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woakley Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 4, 2018, 11:50 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Started from prior weeks poll and then moved teams based on the results of the week. Dropping out of my Poll this week were the following teams with their prior week rankings: 25. FAU, 22. Florida State. New Teams this week - 19. West Virginia, 25. Florida

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama won convincingly and were #1 last week for me. No reason to change here. 
2 Clemson Tigers Beat up on an FCS team, saw nothing that would make me think they should lose a spot here. 
3 Georgia Bulldogs Just like Clemson, beat up on an FCS team. Nothing in that game that would convince me to move them up or down from the previous week. 
4 Oklahoma Sooners Absolutely blew the doors off of FAU. Impressive win to me and certainly  looked like their Offense didnt take a step back despite losing Baker. They jump one spot here, but im going to hold off making judgements until we see them against better competition 
5 Wisconsin Badgers Dominant Win against Western Kentucky. Nothing too impressive in the victory, but nothing to make me think they deserve to be lower. Only dropping here because of the dominance of Oklahoma in their game
6 Auburn Tigers Impressive win over a tough Washington team. Not a truly dominant performance, but a gutty performance against a solid OOC foe. This moves them up to 6 in my poll
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Big win over Michigan this week. I really wasn't too high on Michigan this year, but they still deserve recognition for getting a ranked win
8 Ohio State Buckeyes Guess Urban didn't affect Ohio State too much. Didn't play too tough of an opponent but still rolled to an easy victory and showed that they are just as talented as ever
9 LSU Tigers LSU with a jump this week. I had LSU at 14 last week, so its not that big of a move for my poll, but they still deserve to moved up based on their thrashing of Miami. The defense is as strong as ever and it looks like they might actually have a passing game!
10 UCF Knights UCF showed that they havent taken a significant step back even without Frost. Their moving up is more of a product of teams ahead of them moving down, but they showed no struggle with an in-conference opponent week 1. 
11 TCU Horned Frogs TCU hops up here because Penn State and Michigan State dropped. Didn't see anything in their blowout of an FCS team that made them move up, but can't be upset about a blowout of a team that they should blow out either. 
12 Virginia Tech Hokies Impressive win over Florida State to open the season up. Offense looked a little rough in the second half, but the Virginia Tech D and Special Teams looked vintage VT. 
13 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State survied a big scare from App State in week 1. They didn't lose, so no reason for major alarm yet. But taking OT to beat App state is enough to make them drop a couple for me. 
14 Michigan State Spartans Back to back Big 10 teams that are lucky to be undefeated. Michigan State hung on against Utah State with a week one scare that seems to be tradition for Sparty now. They drop 1 spot because of that, but again I wont panic until I see more. 
15 Washington Huskies Washington takes the second biggest drop in my poll this week. They played a really tough opponent and had a chance to win it, but couldnt pull it out. Them dropping this far is not me thinking that they dont have a ton of talent (they do), or that they cant roll through the rest of their schedule (they probably should), but I just cant put a 1 loss team over some of the teams in front of them right now. 
16 Stanford Cardinal I'm really not sure what to think of Stanford. They soundly beat SDSU, but they didn't look too good at times while doing it. Their traditional run game didnt seem as strong as usual, and their defense had a tough time stopping the run. 
17 Miami Hurricanes The U fooled me this year. I thought they were back. What we got instead was a prime time national TV stinker. I think the U still has a lot of talent and has a chance in the ACC, but this game showed me that they aren't there yet.
18 Mississippi State Bulldogs State with an absolute pounding of Steven F. Austin while missing their starting QB. Obviously the offense is still going to be there, the question going forward is how will they be able to handle another strong schedule?
19 West Virginia Mountaineers Really I should have had West Virginia ranked last week (whoops). Making up for that now. They pounded Tennessee, who is still an SEC team (whether the SEC wants to claim them or not). They flashed impressive talent and I want to see what they have going forward
20 USC Trojans USC pulled away from UNLV on Saturday, and ended up beating them soundly. UNLV is not a true cupcake, but I didnt see enough there yet to warrant a move up for the Trojans 
21 Boise State Broncos Boise State, Blue Field, Consistent winning against lower opponents. We know that Boise can win consistently against the Troy's of the world. This week against Oklahoma State should be a good test for them.
22 Michigan Wolverines Michigan drops a couple because they lose to Notre Dame. They dont see a big drop, because this is honestly about what I thought they would be. 
23 Oregon Ducks Herbert looks all the part of a Heisman contender and the Ducks prove that they dont need no Willie Taggart in beating Bowling Green. Until they prove it against better opponents im keeping them in the 20's
24 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern didn't show me anything I didnt expect in their week one win over Purdue. This Wildcat team is good, but I still feel like they are't quite ready to compete with the big dogs in the conference. No move for them.
25 Florida Gators This one may be an over-reaction to a game against an FCS opponent, but man if Florida continues to have an offense like they showed on Saturday with the defense that they've had over the past couple of years they are going to make some noise in the SEC this year. 

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