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chrisb19 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2018, 3:47 p.m.

Overall Rationale: It's only week 2, and a lot of teams scheduled cupcakes week 1. So we don't know anything about UGA, Clemson, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, etc, that we didn't know before. Penn State loses some ground after needing overtime to dispatch That Paycheck Team Nobody Should Schedule. Auburn won a close fight against Washington, but it's too early to right off the Huskies as a favorite in the Pac12. Notre Dame ground out a win against Michigan, and whether that says more about them or the Wolverines remains to be seen. Alabama made a game some people thought be surprising...unsurprising. Both QBs looked good. LSU exposed a Miami defense most people considered suspect and their offense seems to be improved over previous years, even though neither QB looked great.  Virginia Tech turned in a dominant performance over FSU (despite FSU's defensive strengths). It's enough for me to drop them out of the rankings this week. 

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama looked like Alabama against Louisville, with both QBs performing well. It looks like it's now the Tua era, but Hurts as a backup is better than half the QBs starting in this league.
2 Clemson Tigers Clemson should face a stiffer test against A&M, but I still expect them to cruise next week. In week one it's good enough to not make errors.
3 Georgia Bulldogs UGA will still need to pick a quarterback but the young defense and RBs showed a ton of reason for optimism. This year the week 2 away contest at South Carolina will be tough, given that Carolina is likely the 2nd best team in the division and could take early control of the race with an upset win.
4 Oklahoma Sooners Same as the others - didn't make any catastrophic errors in week 1 and should remain the favorite in the Big XII.
5 Wisconsin Badgers I didn't watch this game but it seemed like another typical Wisconsin performance. They won't be tested until conference play.
6 Auburn Tigers Neither team looked great in this game but Auburn came through with a hard-fought win to establish themselves as a national title contender...again. The West will probably come down to the Iron Bowl for the nth time in as many years.
7 Ohio State Buckeyes Again, didn't learn anything new and likely won't until conference play.
8 Penn State Nittany Lions I'm not going to overreact to a week 1 disaster because they pulled out the win but the Nittany Lions are ON NOTICE.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish ND looked comfortable in their win over Michigan. While I don't think they deserve a ranking this high it's hard to argue until we see more from them.
10 TCU Horned Frogs Still the 2nd best team in the Big XII until proven otherwise.
11 Stanford Cardinal some early struggles and uncharacteristic line play, but the Cardinal looked good in the end. It's gonna be a fun week 2 clash against the Trojans and then we'll see the measure of these 2 teams.
12 LSU Tigers I hesitated to put LSU this high because the win over Miami was hardly comprehensive, but they had a better win than all the teams ranked below them. Dave Aranda's defense came to play and their offense showed signs of life that were missing the last few years. It's still going to be a murderous schedule, but it was a solid OOC win to start the season.
13 West Virginia Mountaineers I didn't get to watch this game but Will Grier was as good as advertised and taking an SEC scalp - even a mid-tier one like Tennessee - is a great start to the season. Gonna be fun to watch the Mountaineers line up against the defenses of TCU and Oklahoma.
14 Michigan State Spartans a rough go against Utah St but not as bad as other teams. Still in a wait and see mode on Sparty.
15 Washington Huskies A close loss to Auburn doesn't change the fact that they're the favorites to win the Pac12 North, and it comes early enough that they're still in playoff contention.
16 USC Trojans A mediocre but serviceable performance against UNLV. Stanford's defense didn't look scary enough to really trouble the true freshman Daniels. This will be a fascinating week 2 matchup.
17 Virginia Tech Hokies VT looked okay on offense but dominant on defense against FSU. The ACC remains a navigable conference for them and this win will instill a lot of confidence.
18 Miami Hurricanes Miami got exposed by an LSU team that I'm still not very sold on. I still think they have a hard ceiling of being a 10-win team ALMOST touching the elites of the CFB world. Playing one of those schools in week 1 exposed them.
19 Michigan Wolverines Michigan didn't look BAD against ND, but they also didn't look great. It's going to be another tough year for Harbaugh.
20 Oregon Ducks We won't know much about Oregon until they start conference play, but they looked good in the first game under new head coach Mario Cristobal (better than their former head coach looked at FSU).
21 UCF Knights UCF beat the shit out of UConn for the Civil ConFLiCT Trophy but...does that really matter? The American still isn't going to be tough enough to really test the Knights, who should move up the rankings by virtue of other teams losing.
22 South Carolina Gamecocks Carolina looked great in week 1 against lesser opposition. Week 2 against UGA will be a much tougher test. But they have a typical Will Muschamp defense and between Bentley and a healthy Deebo Samuel, this might be one of the better offenses they've had in a long time. The division is very likely riding on a week 2 match-up.
23 Boise State Broncos I didn't watch BSU's game against Troy, but they're in a similar spot to UCF. They'll continue to move up by virtue of playing lesser opposition. A week 3 match-up against Oklahoma State is one to look forward to.
24 Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State looks legit; unfortunately, they're in the hardest division (arguably) in CFB. They cruised to victory with their backup quarterback and should be able to take care of Bill Snyder and K-State this weekend.
25 Florida Gators The Dan Mullen era got off to a good start with Florida looking like an offensive powerhouse for the first time in a very long time. I like Mullen but he's going to have to prove his mettle against the SEC competition. I think UF/LSU will wind up being a great game to see whether these teams are for real or not.

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