Rankings explored

I just listened to a great little podcast discussing the rankings and the fact that some of the polls moved LSU up above USC this week, while USC was idle. You can listen to it here. The gist of the message was there are no rules against voting a team down or voting another team above an idle team. The polls are based on the performance of the teams that week. I couldn't agree more. He also made a point of discussing further rationale behind LSU and OU positions in the polls thus far. I also like that he noticed the lackluster performance against Idaho in their only game so far. I still say USC is highly overrated.

I recall now a conversation I had at work a few days ago. Someone made the point that the preseason rankings give an unfair advantage to the top 2 teams. As long as they win their games they probably won't be voted down and could get the NC spot over other worthy teams that also win their games. I think it is a valid point. The suggestion was made to wait a month or so and then vote based on the performance of the teams at that point. I should point out that is what happens with the BCS poll. You will notice it doesn't come out until mid October. That gives time for most teams to play at least five games, some six. That's about half of their regular season schedule and is probably a good starting point for examining their performance up to that point. Of course this same person also discussed the option of a playoff. I think this has been mentioned more times by more fans than I dare estimate. From what we gathered, the reasoning has something to do with the class schedules of the student athletes involved, including finals week which typically falls after the conference championship games. The bowl games don't start until later in December which gives some time to recuperate. I think we also decided the bowl games make too much money and they wouldn't want to give them up. The idea we came up with was to use the lesser bowl games as rounds in the playoffs. Then you could have the BCS bowls as the semifinals or equivalent and then rotate which of the main bowl games will hold the final championship game. I think this might be a workable solution, but would obviously involve some major hierarchical changes and a few hurt feelings. I really doubt this will happen, but it's interesting to contemplate it.

The first poll I will show is the Scout.com/CollegeFootballNews.com 119. I highly recommend actually going to the site to check out their descriptions for each team. They give a reason why their ranking should be higher and why it should be lower. This week, their reason for OU being lower was

"The Ranking Should Be Lower Because ... it shouldn’t be. There’s no reasonable argument against OU being No. 1 right now."

I agree of course, but it's nice to see some others noticing what I'm seeing. Here's the top 10 of this poll:

1. LSU (2-0)
2. Oklahoma (2-0)
3. USC (1-0)
4. Florida (2-0)
5. Georgia Tech (2-0)
6. Wisconsin (2-0)
7. Texas (2-0)
8. Nebraska (2-0)
9. West Virginia (2-0)
10. Penn State (2-0)

Next we have the AP poll. I went here to check it and here also. This is the top 10 of this poll:

1. USC (40) 1-0 1,594
2. LSU (25) 2-0 1,582
3. Oklahoma 2-0 1,418
4. West Virginia 2-0 1,408
5. Florida 2-0 1,370
6. Texas 2-0 1,290
7. Wisconsin 2-0 1,171
8. California 2-0 1,126
9. Louisville 2-0 1,097
10. Ohio State 2-0 962

Next we have the USA Today/Coaches poll. I viewed it here and here. This is the top 10 of this poll:
1. USC (42) 1-0 1,476
2. LSU (11) 2-0 1,437
3. Florida (7) 2-0 1,353
4. West Virginia 2-0 1,269
5. Oklahoma 2-0 1,264
6. Texas 2-0 1,156
7. Wisconsin 2-0 1,141
8. California 2-0 1,038
9. Louisville 2-0 1,020
10. Ohio State 2-0 972

I believe this is the one with the lowest ranking of OU that I have come across. I have a feeling that may change in a few weeks. I can be patient ;)

Next we have the CBSSports.com 120. It can be found here. This is the top 10 of this poll:
1. Southern California
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Wisconsin
7. California
8. Louisville
9. Texas
10. Ohio State


Next we have ESPN.com's Power 16. It can be found here and here. This is the top 10 of this poll:

1. LSU (10) 2-0
2. USC (5) 1-0
3. Oklahoma 2-0
4. Florida (1) 2-0
4. West Virginia 2-0
6. California 2-0
7. Texas 2-0
8. Penn State 2-0
9. Louisville 2-0
10. UCLA 2-0

That's right, this is the poll the podcast was talking about. If you go here you can read more of a description behind the voting.

