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CarbonCamaroZL1 Ballot for 2017 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 5, 2017, 2:39 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Dangerously Close to Drop Teams: Utah, USF, Colorado, Louisville All 4 teams looked pretty bad against lesser teams. Going to need an improvement in performance to stay ahead of other teams looming just outside of the top 25. Teams to Keep an Eye On: Maryland, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Oregon

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide They got what they needed to get done and made FSU look pretty bad. Reserve the right to hold onto 1st place.
2 Clemson Tigers Came out very strong and looked great at almost every point.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Started off in a tight battle against a good Indiana, but made the necessary changes for the second half and made it look like it wasn't ever a close game.
4 Washington Huskies Rutgers came out strong, but Washington also made the necessary changes second half to win the game. They will not be dropped purely because they played a B1G team and the 2 teams below them played MAC/C-USA teams with their dominate victories. Washington's performance does not signify a playoff team, however.
5 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma had a strong game all around. They did exactly what everyone expected them to. If they win against Ohio State next week, they will definitely move up very quickly.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State shutout a MAC team very quickly in the first half. No complaints here.
7 LSU Tigers LSU shutout an Independent FBS team who already had some experience having played a game last week. Leaving BYU to negative rushing yards and only 100+ passing.
8 Florida State Seminoles While they only lost to the #1 team, they did it pretty badly. They also lost their star QB and aren't looking great moving forward.
9 Michigan Wolverines Appeared to have a #1 defense against what was widely considered a "strong offensive line". Only allowed 3 points on defense and scored one touchdown through a fumble with 2 other forced/recovered fumbles. The offense looked very good. The run game is very smash-mouth football. Speight looked good in the second half with only two real issues. His first half was very bad. Constantly overthrowing the WRs resulting in 2 pick sixes. Had those not happened, the game could have easily been a 40+ points to 3 blow out. Once Speight and the WRs dropping passes issues are fixed (primarily some head games and experience needed) this team could turn out to be a playoff-bound team. But they need to prove more before moving up any further.
10 USC Trojans Granted, Western Michigan came off of a 13-1 season, USC did not look very good. They still played a MAC team and it was a very close game the whole way through. USC have a lot to improve on before cracking back down into a playoff position.
11 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia didn't dominate App State score-wise, however they did a decent job of putting up 31 points on them before letting off (allowing App State to score 10 points in the 4th quarter).
12 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin didn't come out strong. Utah State put up 10 points in the 1st quarter and the Badgers tied them before halftime. Then came back out and made the necessary changes to make the game appear it was never close.
13 Auburn Tigers Auburn looked better than Georgia against the Sun teams. However, I won't put them above Georgia yet.
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys OK State came out with a quick 3 TDs. The 2nd quarter showed that OK State's defense still needs work. However, they held off for a big win.
15 Virginia Tech Hokies Looked very strong offensively. Handled West Virginia in a tight, close game. Defense was very good the first half, got tired the second half (so did WVU).
16 Stanford Cardinal Strong win against a C-USA team. Not much to say here. Only allowed 1 TD late in the 4th.
17 Miami Hurricanes Looked decent against a MEAC team. While they did put up a lot of points against them, they did also allow a TD. They did keep the team to 2 FGs.
18 Washington State Cougars Shutout the Big Sky team like they should. Not the greatest offensive performance, but enough to move up.
19 Kansas State Wildcats Was strong against Cent. Arkansas, but don't really deserve to move up as it was a Southland team and their defense needs some work.
20 West Virginia Mountaineers Moves back 2 spots due to losing, but lost in a very close game. Strong offense that lost steam late game. Defense had a great last second stand. Deserves to be ahead of some of the other teams who won their cupcake games.
21 Utah Utes Decent offensive performance against North Dakota. Defense wasn't very strong but enough to move up ahead of an 0-1 team.
22 USF Bulls Didn't bode well against a CAA team. They got the win, but unimpressive.
23 Colorado Buffaloes Not the strongest win, but it was against a well-known upsetter. North Dakota can be scary.
24 Florida Gators Had no offense whatsoever. The play calling was not great, no improvement from last season. Tough to fully judge considering they are missing their WR and RB from suspension, however their QB situation isn't great and the OC and HC appear to be the issue. Huge potential from this team but a lack of coaching. The defense looked very strong, however. Lots of pressure on Michigan's QB and a good special teams.
25 Louisville Cardinals Looked pretty bad against Purdue. Purdue did look good, but not top 16 good. Dropped to 25th as they did still win, but definitely are not a top 20 team.

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