Let's See How Far We've Come

Want a good laugh? Here is the preseason AP poll released back on Aug 22, 2009.

1- Florida
2- Texas
3- Oklahoma (oops)
4- USC (oops)
5- Alabama
6- Ohio St
7- Virginia Tech

8- Mississippi (Honestly?)
9- Oklahoma St (Doh!)
10- Penn St (I know, Paterno has earned his right to suck)
11- LSU
12- California (worst. pick. ever.)
13- Georgia (Yikes)
14- Boise St.
15- Georgia Tech
16- Oregon
17- TCU (can you say under-rated?)
18- Florida St (can you say 'someone retired too late?')
19- Utah
20- BYU

21- North Carolina (someone thought this was the preseason basketball poll apparently)
22- Iowa
23- Notre Dame (those pesky Navy Midshipmen gotcha twice in a row, huh Weis? Ouch, that's gotta hurt.)
24- Nebraska
25- Kansas

Now here we are in week 11:

1- Florida (I think they've been #1 for 8,421 weeks straight now. At least it feels like it.)
2- Texas (still unproven if you ax me)
3- Alabama
4- TCU (deserves a shot at the big boys)

5- Cincinnati (good but not great)
6- Boise St (no idea how good this team is but if they end up playing TCU in a BCS bowl game I'm gonna vomit)
7- Georgia Tech
8- Pitt (WTF?)
9- LSU (I still don't know a single team that would want to play these guys)
10- Ohio St.
11- USC (I'm sorry, didn't USC beat Ohio St?)
12- Miami
13- Houston
14- Oregon
15- Iowa
16- Utah
17- Oklahoma St

18- Arizona (Let's get serious, voters)
19- Penn St (I just don't get the ongoing Paterno love-fest)
20- Virginia Tech (every year this team gives a few games away)
21- Wisconsin (Again...how does this happen? Did they threaten to curdle all the cheese if they weren't voted in?)
22- BYU
23- South Florida
24- Clemson (used to not be able to finish, now they start weak and finish strong)
25- Stanford (was Saturday an anomaly?)

Let's play the 'Who have you beat for me lately?" game...

Florida- Since Meyer got there? Just about everyone...
Texas- Barely beat the worst Oklahoma team in a decade and a sporadic at best OK St. team. Not impressed so far, and they won't get tested the rest of the way unless they face Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game.
Bama- Beat Virginia Tech, Ole Miss, South Carolina and LSU, to name a few
TCU- that win at Clemson earlier this year is looking better and better. Oh, and they held BYU to it's lowest point total of the year.
Cincinnati- Beat Oregon St. and South Florida. Hmmmm...not truly convinced. Yet.
Boise St.- Beat Oregon and, uh, er, well, How 'bout them Cubbies???

Georgia Tech- Beat NC and Virginia Tech.
Pitt- Beat South Florida and some small innocent, defenseless animals. Still has to play the Nati.
LSU- Georgia, Auburn
Ohio St.- Wisconsin, Penn St. and well, Navy, which is more than Charlie Weis can say.
USC- Ohio St, Cal (they don't count) and Notre Dame. They don't count, either, actually.
Miami- Florida St, Choklahoma and Georgia Tech
Houston- Oklahoma St, Texas Tech
Oregon- Utah, Cal, USC
Iowa- Beat Penn St., Wisconsin and your mom
Utah- Buehler? Buehler?
Oklahoma St- Georgia
Arizona- please stop wasting our time
Penn St.- Temple. Oh, wait. Buildings don't count.
Virginia Tech- Nebraska, Miami

Wisconsin- WTH is this team doing in the Top 25???
BYU- Oklahoma. Wow...this team had pretty high expectations, too.
South Florida- Florida St, West Virginia. Oh, and Wofford.
Clemson- Miami, Florida St
Stanford- Oregon

Well, there you have it. A lot of teams with not very good resume's. But there are a few great weeks left in the season and this week's match-ups is no exception. And I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but when did ESPN start scheduling college football every day of the week? Not that I'm complaining, mind you. But let's put some watchable games on if that's gonna be the case.


We may have to wait til Friday for the first good one. West Virginia will look to upset Cincinnati and it could be a tough test for the Bearcats. Can they keep the unbeaten streak alive? I think Cincy's defense will keep WV under 30 points, which is more than enough to win this one.

Indiana will beat Penn St- mark my words.


Iowa at Ohio St.
Right now the Hawkeyes are just beaten down. Ohio St will roll on and the Hawkeyes will roll right on outta the Top 25. For good.

Florida at South Carolina
If I'm a gator I'm a little worried about this one. Not sure why, but my gut says this could be an upset in the making. Look for an extremely low-scoring affair, but Spurrier plays his old team tough, and this time he's caught the Gators while they're struggling on offense. Florida 17 South Carolina 15


Idaho at Boise St.
A few weeks ago I saw this as a potential upset, but I really think the Broncos will be on fire against this somewhat-worthy opponent. BSU 54 Idaho 31


Stanford at USC
Who knows what will happen in this game. Stanford may be emotionally and physically drained after beating Oregon, but USC's offense looks terrible right now. They caught USC at a good time and Stanford will again unleash the sledgehammer that is Toby Gerhardt against a defense without much confidence. Taylor Mays vs. Gerhardt- can't wait to see that tackle. Stanford 31 USC 21


Utah at TCU
If Utah still had Brian Johnson this would be an epic game. But TCU is at home against a freshman QB who is going to taste the turf more than once on Saturday night. Too much speed on both sides of the ball for Utah, but it should'nt be a blowout. TCU 35 Utah 28

Texas Tech at OK St.
Not knowing who will start at QB for TTech makes this a hard one to call. Heck, it could be Leach's fat little girlfriend for all we know. I'm gonna have to say the Cowboy's pull out a squeaker: OSU 42 TTech 38

Notre Dame at Pitt
Crappy timing for Weis, great timing for Wannstedt. That being said, neither team has beaten a single worthy opponent and I don't see Pitt living with prosperity. ND's D line will actually show up for this one and Clausen will hang his golden helmet on one highly-overrated win for his whole career. ND 31 Pitt 24


Nebraska at Kansas
Kansas has melted down worse than a slab of butter on a desert highway. Both offenses are in disarray but I think Nebraska will use the 2 QB system the rest of the way, taking the pressure off both QB's and allowing them to just go play. And with NU's Blackshirt defense, Reesing's limbs may look like C3PO after he got stuffed into Chewie's backpack by the end of the game. Nebraska 27 Kansas 14

Thank you for your time. We hope you enjoyed your stay! Please come see us again soon.

Andrew

PS - Think about this, if Iowa beats Ohio St. and Arizona wins out we could see those two teams in the Rose Bowl. Sound exciting? Yeah, not to me, either.