Finally we have the ESPNU Allstate Standings (Fan poll). This surprised me a little, but not too much I guess. It can be found here. Here's their top 10:

1. LSU 2-0
2. USC 1-0
3. Oklahoma 2-0
4. Florida 2-0
5. West Virginia 2-0
6. Texas 2-0
7. California 2-0
8. Wisconsin 2-0
9. Louisville 2-0
10. Ohio State 2-0

If you go to that link you can also vote (down at the bottom, click on vote now) and let your vote be counted.

I didn't include the Congrove computer rankings this time because they weren't updated yet at the time of this posting. I may toss them in as well if I notice they update them. I can't promise anything though. If you want to keep tabs on this poll, you can check it here.

Another nice Big 12 showing

We did it again. No I don't mean just the Sooners, although they did it quite well. More on that in a bit. I mean the Big 12. Another 10 wins out of 12 teams playing. We still have 2 teams in the top 10 with Nebraska knocking on it's door. Texas is still on the downslide, but OU has bumped up again in just about every poll. There has been some other movement in some of the polls. I may throw in another poll summary, or save that for a separate post.

On to the Sooners. I was again impressed by Bradford's poise and composure against a tougher opponent. Malcolm Kelley still looks awesome and helped Bradford complete for 5 TD's, three of them himself. Iglesias and Murray looked pretty good. Patrick was back and looking very healthy. He made some great plays, but overall it didn't seem like he was a big difference maker in the game. Chris Brown was back as well and while he looked good, also didn't seem to be a game changer. After reviewing the stats I can see where I got this idea. Patrick and Brown were the 2nd and 3rd leading rushers for the game, behind Murray. There were no rushing TDs though. Either passing TDs or the FG by Hartley. Even Halzle got a TD. It's nice to have a good backup QB. Special teams were overall pretty good, but a couple of really bad plays cost some points. Fortunately, the defense was outstanding and minimized the damage done. They were all over the Miami offense and held the two leading Miami rushers to 52 yards compared to 215 combined in the previous game. I am so impressed by the way the defense has been stepping up their game this season. I recall this time last season they were really struggling. Not anymore. I don't see them being tested for the next couple of games, but I hope they keep the focus and intensity they will need when the in conference gauntlet begins.

I didn't get to see any of the other games since I was drilling this weekend. I was fortunate to have taped the OU game so I got to enjoy that one. I would like to point out that of the 10 wins our conference had, 7 of them were by at least 2 TDs. I think that's pretty good. Kansas and OSU looked really good. Baylor made up for last weeks rout by dominating Rice. Texas did okay against a ranked TCU team. K State, Texas Tech, and Missouri all looked pretty good in their games. I hope to see more wins for everyone next week. Let's keep dominating like we should.

Oh I almost forgot, we set a new attendance record with 85,357. I doubt there will be any open seats the rest of the season at least. That is a general trend around here. Memorial Stadium is usually full.

Oklahoma Faces Challenge Saturday

There's been plenty of talk about how OU's game against North Texas is nice and all but doesn't mean much compared to a tougher team. While I agree it is not the same, I think the intensity and focus they showed throughout the game will serve them well against Miami also. They could have easily been blindly looking ahead to the Miami game and that would have distracted them. The same could be said during the Miami game although Utah State is not likely to be as tough to handle. The whole adage of taking it one week at a time seems to be playing out. If they can maintain that level of focus the rest of the season, who knows where they will end up?

Coach Stoops felt the same way:

"We've had some games where we've had lopsided wins, we've gotten ahead in the second half, and the second half gives me nightmares," Stoops said. "I go home just totally aggravated, because guys get in late, lose their focus (and) have penalties. Their intensity wanes a little and you break down in coverage or you miss an adjustment."
Against North Texas, "we didn't have that. To me, it's just reflective of how these guys have been. What I keep saying about them is they have a really great focus to them."

The Sooners are really looking forward to this Saturday and Coach Stoops says the players "realize it's a challenge. I'm sure it's the same for Miami. It's challenging, and anytime it is, it's awfully exciting, too." I agree. I just wish I could watch it live this Saturday. I will be taping it so no worries.

The OU coach had little to complain about with the North Texas game and had some positive comments about the play.

