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woakley Ballot for 2021 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 7, 2021, 2:04 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Refer to individual teams below. I started with my previous poll, but tried to base it off the games I saw this weekend and the performance of each team. Still plenty of change possible as we get more info about teams. Teams Dropping out: Indiana, Miami, LSU, NorthwesternTeams coming in: Penn State, UCLA, Arizona State, Virginia Tech

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Shouldn't even be a conversation here. Easy #1
2 Ohio State Buckeyes They struggled with Minnesota, but ultimately prevailed. I still think they're a team that will get better as the season goes along.
3 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia gets rewarded for winning against Clemson, and showed strong defense but they're going to need to improve offensively if they want to get through the SEC
4 Oklahoma Sooners They were back and forth with Tulane, but i'm going to chalk that up to them taking their foot off the gas, plus it being an emotional game for Tulane. Their early struggles don't really change my opinion on them
5 Texas A&M Aggies Convincing win against Kent State, this team still has a lot of talent and an experienced coach
6 Clemson Tigers Clemson clearly still has the talent to compete, and they'll get better as the season goes along, but man they need to improve offensively. I still don't think they'll have an issue getting through the ACC.
7 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati won convincingly against Miami of Ohio. As long as they keep playing up to their potential this team can make some noise this year. 
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame struggled with FSU on Sunday, but FSU looked much improved. I think Notre Dame will improve as the season goes on, and they have to hope that their defense settles in. 
9 Penn State Nittany Lions Probably an overreaction, but Penn State's win over Wisconsin was impressive. Maybe they've figured out what was ailing them last year.
10 Oregon Ducks Oregon struggled against Fresno, but they still pulled off the win. Hopefully they have their star defender back against Ohio State.
11 Florida Gators Florida couldn't really pull away from FAU, but they showed plenty of offensive and defensive ability in the game. 
12 Iowa State Cyclones The close game against Northern Iowa is pretty concerning. I'm not sure what went wrong there, but Iowa State better hope it was a one off. 
13 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa beat up on Indiana. Will be a great matchup with Iowa State coming up. 
14 USC Trojans USC cruised to a win against San Jose State. Do they finally have this thing going in the right direction? They've always had the talent there
15 Texas Longhorns Texas pretty handily beat a Louisiana team who was ranked to start the season. This is a game they should have won, and they did, but Texas always has the talent to be dangerous with the right coach. 
16 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin lost to Penn State, but it was a close hard fought game, and I still think Wisconsin is a good team. 
17 UCLA Bruins UCLA had an impressive win Over LSU. They dominated the ling of scrimmage and clearly have a strong running game this year. 
18 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Coastal Carolina played the Citadel and beat up on them, just like they were expected to. 
19 Liberty Flames Liberty played Campbell and beat up on them like expected. Liberty seems to be a good team, we'll see if they can maintain it against better competition later in the season.
20 Utah Utes Utah didn't exactly play tough competition, but they won by a nice margin. 
21 BYU Cougars They narrowly won over an improved Arizona team, but i'm not sure yet if their offense can remain as potent as it was last year. 
22 UCF Knights If we get the UCF from that second half all season, they'll be a very good team. It at least looks like Gus has them playing back at the level they should be.
23 Arizona State Sun Devils Arizona State played weaker competition, but won like they should have. 
24 Virginia Tech Hokies They had an impressive win over North Carolina, but we'll see if they're really a good team over the long haul.
25 North Carolina Tar Heels North Carolina had a disappointing loss to start the year, but I still think they're better than what they showed. They're a top 25 team, just maybe not a top 10 one. 

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