Welcome to another installment of the Cross Poll. The season continues in its wacky way, but the picture is growing ever clearer. There were some changes this week, of course, but as you'll see, several teams who lost didn't fall far (Kansas, LSU, Boise State), while others did (Oregon, Texas, Virginia). There is method to my madness, I assure you.
The Cross Poll is not an attempt to predict how good teams will be at the end of the season. Instead, it ranks the teams based on how well they’ve played to this point. It takes more than just win-loss record into account when determining teams’ rankings, factoring in who teams beat and who they lost to.
With that preface out of the way, here’s the Cross Poll rankings, with last week’s rankings in brackets:
Missouri (11-1) [3]
West Virginia (10-1) [4]
Ohio State (11-1) [5]
Kansas (11-1) [1]
LSU (10-2) [2]
Hawaii (11-0) [7]
Georgia (10-2) [9]
Virginia Tech (10-2) [8]
Oklahoma (10-2) [11]
USC (9-2) [12]
Boston College (10-2) [13]
Florida (9-3) [18]
Arizona State (9-2) [6]
Illinois (9-3) [19]
Tennessee (9-3) [20]
Brigham Young (9-2) [23]
Boise State (10-2) [14]
Wisconsin (9-3) [21]
Cincinnati (9-3) [22]
South Florida (9-3) [24]
Clemson (8-3) [25]
Oregon (8-3) [10]
Texas (9-3) [15]
Virginia (9-3) [16]
Connecticut (9-3) [17]
Auburn (8-4) [26]
Texas Tech (8-4) [27]
Michigan (8-4) [28]
Penn State (8-4) [NR]
Oregon State (7-4) [NR]
Fallen from the Ranks: Kentucky [29]; Florida State [30]
I think Oregon is a bit low, but you have set them up for their loss this week to Oregon State. Hopefully they will stick around 25 after that because they did smoke Michigan, USC & Arizona State after all.
Not sure I like VaTech ahead of BC. If teams are that close (8/11) and they have played I usually will correct it like having BC 9, VT 10 or something.
Norcalfella,
I agree that Oregon is a bit low, but like you said, I figure they will lose this week as well. They're proving to be a one-man team, and with that one-man done (and the utterly pitifult performance they put up against UCLA) they look done.
I didn't think about VT/BC. I was conscious not to put VT ahead of LSU, but overlooked the fact they lost to BC. This weekend will definitely help solve that.
And as for UConn/UVA, I'm going to change that, actually. I silly oversight on my part, so thanks for pointing it out.
kellyscott,
Keep heart. You can't turn on your team when they start losing. After all, you're the one who proclaimed them the greatest team this year before Dixon was injured. Have heart.
And they do deserve to be ranked. Like Norcalfella said, they smoked Michigan (in Ann Arbor), USC and Arizona State. That has to count for something.
exacly what im saying ... a ONE MAN TEAM. you cannot rely on one man QB i think the whole season was dixons, and no attempt by oregon (INCASE) HE WENT DOWN!!and just by seeing the ucla loss... we have NO offence... no QBs... no experince at that!!! so how can we score??? i hope this is wakeup call to oregon for seasons to come!! ok example you drive your car and its driving excellent and then ooops flat tire!!! what do you do keep driving on the flat??? no you hope you ahve a nice spare!!! just like oregon no spare or backupQB.... i think this happened to them... riding high on dixon but when he went down tottal panick !!!!! well next year knuckleheads have a plan JUST IN CASE????????
exacly what im saying ... a ONE MAN TEAM. you cannot rely on one man QB i think the whole season was dixons, and no attempt by oregon (INCASE) HE WENT DOWN!!and just by seeing the ucla loss... we have NO offence... no QBs... no experince at that!!! so how can we score??? i hope this is wakeup call to oregon for seasons to come!! ok example you drive your car and its driving excellent and then ooops flat tire!!! what do you do keep driving on the flat??? no you hope you ahve a nice spare!!! just like oregon no spare or backupQB.... i think this happened to them... riding high on dixon but when he went down tottal panick !!!!! well next year knuckleheads have a plan JUST IN CASE????????
Agreed. But they still deserve to be respected for what they accomplished with Dixon. After all, he didn't play every position on both sides of the ball. Oregon won those games as a team. He is the heart, the leader of that team. Hard to win when you lose that.
Thanks for the link. A great video of the highlights from a great rivalry. It was especially fun to see the old footage and the games we were there for.
