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PHubbs Ballot for 2018 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 17, 2018, 5:49 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide As much as I enjoy watching Ole Miss get boat-raced as an LSU fan, that quickly turned into watching a grisly murder that actually made me feel bad (https://i.imgur.com/MPbX6OD.jpg). Kirk Herbstreit was right when he said they could've hung 100 on the board if they wanted since Bama slowed down in the 2nd and still went into the half with 49 points. Alabama is actually breaking in new players around Tua while being this good. They look like they can waltz into the championship game this year and are setting up to be even better next season. Lord help us all.
2 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia looks built to win the national title in every year I can remember that didn't contain Tua. That has to be the most miserable Georgia twist ever. I'm so sorry Dawgs.
3 Oklahoma Sooners I still don't know how this team failed to take a step back after losing Mayfield, but I'm also worried that they didn't take a step forward on defense. Murray looks legit for sure, but to jump ahead of Georgia or Bama this team needs to show signs of life on the other side of the ball. Allowing 447 yards of offense to Iowa State feels troubling.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes What's worse than giving up 447 yards to Iowa State? Giving up 511 to TCU. OSU had two pick sixes that won this game for them, but their defense lacked that explosiveness we've come to know on almost every other play. TCU felt like the better team well into the 3rd, and OSU has to perform better than that if they expect a national title this year. Putting up 526 yards of offence on a Gary Patterson team will always be impressive, but this TCU team is over-performing on their expectations while this OSU squad still has some issues to shore up.
5 Clemson Tigers Though Clemson has the most questionable game out of any team in the top 5, that contest with A&M looks like the hardest game they'll face until the conference championship game by a mile. They have alot of positions that need to start performing better if they want to avoid a repeat of last season's ending.
6 LSU Tigers So far, the Tigers have the best resume in the country, but it's not quite good enough to put them in the top 5. LSU doesn't get to wait for the postseason to meet Bama and Georgia like the 3 teams ahead of them, and they still don't look ready to compete with those two teams. A 10 win regular season still lies on the table, though, assuming wins in tough matchups with MSU and A&M. If the Tigers can work out some issues and recover from some injuries, they might give the Dawgs and Tide a run for their money, but as of now, they aren't there yet.
7 West Virginia Mountaineers This West Virginia team doesn't feel as strong as I'd expect a top 10 team to be, but it's hard to argue any other team being above them at this point. WVU still has only two easy contests under their belt, but they showed how high their offensive ceiling can be by dominating those games. They end their season with all 3 of my other top 15 Big XII teams so they should keep their top 10 ranking for a while before proving they deserve it down the stretch.
8 Stanford Cardinal Stanford looks like one of only two good PAC 12 teams this year, and they still have plenty of questions themselves. Shaw ball rarely leads to big flashy scorelines, but this team seems to feel very lethargic at times despite having one of the best players in the country (assuming he returns this week). Stanford finally gets some tougher tests these next two weeks, so we still have a little time to wait and see how good they can be. Maybe they're good enough to slowly pound out 13 wins with their schedule.
9 UCF Knights Sadly UCF lost one of their best OOC games of the year, which might be better for all of our consciences since it was looking to be worse of a massacre than the Bama/Ole Miss game. UNC is REALLY bad this year so we wouldn't have learned much about the Knights, but every chance they get on the national stage is better for them to earn a spot in the Playoffs. As always, their destiny is not in their hands since they need higher ranked teams to lose for their shot, but UCF probably has the best odds of any team to finish the year undefeated with how much better they are than their competition.
10 Auburn Tigers Auburn lost a close one that was a toss up all the way through. The game came down more to who would out penalty the other team (9 for 91 yards versus 9 for 111 yards!) than to the performances on the field. Both LSU and Auburn looked like top 10 teams, though, and still have to both get through Bama, Georgia, MSU, and A&M. They still control their own destiny, but they don't see quite ready to claim the conference yet.
11 Washington Huskies Washington looks like a top 10 team most of the time as long as Browning doesn't forget how to QB. The problem is that he does that from time to time. As an LSU fan, Washington gives me PTSD about every season for the last 10 years. Hopefully Browning can get back to the performances he gave us last year, because if he can, the PAC12 seems like Washington's to lose.
12 Oklahoma State Cowboys The Pokes brought us the rare top 25 boat race this past week and knocked off perennially under-rated Boise State (seriously). As with most Big XII teams, they need to do a little more on defense, but they still looked very impressive. OSU faces the same season ending 3 game gauntlet as TCU so they should keep this train rolling for quite some time.