"I was pleased with the overall clean and solid play, really in all parts of our game," Stoops said. "Offensively, everyone wondered how Sam Bradford would handle the situation, regardless of who you're playing going out in your first game, I thought (it) was just remarkable how cool, calm and collected he was and how he executed," Stoops said.
"He was excellent in the huddle (and) at the line of scrimmage. I can think back several years, having new quarterbacks and they're having two, three fumbled snaps. A lot of things can go wrong, but he just executed in a wonderful way."
"Defensively, I thought our structure and positioning on the ball and tackling was very sharp," Stoops said, noting that hasn't always been the case in early season games in other years. Mistakes "have happened in a lot of other games, but it didn't happen the other night."

Some quotes from Miami coach Randy Shannon:

"This week, we play Oklahoma and they are a great team. They have a lot of good players on their team. I know their coaching staff personally. They do a good job of getting their players ready for any opponent. I think that it will be a challenge for us to go out there and play, but I have confidence in what we're doing today. It is a televised game so there will be a lot of emotion, but it's just an opportunity for both teams to go out there and compete. At the end of the day, the best team is going to win the game."
"There's a reason that Oklahoma is ranked high. They have a big defensive line, a big offensive line and they play great offense. It will be a challenge for us to go out there, because we are playing a great defense. Our offense is doing good. We were able to rush the ball for 260 yards and that is something that we are going to continuously try to do. If we can go into Oklahoma and rush the ball for 260 yards, we will win the game. We have to go and get that done."

Sorry coach, the stats on ESPN say you only rushed for 251(a little picky I know ;)). In addition, OU held North Texas to only 15 yards rushing, while rushing for 265 yards themselves. I realize that is North Texas and all, but we'll have to see how that turns out. A more telling result might be the 337 total yards by Miami compared to the 668 total yards by OU. After checking the rankings it appears that Marshall was ranked a little higher than North Texas. I don't know if that will make up the difference for Miami or not. In either case, we are assured of a good game this Saturday.

It appears that Allen Patrick and Chris Brown will be back for the Miami game so that should make for some great option plays for Bradford. I am looking forward to it.

Some of the material here is from this article on SoonerSports.com, while some is from this one.

Results are in for week one

Here's the top 10 for several polls:

AP:

1. USC (59) 1-0 1,619
2. LSU (5) 1-0 1,542
3. West Virginia (1) 1-0 1,449
4. Florida 1-0 1,346
5. Oklahoma 1-0 1,275
5. Wisconsin 1-0 1,275
7. Texas 1-0 1,221
8. Louisville 1-0 1,152
9. Virginia Tech 1-0 1,085
10. California 1-0 1,080

USA Today (Coaches):

1. USC (49) 1-0 1,486
2. LSU (4) 1-0 1,417
3. Florida (7) 1-0 1,341
4. West Virginia 1-0 1,275
5. Wisconsin 1-0 1,183
6. Oklahoma 1-0 1,146
7. Texas 1-0 1,136
8. Louisville 1-0 995
9. Virginia Tech 1-0 988
10. California 1-0 985

CBSSports.com 120:

1 Southern California
2 LSU
3 West Virginia
4 Wisconsin
5 Florida
6 Louisville
7 California
8 Texas
9 Virginia Tech
10 Oklahoma

College Football News 119:

There's one very important distinction in the CFN rankings: these are based on how good the teams are and NOT how they're going to finish. Some teams have easier schedules than others, some get tougher road games and some will need a little bit of time to jell meaning they might be better than their final record might indicate.

1. USC (1-0)
2. LSU (1-0)
3. Oklahoma (1-0)
4. Wisconsin (1-0)
5. California (1-0)
6. Texas (1-0)
7. Georgia Tech (1-0)
8. Florida (1-0)
9. Louisville (1-0)
10. Nebraska (1-0)

Congrove Computer rankings:

1 Southern California
2 Louisiana State
3 Oklahoma
4 Louisville
5 West Virginia
6 Texas
7 UCLA
8 Wisconsin
9 Florida
10 California

ESPN.com's Power 16:
1. USC (15) 1-0
2. LSU 1-0
3. West Virginia 1-0
4. Oklahoma 1-0
5. Florida (1) 1-0
6. California 1-0
7. Louisville 1-0
8. Wisconsin 1-0
9. Texas 1-0
10. Georgia 1-0

ESPNU Allstate Standings (Fan poll)

1. USC 1-0

2. LSU 1-0

3. West Virginia 1-0

4. Florida 1-0

5. California 1-0

6. Oklahoma 1-0

7. Wisconsin 1-0

8. Louisville 1-0

9. Texas 1-0

10. Virginia Tech 1-0

So it appears for the most part that OU moved up and Texas moved down. In most OU is either 5 or 6 which I think is a great spot to be in for now. Others have us at #3 and one has us at #10. I think it's safe to say we are probably more around the 4 or 5 spot in reality. The Miami game will tell a lot more. I can't wait to see how we do.

