Weekly Football Update
Week #10 Top 25:
[Monday, November 07, 2005]
1. USC (9-0) – You close the year with Cal, Fresno State, and UCLA—all dangerous. But the real problem is that none of them are going to bolster the whole quality wins thing once you beat them. A lot to lose, not much to gain until the championship game. Do I smell an upset? Probably not.
2. Texas (9-0) – Shellacked Baylor, which goes a long way with me personally, but not so far in moving you further up the rankings. With two games and a championship game left against no one interesting…book your reservations in Los Angeles.
3. Alabama (9-0) – Still undefeated. Sure, the only offensive touchdowns they’ve had in three games were against Utah St., but hey, this team is still among the unbeaten. With LSU, Auburn, and The SEC championship game to go, this team will wither drop one and still have a great year, or should really cause a BCS conundrum as the only undefeated playing good teams and winning. With this defense, and the most important players still alive and healthy, I am beginning to think that Bama won’t lose this year.
4. Penn State (9-1) – Right now, looking at all three facets of the game, PSU is playing better than anyone in the country. This team started surprising us, then themselves. Now they are starting to believe, and they look really, really dangerous.
5. Miami (7-1) – The defense rose up nicely against one of the elite in college football. A very impressive beat down of Va Tech results in #1) a much higher ranking, and #2) a great team next year…if you were a recruit wouldn’t you sign on? Do you deserve to jump Alabama and take #3? I don’t think so, because you still have a loss (although it is quality).
6. Virginia Tech (8-1) – They had their chance to overtake Texas for good most likely, but instead, they couldn’t get past that Miami defense. Still, I wouldn’t want to see this team come bowl season.
7. Georgia (7-1) – So the world’s largest cocktail party was no fun without your best player. You can still hang on to the SEC east, and a strong season by winning your last two games. Winning the SEC championship against either LSU, Auburn, or Bama? That’s another story.
8. LSU (7-1) – This week you have your first real test—Bama. This pits a good offense (LSU) against a great defense (Bama). Anytime those meet, the smart money is on the defense. This is getting really interesting.
9. Notre Dame (6-2) – Is this the best two-loss team in the nation? I said: “Now they have a chance to really make some more noise in a couple of weeks by beating a serious SEC team, Tennessee.” Check that. I meant: Now they have a chance to win a game that doesn’t matter over a really crappy and troubled team, Tennessee. At least Weiss got an extension out of all this success with that schedule.
10. West Virginia (7-1) – Just another win for a team off my radar. BCS bound, baby. Go Mountaineers.
11. Oregon (8-1) – In a largely unheralded victory, the Ducks supplant Cal as the team no one really knows/cares about or really expects anything great from in the Pac 2 ½. You should ride the wave of success out for the rest of the year and play in a really nice bowl game. Congrats.
12. Florida (7-2) – I said, “The game against Georgia this week is a must win if there ever was one.” So they took care of business, then they outlasted Vandy. This team hasn’t quit yet, they just need one more Georgia loss and they are back in the driver’s seat.
13. UCLA (8-1) – Well after four tremendous comeback wins, how about getting down to Arizona and stalling out. USC was really counting on you guys for a quality win at the end of the year too.
14. Florida State (7-2) – Well, the Freshman looked like a freshman against NC State, as Amado may have saved his job for another year. That ACC is no joke, but the Seminole’s national title hopes certainly were.
15. Ohio State (7-2) – This defense just keeps on stopping folks, and finally guess what? You guys have a coupla playmakers on that team in Holmes and Ginn. Why didn’t anyone tell them they were allowed to do this earlier in the season???
16. Auburn (7-2) –Regarding games against LSU, UGA, and Bama, I predicted: “This team will lose all of those games.” I will stand by it. This is the least tested SEC team this year at this point. They are a real question mark going in to the home stretch.
17. Wisconsin (8-2) – It took Penn St. to finally trip you guys up. Congrats on a strong season thus far.
18. TCU (9-1) – Have those wins over OU and Utah lost some of the shimmer yet? Yes. Still, you are one for one in Mountain West titles to seasons. This team is dying to be in a major conference. That could work well, it looks like A&M is dying to get out of one. J
19. Texas Tech (8-1) – Somehow managed to turn the offense on in the last two minutes against Baylor, and held A&M down long enough to beat them too. I am not a believer, but your schedule has made your record look very nice and shiny. Not enough for me.
20. Colorado (7-2) – The Big 12 North can rest easy now that you guys put Mizzou out to pasture.
21. Michigan (6-3) – Another win for a team I thought was down and out. Congrats on not quitting.
22. California (6-3) – A crushing loss to Oregon in a game nobody saw. That’s okay, it was a look past game right? You could get away with that, because USC is next on your schedule. What do the fighting Tedfords have up their sleeve?
23. Boston College (6-3) – Back to back losses…guess we are through over-achieving.
24. Louisville (6-2) – Now you show up. Thanks a lot.
25. Georgia Tech (6-2) – Thank you for beating Auburn, but beyond that, you have only won the games you were supposed to, no more—that is not how you make it to being a great team.
