HogManInLA’s Top 25 College Football Poll: Week Nine
By Ryan Wright
The Gators turned in perhaps the most impressive win of week nine; Florida Gators tight end Omarius Hines (20) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the second half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida Gators defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks 44-11. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
The 2012 college football season keeps rolling along separating the pretenders from the contenders. This week very little changed in the Top 25 landscape except for West Virginia and South Carolina’s outside hopes of a national championship berth were squashed by lopsided losses.
Taking a step back from week seven what new information have we learned about the college football season? Florida is for real, especially at home, Kansas State is a methodical machine that will wear their opponents down, Alabama has not been challenged yet this year, and Oregon has still yet to play a quality opponent.
The Ducks look good but do not have a win against a current Top 25 team. When Oregon beat Arizona the Wildcats they were ranked No. 22 and Washington was No. 23. Neither Washington nor Arizona is challenging for their Pac-12 divisional titles and both teams combined have a 7-7 record. How Duck fans or college football pundits could get upset with Florida being ranked No. 2 in the BCS is shocking and curious.
Only if Notre Dame had an offense. Isn’t that what Brian Kelly was known for?
The Irish will get their chance to prove they are a top five team this week when they travel to Oklahoma. Oklahoma can fill up a scoreboard, Notre Dame cannot. Can the ND defense provide enough stops or scoring opportunities for the offense to keep them in the game?
A blowout by the Sooners could wipe the Irish’s opportunities for a BCS bowl game off the schedule. The only other quality opponent remaining on Notre Dame’s schedule is USC Nov. 24. With no conference tie-ins and no conference championship game the Irish maybe on the outside looking in of a BCS bowl within one week’s time.
LSU is still LSU. They will pound their opponents and force the opposition into mistakes. The Tigers are horrible on offense, mainly passing the ball, but relentless on defense.
Georgia obviously spent their bye week preparing for this week’s matchup against Florida instead of preparing for Kentucky. The Bulldogs almost got caught looking ahead but held on for a 29-24 win.
Braxton Miller took a helmet to turf hit that knocked him out of the game with concussion like symptoms; he was understandably wobbly from the hit. Will Urban Myer let Miller play this week at Penn State? Integrity goes a long way and Myer’s will be in question come Saturday when he faces a much improved Penn State team.
Louisville does just enough to win, hard to tell how good the Cardinals really are? Cincinnati got caught looking ahead losing to Toledo this week but still pose the toughest matchup of the year thus far for Louisville; should be an interesting Big East game.
Mississippi State’s dream season of being an undefeated team with national title hopes comes into check on Saturday. The Bulldogs travel to No. 1 Alabama. MSU has beat up on bad teams thus far; Jackson State, Auburn, Troy, South Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Middle Tennessee State. Keeping the final score close against Bama will show that MSU might be for real but a blowout will drop the façade of Dan Mullen’s team all together.
Mullen has to hope for a good showing against Bama for several reasons, 1) the rest of the season is full of tough games (Texas A&M, at LSU, Arkansas, and at Ole Miss). If MSU loses their next three games a quality bowl could be out the window.
2) If Bama blows MSU out the team could lose confidence making winning the next five games an uncertainty. The Bulldogs could go from 7-0 to 7-5 quickly. How will that settle with the fan base and school donors?
Texas Tech is scrappy and Tommy Tubberville has his team believing. After big wins over West Virginia and TCU the Riverboat Gambler takes his squad to Kansas State for their biggest game of the year. This matchup has Big 12 Championship and possible BCS national title game implications.
HogManInLA’s Top 25 College Football Poll
1. Alabama 7-0
2. Florida 7-0
3. Oregon 7-0
4. Kansas State 7-0
5. LSU 7-1
6. Georgia 6-1
7. Notre Dame 7-0
8. Ohio State 8-0
9. Florida State 7-1
10. Clemson 6-1
11. USC 6-1
12. South Carolina 6-2
13. Louisville 7-0
14. Mississippi State 7-0
15. Oregon State 6-0
16. Oklahoma 5-1
17. Rutgers 7-0
18. Texas Tech 6-1
19. Texas 5-2
20. Boise State 6-1
21. Cincinnati 5-1
22. West Virginia 5-2
23. Louisiana Tech 6-1
24. Ohio 7-0
25. Tulsa 7-1
New to the Poll:
No. 23 Louisiana Tech
No. 24 Ohio
No. 25 Tulsa
Dropped Out of Poll:
No. 20 TCU
No. 21 Texas A&M
No. 24 Arizona State
Last Week’s AP Top 25 Teams that Lost:
No. 9 South Carolina 11 at No. 3 Florida 44
No. 4 Kansas State 55 at No. 17 West Virginia 14
No. 6 LSU 24 at No. 20 Texas A&M 19
No. 21 Cincinnati 23 at Toledo 29
Friday Night College Football Scores
Connecticut 10 at Syracuse 40
Thursday Night College Football Scores
Houston 42 vs. SMU 72
No. 2 Oregon 43 vs. Arizona State 21
Tuesday Night College Football Scores
LA Lafayette 23 vs. North Texas 30
College Football Games (Saturday)
No. 1 Alabama 44 at Tennessee 13
No. 9 South Carolina 11 at No. 3 Florida 44
No. 4 Kansas State 55 at No. 17 West Virginia 14
BYU 14 at No. 5 Notre Dame 17
No. 6 LSU 24 at No. 20 Texas A&M 19
Purdue 22 at No. 7 Ohio State 29
Utah 7 at No. 8 Oregon State 21
Kansas 7 at No. 10 Oklahoma 52
Colorado 6 at No. 11 USC 50
No. 12 FSU 33 at Miami 20
No. 13 Georgia 29 at Kentucky 24
Virginia Tech 17 at No. 14 Clemson 38
Middle Tennessee State at No. 15 Mississippi State
South Florida 25 at No. 16 Louisville 27
No. 18 Texas Tech 56 at TCU 53 3OT
No. 19 Rutgers 35 at Temple 10
No. 21 Cincinnati 23 at Toledo 29
No. 22 Stanford 21 at California 3
Michigan State 10 at No. 23 Michigan 12
UNLV 7 at No. 24 Boise State 32
* Rankings per AP Poll
Games of Interest
Baylor 50 at Texas 56
Penn State 38 at Iowa 14
North Carolina 30 at Duke 33
Nebraska 29 at Northwestern 28
Iowa State 10 at Oklahoma State 31
Auburn 13 at Vanderbilt 17