Ivan Maisel's this time. For Tenn fans this is not a very good list since they are not listed at all. Vol fans can take great solace however in the fact that he has FSU #5 in the country in spite of losing 7 starters off the defense and he calls this FSU's best team in a long time? Gimme a break I says.... http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=2449900
Me thinks AJHuskerfan will like Ivan's list, Huskers are at #15. I think Maisel is figuring that the Semiholes have finally found a QB and that is why they are ranked so high. I buy that they will have a good defense, granted they lost a lot but they have continued to recruit well and while I'm not a big Mickey Andrews fan, you can't argue with the fact that year in and year out FSU is a very good defensive team. Of course they still have this little problem that the guy calling the plays still sucks! Irish at #8 is fine with me. I hate WVa at #3 because they play a weak schedule, and I don't think that the whupping that they put on UGA in the bowl is really indicative of anything. I am not afraid of OU, Bomar so far hasn't proved anything to me, that bowl win over Cal meant nothing as we saw 2 years ago Cal apparently doesn't care about getting ready for a bowl game unless it's the Rose Bowl That's the only explanation for their getting their asses kicked 2 years in a row by midlevel B12 teams. If I were Fulmer I'd be pretty happy with being ignored in the early polls, he has a good enough schedule to make a run it the Vols recover from last years disaster and I think they will now that David Cutliffe is back at OCoordinator. Terry
MCG wrote: This Tennessee fan thinks that fact alone gives this poll credibility. After last year, we shouldn't be in the top 25 until we are at least 3-0. :wink: :roll:
Correction, Doc. West Virginia plays what is most likely the weakest schedule in the history of college football.
Irish #8 <r>The Irish start off at number 8? Fair enough to me. Until they prove the defense has improved, that is about as high as I would rank them coming out of the chute. Besides, it's the rank you finish the season with that counts. <E></E></r>
Ditto on the Irish at #8... Cal, Miami, Louisville and Texas Tech seem too low... I think Ohio State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Florida State are too high... A BIG early game will be Oklahoma at Oregon. That will tell us a lot about both teams... .................JO'Co
Agreed on Ohio State JO'Co.... losses on defense were devastating and we'll miss more on the offense than people are suggesting. All the LB's and entire secondary is just too much on defense as well as a couple first rounders on offense....you just don't replace guys like that and go on without skipping a beat. That said, I do think we have a shot at being a very good football team and if we get by the early tests, they can make a helluva run at it. But, way too much unknown with these kids to rank them so highly preseason, imo. Terry
I do think you guys will have a very good team, only time will tell how good of course, but you have plenty of firepower comming back on offense and Tressel always puts together a good defense. Even when you lost a lot of defensive talent off the 2002 team you stayed in the top 20 the following year in defense. If the Irish had had a top 20 defense last year I think we could have been undefeated. But I still like the fact that UT's young QB's get the shot at your revamped defense early, not later after they've got a few games under their belt. Terry