Why I am so smart…
1. My thoughts on Alabama – There is nothing as rewarding as the repeated “I-told-you-so.”
2. My thoughts on Boston College – See…they really were just over-achieving, not actually good.
3. My thoughts on Colorado – Big 12 North champs! Who cares?
4. My thoughts on Georgia – without Shockley, strong opponents can beat this team.
5. My thoughts on Penn State – JoePa has’em looking really hard to beat.
Why I am an absolute moron…
1. My thoughts on UCLA – Defense, Adam…always go with defense.
2. Still stands: My thoughts on LSU – they are better than I thought, but I still don’t know how much better.
3. Correction: My chiding myself for leaving Marcus Vick off of my Heisman candidates list. It has always belonged to Vince Young.
4. My thoughts on Florida, Ohio State, and Michigan – I had counted you all out.
5. My thoughts on Virginia Tech – I took Tech in a rout. Ouch.
Question for this week:
Who is the best one-loss team in college football?
posted by adam at 11:10 AM
5 Comments:
Well there you go -- you've finally wised up and listened to me, hehe.
But na I really figured we'd (Carolina) win that game. It just made too much sense. Don't feel to bad about Vick, he was never in the Heisman discussion anyways.
It's Vince's to lose if you ask me.
I think Ohio State is the best team in the country that has a lost A game.
I know Penn State beat them and I know Miami just beat Va. Tech -- but that was before Troy Smith decided he wanted to be a good QB.
I'd take Ohio state ahead of all teams except Texas and USC.
November 07, 2005 2:10 PM
To not answer your question, I can tell you definitively who the two worst 1 loss teams are: UCLA and TexasTech. The irony here of course is that they collectively represent (or will rep) the "quality" wins for the two prima donnas at the top of the polls. [All right, USC beat ND -- kind of. But Texas doesn't even have that.] If Bama wins out, I sure hope that every one realizes they deserve #1 without any question. Unfortunately, I really think they could have done it with Prothro but it's a long shot now. Just too many REAL quality teams to bit. But Cheese you'll be glad to know I'm pulling for them -- except of course again LSU. Speaking of whom, they've got my vote for best 1 loss team (with Miami close behind). They're beatable/inconsistent (but that goes with the 1 loss territory). But match them against any other 1 loss team and I would not bet against them.
p.s. How in the world do you get to count BC as "why you're so smart"? So what if you used "over-achievers" to describe them. You've had them overrated for weeks. And you've still got them overrated! They should out of the top 25.
p.p.s. Your two most overrated teams now are WV (still) and Oregon. I predict they will both get trounced in their bowls -- if they get matched against any kind of quality team.
November 07, 2005 5:19 PM
chips Texas beat Ohio State @ Ohio State...
November 07, 2005 5:48 PM
chips:
Rell makes a strong point about Texas. What I will say is that Texas has no good teams left on their schedule to play, whereas, rightly or wrongly USC has quasi-ranked talented teams to play, and Bama has three tough teams to beat. While I certainly agree that Bama should be in the title game if they win out, part of me also wants to see what happens if they get left out.
For the second year, the SEC--the toughest football conference in the nation--will have had a team go undefeated and not make the BCS championship game in favor of less-talented conferences. I bet that if it happens like that, the SEC will pull out of the BCS and push for a BCS plus 1 playoff system at least.That at least would be good for college football all over.
Now, about the one loss teams: I agree with you about Texas Tech, but UCLA is not a bad team--they are a bad defense, but all in all a pretty solid team. And sure, I have Oregon and West Virginai overranked, but they will both win out for the rest of the year. West Virginia will be BCS bound and get absolutely trashed, like you said. Orgeon, depending on their oponent could give a tough battle to someone. Not many teams can hang with them--their only loss is to #1 remember.
All in all, I think the best one-loss teams are Penn State--like I said, playing better than anyone right now--and Miami, who if they hadn't forgotten how to pass block against FSU would be #2 right now.
LSU looks like they are pulling it together now, but their katrina and rita induced stop-and-go schedule may leave them on the outside looking in. I still believe that Bama can beat them (in what will be the real SEC championship game). Auburn won;t be as tough as LSU and the east team might be too tired to put up much of a fight.
About BC: They were ranked highly precisely because of their over-ratedness. I knew they were overrated, hence, I am smart.
November 07, 2005 6:35 PM
My apologies to Texas for forgetting OSU. Congrats on beating the one good team on your schedule.
p.s. rell: OSU is a quality team. I remember telling a certain Cheese at the time of the game with Texas (in which he predicted a blowout) that OSU would at least play them close -- they almost won of course. However, this is not one of their stronger years -- i.e. they're not as good as you would like them to be. I appreciate your loyalty though.
p.p.s. Cheese: you're comments on both UCLA and BC make no sense!
November 07, 2005 7:08 PM
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