Michigan Would Be Too High In The Coaches Poll But Apparently Isn't
The meaningless expectations of SIDs picking team names at random as long as they're from the SEC has landed. The top ten:
- LSU
- Alabama
- USC
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Florida State
- Michigan
- South Carolina
- Arkansas
Wisconsin is 12, MSU 13, Nebraska 16. ND is 24. Ohio State is ineligible due to bowl ban. So is Penn State but… yeah, probably not relevant there.
I'd say Michigan is too high but Arkansas. Seriously: Arkansas. The team coached by a raving duck-man is tenth. So I guess we're good. It doesn't take long for expectations to rebound to the usual when you are a college football blue-blood.
BONUS DISPUTE: VT is heinously under-ranked at 20. Logan Thomas is going to blow up this year. They crushed #8 Michigan everywhere but the scoreboard in the Sugar Bowl, and IIRC their defense was flush with sophomores last year. They have to replace almost everyone other than Thomas on O, but it won't matter that much early.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:52 PM ^
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
Yeah, but we will get no credit for it at the end of the year when all we will have done was beat two 7-5 teams.
But Florida team will come up soon with high rank.
Though being "crushed" in all facets of the game other than "points" (not that those silly things matter...who keep track..?), I'd say I'd have taken our special teams over theirs, unconditionally.
And given that our All-America center got hurt in pregame warmups and played on one leg the whole game, I don't think we can draw too many conclusions about our offense/their defense.
Look, it wasn't pretty, but that's what happens when two defensive teams play each other. I think VT was underrated by a lot of people because of two bad match up games with Clemson. They're well coached and talented. Elite last year? No. But a good football team, particularly defensively. Especially with a month to prepare.
It's not like that wasn't our M.O. all year. Let people move the ball up and down on us, but keep them to FGs and out of the endzone. We're not talented enough to be a shut down defense yet. It'll come.
And the offense goes how Denard goes. When he's on, we're a machine. When he's not, it's ugly. I expect more of the former than the latter as a senior in his second year in the system. How we do this year is going to rest on his shoulders a whole lot.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:51 PM ^
In the words of our favorite Sparty coach of all time:
"WHO'S TALKIN!?"
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^
And the annual tradition of overrating FSU pre-season continues...
[Edit] Wow, 3 of the first 4 comments are about exactly this. Very impressive, MGoHiveMind.
I imagine the coaches poll came out before their three yr starter and special teams player, CB Greg Reid was dismissed from the team.
"Last month, Reid told police he had no knowledge of the marijuana found in his car."
Uhhh huh.
He should get his mom to come claim it...
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
Surprised they don't have FSU higher, in the top 5 or something. That always works out.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^
Is it possible to see who actually used their first place vote on FSU? Are the actual ballots always made public or only in the final poll?
Phil Steele predicted an Oklahoma FSU National Championship this year, with FSU winning, lol
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
...I love that Sparty is still 5 spots lower. That must chap their asses something terrible. I freaking love it.
We were ranked ahead of them last year and MSU handed us our asses.
that's sort of my point. I have a feeling this poll is a source of angst for them But this year, I have a feeling things will be quite different, baring any freak wind storms.
I remember the game being a lot closer than that, with an experimental/transitional offense, too. If we played them later in the season it easily would've been a very different game.
you know, the officials decided to be a little more than theoretical. That backwards pass no-call was just dadaist.
Plus we rushed 35-40 times that game and got nowhere, because half the runs were designed Drob runs which aren't nearly as effective as zone reads, and the other half of the carries were by Smith and Gardener. Fitz had maybe 2 touches all game.
I don't know, I think their defense just smothered us, like Va Tech's did. Alabama will try to do the same, I'm sure.
Their defense was good, but our passing numbers were better than theirs, and we had equal first downs, but +6 on MSU penalties, lol, and roughly equal rushing attempts, we just didn't rush effectively, and they didn't let Denard play to his strengths in that game. If Fitz had the bulk of the touches we would've managed more than 82 positive yards. The 2 qb's on (poorly) designed runs managed -64 yards to +91 for a net of +27 yards on 24 carries, where Smith managed +42 and only -5 on 8 carries. If they had Fitz running like he did against Illinois, Nebraskas, and Ohios great defenses and Denard running on read options instead we would've had a lot more positive yardage, more 3rd downs, more clock, and a win.
