I doubt Faith No More was talking about the Maryland Terrapins, but it serves as an appropriate lead-in to this week’s poll. I could not have been more wrong about the occurrences of the past weekend. I don’t know why I was fooled once again by the perpetually Soft Batch Cal Golden Bears.
25. LSU Last Week: NR
LSU had their last tuneup over the weekend, throttling North Texas. They now face the offensively-challenged Auburn tigers. I really have nothing else to say about this team, as they’ve showed us nothing thus far, but Appalachian State is better than 1/2 of the teams in Division 1-A, and the Tigers are the defending champs….so here they remain for now.
24. Northwestern Last Week: NR
Nice to see the Wildcats get off to a 3-0 start, even if it is against an assortment of clowns. I don’t think it will last, but they should certainly reach a bowl with the state of the Big 10 this year.
23. Connecticut Last Week: NR
See: Northwestern.
22. Air Force Last Week: NR
This team is pretty legitimate. I love what Troy Calhoun has done with them – sticking with the triple-option whilst adding a few quirks. The schedule is quite manageable (they get both Utah and BYU at home), and it would not surprise me to see the Falcons win 10 games this season.
21. Kentucky Last Week: NR
The Wildcats are currently ruling over the also-rans of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia with an iron fist. They should continue their tyranny with a thorough annexing of Western Kentucky this weekend.
20. Georgia Last Week: NR
The Bulldogs finally played a decent team over the weekend…though I suppose decent is a relative term…in any case, Georgia has still failed to impress me – though a convincing win at Arizona State this weekend would certainly get the ball rolling.
19. Texas Last Week: 19
Texas is an anomaly to me.
18. Texas Tech Last Week: 25
Sticking to the theme of the bottom half of the poll we’ve got a few more weeks before the Red Raiders play anyone decent. It’s fun to watch that offense, though.
17. Auburn Last Week: 20
Good gravy, that was a terrible offensive showing against Mississippi State. I can’t really justify moving them up three spots after that…but they were probably underranked to begin with. The LSU game will define them.
16. Texas Christian Last Week: NR
The Horned Frogs are a surprise team this season. I was quite impressed by their Stanford win, but now their New Mexico win is starting to look better as well. Their defense has looked impressive thus far, but it will take quite an effort to slow down Oklahoma in two weeks.
15. Oklahoma State Last Week: 11
I definitely overranked the Cowboys last week. That is all.
14. Utah Last Week: 13
Did ANYONE play a legitimate team over the weekend?!?!?
13. South Florida Last Week: 23
They looked awful coming out of the gate against Kansas, but Matt Grothe rallied the troops (despite courting disaster at every turn). The defense looks like they’ve taken a step back, but in a weak Big East…
12. Penn State Last Week: 15
Their inability to stay out of jail worries me, but they have looked dominant thus far, and getting rid of Morelli seems to be addition by subtraction. They look like the best team in the Big Ten.
11. Florida Last Week: 10
We’ll see what they’re made of against Tennessee.
10. Oklahoma Last Week: 17
The Sam Bradford Heisman campaign continues…I still think they’ll fold in the big game, though.
9. Wake Forest Last Week: 7
I can’t believe there are people out there who think they’re losing to Florida State. It’s not happening.
8. Wisconsin Last Week: NR
This does not look like a good team on either side of the ball, but they won a tough road game at Fresno State.
7. Oregon Last Week: 12
Almost made me recant all the great things I said about them last week. Good road win, though.
6. Vanderbilt Last Week: 9
If you ask me, they looked better against South Carolina than Georgia did. They’re half-way to a bowl game!
5. Alabama Last Week: 2
They’ve looked considerably less impressive every week, but I just can’t forget that beatdown of Clemson.
4. Missouri Last Week: 5
Biding their time….
3. Brigham Young Last Week: 16
Here’s another team I was dead wrong about. These guys are good.
2. East Carolina Last Week: 1
ALMOST let the season slip through their fingers, but they held on. A let down was understandable after those first two games. A thorough smiting of NC State would look pretty good.
1. Southern California Last Week: 6
Made Ohio State look like…well…like they’ve looked all season.