13 Mississippi State Bulldogs This State team deserves more credit than the polls seem willing to give them, even with their 16 ranking in the AP. They very well could give Auburn, LSU, A&M, and Bama a run for their money due to their talent at a few starting positions. Their problem, as always, lies in their depth since it's hard to recruit a full 2 deep in the middle of all of those schools' territory. We'll have a better idea of where they are after games against Kentucky and their former coach at Florida. The ceiling seems high, however, with Fitzgerald poised for a legendary season.
14 Penn State Nittany Lions Who are the real Nittany Lions: the team that struggled against App State or the team that dominated Pitt and Kent State? Maybe App State is good enough to challenge a top CFB team and this PSU squad is really good. In two weeks time I might regret having them ranked so low.
15 TCU Horned Frogs TCU seemed like they were going to take down OSU for a little over a half of football, but two costly mistakes ended up sealing their fate in the second half. You can't be mad at Robinson, though, with how hard he fought for the 308 yards he threw. This team still has some work to do, but they still have the pieces to compete in the Big XII this year.
16 Virginia Tech Hokies That week 1 win seems to lose a little more luster with each week, as does that upcoming matchup with Notre Dame. Virginia Tech, however, is still undefeated and in control of their own destiny. I still have Miami as the favorite to win the Coastal, but Virginia Tech definitely deserves their spot in the top 20 and should finish the season there.
17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish This Notre Dame team feels like the 2012 squad that keeps winning week after week despite not seeming dominant no matter who they play. If they never learn how to throw the ball consistently, things might get ugly, but with the falling expectations at Pitt, Northwestern, FSU, and USC, Notre Dame's schedule looks much more manageable than it did to start the season. Their two hardest games now sit a couple weeks away with Stanford and Virginia Tech. Maybe they'll pull out close contests just like that 2012 squad, but with the issues they have, a Playoff appearance would likely end in the same devastating result as the BCS.
18 Michigan Wolverines With each struggle the Irish have, that week 1 loss hurts more and more, but that's the beauty of college football. You don't get to take a single game off if you want to prove yourself. I still think this Michigan team is better than all but 3 or less of the other B1G teams and could possibly compete for the conference title if they ever get their act together.
19 Wisconsin Badgers Oof... the worst loss for a contender by far this year. There's still plenty of season to bury this result by other top 10 losses, but that game made me regret all of my Wisconsin hype quickly. I had them picked to win the B1G, and now I question their ability to win 2 of their next 3. Bad losses happen to top teams all the time (Iowa State over the Pokes, Oregon State over USC), but when you are the first top 10 team of the season to fall like that, your team suddenly faces a mountain of adversity to overcome.
20 Miami Hurricanes Miami's quality loss just gained some more quality, but the lopsided beating they faced still doesn't look good for any team. They have done what they were supposed to do, though, by dominating the two games since and looking poised to win their division. I've still got them at 11-1 with their schedule, but they by far have the most one sided loss of any top 20 team so they have to take the last spot in the top 20 for now.
21 Texas A&M Aggies Clemson and Alabama in your first 4 games... ouch... The Aggies will likely look good and fight hard on their way to a 2-2 record that doesn't reflect how good this team can be. They should fall out of the ranking after this week but will have plenty of opportunity to claw their way back up going forward.
22 Oregon Ducks I still don't trust this Oregon squad as a top 25 team, but after seeing what Taggart has done at FSU, maybe I'm letting my opinion on last year's squad cloud my decision too much. They can make me shut up easy by winning this week. I don't think they can knock off Stanford, but I guess we'll see.
23 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky gets a nice big boost game this week by facing off against a really tough Mississippi State squad. Are the Cats ready to follow up their 31 year streak ending with a season for the ages in Lexington? I still don't think they pose a bit of a threat to Georgia, but they might be good enough to take 2nd place in the West. Missouri and South Carolina are ready to put a stop to those plans, though.
24 Iowa Hawkeyes The Hawkeyes beat up on the three teams in their backyard to get to a 3-0 record. Now Wisconsin comes limping into Kinnick off a loss to BYU. If Iowa pulls off the upset, they'll sit in the driver seat for the B1G West. If Wisconsin comes in angry, though, they might show that the preseason predictions about both teams chances were very right.
25 Washington State Cougars There are way too many teams that can go here again. I'm not quite sold on Boston College yet, and the Mountain West Conference looks terrible which doesn't help Boise's standing after their beat down. Several AAC schools have wins over P5 schools, but close wins over UCLA, Illinois, and Georgia Tech don't look that good right now. Washington State has at least dominated every team they've faced which is extremely impressive after the offseason issues that rocked the cougars. A team that suffers from a lack of depth shouldn't be performing this well after the loss of Falk. Hopefully they keep it up and move farther up these rankings.

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