Walker-Sports Top 25 Poll: Georgia Is Just a Seat Warmer

Another week is in the books for the college football season, and a couple of teams narrowly escaped some major upsets (Georgia, I’m looking at you). Most of the country saw the blowout in L.A. (told ya so)—now let’s see where the Buckeyes will land in this week's edition of the Walker-Sports Top 25 Poll.

1) Georgia Bulldogs

Hanging in there by a thread. The Old Ball Coach almost got them last weekend. But again, 'til they are knocked off, they get the top spot. They are just keeping it warm for the Trojans at this point.

2) USC Trojans

This team comes across as being too good for college football. OSU had no chance. The Trojans can punch their tickets for the BCS Championship game. They just have to stay focused on the big picture now.

3) Oklahoma Sooners

Another dominating performance this past weekend. Lost in all the Tim Tebow/USC/Chase Daniel hype is how good sophomore Sam Bradford really is. If he continues at this pace, the Sooners will be a dangerous team.

4) Missouri Tigers

Chase Daniel may be playing the best football in the country right now. The Tigers are gearing up for one of the most exciting Big 12 Championships ever with the Sooners.

5) Florida Gators

They navigated their way through a trap game two weeks ago against Miami. An off week gave the Gators a chance to heal up some injuries and get ready for what will be a grueling SEC schedule.

6) LSU

45-3 against North Texas: That’s exactly what you are supposed to do when playing an inferior opponent. The Tigers have enough in the tank to make some noise in the SEC West. Make it to ATL, and who knows what can happen.

7) Auburn

3-2...that was the final against Ole Miss. I thought it was a baseball game 'til I actually saw the stats. Auburn has a defense, and from the looks of it, a very good one. If they can ever get the offense to click, they will be fun to watch.

8) Wisconsin

Go on the road, cross the country, and play out of your comfort zone against a ranked team. I like that, and posting a big win like that will always get you some brownie points in the Walker-Sports college football polls.

9) Texas

Colt continues to mature and adapt to his role as the leader of the Longhorns. An off week gave Texas a chance to improve on its running game. You can rest assured that Texas is looking to figure into the Big 12 title hunt.

10) Alabama

Nick Saban is running a tight ship, and with two tough road games coming up, he knows he has to keep his team focused. Arkansas and Georgia on back to back weeks will put this team to the test.

11) Texas Tech

They racked up a 43-7 win this weekend, and head coach Mike Leach is still not happy with his offense's performance. He knows it is time for his Red Raiders to take the next step and become a contender in the Big 12, but until his players understand what it means to take that step, he will continue to hound them to strive for perfection.

12) South Florida

It was not easy, but it will go down as one of the most exciting football games of the season. South Florida racked up an impressive victory over Kansas on Friday night. It took a late field goal, but the Bulls keep the streak alive and will live to play football another day.

13) East Carolina

Taking on Tulane could have been a trap game for the Pirates, who had knocked off ranked opponents in consecutive weeks. After a slow start, Skip Holtz's boys responded well and came away with the win. ECU will factor into the BCS equation as the end of the season.

14) BYU

They may be banned from L.A. after what they did to UCLA. BYU answered critics (ourselves included) with a strong performance on Saturday. Now let’s see if they can maintain this intensity.

15) Penn State

This is without a doubt Joe Pa’s best football team in years. He has athletes and skill at all the important positions. The schedule is about to get tough with games against Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin coming up in the next month. If they can survive, this could be a special year in Happy Valley.

16) OSU

Don’t use Beanie Wells as an excuse. He is a great running back, and sure he would have helped out, but he doesn’t play defense and could not have stopped USC from hanging 35 on the Buckeyes. OSU was once again exposed for being too slow at the point of attack. Maybe they should just avoid all nationally televised games.

17) Oregon

If you’re a QB, don’t go to Oregon. Sure, you get to run in a wide-open spread offense, and you get all the latest gear from Nike, but you’re going to get hurt. It seems like this place has a death wish on QBs. Once again, despite racking up a win, they lost a starting QB. Imagine what a healthy Ducks team could accomplish.

18) Wake Forest

Wake is looking to be the cream of the crop in the ACC, and they used their off week to work on their running game. Next week they go on the road to FSU. The ‘Noles are looking to reestablish themselves as football powers in a conference they once owned. Wake is standing in their way right now.

19) Utah

They destroyed in-state rival Utah State on Saturday by 48 points, but the showdown with other in-state rival BYU is the only one this team is worried about. If Utah can stay the course, they could be ready to crash the BCS again.

20) Clemson

The Tigers moved to 2-1 with a win over a bad NC State team. I’m not sure what is going on down there, but Clemson just is not in sync. A lot of big name players are failing to live up to their expectations. Tommy Bowden is looking at another disappointing season.

21) Kansas

The long fall to 21 may have been a little harsh, but the Jayhawks have plenty of time to rebound. They went on the road and played in a tough game down in South Florida, and they managed to take them to the limits. Sadly for the Jayhawks, the Big 12 is just going to prove to be too tough for them to handle if they struggled with South Florida.

22) WVU

This is a team that needs to shake off an early season upset. In order to do that, they may need to return to some basics. That means getting Pat White out the pocket and running the ball more and using Noel Devine as an option. WVU is becoming a passing team but does not have the players to execute the game plan properly.

23) Illinois

20-17 over Louisiana-Lafayette is not exactly what Illinois had in mind when they saw this game on the schedule. And the schedule does not get any easier: They hit the road next week to open their Big Ten schedule against Penn State.

24) Arizona State

When your award-winning kicker has his field goal attempt blocked in OT, you know it’s not your day. That’s what happened to ASU. However, the bigger question is how did the Sun Devils end up playing in OT against UNLV? Perhaps they were looking ahead to their game with top-ranked Georgia (this will be the end of the Bulldogs' run).

25) Fresno State

The Bulldogs were ready to show the country (or at least the late night football watchers) they were ready to play in the big leagues when they took on Wisconsin. However, three missed field goals will haunt Fresno State, as they fell to the Badgers 13-10. Still a good team, but crashing the BCS is now out of the question.