Tuesday, November 20

BlogPoll ballot #13: After many hours spent deep in thought at the Detroit airport . . .

Last week, for the first time in 27 games, I missed a Georgia game entirely -- didn't get to attend, didn't get to watch it on TV, didn't even get to pick it up on the radio. (Somehow, the Dawgs overcame this negligence.) Thanks to debilitating post-Michigan-OSU fatigue, however, I ended up spending most of Saturday night vegetating in an Ann Arbor hotel room, and managed to catch up on a little bit of what was going on in the rest of the country.

Games watched: Miami (Ohio)-Akron (go ahead, make your jokes), Arizona-Oregon, Hawaii-Nevada, Ohio State-Michigan (you are looking LIVE!), most of Boston College-Clemson and Texas Tech-Oklahoma.

1. LSU (last week: 1)
Just when it looked like LSU's number-one candidacy was hanging by a very slim thread, two of the teams creeping up on them (Oregon and Oklahoma) got cracked. Fans better hope the Tigers spend this week focusing more on shoring up their defense than on Les Miles's future job prospects, because their defense seems to have slacked off a bit over the past few weeks -- just a hint, guys, you shouldn't ever be allowing John Parker Wilson or Brent Schaeffer to look like superstars -- and life isn't going to get any easier if Glenn Dorsey's knee injury continues to linger.

2. Kansas (3)

3. West Virginia (4)

4. Ohio State (6)
If you were bored silly by the OSU-Michigan game, blame the Buckeyes' defense; their dominance ensured that a 14-3 lead was more than enough to cruise on for the rest of the day. And they may have snuck right back into the national-title conversation, too.

5. Missouri (7)

6. Arizona State (10)

7. Georgia (8)
Three tear-your-hair-out turnovers in the first half against Kentucky had red lights and sirens going off all across Bulldog Nation, but it says something that they gathered themselves up and covered the spread on a ranked, bowl-bound team just the same. That wake-up call should serve them well as they prepare to square off against a Georgia Tech team that would really like to beat them sometime this century.

8. Florida (9)

9. Oklahoma (5)
Booted right out of the national-title race when Sam Bradford had to leave the Texas Tech game with a concussion; Bradford may come back this week -- unlike Oregon's Dennis Dixon -- but starting tailback DeMarco Murray will not. Which means the Sooners could still have their hands full keeping up with Oklahoma State on the scoreboard.

10. Boston College (17)

11. Virginia Tech (11)

12. Southern California (12)

13. Texas (15)

14. Illinois (14)

15. Boise State (16)

16. Virginia (20)
Not sure if they deserve a four-spot bump for doing nothing this past weekend, but at the very least they'll be rested enough to make the Commonwealth Cup game in Charlottesville very, very interesting.

17. Oregon (2)
If you saw any of the Ducks' performance at Arizona last Thursday, you know they're basically done, not just in the national-title race but perhaps in the Pac-10 race as well (they still have to face UCLA and Oregon State). Brady Leaf looked like he'd been accidentally given a playbook written in Sanskrit, and the coaches aren't going to be able to completely revamp the offense around him in the span of two weeks.

18. Tennessee (19)

19. Connecticut (24)

20. Texas Tech (NR)

21. Brigham Young (NR)
While everybody's been busy mulling over Hawaii's BCS chances for the past two months, BYU has very quietly overcome a 1-2 start to win seven straight and has a very good shot at a second straight undefeated MWC season. They're not going to sniff a BCS bowl, but I think a case can be made that they're the best mid-major in the country at the moment.

22. Wisconsin (25)

23. Hawaii (21)
Did their best to throw away a two-touchdown lead at Nevada but got bailed out by some clutch plays by their backup QB (and some head-slappingly bad clock management by Nevada's coach). That may not cut it against Boise State this week, though the Warriors have played their best games by far at home.

24. South Florida (NR)

25. Cincinnati (18)

The next five: Clemson, Kentucky, Rutgers, Auburn, Arkansas.

Dropped out: Clemson (13), Michigan (22), Penn State (23).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If Hawai'i stays within 20 of Boise State, I'd be shocked. The Rainbow Warriors have looked mediocre against a laughable schedule, and it's pretty clear that the clock is reading 14:59.