And that was a painful lesson to many fans.
Saturday was supposed to be the week that we were treated with wall-to-wall great games in the SEC. We got four blowouts, a dullard in Knoxville, and Mizzou / Mississippi State trying their level best to give away the game. The Big 10 gave us some instant karma for the Wolverines, and the Big 12 did a little shaking out…but no real flexing of Top 10 muscles were to be found, outside of a handful of teams.
The Blog Poll is not a power poll. It is not biased by preseason polls (to the extent that I can manage). The criteria are nebulous, far-ranging, and capricious — strength of schedule, bad and good coaching, injuries, exigent circumstances, home/away results, defense or lack thereof, offense or lack thereof, line play, power poll-ishness, can you cover a spread. (Vegas is pretty smart about how good a team is), head-to-head where possible or prudent, and my own lying eyeballs. Who you beat has to matter the most at the end of the day, and who you lose to is relevant to the extent a tiebreaker is required among several candidates. Earlier polls lacking data points are obviously more fluid than later ones.
On to Week 4:
The Real Ones:
If you watched many games on Saturday, you walked away with a feeling that for as wide open as this season looks to be, there are only a handful of teams that seem capable of winning it all: Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and Notre Dame were leading that charge. Texas‘s defense, especially on the line, could get them there, but the offense has a lot of growing to do first. And Miami has the talent, but will we ever know? The schedule has been atrocious. One also wonders at the Irish’s inability to dominate on the ground, even against the likes of Purdue.
Mostly look the part, but…
There is another group of contenders that mostly look the part of a national title contender, but are just missing something. For LSU, that is a healthy defense, now down three men as well as an All-American tight end. Texas Tech and Indiana don’t have the firepower of last season, and IU struggled mightily against the first half decent team they faced. You love what Ole Miss brings to the table with Chambliss and a healthy Lacy, but you hate that inability to stop the run. Florida is suddenly up here as well, but that secondary is going to 100% get them beat by the first competent passing team they face — they even got torched by Byrum Brown. With Raiola under center, the Ducks finally looked like the Ducks ought, and hey — the defense even showed up. Oregon has all the talent in the world. The can and should rebound from a shaky early start. But for now, they belong buried in the 20s…they should have lost to Boise State as well.
Legitimate Conference Contenders
There is another group who look to be legit contenders in their conferences, but owing to talent, schedule, or roster deficiencies, figure to make some noise but would probably peter out on a larger stage: Franklin’s reborn Va. Tech Hokies, the BYU Cougars, the Utes, and Mississippi State belong here. We probably want to throw Iowa in here as well. They still have Ohio State at home, but the Hawkeyes could run the rest of the slate and finish 11-1 with an appearance in the B1GCG
The Solidly Middle Class
Then there are the group of guys who are, for lack of a better phrase, “the middle class.” These are your inevitable 8-9 game winners who are on track for good seasons and a quality Florida bowl game come new year’s week: These are your teams like Cincinnati, Houston, Tennessee, Kentucky, Duke — they’re not going to win titles, but they’ll play hard and should win their share of games. Whether that share is good enough for admins, fans and boosters is another story. Nine wins at Houston gets you a parade; eight wins with this team in Neyland very well may get you fired. And, hey, sitting at 3-1 with a road win in Happy Valley, we tip the cap to Wisconsin, who finally look respectable again.
Midmajor Shuffle?
James Madison did absolutely nothing to be knocked from their perch as the best of the G6 so far. But Boise State is charging hard, and I’m not so certain that these two shouldn’t meet for their own Group of Six national title bout. It would be a great one.
Who’s No. 1 — Georgia, Texas or someone else? Where should ‘Bama be ranked?
I propose a new category — The Penn St.
The program that, technically, has it all — one of the largest alumni base, prime recruiting grounds in the fertile high school system of western Pa, no other in state school that can rival them, humongous stadium, raucous crowds that should create an intimidating atmosphere, brand name — and yet, they find a way to step on their own dick time and again.
Heck, I’d want them to be better just so that they could give Ohio st a decent game now and then but….nope.
See also: The USC. LOL.
Yeah but USC has won a championship this century. I think the last time Penn St won one was all the way back in the 1980s. Also, USC has UCLA in its backyard….Penn St got nothing. Pitt has nowhere the name cache of UCLA and doesn’t even have its own stadium. They play in the Steeler’s stadium which is a solid 30mins from their campus.