We had two possessions in the 4th quarter down by one score, and in the first one we drove inside their 10-yard line before turning it over on downs. We were outplayed, certainly, but it wasn't a blowout.
4 years is not enough to gain respect, & this year, it ends!!!!
M is too high. Given their brutal road schedule, I'd put them in the 12-15 range. But I guess we're back to the point at which M perennially gets too much benefit of the doubt. So that's progress!
I agree that 8 might be a tad high, but you can't rank based on strength of schedule. Even though we might lose 2 or 3 games to tough opponents, it doesn't mean we aren't one of the ten best teams in the country IMO. That ranking certainly seems justified for a team coming off an 11-2 season, a BCS bowl victory, and also returns most of the offense including heisman candidate Denard.
I think we're in the mid teens. We're a hard team to rank honestly, like you said 11-2 and BCS victory but a lot of little things could've gone differently and we could've been 9-4 or worse. Yeah, we get Denard back for a second year in the same system, but his security blanket, Hemingway, is gone and the no one in the reciever corp has really proven themselves. Same goes for D-line, there are a lot of question marks.
Every team has weaknesses. If we're in the mid-teens, can you really name 14-15 teams that are better?
Sometimes I wonder what the people think when they vote on this. Well I might as well put Florida St. in there, maybe they will finally stick. Bowden is still coaching, right?
FSU has had some pretty good recruiting classes. I think most analysts keep thinking that talent has to show it self on the field sometime even if the coaching isn't great.
According to Rivals, FSU's recruiting class ranking
2012-6th
2011-2nd
2010-10th
2009-7th
2008-9th.
Just FYI,
Alabama 12'-1st, 11'-1st, 10'-5th, 09'-1st, 08'-1st. Holy hell they will have a serious talent advantage over anyone this year and for years to come.
OSU 12'-4th, 11'-11th, 10'-25th, 09'-3rd, 08'-4th
Michigan 12'-7th, 11'-21st, 10'-20th, 09'-8th, 08'-10th.
Just curious, what did USC's numbers look like?
Their recruiting was better in the early 2000's I think, but they have done well. They actually had the #1 class(signed in February 2010) the same year they had sanctions levied (June 2010) and the #4 class the next year. High school kids apparently don't care too much about sanctions that only effect the team for a couple years. The NCAA should take notice and make sanctions last at least 4 years if they want to hurt major programs from a recruiting standpoint.
USC 2012-8th,
11'-4th
10'-1st
09'-4th
08'-8th
Is this the Coach's Poll or Fulmer Cup?
I was just going to say, despite the board's negative consensus on FSU, who I think might actually be a pretty good team with a proven senior QB in E.J. Manuel, not many people are ragging on Georgia who might even be more overrated than FSU.
They just lost their best player to "personal idiocy" over the summer, so makes perfect sense to have them ranked highly. And Richt seems to only coach well when he's fighting for his job. I have them as one of my top candidates to disappoint this year.
VT-GT labor day night and we have 9-10 starters coming back on D
it may be tough for VT to break 20
I was being sarcastic, but I didn't think I'd have to spell it out... Oklahoma and Texas have virtually no competition in the Big12 now. They replaced Nebraska with TCU, Nebraska>>>TCU, they replaced A&M with West Virginia, A&M>>> WVU, and they replaced Mizzou and Colorado with nobody.
Over the past decade, the A&M - West Virginia comparison would have to go decidedly in West Virginia's direction. A&M hadn't won the Big 12 since 1998, which is also the last time they went to a BCS bowl. West Virginia, by comparison, has three BCS appearances since 2005 (all of which they've won). Now, of course, you're talking about significantly different competition over that time as well as WVU's best decade in its history, but A&M has failed to leverage the talent advantage it enjoys in Texas to its benefit for quite a while now, while WVU's figured out a particular niche of high octane offense and a strong home field advantage. They'll be competitive for the Big 12 title in their good years (or when OU or UT are down).
The other factor in the Big 12 is Boone Pickens' funding of an enormous facilities upgrade at OSU may turn them into a perpetual contendor. OU and UT will usually be favored, but "virtually no competition" is a vast exaggeration.
Honestly I think TCU will have more success in the Big12 than WVU. WVU has been running the table in the East for a while now, but that's not honestly saying much. TCU will likely get a healthy bump in recruiting in Texas by playing in an AQ conference, now.
If we think we're overrated, it's probably because we've scrutinized our roster like crazy and know about every potential weakness. If we did the same for other teams we'd find their weaknesses, too.
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