As shown in the previous post, the USA Today pre-season Coach’s Poll is out. I have a few thoughts I’d like to share with you quickly:
1. Florida with 9 first place votes? It seems that a National Championship will do that for you. Still, it seems a little too high.
2. Alabama plays 6 ranked teams this season. That is a bit of a concern for me, but we all knew that every game would be a fight.
3. Kentucky fans might want to be insulted since Duke got just as many votes as they did (1 each). Of course, that is probably just Steve Spurrier’s usual vote for Duke.
4. I’m glad that the coaches’ poll isn’t over-hyping Wake Forest too much this year (71 votes). They still have more votes than they should in my opinion. I don’t think it is too bold of a statement to say that Alabama could beat Wake Forest.
5. Speaking of over-hyped, Notre Dame is not in the Top 25…. for now (Notre Dame (10-3) 90). I’ll try to keep up with how many votes they get week to week to see if this holds true.
6. I figured Alabama would get a few more votes (maybe 20-21 instead of 16). But, this doesn’t mean I’m insulted by the ranking. We’ve got some work to do in order to have legitimate success.
7. Other than that: The expected love fest with Rutgers continues, as does the romance between the media and Boise State.
My strange, off the top of my head pre-season predictions with no data to back them up:
- UCLA is isn’t a top 20 team.
- Oklahoma isn’t a top 10 team, although I’d leave them in the top 15.
- I would rank Nebraska just a tad bit higher.
- I prefer Wisconsin over Michigan (even though they play tOSU and Mich in back-to-back games).
- No way Rutgers is better than Penn State.
