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corundum9 Ballot for 2017 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 5, 2017, 8:48 p.m.

Overall Rationale: My poll heavily favors resume to date, which is why I've included Iowa and Maryland over USF. Obviously there is only one week of data, so the bottom 5 spots will be fluid over the early few weeks.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Nothing to explain here.
2 Clemson Tigers Kelly Bryant is still relatively unknown but early signs look promising. The defense is a known commodity and will be enough to carry the offense through early growing pains if there are any. Their defensive line is especially ferocious and should propel them through the ACC conference slate. Now that Francois has unfortunately been lost for the season, Clemson becomes the clear favorite to win the conference and snag a spot in the playoffs.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Slow start against Indiana, but OSU is in a reload situation at this point. The CBs seem like a slight liability against bigger-bodied receivers, but the the rest of the defense should be able to mitigate any concerns on the boundary. JT Barrett isn't exactly the best passer and it may take some time for the offensive scheme to gel under new coordinator Kevin Wilson. Michael Jordan will also have to improve his game from last year. Nevertheless, OSU has as much talent and coaching pedigree as any of the other top 5 teams and are the favorite to win the Big Ten. The winner of OSU/Michigan will be primed for a spot in the playoffs.
4 Michigan Wolverines Michigan's win over Florida was the second most impressive victory of week 1. The defense reloaded from last year and has hard-hitting speed across the board. Don Brown can scheme with the best of them and I expect their defense to be a top 5 outfit all year. The offense is a little more suspect, especially at RT. The WRs are young but talented and diverse in skill-set. There are a plethora of options at TE. Higdon, Evans, and Isaac complete a great RB group. Speight will have to cut down on the critical turnovers and improve his deep ball if they want to win the Big Ten.
5 Stanford Cardinal The OL is elite and Bryce Love/Cameron Scarlett looks like they will pick up where McCaffrey left off. Keller Chryst ended last year on one hell of a hot streak and Stanford will win many games if he can continue that production in 2017. 
6 Oklahoma Sooners I don't think they will be able to handle OSU's defense after losing many of their skill position weapons from last season. I also want to see how they look against legitimate competition without Stoops.
7 Washington Huskies Came out slow against Rutgers, but they also gave up over 300 yards to them last year on their way to the playoffs. Petersen is an elite coach so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Check back later.
8 USC Trojans I sincerely believe that USC will have a challenging time replacing Adoree' Jackson and Juju Smith-Schuster. Not ready to buy into the Darnold hype. I think Stanford beats them this weekend, but either way it will be a solidifying litmus test for both teams potential going forward.
9 Auburn Tigers I don't trust Auburn yet but don't really have faith in putting anyone else above them here. Their match up against Clemson this week will tell a lot about both teams going forward. Check back later.
10 Penn State Nittany Lions Barkley and McSorley are a lethal tandem in the backfield. I'm a little weary about their defense. Not much to learn from a blowout win against Akron, but PSU will have plenty of opportunities to move up from here as the season unfolds.
11 Wisconsin Badgers Just doing Wisconsin things. Schedule is Charmin-soft especially with how bad BYU has been playing. I wouldn't be surprised if Wisconsin has one loss heading into the Big Ten championship game before getting blasted in Indianapolis and again in their bowl game. Probably won't know how good this squad is until their games against Iowa and Michigan in mid-November.
12 Florida State Seminoles Losing Francois is obviously an enormous hit for FSU's playoff hopes. Elite talent across the board will be limited by a rail-thin true freshman starter at QB. Sorry, FSU bros.
13 LSU Tigers The offense doesn't look much different this year under Canada and the ceiling is limited by a game-manager QB.
14 Virginia Tech Hokies Big bump for beating Mountain Jesus and company. West Virginia is a talented squad. This is the third most impressive win from week 1. Josh Jackson had a more than adequate game and Bud Foster's defensive is as stingy as ever.
15 Oklahoma State Cowboys Offense is explosive but some of Rudolph's passes were a bit wonky. Looked like he was having a tough time leading his receivers on the moderate and longer routes. The secondary is inexperienced and probably the limiting factor to Oklahoma State's season. Going to need to see some significant improvement from the CBs before bumping the Cowboys up near the top ten, especially with the potent offenses OK St will face in the Big 12, namely West Virginia and Oklahoma.
16 Georgia Bulldogs It will interesting to see how much the loss of Eason is for Georgia over the next several weeks. Luckily the rushing attack looked dominate enough to carry them. The Notre Dame match up just became more interesting.
17 Kansas State Wildcats Horrendous OOC schedule will limit KSU's upward mobility until the meat and potatoes of the Big 12 schedule. Check back after week 6.
18 Louisville Cardinals Starting to think that Louisville might even be overrated here at 18. Purdue is an improved team, but that should have been a runaway game in the third quarter for a team like Louisville. If they struggle again v UNC, I'll most likely be dropping Louisville into the 20s.
19 Miami Hurricanes Not much to learn from in a game v Bethune Cookman. Slow out of the gates is a bit concerning, but they were able to put them away convincingly late. Need more data here.
20 Washington State Cougars Shut out an FCS opponent, need more data.
21 Utah Utes I've overlooked Utah in years past so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt this season. Kyle Wittingham has turned out consistently good defenses and that shouldn't change this season.
22 Oregon Ducks Willie Taggart has this team on the right track. They will no doubt move the ball on Nebraska, but how much their defense has improved will determine the ultimate success of this season.
23 South Carolina Gamecocks An impressive win for Coach Boom against NCST.
24 Iowa Hawkeyes Essentially shut down the presumed top QB for the 2018 draft.
25 Maryland Terrapins Convincing win over a team that probably shouldn't have been ranked. Hill almost won the job in fall camp so I'm not dropping them for the Pigrome injury. Maryland plays a truly brutal schedule this year so they will need to do yeoman work to remain ranked with OSU, NW, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Penn State all on the schedule.

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