AP Poll Week 1
First things first ...
This poll will look significantly different from my preseason poll because, quite frankly, that one was just an educated guess. I plan to do my best not to be a slave to that initial poll and to rely on 1) How well you're playing at the time the poll comes out and 2) the body of work you've put out up to that point in the season.
Let's start with the moves that probably raised the most questions:
Michigan - Not ranked. Are they a top 20 program? Probably. But they'll have to prove it. You lose at home to a I-AA team in your opener, you get dropped from the poll. Doesn't matter where you started.
Appalachian State - Not ranked - Believe me, I really thought about ranking them. With a road win at Michigan, why not? Well, because I'm not allowed to. I checked with AP. Because I-AA has its own poll, App State's not allowed to be ranked in the I-A poll.
Virginia Tech - No. 4 to No. 11. Yeah, they won. And yeah, ECU's pretty good. But the Hokies just couldn't run the ball against the Pirates. That's not top 10 worthy ... not right now. Plus, I couldn't help but wonder what would haveve happened if Rob Kass, who was the Pirates' starting quarterback until he was suspended for a DWI arrest, had played for ECU.
Oklahoma - No. 6 to No. 2. My only real question about the Sooners was their QB. I know it's just North Texas, but Sam Bradford (363 yards passing) was pretty darned impressive.
Florida - No. 9 to No. 4. Similar thinking to Oklahoma here. I wasn't really on the Tim Tebow bandwagon in the preseason. I'm still not officially a member, but he was pretty close to flawless in his first start.
Georgia Tech - No. 19 to No. 12. Hey, I'm the first to tell you that Notre Dame is pretty much nothing but hype. But Georgia Tech dominated on both sides of the ball and won on the road. Plus the Jackets proved to me that running back Tashard Choice doesn't need Calvin Johnson stretching defenses thin to still put up big numbers. Not sure they're the best team in the ACC, but they're closer than I'd originally thought.
Out of the poll -
South Florida - You play a I-AA team, you need to dominate (or at least win, Michigan). The Bulls didn't do that against Elon.
South Carolina - It's one of my old standby rules: give up over 300 yards rushing to ULa-La, get dropped from the poll. Sorry Cocky.
Florida State- I admit it, I fell for the "It was all Jeff Bowden's fault. Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett will fix everything." line of reasoning. Fisher - the offensive coordinator - and Trickett - the offensive line coach - might very well get FSU back to its old self, but it's going to take more time. Until that happens, the Seminoles just aren't a top 25 team.
Why is Tennessee still in, you ask? There's not much shame in losing on the road to a quality team like Cal and the Vols kept things tight throughout. Plus, I didn't have a ton of great candidates out there. I put Clemson, Arkansas and BYU in, but I wasn't that crazy about Arkansas, in particular. I just don't know about Casey Dick at QB.
I could go on and on about each team in this poll, but I'll leave that up to you, dear readers, if you'd like to comment here or email me and complain about, err, discuss my rankings.