RIVALS.COM PRESEASON RANKINGS 2006 Rank 2005 Record 1 Ohio State 10-2 2 Notre Dame 9-3 3 Southern Cal 12-1 4 LSU 11-2 5 Texas 13-0 6 West Virginia 11-1 7 Auburn 9-3 8 Oklahoma 8-4 9 Florida 9-3 10 Miami-FL 9-3
Street & Smith 1. Ohio State (10-2 in 2005) 2. West Virginia (11-1) 3. Texas (13-0) 4. Notre Dame (9-3) 5. Florida (9-3) 6. California (8-4 in 2005) 7. USC (12-1) 8. Auburn (9-3) 9. LSU (11-2) 10. Oklahoma (8-4) 11. Florida State (8-5) 12. Michigan (7-5) 13. Louisville (9-3) 14. Miami (9-3) 15. Virginia Tech (11-2) 16. Arizona State (7-5) 17. Nebraska (8-4) 18. Alabama (10-2) 19. Georgia (10-3) 20. Penn State (11-1) 21. Iowa (7-5) 22. Texas Tech (9-3) 23. Clemson (8-4) 24. Oregon (10-2) 25. TCU (11-1)
Athlon 1. Oklahoma 2. Notre Dame 3. USC 4. Ohio St. 5. Florida 6. West Virginia 7. Texas 8. California 9. Auburn 10. Louisville 11. LSU 12. Clemson 13. Michigan 14. Miami 15. Georgia 16. Iowa 17. Florida State 18. TCU 19. Oregon 20. Tennessee 21. Virginia Tech 22. Texas Tech 23. Utah 24. Arizona St. 25. Nebraska
Then there is this from the Sporting News... Notre Dame will be the national champion July 7, 2006 Brady Quinn is the best quarterback in the nation. … The schedule is friendly. … Charlie Weis is Einstein with a headset. There, I said it. I'm on board. Here's another Golden Dome-sized scoop of hype for your tailgate, Touchdown Jesus: ND will win the national title. I can't believe I just typed that. But it's true. NOTRE DAME: 2006 NATIONAL CHAMPION. You thought the bookstores in South Bend already sold a lot of T-shirts. Holy mother of God! It has been a long time coming. ND's last title came in 1988. Oh, I remember. I saw that team in action vs. Purdue. The Irish clobbered the Boilermakers, sent 'em back to West Lafayette in a Hefty bag. It looked like ND would start minting national titles in the early 1990s. Didn't happen. Came close in 1993 -- but didn't happen. But look at the Irish now. All shiny, sparkly and bright. I just want to spurt some Pledge on 'em, polish 'em up and stick on my mantel next to my son's bronzed baby booties. That's some kinda special in my house. But this is some kinda special team. Let me begin with Quinn. But, c'mon, he's Brady to you and me. Not only is he college football's best quarterback, but he's also a college football heartthrob. Just buy our preseason magazine, rip out his picture and pin it up on your daughter's bedroom wall. You'll be her hero for eternity. Chas Weis? Oh, he's no pin-up boy. But, boy, can he coach. Weis' answer to E = mc2? Quinn to Jeff Samardzija. Oh, Chas will diagram some runs for Darius Walker behind an underrated line. But it's his Quinn to Samardzija formula -- with all of its variations -- that will propel Notre Dame back to its rightful place atop the national rankings -- and right into your heart. You don't have to know how to turn a coconut into a radio to figure out how to make a Notre Dame fan stutter. You say you've forgotten? Just cue the Fiesta Bowl tape! Ohhhh. Ugghhhh. The defense gets two thumbs down. Still, there's material to work with. I don't think the line gets enough credit. Tackles Trevor Laws and Derek Landri are salty, and end Victor Abiamiri has star potential. It's the linebackers and cornerbacks that worry me. And the special teams need to develop. But back to the positives: The schedule should perk you up. It is, in a word, "laughable." That's right. This is a one-game schedule -- at USC. That gives ND 11 "preseason" games to prep for its showdown in Los Angeles vs. USC. Sure, the opener at Georgia Tech has "danger" stamped all over it. But, c'mon: It's Georgia-flipping-Tech. Next comes the Big Ten portion of the schedule. Big whoop. The two toughies, Penn State and Michigan, are in South Bend. Six more "snooze-fests" follow. Think of it as your chance to rake leaves, go pumpkin shopping and winterize the lawn mower. Then, finally, the grand finale in the L.A. Coliseum. In December, Brady Quinn will win the Heisman and replace George Washington on the dollar bill. In January, the Irish will win the national title and Chas Weis will become the highest-paid man in America. And then, the world will end. Not really. It'll just feel that way watching a story unfold that we've waited too long to hear. Where's my "Play Like A Champion" towel? I think I'm gonna cry.
Sounds like the Irish could be primed to make a run. But Michigan, Penn State and USC are pretty good barriers. I like the Gators chances in any given game, but that stretch of Auburn, Alabama and LSU on three consective weeks could kill our chances.
8) Those polls are interesting for a few reasons... Oklahoma is ranked #1 by Athlon, but barely crack the Top 10 in the others. The Sooners tried to dumb down their schedule as much as possible, but with games at Dallas vs. Texas and road games at Eugene, Oregon, College Station, TX and Stillwater, OK I have some real doubts about them going undefeated... Cal is ranked 6th and 8th in two of the polls, but doesn't crack the Top 10 in the other. The Golden Bears have a massive, Samoan, defensive line that is ranked #1 in one publication, but Tedford needs a QB to run that high octane offense of his... The SN article on Notre Dame was a bit over-the-top...eh? That clown thinks the Irish have a one-game schedule with USC? Exqueeze me, but Michigan, Penn State, UCLA and North Carolina aren't exactly chopped liver and road games at Georgia Tech and Michigan State look like trouble too... I think the polls can be summed up this way: there is nothing obvious going into this season. The entire Top 10 is questionable... :?