Super Saturday Aftermath

Where to begin? I might as well start with the Sooners. Bradford and Murray looked great. So did Iglesias and Kelly. I think if the new guys can be consistent like they were this time for the rest of the season, they will be very tough to compete with. It doesn't hurt having as deep a roster as we do. A force to be reckoned with? I think so.

I am starting to see the wisdom of the Congrove rankings showing OU at #3. I will have to post again once the AP and Coaches polls get updated. I can see Texas dropping and maybe even USC. I would also expect to see OU bump up and Michigan will definitely drop.

Some will say that North Texas rolled over and they weren't much competition. Whether that's true or not, the performance by our new guys was unquestionably excellent. Especially for their first time out. I am used to seeing a lot more unforced errors and sloppy play in the first couple of games. For them to come out and play this well right out of the chute is truly remarkable.

At the same time, I noticed that Idaho was on a similar level ranking at least. Admittedly, I didn't get to see much of the game, but based on the bits I saw and the outcome I was not overly impressed by USC. Obviously I am biased though.

Texas struggled with a seemingly lightweight opponent as well. I was even less impressed by their performance, but I didn't see any of the game so hard to say much about that.

I did get to watch the Colorado game and thought they did well considering the rivalry factor. I don't think either team was particularly strong, but I enjoyed the game and thought Colorado was at least coached better than Colorado State.

Missouri struggled a bit against Illinois, especially in the second half. I didn't see much of that part of the game. They looked pretty good in the first half for the parts I saw. It looks like Illinois made a strong push at the end but Mizzou was able to rein it in just enough to come out ahead in the end.

Nebraska looked confident and only got stronger in the second half. Nevada scored a bit late in the first half but were shutout after that. I did see a good bit of this game as well and thought they were executing fairly well on most of the plays but made some mistakes that would cost them against a tougher opponent. Overall a great performance by Nebraska though.

Kansas looked good against Central Michigan. I didn't see the game itself, but it looks like they were able to control the ball well for the majority of the game, only allowing a few late points in the final quarter of the game. Again I didn't see the game so I can't say much about their performance but I think the score speaks of a good first outing.

A&M looked okay against Montana St. It looks like the defense was struggling a bit at first but then pulled it together and no further points scored by Montana St. I did notice that Montana State has had some troubles lately and apparently a new coach so they will likely struggle this season. In spite of the score, the Aggies passing game was not as good as the Bobcats. The running game was all A&M however. If their defense can stop the passing game a bit better they will be ok.

K State made a valiant effort against a ranked Auburn team. The Wildcats were doing quite well through the first half and most of the 3rd quarter. It's not quite clear what happened then, but Auburn apparently pulled their act together a bit and managed to start a scoring momentum that managed to save them in the end. I was very impressed by the Kansas State performance and think Auburn will have to make some corrections to stay in the top 25 although they should have a little time before facing some tougher opponents mid season. I think if K State can be more consistent through the whole game they will do well this season.

OSU looked pretty good at first but seemed to falter and fizzle at the end of the first half. They never got back into the game after that. Georgia is a ranked team and while they struggled a bit at first, they seemed to take control for the rest of the game. The cowboys will have to step it up a bit, especially when they start playing in conference games if they hope to salvage the season.

I didn't see the Baylor game, but it looks like they were completely outmatched by a superior TCU team. While it appears it was more of a defensive battle the score might let on, TCU's defense was clearly in charge of the game, holding the Bears to only 52 rushing yards. They also forced 4 turnovers which obviously cost Baylor the game.

I suppose I could mention Iowa State's loss to Kent State, but I didn't see that game either. It wasn't a rout, but the Cyclones clearly have some improvements to make before playing in conference.

I should point out that 7 of the 10 Big 12 teams that played Saturday won their games, some quite decisively. If we throw in the early game that drops to 7 out of 11, but Texas Tech hasn't played yet. If I think of it I may update this after their game. Either way, I think that is a good starting effort and hope that we continue to do well this season. It can only help us having a strong conference.

