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stripes361 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2018, 2:45 p.m.

Overall Rationale: nan

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Tua fulfilled my expectations on Saturday, shredding Louisville's defense through the air as well as moving with his feet quite well and showing a bit of power in the run game. If he can keep up this level of play against elite defenses, Alabama will be on a different level than any other team.
2 Clemson Tigers
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Buckeyes fans should be mildly concerned about their defense after yielding several big plays on Saturday to an underwhelming Oregon State team. However, three long touchdowns accounted for over 50% of the Beavers' yardage total. I expect Ohio State to be much more dominant once the coaching staff fixes these early-season lapses.
4 Georgia Bulldogs
5 Auburn Tigers Congrats Tigers fans on the big win!
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Brandon Wimbush looked great early against Michigan before settling down a little too much. Notre Dame's offense checked out in the second half, which could signal an inability to put away better teams down the road. The Irish need to show more aptitude for "situational" football before I trust them to be a true national title contender.
7 Washington Huskies Many pollsters don't believe in ranking 0-1 teams and most other fans would probably want to drop Washington, at the very least, below all the other "top" teams this week. My philosophy is that they played my #5 team pretty evenly, so just below #5 seems like a perfectly suitable spot for the Huskies.
8 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma would have jumped higher in my ballot this week if I were as high on FAU as most people seemed to be entering Week 1. However, I've held since last season that the Owls are incredibly overrated, and don't put much stock into this performance. Still, the Sooners at least proved that they came out of training camp mentally focused and ready to play.
9 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin jumps Michigan State and Penn State in my ballot this week after a complete performance against Western Kentucky.
10 Penn State Nittany Lions After ranking Penn State #4 in my preseason poll, I am dropping them back down near the consensus point. Their new secondary has me very concerned for them. Still sticking strong with my prediction that Miles Sanders will do a stellar job of replacing Saquon Barkley's production and that the offense will be quite powerful. I am just not sold on this retooling defense right now.
11 Michigan State Spartans
12 Mississippi State Bulldogs
13 Stanford Cardinal Stanford put up an impressive all-around performance in an underrated win against San Diego State.
14 Michigan Wolverines Shea Patterson looked pretty good on Saturday, regardless of Braylon Edwards' psychological need to scapegoat. This offense just isn't built for success and I doubt Jim Harbaugh will ever be the answer at Michigan. Still, their defense is solid and they will win their fair share of games again just as they do every year under the current regime.
15 LSU Tigers I've been fairly low on Miami since mid-season last year and don't put as much stock into this win as most pollsters will. I'm also loath to ever buy into Ed Orgeron hype and am not buying stocks in Joe Burrow right now either. Like Notre Dame, LSU went into cruise control a little too much for my liking. Despite all that, I'm still jumping the Tigers over USC for now and hoping that they don't make me look stupid for doing so.
16 USC Trojans
17 Oklahoma State Cowboys
18 Texas A&M Aggies
19 Virginia Tech Hokies VPI just had a three-touchdown victory against a ranked opponent. One could even make the argument that it was the most impressive performance of Week 1 for any team, although I'm sure that LSU fans would argue with that. I'm holding back on jumping the Hokies over higher ranked squads at the moment because Florida State did not look remotely close to being a Top-20 caliber squad last night. It seems clear and obvious that the Seminole offense is still learning the basics of Willie Taggart's system and I don't expect them to be competitive with any good teams for a while. However, if FSU rebounds to have a successful season, or if Bud Foster's outfit can make a big statement against Notre Dame on Oct. 6, this victory will take on added significance.
20 TCU Horned Frogs
21 Miami Hurricanes At some point, Miami is going to have to prove they can win games without relying on high turnover differentials to do so. I'm keeping them in the rankings for this week because I believe in their talent and in Mark Richt's coaching. Needless to say, they need a strong performance against a dangerous Toledo squad to stay here next week.
22 Oregon Ducks I'm dropping Oregon below TCU this week because their defense was just a little bit too shaky against Bowling Green for my tastes. They have plenty of opportunity to jump back up if they can show signs of growth from last year under new coach Mario Cristobal.
23 Florida Gators
24 Boise State Broncos Boise State had a stellar performance against a legitimately solid Troy squad. Look for this team to have a monster season if they can survive early contests against Oklahoma State and San Diego State.
25 West Virginia Mountaineers This is a case of "Next Man Up" more than "I actually think blowing out Tennessee is impressive."

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