College Football Blogpoll: Week 2

Welcome to our second week of the blogpoll, operated through CBS Sports. As you know, this blog helps represent Maryland fans, but in the wake of this weekend’s loss we had to take a wider view of the football landscape. The high ranking of teams like BYU, Boise State, and Oklahoma State was mostly the result of my ballot which judges teams only on what they have done so far. The conventional wisdom of Falco and Windsor helped buoy teams like Mississippi and Penn State who I had dropped down the line in favor of more impressive Week 1 teams. Overall I think we balance each other out. All totaled, this is where we stand:

1(3) Florida
2) Texas
3) USC
4) Alabama
5) Oklahoma State
6) California
7) Ohio State
8) Mississippi
9) Penn State
10) Boise State
11) LSU
12) BYU
13) Georgia Tech
14) Utah
15) Oklahoma
16) TCU
17) Virginia Tech
18) Georgia
19) North Carolina
20) Miami (FL)
21) Oregon State
22) Nebraska
23) Notre Dame
24) Michigan State
25) Kansas

Others receiving votes (in order of number of votes): Oregon, Iowa, Michigan

Some Week 1 Observations:

No one deserved to lose that Florida State/Miami game, but with Miami’s schedule I think it is safe to say they needed it more.

Did the triple option really just push OSU to the brink? I think the presumed Big Ten champion may have underestimated the Middies… either that or this team has some serious weaknesses

Mississippi didn’t deserve to be ranked in the top 10 to start the season, and for most of the Memphis game looked like a midlevel team, unable to put away their competition. First game jitters? It could be that they just aren’t top 10 material just yet.

I sure hope that down the road pollsters don’t downgrade BYU’s win over Oklahoma as the year goes on. When Utah failed to make it to the title game, critics lambasted them for having played an easy schedule. BYU goes and schedules Oklahoma (and Florida State), and then Sam Bradford goes down. How can they see that coming?

Is Cal that good or is Maryland that bad?

Notre Dame vs. Michigan will decide which team deserves to be ranked. Michigan looked mighty impressive on Saturday, but Tenuta’s defense won’t be as forgiving to scrambling quarterbacks Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson.