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crownebeach Ballot for 2021 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 27, 2021, 6:46 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Took the Week 4 rankings, tried to assess the difference between actual and expected results and reviewed how good I think everyone is. This is not a resume ranking -- if I rank a team 1 and another team 2, I think the #1 team would beat the #2 team more often than not if they played a series, even if team #1 doesn't have any "quality wins" right now.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Even a good Southern Miss wouldn't challenge Bama, and this is certainly not the best USM team I have ever seen. I learned nothing this week.
2 Penn State Nittany Lions Dominated an FCS team and only really gave up a couple of cheap scores in garbage time. I really like what they're doing on both sides of the ball.
3 Georgia Bulldogs The score had more to do with Vandy's ineptitude than Georgia's quality. Still a good outing.
4 Oregon Ducks Forcing five turnovers is good, but not sustainable, and the pass defense looked generally suspect out there. I expected the secondary to be much more of a strength, but I still like what they're doing.
5 Florida Gators I think Florida is pretty ready for prime time, and with Clemson spontaneously combusting, it wouldn't take a whole lot to convince me that they're better than Georgia.
6 Oklahoma Sooners They can't keep getting away with it! OU just does not look like a very complete football team -- WVU is not amazing, and they really were in excellent position to pull off the upset anyway. I do not currently see this team getting through the conference without two losses.
7 Iowa Hawkeyes
8 Ohio State Buckeyes
9 Cincinnati Bearcats
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish This feels too high, but I didn't think they would beat Wisconsin, so I don't really know what to do here.
11 Arkansas Razorbacks At no point did Texas A&M look remotely close to Arky's level. The only team that has so far is...Rice?
12 Oklahoma State Cowboys
13 Michigan Wolverines This feels too high, but the advanced numbers like them, and I think Rutgers is probably pretty good.
14 Clemson Tigers If Clemson loses to Boston College I'm dropping them from the poll and not looking back, but Clemson has played around with a lot of teams in ACC play and they usually turn on the jets just enough to get by, so I'm not sure if this is a totally different Clemson yet or if they just took their foot off the gas.
15 UCLA Bruins Yes, Fresno State beat them head-to-head. But LSU and Stanford are likely bowl teams to me, and there aren't a ton of teams that have proven themselves against Power 5 competiton. I trust UCLA, to a point.
16 Pittsburgh Panthers I was surprised that Pitt played WMU so close, but despite the loss, they outplayed them on the box score anyway. I unranked them before WMU beat what I think was a decent San Jose State, which makes that game more respectable even if it wasn't an outlier.
17 Fresno State Bulldogs
18 Arizona State Sun Devils I think this team's talent is being let down by its coaching. They're heavily penalized, which they never were under Todd Graham, and they cannot pass protect to save their lives.
19 Texas Longhorns I don't think Texas Tech is awful, and when you drop 70 on a Power 5 opponent, it's a good look. Texas might be a conference contender.
20 Iowa State Cyclones I don't know what your deal is. On a per-play basis, ISU was better than Iowa, although that was helped by the Hawkeyes closing up shop after the half; then they go and lose to Baylor, and I'm not feeling Baylor right now, so this leaves me scratching my head a little.
21 Michigan State Spartans
22 NC State Wolfpack I don't think Mississippi State is a great team, but they're probably a bowl team,which limits how much I'm willing to dock NCSU for a loss.
23 BYU Cougars Forcing turnovers is covering up a lot of blemishes for BYU. They aren't that good on the lines -- they were outgained pretty badly on a per-play basis against both Utah and Arizona State -- and although their offense has some pop, they are super leaky at the back of the defense. Wins are wins, but I'm not sure how long they can keep getting away with it.
24 Auburn Tigers
25 Ole Miss Rebels Won the bye week. Advanced metrics like them more than I do, so in the absence of a better option, here you go.

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