My College Football Post-Week 4 Top 25: The Demise Of OSU and Rise Of Another

Well...we're finally starting to get to the meat of the college football season and get past the early season cupcakes. That means evidence is starting to become less scarce in terms of how good teams actually are.

From my observations, I feel the need to make my own poll as I have continued a trend through recent years of largely disagreeing with the AP and USAToday polls.

Complaints I have with the AP and USAToday polls is that you typically can't jump somebody until they lose and polls are based on a "you lost, we move you down x number of spots system" which neglects who they were playing and how the game got to that conclusion.

In my poll, you can drop with a win and rise with a loss (the question is: did you impress me?; though the latter will probably not lift you more than a couple places). The way I see it: defense, offensive balance, and team camaraderie make a team succeed and I am searching for those qualities when ranking teams. Talent won't shoot you up to the top of my poll nor will blowout wins against nobodies. You have to impress me.

Thus, when I make my weekly poll, I will rank teams completely from scratch. There is no "move x number of spots." There is only "your team's play and resume this season is this impressive to me."

At the bottom of my first poll is an explanation of notable exclusions.

So, without further ado, my college football Top 25:

25) Florida State (AP: Not Ranked; USAToday: No Votes)

24) Virginia Tech (NR; NR)

23) East Carolina (23; NR)

22) Fresno State (25; 24)

21) Oregon (NR; 22)

20) South Carolina (NR; NV)

19) Boise State (19; 20)

18) Vanderbilt (21; 25)

17) Texas Tech (10; 9)

16) Kansas (18; 18)

15) South Florida (13; 14) – Well-coached squad that plays with a high level of intensity. Nice win over Kansas. We’ll find out just how impressive that win was later in the season when we see how good Kansas really is.

14) Utah (17; 17) – Schedule is weak (Michigan is biggest win). If their offense can execute against solid competition the way it does against lesser competition, they may be the mid-major clone of Missouri with a high scoring, spread-like offense and shaky defense.

13) Wake Forest (16; 15) – Very good defense will carry you against most teams most of the time but they need a consistent, half-decent offense to really compete this season.

12) BYU (11; 11) – Blowout of UCLA looks less and less impressive every day but I still like the way they’ve handled themselves so far. However, I am concerned because if they want to be top-15 long, they can’t let games like the Washington one (a slightly sub-par opponent with an 0-3 record) get that close to OT. With their schedule, they need to blow everybody out to avoid getting jumped.

11) Texas (7; 7) – FAU, UTEP, Rice has got to be one of the worst opening schedules in the nation!!! Texas has potential and an aggressive quarterback who will be a great leader. If they can put it together and play well against a good opponent (Oklahoma on Oct 11???), they will almost certainly move up noticeably (even if they lose).

10) Wisconsin (9; 8) – Power running attack makes them a formidable team. Win over Fresno State impressed me a fair amount but not enough to put them higher. I want to see their defense play with the same physicality and aggression as their offense.

9) Missouri (6; 5) – Explosive offense. Highly concerning defense (gave up 42 to Illinois, a team I liked last year but don’t see the same fight in the team or explosiveness in the run game).

8) Florida (4; 4) – Defense is solid (held Miami to 3 points and Tennessee to 6 points). However, I haven’t been all that impressed with Florida’s offense. It’s pretty good right now but not great. It just seems incomplete. Maybe a more diverse run game would change that.

7) Penn State (12; 12) – Biggest win thus far was against Oregon State. Not the most impressive schedule thus far and Big Ten play doesn’t contain many games that will provide them with a quality opponent. Despite the attention paid to PSU’s off-field issues, their offense and defense both look great at times, especially the offense, but not so much because of talent as their great camaraderie and energy. If they can keep up the intensity, they will go far.

6) Auburn (15; 16) – Exhibit A for not dropping in my poll as they did in the AP and USAToday polls (drop about 6 places for losing in the final couple minutes of a top-10 match-up!!!). Played LSU down to the wire and controlled the first half. I give them the benefit of the doubt on a few games evidence mainly because of that game but they still need to prove something more to me if they expect to stay this high for long.

5) Georgia (3; 3) – Impressive but not top-3 impressive. I like their balanced offense with Stafford and Moreno playing poised and well. However, something is missing. If they seem more complete against Alabama they may move up next week.

4) USC (1; 1) – I can’t rank them any higher because they have played nobody. They beat Virginia (a bottom-feeder, 1-2 team in a conference that has been repulsive this year) and Ohio State MINUS Beanie Wells (see below for my opinion of Ohio State). Potent-looking defense and offense but nothing proven.

3) LSU (5; 6) – LSU opened the season with a large-margin victory over Appalachian State (not FBS, but the best FCS team the last few years) which was a little impressive but the big-time win was against Auburn. In a physical SEC grudge match, LSU battled back from a 14-3 halftime deficit to beat an Auburn team that is very good. Can they play well in their next big game (Florida)?

2) Oklahoma (2; 2) – Large-margin victories over Washington and, more importantly, Cincinnati (a pretty good team with a well-coached defense) impressed me. I think Oklahoma looks very good on both sides of the ball (probably slightly better than Alabama on offense but not on Alabama’s level on defense).

1) Alabama (8; 10) – The only team I even considered for this spot.  I watched them versus Clemson and Arkansas (granted not an SEC heavyweight). This defense is learning to play Saban’s style of tight outside coverage allowing lots of heavy blitz packages aided by their  exceptional speed (the style I loved when Saban coached LSU). They just look scary good on both sides of the ball, and….they have Saban!!!

Noteable Exclusions:

Ohio State (14; 13) – At the start of the season I would have put them at about #10. They weren’t supposed to hang with USC in my opinion, especially without Beanie. What knocked them out of the top-25 was more a combination of trailing Ohio in the fourth quarter and leading Troy by only 4 points entering the fourth quarter.

Clemson (20; 19) – The last couple years, every time I turn on the TV, they make a big mistake, usually on special teams. I want to see the coaching staff clean up the plays that change games before I trust them.

Illinois (22; 21) – As I said earlier, “a team I liked last year but don’t see the same fight in the team or explosiveness in the run game.” I don’t even think they’ll finish in top 4 or 5 in Big Ten. If they play well against PSU, I can guarantee that they will be in the top-25 next week.