Each week this article will
focus on some of my predictions and insights for the coming
week and discuss some of my previous, faulty predictions.
The article will also feature pictures of a different
college football stud that defines the term “Eye Candy.”
Angles
Remember back to mid-August
when those preseason polls spawned much debate. The college
football
message
boards were
filled with posts from vibrant fans proclaiming their team
is the best in the nation and why their team should be
ranked higher than what the pundits gave them.
Do you remember who the Top 5
teams were? Do you know how many of them currently are in
the Top 10 after 13 weeks of college football? Ohio State
was ranked #1 by both the AP and Coaches polls, and remains
in that spot today. The rest of the AP Top 5 was Notre
Dame, Texas, Auburn, and West Virginia. Not a single one of
those teams, apart from Ohio State, are even in the latest
Top 10.
Take a look at the
AP Preseason
poll and the
current AP
poll. Only seven
teams (Ohio State, USC, Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, Virginia
Tech, and Nebraska) are within five spots of their preseason
positions. Ten teams are now in the polls that were not
originally (Arkansas, Boise State, Rutgers, Wake Forest,
Brigham Young, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, and Boston
College). Only three teams (Michigan, LSU, and Tennessee)
are ranked higher than five spots from where people thought
they were in August.
What does this all mean and
how does it affect college football? The preseason polls
place non-traditional powerhouse teams at a major
disadvantage. Teams such as Boise State, Rutgers, and
Hawaii are having marvelous years, but since they weren’t
ranked in the first poll, they’ve had to climb their way to
the top and will not get a fair chance at playing in the BCS
title game. After all, who is really able to say that a
10-2 Hawaii team is better than an 8-3 California or even a
10-2 Notre Dame?
In a day and age when your
human poll position has direct affect on determining if you
will play for the national championship, the preseason polls
are unfairly punishing the surprise teams for the season and
being unfairly favorable to teams that did well the season
before. Unless some sort of playoff system is devised for
Division 1A football, the preseason polls should be done
away with until the first two or three weeks of the season
are played out. That way all teams are judged for how their
talent and coaching staff is operating this season and not
from conjecture left over from a previous season.
Dangles
Last week I tried projecting
a number of rivalry games. I was flat wrong about the Lone
Star Showdown and the Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Georgia
played hard enough to secure a good bowl game, probably the
Chick-fil-A
Peach Bowl and overcame a strong Georgia Tech attack. I
should have gone with my heart and picked the Aggies to beat
the Longhorns.
Oh, did anyone even watch the
Florida / Florida State game? I can’t even remember seeing
highlights on ESPN between games. It must’ve been that
South Florida’s win over the Mountaineer had better
ratings. Jim Leavitt came up with a great game plan for
that day and his South Florida Bulls executed it
marvelously.
Perks
A few weeks ago, Washington’s
backup QB
Johnny
DuRocher was hurt
and suffered a concussion in a 20-3 loss to Stanford. A
precautionary trip to the hospital revealed that DuRocher
has a benign tumor about the size of a golf ball in his
brain. It is not only unfortunate that this tumor is in his
brain, but it’s also unfortunate for DuRocher’s football
career as this discovery and subsequent surgery will likely
prevent this stud from ever playing contact football again.
We’re all hoping the best for his speedy and full recovery.
Related:
Week
12 recap
Week
11 recap
Week
10 recap
Week
9 recap
Week
8 recap
Week
7 recap
Week
6 recap
Week
5 recap
Week
4 recap
Week
3 recap
Week
2 recap
Week
1 recap
Our Top 25
Burning questions and hot players
