football player at UCLA gets to be a BMOC in a great area with great weather and endless attractive 'dating opportunities.' Lots of recruits like that deal.
Plus, no one will get down on them if they lose 4 or 5 games.
None of that is about enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
they lose at least 2 games. The middle part is a tough run with 4 of 6 games away (Iowa, NW, OSU, and MSU) and 2 home games against UM and Indiana. The BIG East Division is tough for everybody though.
Pretty large spread between Oklahoma at 8 and Michigan at 9. Is Oklahoma going to put up much of a fight vs. OSU?
Also - nice to see Harbaugh continues not to bother with voting. Better to worry about what matters.
They need to revoke that voter's credentials
It was probably either Dantonio or Narduzzi.
Breakdown of the Top Ten:
Other threads told me that its all about 4 and 5 starz, and the 4 and 5 starz are all in the South where they are bigger, faster, stronger, have better bag men, and play football year 'round.
Honestly aside from Alabama, the rest of the SEC has a ton of question marks.
-Is Orgeron going to be any better than Les Miles? I doubt it. To me, he's just Cajun Brady Hoke with a considerably smaller level of ethics.
-Is Auburn's QB situation going to pan out? A lot of people think it will, but their season will go down in flames if it doesn't.
-Sumlin is probably gone after this year. Caught lightning in a bottle with Manziel and his teams then proceed to fall apart in the second half of every season since.
-Georgia is a big unknown after a mediocre year of losing to Vanderbilt and GaTech. They have the most talent of anyone in the East, but who knows how much they've improved after only one season. They could be in for another 9-3 kind of year.
-Florida has no offense until proven otherwise.
-If Butch Jones was ever going to win big at Tennessee, last year was the year to prove he could do it. All of his highly recruited guys were upperclassmen, and they still fell apart when it mattered most.
-Arkansas and Miss State are meh, and Ole Miss is going back to being a shithole of a program for the foreseeable future. Not even worth discussing the rest of the conference.
Even Alabama has questions. They're definitely elite, but not invincible. The conference is still good, but everyone else has caught up to them.
Agreed. There shouldn't be more than 1 SEC team in the Top Ten.
But for years, they were stuffing them all in there based mostly on the rep of Alabama. They finally see past that shit.
They'll probably be undefeated and ranked no worse than #4 when we play them as a road dog. I'd much rather be a road dog against a team like PSU than go into Happy Valley as the favorite.
Judgement Day #2.
And check the polls in October/November.
GO BLUE!!
I actually have to thank Delaney (for a change) for them being off our schedule this year. They will be a vintage Cardiac Cat team as dangerous as it gets
Why is OSU at no. 2?
Sure, I know everyone looks at the recuiting starz etc., plus Meyer has a proven record, plus they return a lot of guys. All fair.
But seriously, in their last outing they were blown out 31-0.
They should be ranked high, but no. 2? Shouldn't USC and a few others be ahead of them?
As I saw it they got shut out by Clemson in large part b/c the right side of their o-line simply could not handle Clemson at all. Offense was dead in the water. Only 215 total yards.
Their o-line was far less than elite all year. Have they solved that problem? I mean solved it by something other than last years' starters being 1 year older?
Not saying they will be bad. Just saying that no. 2 is hard to see if they have not solved their o-line weak link.
Am I missing something here?
They were shut out 31-0 and generated hardly any offense.
But the bigger issue is the reason--they actually did not have top level o-line in 2016. It was their weak link. Simply overwhlemed in the Clemson game. And in the M-OSU game, their o-line left JT Barrett under pressure most of the game.
The question remains: Should OSU (or any team) be a pre-season no. 2 if their last two games exposed a serious flaw--an o-line that really has big problems with elite d-lines?
So I am wondering if anyone who follows things in Columbus knows whether they have a solution to that problem, or are instead just going to roll with the same o-line?
August 4th, 2017 at 12:32 AM ^
The answer is that these polls are generally lazy and mostly just interpolate what happen last year into this year.
That includes us. We are all the way up at #9 becuase of last year.
Voters in the poll probably don't get past 'well, they were in the playoff last year and return a lot, and Meyer, and blah, blah, so......no. 2."
But OSU seems to have a problem with their o-line that was exposed in the last two games (and probably the cause of their not very explosive offense aganst lesser teams earlier in 2016).
If they have not solved that problem, then no.2 is too high.
August 5th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
Worthless poll which needs to go away. Same with the AP. If it's not the CFP poll it doesn't matter. Also, don't care about the first poll, I care about the LAST poll.
August 4th, 2017 at 12:08 AM ^