Monday, October 08, 2007

The TFFE Top 25: After Week 6

#1 LSU (6-0, #1 last week)
Still the easy #1. The funny thing is, for as much as I bash Kentucky, they probably have the best chance of beating LSU outside of whoever the Tigers face in the SEC title game. A defense-first team won't be able to score on LSU, and will give up their share of points, as Virginia Tech showed, so Kentucky's the type of offense-based team that can score their fair share, and hope the LSU offense has an off night.

#2 Ohio State (6-0, #2)
If they had a better offense, they might give LSU a run for my #1, but as it is, Ohio State is worse on both sides of the ball than the Tigers. Still, that defense is scary.

#3 Oklahoma (5-1, #9)
Although they didn't quite dominate Texas, it looks like the Colorado game was more abberation than trend. Thus, return to your rightful place, Sooners.

#4 West Virginia (5-1, #5)
Probably the best offense in the country outside of your Hawaii-esque gimmick teams with no defense. Nobody's running with them for four quarters, as I've said many times.

#5 Florida (4-2, #11)
As I said in the recap, they established themselves as among the top tier despite losing. They would beat Auburn 85-90% of the time, and hey, no shame losing to LSU. A similar team to WVU - that offense can go with anyone's, and while there's concern on defense, it's still a pretty good unit.

#6 Oregon (4-1, #4)
Still an upper level team, just dropped a bit with some of last week's losers re-establishing themselves.

#7 USC (4-1, #2)
Oregon beats the teams they statistically dominate, USC has trouble doing so. There's your difference between 6 and 7.

#8 South Carolina (5-1, #7)
This begins the top of the...well, third tier, if you count LSU and Ohio State as their own. Pretty good veteran team, but much like Georgia, capable of being knocked off by a Tennessee-level team having a good day.

#9 California (5-0, #12)
The best all-offense, no-defense team in the land.

#10 Missouri (5-0, #14)
Second! Actually, they kind of have a defense, which I guess makes them the third-best all-offense, fine-defense team behind WVU and Florida.

#11 South Florida (5-0, #10)
FAU doing so well showed some cracks in the armor, but there's nobody stepping up to leapfrog over the Bulls.

#12 Texas (4-1, #13)
God. I actually wanted to drop the Longhorns, as they're just so...talented-but-uninspiring, but Wisconsin's run defense becoming a liability and Georgia just falling apart nudge UT up. Yawn.

#13 Illinois (5-1, #21)
Attrition's a wonderful thing. If Juice Williams is actually a decent quarterback now, why the hell not? And if he isn't, well, why the hell not?

#14 Wisconsin (5-1, #8)
The pretty good not great team I had figured before the season began, just with run defense as a giant liability.

#15 Boston College (6-0, #17)
The usual 8-4 BC team in a conference with nobody good enough to beat them.

#16 Arizona State (6-0, #15)
A step up from their disappointing 2006, but the close win at Wazzou makes it unclear if they've made any big strides.

#17 Virginia Tech (5-1, #19)
That defense is kind of good enough to lead them to maybe winning.

#18 Texas A&M (5-1, #18)
A pretty good team, nothing more, nothing less. Got a bit closer to the running/passing balance they had last year, but still not there yet.

#19 Cincinnati (6-0, #23)
A good team, if a tad overrated. That turnover margin seems to be a trend for no particular reason this year; as long as it holds up - watch out.

#20 Georgia (4-2, #6)
Things fell apart against Tennessee - there's still enough talent to justify ranking them here, and as long as one of either the running game or defense rebounds, they have enough to get by.

#21 Boise State (4-1, --)
The class of the WAC. They actually have a defense!

#22 Purdue (5-1, #20)
Still have the offense to hang with pretty much every other team except those in my top 5 or so. They just happened to play #2.

#23 Penn State (4-2, #22)
Anthony Morelli's still not any good, but in this parity-filled year, a pretty good running game and a pretty good defense will do.

#24 Florida State (4-1, #24)
Pretty good, absolutely unspectacular. I have no idea what to say about this team.

#25 Kansas (5-0, --)
I guess? Hawaii has no defense, I'm still not sold on Auburn's Brandon Cox, Tennessee is a middle of the road SEC team with 2 losses. Kansas is a fine team but nothing special, and undefeated. And this year, that's good enough.

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