Only prediction I'm willing to make is that some of those teams listed will crash like a North Korean missle! Only question is which ones? stu
Ohio State will play someone in the BCS title game but I'm not sure who that may be. Could be West Va. or either Auburn, ND or Florida should these latter three somehow get through their schedules with only one loss. Both title teams could have and probably will have one loss this year. OU seems to be a favorite as well so a one loss Sooner team could be there. That's it...that's my short list of candidates to play in Tempe. I'm purposely leaving out last year's participants USC and Texas because of the reloading situation. OSU exacts revenge on the Horns and Cal upsets the Trogs.
POLLS <r>Jo'Co,<br/> <br/> I must admit it is nice to see the Irish in the top 10/5 preseason polls but I'm not a real fan of pre-season polls no matter who is at the top. In the case of ND this year I want to say "Oh Yeah baby"........but...there is a little voice inside of me that says let's just get by Georgia Tech first and don't get all caught up in this hype that the media suddenly wants to throw ND's way. <br/> <br/> For one thing, if the Irish do stumble, the media will be all over them as usual saying ND should have kept TW etc, etc, etc. blah, blah, son and so on... Secondly, even though I know in my heart and mind that CW is a much better coach than TW, there is something that wants to hold back and say it was only one season, show me some more. I will say that the wins we experienced last year were ligit and ND shoould have beaten usc and msu. The only game ND <B><s></s>truely<e></e></B> was beaten was the Fiesta Bowl.<br/> <br/> Could the Irish be as good as some of the polls indicate? Well I think the polls are a lot closer to reality this year than last. Anyone who truely knew the talent we had on hand knew ND was capable of a top 25 finish last year if coached correctly.(I did say correctly). As you know, ND was about a pre-season 45 last year if I remember correctly.<br/> <br/> Yes, ND could win it all, so could about 8 or 9 other teams. <br/> <br/> At the beginning of last season I said I would be happy if the Irish could come up with around 7 wins and have a good recruiting season. Obviously, my wishes were met way over and above on both of those and as of right now, recruiting for ND is still going gangbusters so the future is bright again in South Bend. <br/> <br/> So, for this season I will be more than happy to see the Irish finish with 9 wins. Anythhing above that is iceing on the cake because the NC's will come if we hold onto CW and keep recruiting like we are right now. <E>8)</E></r>
8) I believe the Irish were ranked #53 at this time last year; just ahead of Penn State who was #56. Meanwhile, Michigan and Tennessee were both in the Top 5. These preseason polls are amusing and give us something to talk about, but I'm under no illusions... The new polls did cause me to do some research last night, because one of the early season games is shaping up to be a duesy. Cal-Tennessee at Knoxville will tell us a lot about those two teams and the direction of the new season. As I checked the boards and websites I noticed that neither team believes there is any way they can lose this game, and neither team seems to really know anything about the other. While both sides respect each other and the debates are very polite, I can see that both sides expect to win this game easily. The Cal fans think of the SEC as a kind of Neanderthal village, where everybody runs the ball and the forward pass is a trick play. They regard Neyland as just a bigger version of the stadiums at Washington or Oregon and they haven't really heard of any of the Vol players. I'm not at all convinced that they know the difference between Tennessee, Georgia or Alabama. To them its all the same... On the other side, the Tennessee fans really don't know anything about the Pac10 and probably couldn't locate Berkeley without a roadmap. Many were looking forward to playing against a "Pac10 defense", not realizing that Cal's defense was #1 in the Pac10 last year, while its returning the #1 ranked DL in the nation this year, along with a 1st team preseason All-American cornerback. If Tennessee's offense can score on these guys, they will have shown dramatic improvement indeed. Vol fans are also expecting to meet a "Pac10" offense with loads of passing, but that isn't true either. The Golden Bears return Marshawn Lynch, who's the greatest running back in the country after Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson and the guy behind Lynch is almost as good. Watch for Cal to try to run it down their throats if they can... I think this early non-con game has the potential to be one of the best of the year. Both teams may be much better than anyone suspects now and they're both regarded as pretty good. For the Vols, its a chance at redemption and rebirth. A win in this game could put them back on-track with a shot at the SEC title. For Cal, a win would put them on a track to a NC if they can knock off the Trojans at the end of the year. Both teams need this game to build a resume that will put them in line for a BCS slot. I'm really looking forward to this game and I'm not alone. ESPN has now picked it up for a national telecast...
Didn't CAL's QB recently get into trouble for tossing a beer mug at a bouncer in a bar? I think that's a major problem for Tedford is the QB position. Which seems odd since Tedford is a QB guru, you would think that being on the West Coast where there are a lot of QBs that he would have about 4 or 5 on the roster that are all top arms.
Tedford does have 4-5 good QBs. In fact, the guy who started last year, Ayoob, is now 4th string. The only time you should see him is when he's holding on PATs. Last year was a fluke, caused by a lot injuries. What would we have done if Quinn had been hurt last year? Cal had a similar situation. Its fixed now and they should be ready, especially if the QB is Longshore, who's pretty darn good. The clue that Cal thinks it has passers this year is that Tedford has switched them to the spread offense, which he will unvail in Knoxville...
Yea...that spread option worked pretty good for UF vs. Tenn..... not. I do think Cals defense will give the Vols fits though since they were not that good on O last year. I predict Cal 21-19. Take the Vols and 3 points...