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bretticus33 Ballot for 2021 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 1, 2021, 1:02 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs After nearly shutting out Florida, Georgia's defense is starting to enter the conversation of the greatest defenses ever.  They've only given up at least 10 points 3 times and haven't allowed more than 13 in a game.  Might be a QB question though between Stetson Bennett and JT Daniels
2 Ohio State Buckeyes It was a close and gritty win, but it was a big win over Penn State for Ohio State.  Their defense and offense are miles better than they were in their loss against Oregon.  They, along with Michigan State, are the team to beat in the Big 10 and I consider them 2A to MSU's 2B.
3 Michigan State Spartans MSU has the Heisman favorite in Kenneth Walker III and they're an improbable 8-0 after a massive comeback win over Little Brother.  The only reason they're #3 rather than #2 is because I do believe OSU is more talented and a better team, even though they do have that Week 2 loss.  However MSU is a top 3 team at the moment at worst.
4 Cincinnati Bearcats For the 2nd straight week, Cincinnati did what they couldn't do and failed to blow out a 1-win team.  With the first CFP ranking coming out on Tuesday, they'll be sweating it out to see if they're in the top 4.  The biggest problem I'm seeing is the running game has really struggled the last couple weeks and the offense thrives when Ford is running wild.  Without that, Desmond Ridder is struggling to lead.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Week off for Alabama but they get to host LSU now.  The Tide are arguably the most talented team in the country but they're too inconsistent.
6 Oklahoma Sooners Caleb Williams might turn out to be something special as Oklahoma's offense has looked their best with him leading the charge.  Still undefeated and could likely find themselves in the CFP's Top 4 on Tuesday.  For me, they're still behind Cincy because A) Cincy has overall looked better on the season, B) Cincy beat Tulane by more than Oklahoma did, and C) Oklahoma doesn't have a signature win on their resume like Cincy has with Notre Dame.  However, the Sooners have a gauntlet to end the season and can pick up such wins.
7 Oregon Ducks This was the best Oregon has looked since beating Ohio State.  No, Colorado is not a great team but Oregon dominated them the way you would expect a top 10 team to dominate them.  Scoreline looks closer because the benchwarmers came in but the starters thoroughly dominated.
8 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest is the lone CFP hope now for the ACC.  They're the surprise team of the season and Sam Hartman is throwing his name into the Heisman race.  Can Wake Forest keep it up and finish the season undefeated?  Only time will tell but Wake Forest is the best team in the ACC right now.
9 Michigan Wolverines From what I gathered from the post-game thread, the reason why Michigan lost because the refs caused them to give up nearly 200 yards and 5 TDs to KWIII, caused 2 (should have been 3) 4th quarter turnovers, and caused Michigan to blow a 16 point 3rd quarter lead.  Really, this is a talented team but their own coaching and execution errors caused their downfall.  Michigan should probably only lose 1 more game this season to Ohio State but they're a borderline top 10 team.
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame held off an explosive UNC offense and won another game.  It doesn't feel like a top 10 team but they keep winning except against Cincinnati.  Next up should be an easy W against Navy.
11 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State played their best game of the season and were so dominant against Kansas that they put the backup QB in mid-2nd quarter.  Tied for 2nd in the Big 12 and the Cowboys have one of the country's best defenses.
12 Texas A&M Aggies It was an off week for A&M but they get an opportunity to continue playing up to their potential against a hot Auburn team this weekend.
13 Baylor Bears If not for Wake Forest, Baylor would be the surprise team of the season.  Gerry Bohannon is the most underrated QB in the country IMO and they have talent all over the place.
14 Auburn Tigers After a slowish start to the season, Auburn is playing it's best ball of the season.  Harsin's squad held Ole Miss to just 20 points and their offense looks to have found their groove.  They continue their tough schedule with a road trip to Texas A&M.
15 Kentucky Wildcats Disappointing loss to Mississippi State but thanks to a lot of chaos in the lower part of the rankings they don't fall as much.  Losing to Georgia is understandable but they looked nowhere near as good as they had been against Miss State.  Both offense and defense need to get back on track against Tennessee.
16 Minnesota Golden Gophers Don't look now but Minnesota is 6-2 and leading the Big 10 West.  After their embarrassing loss to Bowling Green, Minnesota has won 4 straight including a win over Purdue.  Their remaining schedule also isn't too difficult so they could easily be a 3 loss team by season's end.
17 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin finally looked like the team that we expected to see in the pre-season.  Their defense dominated (although Iowa helped out a lot) and the offense with Graham Mertz looked stronger.  I would like to see more from them offensively but Wisconsin is still starting to look much scarier.
18 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns It feels like the country has forgotten about Louisiana after losing to Texas in their season opener.  They've won every game since but they have struggled to really finish teams off.  Their win over App State is one of the better G5 wins during the season.  Should Cincinnati falter and not win the AAC, Louisiana should be next-in-line for the NY6 bid.
19 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa's fallen back to Earth.  The defense is still very good and the reason why Iowa didn't lose by more, but they haven't forced turnovers at the same rate and the offense can't drive down the field.  The CFP dream is over and their Big 10 title hopes might be as well.
20 UTSA Roadrunners Meep.
21 Houston Cougars Houston knocked off previously undefeated SMU and I don't know that a lot of people realize they're 7-1 and solely leading the AAC (mainly due to more conference games played than Cincinnati).  After a rough start to his tenure, Dana Holgorson has Houston humming.
22 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss did themselves no favors by refusing to kick FGs, but the offense is still not as explosive as they were and the defense is still "meh" at best.  This is too talented of a team to be losing the way they are.
23 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Another close win over Troy leaves CC on the verge of dropping out entirely.  The Chanticleers may have peaked too early. 
24 SMU Mustangs They lost to Houston but Houston is one of the country's most underrated teams and SMU is still one of the top G5 teams in the country.  Tanner Mordecai is still playing well but their defense can be torn apart too easily.
25 Fresno State Bulldogs Welcome back to the top 25 Fresno State.  They're coming off back-to-back wins over Nevada and San Diego State and have cemented themselves as the Mountain West favorites.  The offense is back to being really good and the defense is improving.

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