State vote...dont know why you would drop them three spots from last week (after they blew out Colo at home and their Sagarin rating now has them at #12)....but any love east of the Mississippi is appreciated. Love your blog and I am here every day.

Signed
GADevil married into an SEC family

PS: When ASU loses to UofStoopid it usually results in a combination of all your loss examples (fightin', bitchin', find a major vein and get laid)

beast in 'bama said...

Doug, I too am a Texas fan and the RRS scares me silly. Is this an AA meeting?

baal said...

can someone give me a link to the blogpoll

Anonymous said...

This post lacks a certain....large breastedness that should be a requirement on weeks when the dawgs drop a close one.

Anonymous said...

Why do wins over unproven marquee-name teams mean so much at this point in the season? Miami wasn't even a ranked team, and it for sure ain't '01 Miami. Who decided VaTech was a Top 10 team to begin with? Oh right, pre-season voters (and then kept them there, even after that somnambulent home opener against East Carolina).

Rankings shouldn't start until 3-4 games have been played. Yes, LSU and OU have looked impressive, but against what competition? For now, I don't care if LSU or OU are ahead of USC. No team has earned #1 yet.