The AP and Coaches polls have just been released. Ohio State has dropped to #5. Yes, I’m pissed about it.
Ohio State did not play like the #1 team yesterday, and nobody in their wildest dreams expected them to rise in the polls. But the talk for three straight months has been “whoever wins between Ohio State and USC will be #1″. Now the voters have given themselves an out should the Buckeyes win this weekend. I have no reasonable expectation that they will allow us to leapfrog three other teams if we knock off the Trojans, and the voters will puss out by saying just that.
Do we deserve to be #3 still? Yes. Here’s why;
- Points scored – 34.5 per game
- Points allowed – 7.0 per game
- Rushing yards allowed – 67 yards per game
- Passing yards allowed – 94 yards per game
Are these the stats that a 3rd-ranked team should have against two lesser opponents? Yes, absolutely. As a matter of fact, this is what you’d BETTER see at this point, and we have. But we’ve now dropped for two consecutive weeks after wins. Meanwhile, USC leaves their starters in well into the 4th quarter of the Virginia game to run up the score. And yes, they were still throwing the ball in the 4th quarter.
So we had a rough day against Ohio. OK, let’s dissect that, shall we?
- Our opponent went 6-6 last year
- Our opponent comes from a weak conference
- We were struggling with them for three quarters
- A long drive and a big punt return in the 4th put the game out of reach
- We won the game going away, but not nearly by as much as we should have
OK, so this is the criteria to drop us down in the polls. Fair enough. But Florida moved up a spot to #4 despite the following
- Their opponent (Miami) went 5-7 last year
- Their opponent comes from a weak conference (ACC)
- They were struggling with them for three quarters
- A long drive and a big punt return in the 4th put the game out of reach
- They won the game going away, but not nearly by as much as they should have
So, yeah I see problems and I’m pissed. Here’s hoping the players feel as slighted as I do right now. There will be hell to pay for USC on Saturday if so.
