USA Today Coaches Poll 2017

[corchjay 5,311]

At the end of the day college football is the only sport that "opinion" matters.  Basketball a little but if you win your conference you're in so you have control over it.  2004 we did everything we could possibly do on the field but other's opinions kept us out of it.  

And as I've said before I will never care about national championships until opinion doesn't matter.  

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

4 hours ago, WFE12 said:

Same with Michigan...Or am I missing something. Harbaugh factor? Why is ok state so hyped up?

I think Michigan will be decent but they're completely overrated. They have a good bit of very young talent. I think it has more to do with coaches believing in Harbough as a coach. 

I actually have Ok State as a being one of the likely sleeper teams that could make the playoffs. One of the teams i've placed a future bet on. Their offense is going to put up huge numbers and if you look at their schedule they can certainly find themselves going 11-1 or undefeated. They get TCU, Oklahoma and K State at home. I personally don't buy the Oklahoma hype. Oklahoma is talented and yes they did smash us but i still don't see them as a playoff team. They'll lose a game they have no business losing and if Oklahoma State can find a way to play just decent defense they can certainly beat Oklahoma. 

[WDEKC 187]

1 hour ago, corchjay said:

 

So for you a good poll to look at is the composite recruiting rankings combined over the last 4-5 years and then ranked against each other.  

Not necessarily. I'm saying that for each individual weekly poll including the preseason poll it should simply be based on how good the team is. Why rank a team worse because they have tougher games coming up? Or better because they have an easier path to being undefeated?

 

I understand why preseason polls tend to be what people think will happen by the end of the year..... Because everyone wants to say they were right all along. Which in reality ends up looking just as bad, if not worse.

[corchjay 5,311]

It's a double edged sword either way you look at it

[DAG 33,988]

2 hours ago, corchjay said:

DAG I agree with you but situations happen that depth becomes a concern.  If every team on bama's schedule wasn't looking at a loss squarely in the face then it'd be kind of usual.  Again I'm not giving any passes to bama but reality is reality.  Takes a special team to beat them.  Plus AU has a "pattern" of reading their own press clippings as they used to say when getting ranked high.  It's made people cautious.  

aTm - look at their schedule.  AU, @LSU, Bama, @UF, Ark, @USCe, @UCLA, Miss State, and @OM.  If they lose to the teams "ranked" in front of them they have 4 losses already,  If they are somehow able to split the road games 2-1 at USC, OM and UCLA you're looking at 5 losses.  Any slip up and you're at 6... even with all the talent they have.  SEC West is a cruel cruel world especially if you pull UGA, UF, or even UTk from the east on your schedule.  

Who would rank them in the top 25 starring at 5/6 losses?

Two things. The SEC teams have a history of being given the benefit of a doubt when they lose to high-quality competition. That is one of the biggest complaints by college football fans. For instance, last year, two teams who had 4 losses were still in the top 15. Both of them were from the SEC. So I don't buy that argument you made. I mean we are ranked in the top 15 and we could be staring at 5 losses based on our track record. Who knows what JS will do or if he will stay healthy? He is a huge piece of why AU has been given the benefit of a doubt. So, I am not really following your logic on that one.

Secondly, I don't know how brutal the SEC west is. Last year, it wasn't very brutal. There were Alabama and the rest of the pack. The problem is teams like Texas A&M cannot be losing to the likes of Mississippi State, who was horrible last year. They can't lose to Ole Miss without Chad Kelly playing. Realistically, they shouldn't have lost to Kansas State either.  And then I look at somebody like UGA. They were not a good team last year. They were above average, but I would hardly call them elite. Destroyed by Ole miss, bad loss to Vandy, loss to their ACC rival Georgia Tech. UGA beat one ranked team last year and that was us. Look at UT. Two bad losses to USCe and Vandy. You CANNOT lose to those teams knowing you have Bama and the Aggies to play. Even after those losses, they were still ranked at the end of the year. The epitome of inconsistency. So the emphasis should be, you need to beat the teams you SHOULD beat because you don't want it to come down against competition who is as good or better than you.

[War Knight 514]

7 hours ago, KerryThachWDE said:

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/football/polls/coaches-poll/2017/1/

1. Alabama

2. Ohio State

3. Florida State

4. USC

5. Clemson

6. Penn State

7. Washington

8. Oklahoma

9. Michigan

10. Wisconsin

11. Oklahoma State

12. LSU

13. Auburn

14. Stanford

15. Georgia

16. Florida

17. Louisville

18. Miami

19. Kansas State

20. West Virginia

21. South Florida

22. Virginia Tech

23. Texas

24. Tennessee

25. Utah

 

my thoughts.  

