AP preseason poll out: OSU #1, Michigan 2 votes

Submitted by Gordon on

The preseason AP poll is out.  In short...

1  Ohio State
2  TCU
3  Alabama
4  Baylor
5  Michigan State
6  Auburn
7  Oregon
8  USC
9  Georgia
10 Florida State
11 Notre Dame
12 Clemson
13 UCLA
14 LSU
15 Arizona State
16 Georgia Tech
17 Mississippi
18 Arkansas
19 Oklahoma
20 Wisconsin
21 Stanford
22 Arizona
23 Boise State
24 Missouri
25 Tennessee
 
Michigan received two votes, and is in the receiving votes pile with Nebraska and Penn State.

wolpherine2000

August 23rd, 2015 at 3:59 PM ^

...schedule and coaching, it's very difficult not to pick Ohio State as the #1 team in the country on the first week of the season.  However, that's not the same as picking them to end the season as champions - there's a deliciously high chance that their run is subverted by something unbecoming with very little to do with football...

 

Walter Sobchak

August 23rd, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^

I think there will be a fair amount of top 25 teams bring upset in the first few weeks, as many teams have unsettled QB situations.

Cold War

August 23rd, 2015 at 3:56 PM ^

Sparty got rung up whenever they played a top offensive team - Oregon, Ohio, and Baylor. Their effectiveness depends on overwhelming a relatively weak offense. We aren't elite, but I think our offense and scheming will be good enough to expose them a bit.

MJ14

August 23rd, 2015 at 6:18 PM ^

This is not what the original poster meant at all. They meant that MSU relies on teams having weak offenses for their defensive scheme to work. Teams that have a good offense expose MSU. That was the original posters point. It had nothing to do with the MSU offense. 

MDot

August 23rd, 2015 at 10:15 PM ^

Right. I don't agree with his point tho. MSU's defense last year was the weakest it's been in the past few years. Just because they were ripped up by Oregon/OSU/Baylor last year isn't an indictment on their D throughout Dantonio's tenure.

 

With that being said, there is a significant chance they are horrible in their secondary (for their standards, anyway) this year. Their front seven could have had a chance to be the best in the country, but that was dependent largely on Ed Davis having an All-American year (Calhoun & Waynes got the most hype, but Davis was their most consistant player on D last year).

 

Like last year, they will need to average 45+ a game to contend..