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standrew5998 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2018, 12:22 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide They beat Louisville the way they were supposed to and Tua looks exactly as good as he was supposed to. There are some things I could nitpick sure, but Alabama deserves to stay here until they show me why they shouldn't
2 Clemson Tigers I don't like teams playing FCS cupcakes, and that includes my team. Still, Clemson also looked just as good as advertised, and they have the track record for me to give them the benefit of the doubt.
3 Wisconsin Badgers I'll be honest, I'm still expecting more from Wisconsin. The run game looked good, Hornibrook looked sharp, etc. Something just doesn't look totally right. I don't know, we'll know more when they play Iowa.
4 Georgia Bulldogs I could basically copy and paste my statements about Wisconsin, minus the not looking sharp. The reason Georgia is a spot lower is that Austin Peay is an FCS school whereas WKU is at least a G5 team.
5 Auburn Tigers Auburn teams under Gus Malzahn tend to gain steam as the season progresses, and should Auburn take down the same LSU team that embarrassed Miami on National Television, they will have a better resume than anyone else in the country by week four. Washington should still be the favorite to win the PAC-12 right now, and Auburn currently has the best win in the nation.
6 Oklahoma Sooners Ah, the meme game that wasn't. I wasn't really expecting a blowout of this proportion if I'm being honest, I figured Lane Kiffin would have more up his sleeve, but I guess not. I don't want the drop from 5 to 6 to be taken as a slight against Oklahoma's performance. I simply feel the win over quality competition deserves the reward of jumping a G5 blowout.
7 Ohio State Buckeyes Oregon State has a very real chance to go winless in the PAC-12 despite missing Washington on their schedule. The fact that they hung 31 points on Ohio State does not bode well for the buckeyes. The 77 points they scored were impressive, but against conference competition, I highly doubt they get that kind of production.
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Listen to me. The *only* reason I'm bringing Notre Dame this high up is that they won convincingly over a ranked opponent, and that every other candidate that would have filled this spot felt too high after their performance on Saturday.
9 Washington Huskies Washington played a good game Saturday, and it was close. I don't think Jake Browning is as bad as people are saying in hindsight, he made throws that I highly doubt many other teams' QB's can make, including my own. Washington should still be the favorite to win the PAC-12 and they still have a shot at making the CFP if they run the table.
10 Stanford Cardinal I'll admit it: I didn't watch this game. I did, however, see that they won it in convincing fashion, and they get to move up because other teams suffered scares against inferior competition. Speaking of...
11 Michigan State Spartans The only reason Michigan State is above Penn State is that they won in regulation, and by a touchdown.
12 Penn State Nittany Lions I simply cannot give Penn State the credit they likely want for just barely beating App St...in overtime...after shooting themselves in the foot constantly. They almost got Michigan'ed. They still won, and they control their own destiny in the B1G...but damn dude. Clean that shit up.
13 USC Trojans I didn't *really* watch this one either (What can I say, I had a long day before watching any games) but they won and deserve to go up a little.
14 Miami Hurricanes For some I imagine this isn't going to feel harsh enough after the performance from the Hurricanes on Sunday but I'm hesitant to drop teams more than 6-7 spots at a time. Any more than that feels like a severe overreaction on my part.
15 LSU Tigers While the win over Miami was quite good, it should be said that it only got that ugly because of costly turnovers on the part of Miami. Otherwise that game was statistically much closer than it looked. I give LSU lots of credit for playing and winning against a quality opponent week 1, But even so jumping them this high feels like an overreaction to me. I'm still doing it, mind you, I just want it known why I'm not putting Miami under LSU this week.
16 TCU Horned Frogs They won, but it was Southern. TCU will tell us way more about who they really are next week or the week after against Ohio State.
17 West Virginia Mountaineers I feel dirty not moving WVU up after a win. The truth is I don't know if Tennessee is much better under Pruitt in year 1.  I would certainly *like* to move them up, but I can't find a spot for them that moves another team that doesn't deserve to go down after a win, down. I feel the same way about everyone not named Michigan I'm about to rank.
18 UCF Knights Milton is the real deal, it makes sense why the Knights' fans on twitter won't shut up about him.
19 Virginia Tech Hokies The Hokies won on the back of great defense and special teams last night, namely their punter did an excellent job putting FSU inside their 10 and 5 so many times their offense lived in constant fear of giving up a safety. Bud Foster's defense is the real deal and I reeeeally want to move them up more. Maybe in the next few weeks where they play cupcakes they can move up ambiently before kicking back into high gear with Notre Dame.
20 Michigan Wolverines The wolverines did not impress in week 1, and despite a clear step forward in QB play, the defense, shockingly, didn't do enough to keep Patterson in position to win. Michigan is too talented at all positions to have this constantly happen.
21 Mississippi State Bulldogs I mean, they looked good and all, but I don't know how much I can draw from this game. They stay put in my poll until they play Kansas State next week.
22 Boise State Broncos It was a really good win over Troy. I don't really have much more to say than that.
23 Oklahoma State Cowboys Man who did Oklahoma State even play? Looks like Missouri State. Yeah...I think they're gonna stick here until they play Boise State week 3.
24 Maryland Terrapins I'm willing to believe for the time being that the consecutive wins over Texas were not flukes, and that Maryland can be a legit contender if they don't lose people to injuries ad infinitum like they did last year.
25 Oregon Ducks I really like seeing Justin Herbert kick ass again after the injury issues he's had. They don't move up because they didn't beat anyone of consequence, but they deserve their spot for the moment.

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