Update:
Now that Texas Tech has beaten SMU soundly I can say that we have 8 of 12 teams playing so far with wins. I think that's pretty good, don't you?

The Red Raiders actually looked really good. They got off to a bit of a slow start, but from then on they were very consistent, scoring 7 points in the 1st quarter and then 14 in each of the rest. SMU only scored 3 FG's, 2 in the first half and one in the 2nd. The Tech defense just wouldn't let up.

In addition to the 8 wins from 12 teams, 5 of those eight wins were dominant (30+ point spread). I think that sounds like a strong showing to me. Of course OU looked the best of any of the teams this weekend so the rest have some catching up to do. If the Sooners can bring the consistency and make minor improvements here and there, they will be very hard to catch.

Preseason outlook

In preparation for the first game of the season this Saturday, I did some looking around to see what I could find in the way of rankings and predictions. I was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty decent amount of coverage and some very thorough analysis in at least one example.

To give an overall ranking idea, I looked here and found OU at #7 which is a pretty good spot. They also have a short rundown of strengths and weaknesses of all the teams and ranks them all the way to 119. Nice site. Continuing for comparison purposes, I looked here and found three polls of interest. The AP, Coaches, and the CBSSports.com 120. All but the last one have OU at #8, with the last one putting OU at #10. I tend to put a bit more stock in the first two than the last one, but being in the top 10 is fine by me. One odd thing I noticed here is if you look at the Oklahoma team report it shows us at #10 on the Coaches poll also, but on the poll itself we are at #8. I'm guessing it was a glitch, but hard to say which is correct.

Then I looked here and found a bit of a surprise. The Congrove computer ratings have OU at #3 with Texas at #4. I realize that is only 4 spots above the highest rank so far, but in the top 10 that is a pretty big jump. Judging by the other information on that site, it looks like the analysis is extremely thorough and pretty accurate based on past performance. They have a historical portion where you can see all the past rankings and how they stack up. Take a look at the progression from '93 to the present here. As far as predictions go, they have a rather complete and thorough preview of how they think the season will play out here. They have USC vs. LSU for the championship and pick OU to play Louisiana in the Fiesta Bowl. Not a bad way to finish up, but having just played in the Fiesta Bowl last season I would hope for a bit more. Besides, though there was no shame in losing to an undefeated team last season, it still left a bad taste in my mouth :(

If you want to get down to specifics, they have a Big 12 preview as well here. They pick OU to win the South and Nebraska to win the North, with OU winning the conference. I could definitely see it going down the way they predict it. The interesting thing though is the way they show it. They actually show individual breakdowns of wins and losses for each team. If you click on a particular team, it goes further and shows the schedule and prediction down to fractional point spreads for each game. Impressive to say the least. For example, they have OU going undefeated with the closest spread on the OU vs. Texas game. The upcoming game against North Texas has a spread of 37.33 points. I guess we'll find out later today whether they know what they are talking about or not.

Personally, I would like to see a closer game than that. Not because I think North Texas is that good, but because I don't want our guys getting too cocky with Miami coming up right after. Even though most of the polls show Miami ranked pretty low, I think that is going to be a very challenging game for the Sooners. Miami is still a solid program and our new guys will still be working out the kinks a bit in only the second game of the season. I would prefer to work out the issues during this first game so they are ready to go for Miami and the rest after. Of course if they don't put up enough points that could hurt the ranking a bit. That won't matter as much at first, but when the first BCS poll comes out in October, I would prefer to be sitting strongly in the good.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about where we stand at this point in the season. I'll try to remember to post a follow up of sorts when the game is over.

Bradford named Sooners' starter

According to this article, Coach Stoops says Bradford has "earned the position". His performance certainly stands out from his fellow QBs. 12 of 17 passes for 130 yards and 4 TDs is nothing to be ashamed of.

I hadn't realized how tall he is, although I don't suppose he is extraordinarily tall compared to some other players. 6'5" and 213 lbs are his stats.

He is only 19. Coincidentally, he threw 19 TDs at PC North in his senior season. He also threw for 2,422 yards that same season.

Apparently his dad also played for the Sooners back in the 70's. I'm sure he will be proud to have his son play for them as well.

None of the three candidates has much experience but the nice thing is they have plenty of time to grow and mature. I see good things for this season and even better for the future.

I am really looking forward to the first game and the rest of the season coming soon :D