Week 2 Power Poll

1 Alabama. Saban is not pleased with his team’s effort against Bye Week.

2 LSU. Beckham and Landry are taking turns being the best receiver in the SEC.

3 Georgia. Oh, you mean a week one loss to a top ten team on the road is not a season killer? Who knew?

4 South Carolina. The defense let them down against UGA. That was not in the script.

5 Texas A&M. Allowed 28 points to Sam Houston St, who I’m sure presents an equal challenge as the Alabama offense. No worries, right?

6 Auburn. Won the Malzahn Bowl and is now allowed to keep their head coach.

7 Ole Miss. Now is in the odd position of being heavily favored to beat Texas. No pressure.

8 Florida. Don’t worry, Gator fans. I’m sure no one will ever even bring the Miami game up.

9 Vanderbilt. One end game defensive meltdown away from being in the top 25. That’s the thin line between success and failure that mediocre teams walk.

10 Tennessee. Screw Bobby Petrino.

11 Mississippi St. Sitting around and watching everyone else build a better resume.

12 Missouri. A win’s a win for the other Tigers.

13 Arkansas. Heady from their big Week One win, the Hogs struggled to beat a FCS team.

14 Kentucky. I’m not prepared to even consider them an SEC team right now.

Non-Existent BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot

1 Clemson
2 Oregon
3 Alabama

Bama continues their slide down my ballot through no real fault of their own. Clemson’s UGA win looks even better this week and Oregon looks like the best team in the country right now. Both have earned the top two slots while Bama took a spa day. No rest for the wicked.

4 LSU
5 Florida St.
6 Oklahoma St
7 Stanford

I think this batch of teams are all national title contenders, but are all behind that top three.  Don’t be fooled by the final score of the UTSA game, OSU had a 42-7 lead before taking their foot off the gas. It’s still early, but I’m not backing off my preseason likes just yet.

8 Georgia
9 Wisconsin
10 Ohio St
11 South Carolina
12 Texas A&M
13 Louisville

If this ballot still counted towards the BlogPoll, this is where I’d start to make people mad. I’m not a huge believer in Ohio St, though they did display some nice depth at QB after Braxton’s injury. That’s enough to climb into the top ten. I still have South Carolina ahead of A&M because the Aggies defense looks particularly unimpressive. Louisville is probably a top ten team but you know what? Teams that play this crappy of a schedule don’t get to bitch about their rankings. You get no benefit of the doubt.

14 Baylor
15 Michigan
16 Northwestern

Baylor’s racking up some scary numbers against some terrible teams. Michigan and Northwestern both are building quality early season resumes.

17 Arizona St
18 Oklahoma
19 Miami
20 Washington

I know some of y’all want me to rank UCLA higher, but I’ll give them a real look next week when they play. Right now, I’m still living off my preseason opinions. Miami debuts here with a win over Florida that fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

21 TCU
22 UCLA

23 Bowling Green
24 Virginia Tech
25 Arizona

A little love for some early losers against good teams and even more Pac-12 squads. That’s a deep conference. Also, BGSU makes an appearance for looking like the strongest mid-major out there. Wins over Tulsa and Kent St. are impressive for a program of BGSU's size. They take the spot that would've gone to Florida had they not play God awful football.

A few words on the unranked:

Florida looks a lot like the team we thought they would be last year. There’s a lack of offensive playmakers on the team, and they need the defense to carry them to victory. That formula can work (see LSU), but this offense is especially bereft of competence. Also, if you’re going to be unable to move the football, for godsakes, don’t turn it over. At least some of those lousy LSU offenses had the decency to not turn the ball over while they were busy not gaining yards.

The knock on Texas remains the same: talented but soft. But this was ridiculous. Texas let up over 500 yards rushing to a team that couldn’t beat Virginia. Diaz has already been shown the door, but Texas needs to start their head coaching search now. Well, they should’ve started it a few years ago when Mack started to mail it in, but now they really have to. Texas has more money than God and the best recruiting footprint of any school in the nation. This is beyond unacceptable.

USC’s loss is just funny. There’s some definite hubris there, especially in the way that they thought they could compete for titles while on probation. Those decisions to delay the effects of scholarship reductions are now being felt. Big time. Also, Lane Kiffin is an awful head coach. Trojan fans should at least be happy they are going to get rid of this guy soon and start rebuilding the program before he does any permanent damage.

Oh, and Marquise Lee is ridiculously overhyped. You need to have a catch longer than seven yards against Wazzu. Yes, his quarterbacks suck. So did Calvin Johnson’s. But he gained 1200 yards on 78 catches with Reggie friggin’ Ball throwing it to him. I’m willing to give him a pass on not putting up an Odell Beckham box score, but you have to do more than 27 yards. Your best player has to make big plays or else you lose to one of the worst teams in the conference.