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Due to the large number of teams receiving votes this week, we are including our Lagniappe Group again. Top Ten
1) LSU 49 (1) 2) Clemson 41 3) Georgia 37 4) Ohio State 35 (1) 5) Utah 28 6) Alabama 21 7) Minnesota 16 8) Oklahoma 13 9) Florida 7 10) [tie] Baylor 6 Memphis 6 Oklahoma State 6 Lagniappe Group 13) Cincinnati 4 14) Michigan 3 15) [tie] Appalachian State 1 Oregon 1 Coach Drew Burnham is on assignment this week. Game picks will return next week. Curator Sam Burnham Game of the Week: Penn State @ Ohio State Thus one should be an easy choice. It should be a no-brainer. But the truth is that I shopped around before deciding this one. This is just not a great week for games. And even with Ohio State being overrated and prancing through a schedule of daisies and petunias, two facts stand out about this game. 1) The Buckeyes are a good football team. & 2) Penn State is not an elite program. Ohio State’s offense is going to fly all over the field with no serious interference. Penn State will score, but not nearly enough and TV commentators will discuss what went wrong. This is the best matchup of the week but don’t expect too much from it. Upset Alert Illinois @ Iowa i feel odd picking both of these games from the Big Ten. But the SEC & ACC matchups this week should be sponsored by Hostess Cupcakes. Just pitiful. Iowa is coming off a big big win over Minnesota and should have momentum. With an unranked Illinois team coming to town, this will be an easy week to underperform. Illinois has won four in a row including wins over Sparty and Wisconsin. The Illini have real momentum and will take advantage of it and stun the Hawkeyes before dismantling Northwestern to finish 8-4 and land in a respectable bowl game. Coach Drew Burnham
GAME OF THE WEEK PITT @ VIRGINIA TECH This little matchup has flown under the radar with Penn St and Ohio St getting all the hype for the week. These 2 are currently tied for 2nd in the Coastal Division and Tech will play Virginia next week who sits in 1st place. In my opinion, this is the Coastal division Championship game (because Tech just doesn’t really lose to UVA.) There’s plenty of “football reasons” why this game matters, but if you know this coach you know he’s a sucker for a good storyline. Saturday’s matchup will be Coach Bud Foster’s final home game in Lane Stadium. Coach Foster is an anomaly in our business. He graduated from Murray State (Go Racers!) in 1980 after playing there for Coach Frank Beamer and mover into a graduate assistant role. He was promoted to a full time role there and followed coach Beamer to Virginia Tech in 1987. That’s it. That’s the job experience. No bouncing around. No clout hunting. No ball chasing. The man has been in Blacksburg, VA for 32 years. Coaches are hard pressed to stay in one place for 32 months. It’s absolutely unheard of in our business. He is a personification of loyalty, one of the supposed make-or-break qualities in this profession. His stint wasn’t caused by lack of opportunity to leave. Countless head coaching opportunities have come to him and all have been returned to the sender. He’s at home in Blacksburg. On top of all of that, he is a LEGEND. 11 times he has lead a top 10 national total defense, twice #1. 13 times he has lead a top 10 scoring defense, also twice #1. In 2006 he was awarded the Broyles award as the top assistant coach in the country and in all the other years the committee was kidding themselves. One last run out of that tunnel to Enter Sandman will certainly be an emotional one for many. Ill be cheering hard for the Hokies Saturday and you should too. UPSET ALERT OREGON @ ARIZONA ST This is a big one! Arizona St has defeated 2 of the 3 ranked teams they’ve played this season. Old Herm just seems to find a way to pull the best out of the boys when the deck is stacked highest against them. The Sun Devils have struggled on defense recently and while you would be correct to say that’s not really the area you want to be weak in against an explosive Oregon offense, State also returns a couple key offensive players from injury this week. That will allow them to use Jayden Daniels at QB, Eno Benjamin at RB, and Brandon Aiyuk at wideout to really balance out their attack. True balance is difficult to defend and leads to dominating the time of possession. If Arizona can limit the possessions for Oregon and just manage to get a few stops along the way, they could win this one in a pseudo-shootout. It’s a night game at the #1 party school in America. The atmosphere will be elite. Can Herm and the boys pull out their biggest one of the year? This week’s poll sees a bit of movement after losses by Baylor and Minnesota. Georgia takes a step forward after beating yet another ranked opponent. Ohio State takes the third spot by virtue of receiving a first place vote. Utah and Oregon both climb as the PAC 12 looks to finish strong. Alabama drops a spot leaving us to think the voters are unsure how the Crimson Tide will finish without Tua Tagovailoa or their typical defense. Bama hosts yet another cupcake, Western Carolina, this Saturday before their Iron Bowl matchup with Auburn. We have a three-way tie for 10th this week. The voters have pitched in to include someone other than the usual suspects. We’ll see if these teams can hang in there. 1) LSU 49 (4) 2) Clemson 41 3) Ohio State 35 (1)* 4) Georgia 35 5) Oregon 33 6) Alabama 22 7) Utah 18 8) Oklahoma 16 9) Penn State 15 10) [tie] Baylor 3 Memphis 3 Oklahoma State 3 *Ohio State gets a tie breaker with Georgia for receiving a 1st place vote. also receiving votes: Appalachian State 1, Minnesota 1
We’re getting down to the nitty gritty of the season. This past week was forecasted to make some distinctions between teams but it may have stirred up more questions. We have a new #1 as LSU took down Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The Tigers are now in the driver’s seat in the SEC West and current favorites to win the conference. Alabama drops to a tie for 5th with Georgia. Looking at the ballots, committee members probably disagree most on these two teams. Bama’s loss either signifies a missed opportunity for a quality win in an otherwise weak schedule or a near miss against the best team in the nation. Voters ranked Bama as high as 2nd and as low as 10th. Georgia has voters focused either on wins against Notre Dame and Florida or that hideous, jaw dropping loss to South Carolina. Voters ranked the Dawgs as high as 3rd and as low as 9th. *The Lagniappe Group* - due to the high number of teams finding their way onto ballots this week, we’re offering a little something extra. It’s our version of free football or maybe an extra beignet stuffed in the bag: an 11-15 ranking. This is not a permanent expansion, just a little something extra. Will it happen again? Maybe, maybe not. Don’t fret over the future, just enjoy the treat while it lasts. 1) LSU 49 (4) 2) Clemson 37 3) Ohio State 35(1) 4) Minnesota 32 5) [tie] Alabama 25 Georgia 25 7) Baylor 18 8) Oregon 16 9) Oklahoma 10 10) Utah 8 *The Lagniappe Group* 11) Notre Dame 6 12) Penn State 4 13) [tie] Auburn 2 Memphis 2 15) Boise State 1
The polling this week is tight with ties at two spots. There are also two match ups this week pitting two ranked opponents against each other. Top ranked Alabama will host second ranked LSU. Fifth ranked Penn State travels to ninth ranked Minnesota. This will have impact on the poll as two ranked teams will pick up their first loss of the season. Other match ups of note this week include Georgia hosting Missouri and Oklahoma hosting Iowa State. On paper, these should not be close games but history suggests these might be bigger challenges than anticipated. 1) Alabama 48 (3) 2) LSU 45 (1) 3) Clemson 38 4) Ohio State 32 (1) 5) [tie] Georgia 24 Oregon 24 Penn State 24 8) Oklahoma 10 9) [tie] Minnesota 9 Utah 9 also receiving votes: Baylor 6, BYU 3, Florida 1, Memphis 1, Navy 1
No Upset Alert this week.
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