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PHubbs Ballot for 2019 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 3, 2019, 1:32 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers Flipped Clemson back to number one over Alabama because the loss of Clemson's defensive front wasn't as apparent as I assumed. Also Alabama struggled a little more in the first half than I expected (though they still cruised to a win). These two teams are still 1a and 1b in my mind way ahead of everyone else.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide
3 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and LSU are all a mile behind the top two, but miles above everyone else with little seperation between them. LSU gets the first major test of the bunch at Texas, but all of these teams are elite. Ohio State did jump Oklahoma in my poll because Fields looked much better than I thought while Oklahoma's defense looks good enough to win the Big 12 but not the playoffs quite yet.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes
5 Oklahoma Sooners
6 LSU Tigers
7 Texas Longhorns They looked good and might be better than I have them ranked. We'll have to wait and see if the defense really did replace all of the missing starters well with a tougher test next week.
8 Michigan Wolverines Too many mistakes in Ann Arbor screams a team fighting Wisconsin for 2nd best in the B1G and not a team overtaking tOSU for 1st. They needed the new non-Meyer, Fields-led team to look lost and instead tOSU looked to be rolling just as well as ever.
9 Washington Huskies I'll try not to get too excited for one game, but watching Eason made me realize how much better they could have been the last two years of Browning (and this is from an LSU fan that wished I could have seen a Browning-level QB on my team the last several years).
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish They did pull away, but they were also a little sloppy against a team they should have dominated despite the P5 designation. Book is still a top ten QB so they have a chance to stay here or go up. Georgia is only two weeks away, though, and they have several mistakes that need correcting.
11 Texas A&M Aggies A&M took the biggest jump in my rankings because they looked slightly better in their attempt to stomp lesser competition than most of the teams sitting a few spots behind them. They also have the potential to fall the farthest next week depending on how they fare against Clemson. I feel like an argument can be made to put my 11-18 teams in any order and it still look reasonable with such little data so far.
12 Utah Utes The score looks better than it should due to BYU gifting Utah several turnovers and scores. At the end of the day, though, I always respect a rivalry win, and Utah showed the teeth on their ferocious defense and controlled the game on the ground. Their ceiling is a Pac12 title. I don't know if they can sneak in the playoff, though, like I speculated preseason.
13 Auburn Tigers They have the most impressive win of anybody in week 1, but it looked downright ugly at times. Auburn has a break your legs defense with a looked-his-age QB on offense. Bo Nix seemed to get better with every drive so we might be just a few games away from seeing the next great Auburn QB. They need to make several improvements just to finish better than 4th in their division, but that defense should keep every game close enough for them to surprise people.
14 Penn State Nittany Lions They looked great, but I need more data to tell if they're two spots above or below where they are now.
15 UCF Knights One of the few games I didn't see all the way through and instead used stats and highlights. They dominated like they should. I still need more data on them just like the 4 teams above them and 3 below.
16 Florida Gators I moved Florida around the most while making these rankings because they looked like a sloppy-good team in week 0. Miami will be better than people realize, but Florida definitely played an ugly game without all the improvement we expected in certain areas after another year under Mullen. The individual play-makers and coaching talent there lends towards this being a top 15 team that should finish 2nd in the SEC East once they have more time.
17 Wisconsin Badgers After a disappointing 2018, Wisconsin came ready to play in their 2019 opener. They made a huge statement to place themselves as the 2nd best team in the B1G. If Taylor can dominate a more established defense like he did against USF, I might drink the koolaid and put them up in the top 8. The Michigan game in 2 weeks looms large as a season defining game for the B1G as a whole.
18 Washington State Cougars For as much as the Pac12's biggest two brands in Oregon and USC fell flat (USC played fine but likely lost their season with Daniels), Washington, Utah, and Washington State all shined and looked ready to hang with anyone. It seems like you can give Leach any QB and he'll make a world beater. WSU should be able to cruise through their schedule until they face Utah. Don't count this team out yet from going to even higher highs than last year's incredible run.
19 Oregon Ducks First half Oregon goes to the playoff. Second half Oregon loses to a true freshman. They have plenty of time to recover, but the highest preseason ranked Pac12 team looks several steps behind Washington right now.
20 Boise State Broncos I feel dumb for leaving them out of my preseason rankings just for having an untested QB. I'm still not sure how much FSU is better than last year, but coming back from that deficit and shutting down the Seminoles on their last 9 drives was incredible. They look poised for a New Year's Six bowl if they can build on what they did in Tallahassee.
21 Michigan State Spartans A dominate defense with an ugly offense. Looks like the MSU we know and love (but hate to watch) is back. I don't expect them to hold everyone to -73 rushing yards, but this fomula got them into the playoff once. We'll see if it's enough to survive their murderer's row schedule in October.
22 Memphis Tigers I think Ole Miss will be VERY bad this year, but that shouldn't take away from an amazing win by Memphis. They destroyed their opponent in such a thorough and suffocating fashion. Memphis has a cakewalk of a schedule until late into their season so don't be surprised if they climb national rankings with an undefeated record. They'll need to get more going on offense, though, if they want to challenge UCF for the American crown.
23 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa stayed put because I feel lukewarm about their performance against Miami of Ohio. I'll likely regret this when they go full Ferentzy-ground-pound-ball from here on out. 
24 Syracuse Orange They won, but not by alot against a team like Liberty. I'm afraid about how badly Clemson could beat this team so early in the year which might make them not as mentally prepared for the rest of their season. I see them as being favored in every other game on their schedule, so they might take a brief hiatus from these rankings before they come charging back through into the the top 20.
25 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati should be favored in all but 2 games going foward. Those two games, though, are against legit playoff contenders in Ohio State and UCF. I think they've been too hyped up as an upset pick this week for tOSU to overlook them, but they should win at least 9 games and make a great bowl game AT WORST with this schedule and their roster.

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