Blogpoll: Week 11

By Chris Lauderback on November 10, 2008 at 7:00 am
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With Texas Tech in the middle of potentially surviving a scheduling gauntlet coupled with Bama's mediocre showing against LSU, we've moved Tech into the top spot.

Admittedly, our heads are still beyond cloudy after getting together in Chicago over the weekend so consider this an even rougher first draft than usual.

What's your take on Penn State? We put 'em 7th, aka the last of the one loss squads, because we just don't think Boise or Utah deserve a spot ahead of the Lions. What say you?

1 Texas Tech What can we say other than we are believers. The offense is sick and they appear to be the only team in the Big 12 with a defense. Is Harrell your Heisman front runner? 40/50, 426 yards and 6 TD. Now that is a stat line. Next up: @ Oklahoma. UP2
2 Alabama We dropped 'Bama to #2 and frankly, while they're deserving of the spot based on record, we don't think they are currently the second best team in the country. To their credit, they did pull out the W in an OT nailbiter but their own poor play kept it close. JPW completed less than 50% of his passes (15/31) with a pick and LSU actually outgained Bama. Their saving grace was the fact LSU's Jarrett Lee is the worst QB in the conference. Sure, Bama can try and take some of the credit, but Lee produces similarly ugly stat lines on a weekly basis (13/34, 4 INT). We'll eat crow if it comes to it but we see Florida delivering a pimp hand to Saban's boys in the SEC title game. --
3 Florida The Gators slaughtered Vandy 42-14 to secure a bid in the SEC title game. Tebow tried to keep pace with Harrell accounting for 5 TD (3 pass, 2 rush). Next up: South Carolina. UP1
4 Southern Cal The Trojan offense sputtered a little but the D was again dominant in USC's 17-3 win over Cal. The defense has now held six opponents to less than 10 points this season and they've given up just 13 total points in the last five games. USC is 25-0 in November games under Pete Carroll. UP1
5 Texas Colt McCoy threw 5 TD passes as the Longhorns bashed Baylor 45-21 in Austin. Our favorite white receiver, Jordan Shipley, scored a TD for the 10th straight game. First downs: Texas 30, Baylor 9. UP1
6 Oklahoma The Sooner offense blew up again with 653 total yards with Sam Bradford again doing most of the heavy lifting. The QB went 22/33 for 320 yards and 4 TD with the RB tandem of DeMarco Murray (123 yds) and Chris Brown (117 yds, 3 TD) adding another 240 yards. OU has yet to score less than 35 in any game. Next up: Texas Tech. UP1
7 Penn State Well, so much for Joe Pa going out on top. In the end, maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that the Lions lost 24-23 to Iowa on a last second FG considering they have now lost the last 3 to Iowa coming off a bye ('03, '04). Viva La Ferentz. Man, did Darryll Clark stink it up: 9/23 for 86 yards and a pick. DOWN6
8 Boise State Boise State beat up on another janky opponent. This time it was Utah State, 49-14. Four different Broncos threw a TD pass and the D forced 6 turnovers. UP1
9 Utah Utah scored 13 unanswered points to sneak past TCU 13-10 and move to 10-0. Brian Johnson led the Utes on an 80yd drive capped with a 9yd TD pass to Freddie Brown with :48 left on the clock. Total yards: TCU 416, Utah 275. UP1
10 Ohio State Andre Ware needs to cork it. Of all people, why is he trying to call out Tressel for supposedly running up the score in OSU's 45-10 road win at Northwestern? If anything, you'd think he'd be a fan of such strategy considering it's all his Houston teams did back in the day. Hell, all the running up the score they did allowed him to win a Heisman. Unbelievable. Of course, if you don't want ESPN's z-team calling your games, win more of them. UP1
11 Oklahoma State The Cowboys had no answer for Texas Tech's offense surrendering 38 first downs and 629 total yards in the 56-20 loss. WR Dez Bryant also learned a lesson after spouting off this week saying he deserved as much hype as Tech's Michael Crabtree. Bryant: 4/86, 0 TD. Crabtree: 8/89, 3 TD. Case closed. DOWN3
12 Missouri Jeremy Maclin put up 278 all-purpose yards and 3 TD in Mizzou's 41-24 win over Kansas State. Missouri now sits atop the Big 12 North. --
13 Georgia Georgia almost lost another one but Matt Stafford's TD pass to A.J. Green with 1:54 left allowed the Dawgs to escape with a 42-38 victory in Lexington. Stafford: 17/27, 376 yards, 3 TD. Moreno: 22/123, 3 TD. UP1
14 Brigham Young Max Hall played a near flawless game going 25/30 for 317 yards and 3 TD in BYU's 41-12 win over San Diego State. UP2
15 Ball State Ball State improved to 9-0 beating Northern Illinois 45-14. Nate Davis led the charge throwing for 300 and 4 TD. UP2
16 Michigan State Sparty improved to 9-2 with a 21-7 win over Purdue. Ringer was Ringer going for 121 and 2 TD but Hoyer struggled going 10/22 with 154 yards and 2 picks. MSU held Purdue to 191 total yards and 3/16 on 3rd down. UP2
17 North Carolina The Tar Heels beat Georgia Tech 28-7 to secure their first winning season in seven years. Yikes. Can you imagine? This one only 7-0 heading to the 4th quarter but UNC got 3 TD's in the final 14 minutes. Yards rushing: GT 326, NC 186. UP2
18 TCU The Horned Frogs jumped out to a 10-0 lead but couldn't make it stand up in a 13-10 loss at Utah. TCU outgained the Utes 416 to 275 but allowed an 80 yard TD drive in the final minutes. DOWN5
19 LSU LSU tried to pull the upset but Tiger QB Jarrett Lee refused to let that happen tossing 4 INT, including the game sealer in a 27-21 OT loss to Alabama. DOWN4
20 Florida State Bowden turned 79 years young as his Seminoles beat Clemson 41-27 in Tallahassee. The FSU crowd sang Happy Birthday to the old man with 380 career W's. The Seminole D held Clemson to 2/15 3rd down conversions. NR
21 Pittsburgh Wannestache's boys took advantage of 5 turnovers to romp past Louisville 41-7 in Pittsburgh. Next up: @ UC. NR
22 Cincinnati The Bearcats improved to 7-2 with a 26-23 upset win over the Mountaineers in Morgantown. UC is now 5-2 against ranked teams with Brian Kelly as head coach. Before Kelly, UC won just four times in 62 tries against ranked opponents. NR
23 South Carolina The OBC moved to 7-3 with a 34-21 win over lowly Arkansas. Of course, the Cocks will almost certainly meet the same fate as all the other teams we slot in 20-25 spots that seemingly lose the week after they crack our ranking...Next up: @ Florida. NR
24 Tulsa Bye week. Next up: @ Houston NR
25 Oregon State Beaver freshman RB Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 144 yards and a score in Oregon State's 34-6 destruction of UCLA. Rodgers now has the most ever rushing yards by a Pac-10 freshman (1,089) with three regular season games still remaining. NR

DROPPED OUT: Georgia Tech (#20), West Virginia (#21), Northwestern (#22), Maryland (#23), California (#24), Kansas (#25).

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