BLOGPOLL BALLOT, WEEK 3

The BlogPoll voting system is currently down, but some of us are still posting our ballots, especially those of us whose minds are already made up.

1. Southern Cal: Until there’s a good reason why they shouldn’t be.
2. Texas: Now there can be no doubt. They’re not a complete football team, but they’re certainly second -best.
3. LSU: Nice, nice comeback. That’ll be a real confidence builder.
4. Tennessee: Did not play last week.
5. Virginia Tech: Yes, it was only Duke. Did you happen to see how many teams lost this weekend?
6. Georgia: 17-15 doesn’t bother me, since Spurrier appears to be a little ahead of schedule.
7. Florida: Hove you noticed how nobody is talking about Urban Meyer this week?
8. Ohio State: Reminds me of Pirandello’s “Six Characters In Search of an Author.”
9. Florida State: Shaky, really shaky, but still undefeated. I don’t expect that to last.
10. Notre Dame: Sparty could be a spoiler this week, though.
11. Arizona State: Looked good in defeat, but 28 points given up in one quarter should earn them some wind sprints.
12. Purdue: Didn’t win as decisively as they should have, particularly with 11 starters back on defense.
13. Louisville: I’m still not buying them, but everybody around them has deteriorated a bit.
14. Georgia Tech: Maybe not as great as they looked in week one, especially since Auburn looks mortal.
15. California: Looking better; needs to get a lot better.
16. Minnesota: Rolling, but competition creates competitors, and they haven’t faced any real competition yet.
17. Boston College: Will probably get stomped flat this week.
18. Iowa State: Played a nearly-perfect game this week. Keep it up, and they could make the BCS.
19. Texas Tech: Great offense–against Florida International.
20. Michigan: Goal-line offense looked like Eastern Michigan, though–what a coinkydink!
21. Miami (Florida): I hate having a winless team in my top 25, but they didn’t totally reek against F$U.
22. Auburn: Hey, maybe Mithippi State is getting better . . .
23. Clemson: Not real impressive, but still undefeated.
24. UCLA: FLying under everybody’s radar. Maybe the PAC 10’s most improved team.
25. New Mexico: Took huge advantage of three Mizzou TOs.

Games I saw this week: Pitt @ Ohio, Kansas State @ Marshall, Iowa @ Iowa State (wait a minute . . . I’m pretty sure that game didn’t happen), Texas @ Ohio State, Arizona State @ LSU @ Arizona State.

TEN RANDOM THOUGHTS, COLLEGE FOOTBALL EDITION

1. My Hawkeyes didn’t lose on Saturday, they got beat. Iowa State played as close to perfectly as I’ve ever seen them play. It’s hard to come from behind if the other team doesn’t make mistakes, and the Clones didn’t. Great, great performance. Now go win the North; it’s yours for the taking this year.
2. Jim Tressel is taking a lot of grief for his Incredible Two-Headed Quarterback experiment, and frankly, he deserves it. Because his team actually needs three quarterbacks: a thrower, a scrambler, and one who can actually get the ball in the end zone. Thus, Tressel’s only one QB short.
3. Nicholls State is a I-AA school located about an hour to the west-southwest of New Orleans. They’ve scarcely been able to practice since Katrina came through; in fact, the university had indefinitely cancelled all its athletic events. Those events included this past Saturday’s bobo-boffing with the Indiana Hoosiers. IU somehow managed to find the jack to charter a plane for the Nicholls State team–on Thursday. So bear in mind that this was a I-AA team which hasn’t had much practice in two weeks and didn’t even know their game against a Big Ten school would take place until about 48 hours before kickoff. The players are mostly from Louisiana and probably all lost property, friends, and family members in the storm. Got it? Distractions, uncertainty, and no meaningful preparation. Final score: IU 35, Nicholls State 31. While I don’t want to take anything away from Nicholls State, that performance does not speak well for Indiana this season.
4. Vanderbilt? Baylor? Really?
5. Steve Spurrier appears to have South Carolina on the right track a little earlier than anyone anticipated. This is not really the news that the rest of the SEC was hoping for; everybody wanted their chance to exact bloody revenge on The Ol’ Score-Runnin’-Up Ball Coach.
6. College football algebra: TCU + SMU = OU BCS DOA
7. The two best games I watched this weekend were (of course) Texas-Ohio State and Pitt-Ohio. The former turned out eerily similar to how I predicted, with Vince Young gettin’ it done and Messrs. Zwick and Smith getting the yips. The latter was one of the most emotional games I’ve seen since . . . uhh . . . last week’s Louisville-Kentucky game.
8. Lots of talk about how LSU showed tremendous heart in overcoming adversity and coming back strong to edge Arizona State late on Saturday night. That’s all deserved, but LSU is a top-ten team and should’ve been expected to get over on the Fighting Underwoods.
9. OK, I’ll say it: It’s time for Iowa fans and media to start pressing Captain Kirk for an explanation on why the team commits so many penalties. And somehow manages to completely fail to show up for one game every season. (At least this year it wasn’t the bowl game.)
10. Joe Novak, Kevin Steele. Kevin Steele, Joe Novak. You two should have lots to talk about.