How is LSU ahead of us? they have so many question marks and lost 10 guys on offense. why is Tennessee even ranked?

 

 

1) Alabama has lost a huge amount of talent. More so than they typically do. Their QB will keep them high in a weaker SEC year but their defense is a huge question mark. Remove the Saban appeal and they're at least 4 spots lower.

2) While I hate Ohio State, and Urban Meyer, they're probably the most realistic option to throw at number one for now. Manageable schedule with a lot of returning talent.

3) Florida State is interesting. They're definitely a contender for a playoff birth but the ACC is going to be difficult for them. Clemson is always a threat and Louisville is lurking to upset at any moment. If their QB continues to mature and Dalvin Cook can be replaced by committee, then they probably deserve this ranking.

4) USC...good to see the media has regained it's unreasonable boner for this program. They will drop about 3 games this year but they'll still fly Nameless USC QB #56 out for the Heisman ceremony to get his "swag bag"

5) Clemson with no Watson is huge. Like extremely huge. Like, possibly dropping out of the top 15 before December bad. Sweeney's recruiting has been bad and an ounce of better coaching would have had Auburn defeating them last year.

6) Penn State, love this ranking. They were a very solid team last year that played with a lot of grit. However, this is their coaches ceiling in my opinion. 

7) Washington, Peterson will go down as one of the best coaches of all time. The things he's done with smaller programs is simply impressive. Another team who, due to talent, is limited to a certain ceiling space. Could win their conference though and be a part of the discussion.

8) While they embarrassed us, Oklahoma will lose anywhere from 4-6 games this season. New coaches can be rough and a decent schedule should lead to some blunders.

9) Michigan, holy building problems Batman. The wolverines have the X's and O's but their missing the Jack's and Joe's. 

10) Wisconsin has the world's most "meh" schedule. Less than 10 wins likely means they shouldn't have even been in the top 25. 

11) Oklahoma State has 7 games straight without a cupcake. If they make it through that gauntlet then they deserve to be here. 

12) LSU still doesn't have a QB who can win the big game. I think we take a win from them for the first time in a minute at their own home.

13) Good...good...keep putting us lower!

14) Stanford will continue to be Stanford. Conference championship potential but not much more.

15) Hate Georgia and the SEC East is becoming too soft to consider the winner as a top tier.

 

[weagl1 1,784]

I like where we are ranked.  It is a different day from 2004. Winning the SEC is the most important thing and you win the SEC you are in the playoff.  Once you are in the playoff it doesn't matter if you go in 1 or 4 you control your destiny.  That having been said I think we have one of the 5 or 6 teams in the country that have a chance to go all the way but we have by far the toughest schedule of any of those teams. 

[bigbird 60,534]

People discounting LSU's QB need to look at how good Matt Canada is at developing QBs and scheming around his talent.  He made Nathan Peterman the ACC highest-rated passer last year over the likes of Watson and Jackson.  LSU doesn't need a stud at QB, they need a manager like McElroy was for bama. That said, Etling could be that game manager and, if they roll the dice, Narcisse could be a dynamic option.

[DAG 33,988]

41 minutes ago, bigbird said:

People discounting LSU's QB need to look at how good Matt Canada is at developing QBs and scheming around his talent.  He made Nathan Peterman the ACC highest-rated passer last year over the likes of Watson and Jackson.  LSU doesn't need a stud at QB, they need a manager like McElroy was for bama. That said, Etling could be that game manager and, if they roll the dice, Narcisse could be a dynamic option.

LSU is really starting to look very scary. They have two great coordinators at helm now to go with their talent .

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

45 minutes ago, bigbird said:

People discounting LSU's QB need to look at how good Matt Canada is at developing QBs and scheming around his talent.  He made Nathan Peterman the ACC highest-rated passer last year over the likes of Watson and Jackson.  LSU doesn't need a stud at QB, they need a manager like McElroy was for bama. That said, Etling could be that game manager and, if they roll the dice, Narcisse could be a dynamic option.

