Pre-Season Blogpoll Ballot for Review

I really can’t argue with any of it except for…

VPI @ 4?!!? Really? You honestly think that VPI, without Darren Evans for the year mind you, is better than USC, Penn St., or Alabama, and possibly LSU, Oklahoma St, and Ole Miss? I know you guys want to base this off of schedules and potential, but I would argue that you should be looking at this from the view of who is better right now.

Sure, they have a stellar defense, but they have little to no offense. Taylor is a liability in the passing game and will now have to shoulder more carries until Williams can rove he can handle a full load. I’d say you put them somewhere near the bottom of the top ten to start with and let them prove their worth against Alabama in Week 1. If they win that game, they’ll catapult into the top five and stay in the top ten for most of the year providing they don’t go all Clemson on us and totally collapse.

Other than that, I would really love to argue that we are better than Ohio St. They lost a large part of their offense in Wells as well as a few of their top defensive players in Lauranitis and Jenkins. And, it’s Ohio St., so if you already think we are that close, I think you could put us one spot ahead of them and not really upset the universe.

But I wear Old Gold and White, so maybe I’m slightly biased?

VT

VT is high because I really think they should win all of their games especially if they beat Alabama. Also, looking at the top 10, Tyrod may be a liability but there really aren’t any proven QB’s left coming into this season outside of UF, Texas, OU, and Ole Miss. Everyone is reloading or bringing back a “liability.”

VT’s coaching, depth, and defense are what I’m banking on.

My thoughts on Dane/Winfield
Dane’s worst pick – OKSU at 5. OKSU showed us last year they’re not on par with Texas/OU. I see OKSU as this year’s TTU and just having an explosive/exciting offense will get them super high rankings. Yet this offense will yield little on the field postseason accolades when they get trounced by the 3rd or 4th SEC/ACC team in a bowl game.

Winfield’s worst pick – Alabama at 4. Alabama is gonna lose a lot of games. They have no offense. You can’t win every game 7-3. No JP Dub equals No W’s.

Dane’s best pick – Oregon at #8. Best Duck team since Dennis Dixon. Should contend with USC for Pac 10 ‘cause of USC’s true frosh at QB.

Winfield’s best pick – Big East teams in the Top 25. Way to give love to a conference that no one has taken seriously since Pat White left and/or USF got embarrassed on national TV. I think the Big East may have some solid teams that bite people in the ass this year.

VT – Tyrod Taylor has to prove to me that he’s a quarterback that can elevate a program into the top 5 before I’ll put them there. I still have them top 10 (at #7) on my poll.

UNC – Somehow, UNC has become a media darling despite numerous issues on offense: No returning WRs of note, only one capable QB (who’s been injury prone thusfar), no established running game to speak of and most glaringly, a thin offensive line that’s been further depleted by injuries, arrests, etc. They’ve got NO ONE to block for them, and as we saw with Clemson last year, everything on offense depends on the offensive line play.

I think y’all have GT ranked about right…I’ve got y’all 12th. I’m a big fan of PJ and I think he’ll mix up things enough to keep folks guessing.

TCU at 12 seems a little high, as well.

…that you fucksticks are trying to jinx us.

I ranked what I thought were the 25 best college football teams. I think it is totally fine to say that because I think GT will lose to certain teams that means GT should be ranked lower than them. It is a preseason based purely on speculation. I cannot base it on previous seasons because there’s so much turnover on college teams season-season.

I’m basing it on who I think are the best teams in cfb, which of course lines up with how the teams should finish at the end of the season. I think TCU would beat every team below them in my poll. I’ve seen enough MWC football to know that they play damn good ball out there. Utah has been kicking BCS team ass since 2004. TCU is just as good as Utah last year along with the Boise State/Fresno pain train. BYU and Utah probably aren’t as good as last year but they’ve got a majority of their teams returning and are still more legit than 90% of the BCS teams.

Not playing in a BCS conference doesn’t mean they aren’t that good. Hell, I can cite a certain Utah team destroying Alabama last year in their bowl game (the 2nd best SEC team). Y’all can judge all you want but when TCU kicks the crap out of Clemson and UVA, I’ll be smiling about my picks but frowning for the ACC.

TCU is way too high—they will not win both at Clemson and at UVa. One of two, maybe.

BYU is way too low. Max Hall is a really solid QB.

Not particularly verbose or thought out, but those’re my thoughts.

I really like the discussion you have brought out.

I’ve attempted to make my case with dropping VT down to 9th or 10th. I’ve stated that I could see GT over Ohio St. I’ve been looking at this for a bit and I think it’s pretty solid all around. When you start looking at the bottom half, it really goes from is Team B better than Team C and worse than Team A, to are these three teams better than the next three and worse than the previous three. I mean, really, you could probably shuffle any three-set around and it wouldn’t cause much concern.

But, being the opinionated person I am, I think Clemson should be right outside of the top 25 replaced by Nebraska and I think California could either be swapped with Boise St or dropped below UNC and Boise St. Clemson lost Harper and is going with an unproven QB, their WR’s are mediocre, and they have questions in the secondary, plus they have proven (and done so with the players on this roster) that they are perrenially overrated. With California, it’s much more subjective. I just think that both UNC and Boise St. have stronger teams than Cal.

That’s it though. Those are my opinions of your intial crack at the poll.