Tim, opinions are one thing I have, bias being another! I’ve spent the better part of this collegiate season laughing my @$$ off every time another ranked team goes down. (Caught the end of the FSU-Wake game last night. Love that!!) And it gave me some thought for what I can throw out here for us to chew on.
We are currently 29th in the AP poll. Now, it’s not top 25, but let’s review. Preseason top ten was as follows:
- USC
- LSU
- W. Va.
- Texas
- Michigan
- Fla
- Wisc.
- Ok
- Va. Tech
- Louisville
Now, they rank these teams based on a lot of things, but a big part of it is the prior season’s final games, and let’s face it. Teams are not going to start out the next year at the same level they finished the previous. They may be better, or worse, but practices and scrimmages are not the same as the real deal, and that being said, preseason rankings, or even rankings in the first week or two means next to nothing to me.
Of those teams listed in that preseason top ten, here’s the rundown now. Only 2 have improved their rankings – LSU has moved to #1 and Oklahoma has gone from 8 to 6.
Preseason Week 6
- USC 10th
- LSU 1st
- W. Va. 8th
- Texas 23rd
- Michigan 30th
- Fla 13th
- Wisc. 19th
- Ok 6th
- Va. Tech 12th
- Louisville Fell completely off the polls in Week 4.
Only 3 are still top ten. So, what the heck is my point? Beyond the obvious cliché of “That’s why they play the game” it tells me that we’ve EARNED our ranking. It’s not top 10, or even top 25 YET. But this team, that no one really wanted to give any credit to at all, has been successful beyond anything imagined by the talking heads in the sports world. (Except Mark Schlabach, who predicted back in August that we’d be 6-1 going into the homecoming game vs Penn St. next week! Of course, he also thought Michigan would be undefeated until they meet Wisconsin in November, but we can’t all be right all the time!)
So, here’s the bias slant. We’re good. We’re definitively better than we’ve been given credit for. We’ve won big games, and we’re getting votes. We have a great scheduling advantage this year in that we don’t face Ohio State or Michigan, but truthfully, the fan in me wants us to. I think we could beat Michigan, and we’d likely give Ohio State a run for their money. But, this season has the potential to do 2 things- be a HUGE confidence booster for the group of kids that are here and have lost their leader, allowing them to play in a bowl game and just know that they are a good solidly developing football team; and improve our recruitment potential so we continue to build the quality program that Coach Hep dreamed of. I’m pumped because this is a young team, and I love that the expectations of all the others are so low. It DRIVES these guys. We’re building what we’re doing on a Sophomore QB who is being supported by players such as Hardy (JR), Payton (SO), and Thigpen (JR), plus defensive powers like Middleton (SO), Patterson (SO) and Porter (the ONLY SR in this list.) These are kids who are coming back, and have the opportunity to do even more next season. We’ll see what the doubters say then. Just so long as they don’t try to rank us to high in the preseason!
Confidence breeds apathy. Ask Michigan.
I just wanted to add something to the end of Megan's post for all the Hoosier Fans reading this blog, your INDIANA HOOSIERS are ranked higher in both the AP Top 25 and the USA Today polls than Michigan is in FOOTBALL!!! - Mike P
No comments:
Post a Comment