Florida and ND are exactly where I thought they would be: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2539278
It goes to show how "offense" minded that pollsters are. OSU lost some great defensive players from last year. They may be able to "reload" but it's hard for me to believe that they can replace linebackers like Hawk and Carpenter without missing a beat. At the same time, ND's offense should be very good. Still, what do these pollsters know about ND's defense that I don't. Meanwhile, the sleeper, WVA is lurking in the reeds with a NC type schedule.
:idea: I agree with both Gip and MCG. This first poll is filled with more assumptions than certainty... - Ohio State lost 9 of 11 on defense and ranked #1? I've never seen that before. - Texas is in the Top 5, but Vince Young was the only reason that they won out last year and he was running his own offense. I still don't believe that Mack Brown is a real coach, he's just a good recruiter. - Notre Dame has 9 of 11 returning on defense. Is that good? The 9 new guys for Ohio State might be better than the Irish returning 9. - USC has loads of talent, but their QBs are new and they have ZERO experienced TBs. Chauncey Washington, a former HSAA, has sat on the bench for 4 years with grade problems and injuries. He's the starter and everybody else is a true freshman. Freshmen and new QBs make mistakes, especially against experienced defenses...like Cal, Nebraska, Oregon, Arizona and Notre Dame who're all on the Trog schedule. BTW- The Pac10 coaches didn't pick USC as the favorite to win the conference. The favorite to win among the Pac10 coaches is Cal... - Florida's defense has almost as much to prove as Notre Dame's. If the Gator's defense is improved the QB situation will take care of itself...IMHO. - I still don't believe in TCU, but I think Texas Tech is a danger to everyone with that offense of theirs... Early season games that are huge: Cal @ Tennessee Nebraska @ USC Arizona @ LSU Notre Dame @ Georgia Tech Michigan @ Notre Dame Penn State @ Notre Dame There are others, but I keep coming back to the Cal-Tennessee game as a match that could scramble everything... .............JO'Co -
I question that we should be #1 in the opening poll, but it is based on offensive weapons. Defense wins football games! We do have a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball, but unproven in actual competition. I thought the pollsters were very complimentary to Texas at number two position. We will know more about my Buckeyes following the game in Austin. Don
I don't see how any team replacing 9 defensive starters can be ranked #1 w/o playing a game. I agree OU should slip a little after losing Bomar. On UF's defense actually they were pretty decent last year most of the time with the exception of Cutler and a few long balls vs. Bama. Any improvement in the secondary and UF could be damned good on D.
OU should drop sooner than later. This was obviously voted on before their QB was kicked off the team. In my oponion, they should just get rid of the pre-season rankings all together and start one after the 3rd or 4th week with last years final standings as guidelines. Not such a bad idea, but im not complaining. The thing about all these rankings that i dont like is that if your already in the top 10 and you have an easy schedule, its almost impossible to jump ahead of that undefeated team if you have 1-loss. For example, lets say west virginia goes undefeated with their soft schedule and the gators with their murderous schedule manage to only lose 1 game, W.V. would still make it over them. IMO they should take strength of schedule alot more seriously. The way alot of teams are doing it now, is their giving themselves an easy schedule hoping that they will finish in the top 3 and have a chance for a title. When the 1-loss teams with their tough schedules end up get screwed over instead of rewarded for playing such tough teams. Go Gators!! Lets make it happen this year :!:
First off welcome to the Skybox TheSwampSince1982!! Always nice to have a new member. As far as the poll, I thought the same thing, that is that they ought to do away with pre-season polls and just have the first one after the last Sat in Sept. That way things might have sorted themselves out. Well last year they had a new poll that was comprised of old coaches and football players and such. Such notables as Bo Schembechler and John Cooper participated. They did exactly what I hoped would become the norm, no poll till after the last Sat in Sept. So when their first poll came out I was surprised to see that their poll matched the Coaches and AP polls almost exactly. So I guess it really doesn't make any difference other than it irritates people when there is a ranked team that stumbles out of the gate, Tenn and Michigan were examples last year. Again Welcome to the Skybox! Terry
I dont expect Miami to do anything beyond cracking the Top Ten and then maybe not even staying there. Coker's days are numbered. The Gonz
Mabye, but you never know. You shouldnt go into the season with that kind of mentality. You still are the "U" right?? :lol: If you guys manage to get past FSU and on the road against Lousiville, things could turn out nicely for you guys. The defence is arguably the best in the nation, but the offence...on the other hand??
Let's face facts. If W. Va. is able to run the table with that killer Big East schedule, they would be head and shoulders over a one-loss SEC, Big10, Big12, or Pac10 team. :wink: By the way, welcome Swamp. Good group here.
