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hokies220 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 3, 2018, 11:48 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Important things to know about my poll are that wins against FCS teams don't count (sorry Clemson, Georgia, TCU, etc) and if you don't have a winning record you aren't in it. I try to do it by what is deserved through on the field and strength of schedule. I value P5 over P5 wins the most so all eleven teams that did that week one are ranked. I value G5 over P5 wins next so Cincinnati and BYU(mostly consider them a hybrid but they beat Arizona) are ranked. Then I try and weigh various P5 over G5 and G5 over G5 games. I try not to let anything but results from on the field matter, but there is a slight preference going to teams from the MWC or AAC and my poll is definitely far from perfect. My top four will always be who I would put in the playoff if it started right now and will never have two from the same conference in it because I'm very against that idea.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Utterly choked the life out of Louisville, which we all pretty much saw coming anyways.
2 West Virginia Mountaineers Solidly dismantled Tennessee and the offense looked like everything it should be.
3 Virginia Tech Hokies Offense didn't do a whole lot, but with such a suffocating defense and five turnovers leading the way to a 21 point road win against a conference opponent has VT in my 'if the playoffs started right now' top 4.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes Offense could score at will. Nothing really too unexpected in their nearly 50 point blowout win at home.
5 LSU Tigers LSU always will have talent, but they came out and simply out coached Miami almost from the get go. The game wasn't close and I'm excited to see what the SEC West brings us this year.
6 Northwestern Wildcats Slight edge over Auburn and ND for winning on the road. All the teams were involved in close games this week, but getting a division win this early might be key with games against Duke, Michigan, and MSU in three of their next four.
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Allowed Michigan to stay in it a bit, but they played better than most expectations had them. Wimbush is still a legit dual threat and the defense looked good.
8 Auburn Tigers I'm still not certain how much of their game was Auburn winning or just Washington losing it, either way the defense looked nasty and they didn't make stupid mistakes that ended up costing them the game. Also, I would have Ole Miss ranked here at #8 if I could with everyone else moved down one spot, that offense is lethal regardless of NCAA sanctions.
9 Maryland Terrapins Jeshaun Jones is going to be so much fun to watch this year. The Maryland team put all distractions behind them as they beat a preseason hyped Texas team again. Solid fourth quarter to regain the lead and seal the win.
10 California Golden Bears Cal has a better defense than offense? Wtf is this? But really four turnovers helped for a game that never really seemed to be too close after the early lead. Cal sweeps the H&H with UNC.
11 Oklahoma Sooners I really try to not let the previous year have any effect on my rankings, so sure FAU was 11-3 last year and returns their beast of a RB and several other key players. But 56-0 before even allowing the other team a pulse is worthy of respect. Lincoln Riley just runs good offenses and they didn't miss Mayfield at all.
12 Wisconsin Badgers The defense had some questions coming in, the offense didn't. Turns out they're still fine on both sides of the ball.
13 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors Only 2-0 team and an offense that can rack up the points. Defense limited Navy's run game and they've got a win against both of the better G5 conferences.
14 Cincinnati Bearcats Went on the road to UCLA, got down by 10 then said fuck that and never looked back as the spoil Chip Kelly's return to the Pac-12 and more importantly looked like the competitive Bearcats team they should be.
15 BYU Cougars I think this was more inept play calling by a more talented Arizona team than BYU might admit. And you know what? Fuck it they don't have to because they got the W on the road against a team who was talked about to maybe win the Pac-12 South.
16 UCF Knights Utter domination of UConn and Milton looks fantastic. 
17 Stanford Cardinal Love not working properly? No problem when you can actually have a passing game this year. Defense looked solid after the first quarter too.
18 Boise State Broncos Utter domination of what was expected to be a good Troy team. MWC looked good week one.
19 Duke Blue Devils You might've missed that Army had more passing yards in their loss to Duke. No, you read that right. Duke held Army to under 170 yards rushing and 3.6 YPC. 
20 Arizona State Sun Devils Utter domination of their way overmatched opponent, but still I was very interested to see how Herm's first game went. It went okay.
21 Washington State Cougars Went on the road to a team that was already 1-0 and got it done. It wasn't pretty and was definitely a little weird, but Wyoming has a great defense and Wazzu put up 41.
22 Oregon Ducks Pretty ho-hum drubbing of an also overmatched team. Herbert threw two picks, but also accounted for 320 yards and 6 TDs so I'd say he's fine. Good start for Cristobal.
23 South Carolina Gamecocks Something something 2018 Heisman winner Jake Bentley. But no really he did look great as did the rest of the offense. And the defense. And the play-calling. They're some good lookin Cocks I tell you what.
24 Boston College Eagles Looked great, and really limited the UMass offense. AJ Dillon averaged a pedestrian 5 YPC and no touchdowns though what a scrub.
25 USC Trojans Looked fine for the most part. Other teams I considered here were Minnesota, Vandy, Colorado, and UNT.  I did not consider Michigan State nor Penn State for struggling so much at home to put away teams they really should not have struggled with. Maybe. Maybe App State and Utah State will win 10 games and those will be damn good wins, but right now they're not. They both barely made it to 1-0.

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