Oh I agree about the Etling/Canada duo flying under the radar. All the shifting and motioning in Canada's offense is going to cause problems for defenses without eye discipline. BUT, LSU is also dealing with depth concerns in a few key spots for them namely OL and LB. This is going to be our best shot to beat them SOBs in Red Stick since 2007, two thousand eff'n seven. We shoulda beat them in 2005 & 2007 down there. I've been beating this drum loud, but for all that is holy, this is our time to beat 'em in Red Stick.

[keesler 5,924]

13 hours ago, DAG said:

Sure, but I never understand this thinking and it permeates our fan base so much.

At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is to be #1 right? Guess what? If you are #1 this year, the responsibility only goes up again next year. No such thing as jinxes, hocus pocus, etc. Get out there and play up to par for 60 minutes and it will work itself out. Quite frankly, if you are getting top ten classes, you should be in the top ten. There is absolutely no reason a team like the AGGIES are out of the top 25 with the talent they have. Zero excuses for that and as a fan, I would be livid.

Auburn has consistently pulled in top 10 ranked talent for years ~ but for a myriad of reasons/excuses that have been beaten to death over the last 3 years, they can't seem to punch through and land a top 10 ranked team at the end of the season when it counts the most.  

This year sets up nicely in Gus' 5th year, he has loads of talent and experienced depth, he his coaching staff and support staff (Borges.)  Get it DONE Gus!

 

[Tiger 8,827]

I'm good with 13. I think we climbed up to #9 last year when injuries finally did us in and we lost to UGA if I'm not mistaken. We are presumably starting someone new at QB and at OC. Otherwise we are essentially bringing back the same roster (with a few changes). But the national story isn't that we were so depleted with injuries by the end of the year it was that we dropped our last 3 games. So I like this ranking -- feels like we are right where we need to be right now. We have top 10 talent but a question mark at QB and unknown at OC. 

The good thing is, by week 2 we have a chance to catapult ourselves to #5 or #6.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

‘…Staples says in a video on SI.com, “The team that we seem to be putting the most faith in, without evidence, is Auburn.”

“We don’t know what Jarrett Stidham will do at quarterback. We don’t know what the offense will look like under Chip Lindsey,” Staples says. “We have faith that Jarrett Stidham, because he played well in his freshman year at Baylor, will be the quarterback they’ve been looking for. We have faith that Chip Lindsey’s offense will help them move the ball better, but we don’t know yet.”’

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/sports-illustrated-andy-staples-blind-faith-auburn-football

 

As an aside, the age stamp on our posts seems to be disappearing again?

Edited for a never mind. All fixed.

[Tiger 8,827]

14 minutes ago, AUld fAUx@ said:

‘…Staples says in a video on SI.com, “The team that we seem to be putting the most faith in, without evidence, is Auburn.”

“We don’t know what Jarrett Stidham will do at quarterback. We don’t know what the offense will look like under Chip Lindsey,” Staples says. “We have faith that Jarrett Stidham, because he played well in his freshman year at Baylor, will be the quarterback they’ve been looking for. We have faith that Chip Lindsey’s offense will help them move the ball better, but we don’t know yet.”’

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/sports-illustrated-andy-staples-blind-faith-auburn-football

 

I can't argue against any of this

[corchjay 5,311]

Dabo says this is/will be his best defensive team he's had.  They might try to lean on running the ball early and play defense.  

In our game with them I see it a field position game and turnovers are always key in big games.  So we need to find a consistent punter in the fall.  

[corchjay 5,311]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

People discounting LSU's QB need to look at how good Matt Canada is at developing QBs and scheming around his talent.  He made Nathan Peterman the ACC highest-rated passer last year over the likes of Watson and Jackson.  LSU doesn't need a stud at QB, they need a manager like McElroy was for bama. That said, Etling could be that game manager and, if they roll the dice, Narcisse could be a dynamic option.

Remember late in Tater Tots tenure when Tommy and Jimbo were against Brother Bill.  Hope that's what happens with Canada and Aranda

[bigbird 60,534]

18 minutes ago, corchjay said:

Dabo says this is/will be his best defensive team he's had.  They might try to lean on running the ball early and play defense.  

In our game with them I see it a field position game and turnovers are always key in big games.  So we need to find a consistent punter in the fall.  

We need to use Pitt's game plan from last year against them.

[corchjay 5,311]

2 minutes ago, bigbird said:

We need to use Pitt's game plan from last year against them.

I will lose my mind if Hand doesn't have our OL ready for their multiple blitz packages