Their Qb/Rb combo is pretty darn good. As for the defence, I'm not sure their quite at that championship level yet. With their schedule though, I'de be surprised if they werent in the top5 at seasons end. If they get past lousville its all but in the bag. But i wouldnt turn my back on the cardinals, their rb is as solid as they came, as well as their QB. A game to watch out for. Miami at Lousville. Dont be suprised if Lousville pulls it off, even though with that canes defence, it might seem unlikely.
preseason polls <r>Well I would echo the thoughts of others on this subject as I'm not a fan of "pre-season" polls either. Let's wait until they play about 4 or 5 games to to see how they do before we say anything. Of course that doesn't sell anything on the networks when they are hyping the games to sell that commercial time now does it? <br/> <br/> I will admit that having ND start out at #3 or 6 or whatever does my heart good after last years pre-season poll when we weren't even close to the top 25. <E>:?</E></r>
Jim, I quite agree with you that pre-season polls don't mean anything... Your list of huge early games is, uh, interesting to say the least. You've got the entire Notre Dame early schedule listed (where did that come from?) :wink: I mean those are fine games reflecting ND's great schedule, but you list: ND vs. No. 15 ND vs. No. 19 ND vs. unranked You talk about the game that could scramble everything whereby the No. 12 team butts heads against the No. 23 team... And yet you don't even list the No. 1 vs. No. 2 game. :?: You must really NOT give the poll any credit. :lol: Or else were you picking only "sleeper" games that are huge?
re: Notre Dame schedule Notre Dame doesn't play in a conference. This means that they have to play a front-loaded schedule, with USC at the end. In between, they play what they can find, while most schools are playing their exciting in-conference games. In most seasons, ND will play more important games in the early part of the season than most other teams. Later on, while conference affiliated teams are playing traditional rivals, ND is stuck playing all three service academies plus North Carolina. That's (hopefully) pretty dull stuff. Are you suggesting that ND's games with Penn State, Michigan, Purdue and MSU aren't big games? That's the Big Ten part of the schedule......... re: the poll I was just giving my initial impression of the first poll and the early games that could effect it. It wasn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. In fact, I didn't even mention the Ohio State-Texas game, which is probably thee, single most important game of the first two weeks of the new season and will tell us a lot about where those two teams and conferences are headed... re: Cal vs. Tennessee I keep mentioning that game, because I'm trying to raise a flag that you guys will notice. Read my lips. The folks out here (NoCal) think that Cal might be the best team in the nation. They're dead serious. That's not what I think, but I do believe that Cal has as much talent as anyone and that it has a real chance to run the table. They play all of their tough opponents at home, except two: Tennessee and USC. If they win those two key games, they just might run the table and be ranked in the Top 3, with an undefeated team at the end of the year and a lock on the Rose Bowl as Pac10 champ... For Tennessee...they're a great program that is rollerskating near the rim of the abyss. When was the last time that they won a big game? How far down does this current slide go before they fire their coach? Recruiting is faltering, the natives are restless... how can Fulmer work his way out of this mess and turn the ship around to head in the other direction? Beating Cal, with all of its early season pretentions, would go a long way to getting the Big Orange back on track...IMHO. It's only my opinion, but I think that either Cal or Tennessee will play a major role in deciding who is in the Top 10 this year and they play each other right off the get-go. I'm really curious to see if either of those teams is as good as they think they are. IMHO...this game is just as important as Ohio State-Texas or Penn State-Notre Dame in the early going of the 2006 season... ..........JO'Co
Of course not... I thought I was clear, but I guess I wasn't. I intended to give credit to your schedule and thought that I did so. The Big 10 part of ND's schedule is obviously huge to Big 10 fans and I would hope it is huge for ND's legions (seems to be when you sweep 'em, anyway :wink: ), and would have national interest and implications as well. I just thought it wuz kinda humorous that in listing your games of huge national ramifications you put ND's entire schedule in and left out the #1 vs. #2 game. That was all. I got no problem with Cal-Tenn either...my last sentence was meant to imply that mebbe you were just putting games in that us'ns might not think of...which apparantly is what you were doing.
Y'all see how I got two posts out of this by separating it out??? I'm larnin' Terry's secrets. Put me down as one who would like to think that we are rated #1 despite losing all those defensive starters is because we have great talent coming up, and in reality a lot of our returning defenders have played a fair amount and gotten experience, even though they were'nt listed as starters at the end of the season (some even DID start some games in the middle of the season due to injuries). However, instead mark me down as thinking that we are ranked #1 and Texas is ranked #2 for one simple reason...the desire of the pollsters and media to have an early #1 vs. #2 game.
I think Ohio State deserves to be #1, because you have probably the best offense that Tressel has ever had comming back. On defense while you guys have lost a lot of great players, Tressel has a reputation/track record of always having at the veryleast a good solid defense, so it's easy to assume that your defense will be good this year, young but good. Terry
Somebody has to be #1 so it might as well be OSU. They will find out real quick at Texas if they deserve it.