Finally, someone with the guts to put Hawai'i right where they belong, inside the top 10, and on the verge of breaking into the top 5.
I think your ranking of the Ducks is about right. They can only freefall now that Dixon is done for the year! If there ever was a most valuable player for a team, it was Dennis D.
To tell you the truth, though, I feel pretty bad about that. Even though I'm a Oregon State alum, I usually also root for the Ducks (accept for one day a year), as I feel both UO and OSU represent the state of Oregon and the PAC 10 conference very well. After the blowout of Michigan and the defeats of USC and ASU, I really thought the Ducks had a chance to be in the national championship (the loss to Cal hurt, but it didn't seem to hurt them that bad).
Too bad they don't have the type of backups that Hawai'i has. Even without Colt Brennan for a couple of games, the Warriors were able to pull out the W, even when things got difficult.
Last edited by rjm2179 on November 29th at 5:55 PM.
Thanks rjm. Part of me thinks that Hawaii is ranked too high and that they aren't as good as some of the teams ranked below them. However, they have played better than other teams, and they deserve to be recognized for being the only undefeated team in the nation.
As for the quality of backups at Hawaii: I think their ability to win without Brennan speaks more to the system and coaching than the level of talent. I would go so far as to say that Oregon has more talented backups than Hawaii. Heck, Oregon's backups are probably better than most of Hawaii's starters. This seems to be pretty common when you look at teams from smaller conferences. However, June Jones is a genius and has a great system in place. What's more, while his players may not be the most talented, the biggest, or the fastest, they are perfect for the system he runs. It's the same reason why West Virginia is able to have success without getting all the blue chip recruits every year.
Last edited by jdcross on November 30th at 5:28 AM.
jdcross....I agree about the difference in the level of talent between Hawaii and Oregon. I was trying to imply exactly what you deduced about a "system". Hawaii was able to use their system effectively when their #1 quarterback went down whereas Oregon's #2 quarterback (Leaf) didn't fit the system they have in place which was built around Dixon. When there's that kind of disparity between your quarterback's you should have a better plan in place in case your #1 goes down.
The coaches at UO should know this, as just as recently as a few years ago, they used rotating quarterbacks. Seems to me that they could have done better situational planning.
I also agree that it's all about coaching. Guys like June Jones at Hawaii and the coaches at Boise State (Peterson, Hawkins, Koetter) have used lesser caliber players effectively to compete against teams with a lot more talent. They know that their is no "I" in team, unlike those schools that produce NFL type players who love to draw attention to themselves.
rjm,
I think this also points to a larger problem, the disparity between mobile quarterbacks, like Dixon, and traditional pocket passers. When you design a system around a mobile guy, plugging in any pocket passer into the spread just isn't going to work. Same thing if you tried to throw a mobile quarterback into a drop-back-and-throw scheme. That's why Mike Vick consistently had such a low quarterback rating. Your system and your talent have to be in sync.
Food for thought: Would the 2005 Texas team that went undefeated and beat USC in the title game have had the same success had Vince Young suffered an injury similar to Dixon's (season-ending, mid-November)??? Even if you think they would have still made it to Pasadena, do you think they would have had a chance against the team that the other network pegged as the greatest college football team ever (what a stupid segment)?
The point is that this scenario happens a lot more than just in Oregon. Look at Oklahoma. Had Sam Bradford not been knocked out of the game, the Big 12 winner would be a lock for the title game (ie, assuming OU would've beat Texas Tech, which is debatable). Had Pat White not been hurt in the 2nd half of the loss against USF, would WVU be undefeated right now? Had John David Booty been healthy all year, would USC be in the title picture? The list goes on and on....
All I know is that the 2005 USC team definitely would have beaten the 1934 Carlysle squad. There's no need to speculate on it. That 2005 USC team is the greatest team ever. You know, even if they weren't the greatest team that year.
The quarterback position is a very difficult one to replace, and most schools seem to design their system around the quarterback. Do you think Rodriguez would run the spread system if he had John David Booty? Certainly not to the same extent.
It's difficult to replace any injured starter. But it seems nearly impossible to replace a star quarterback. Not just in college either; look at how wonderful the Carolina Panthers are doing this year without Delhomme. And in the NFL you would think this isn't such an issue when there are 32 teams compared to 120.
It's official: ESPN has a network-sized man-crush on USC. I just heard them declare USC the best team in the country on Gameday (Mark May is also kissing their...). The only reason USC is going to the Rose Bowl (unless an improbable upset happens) is because of Dennis Dixon getting hurt. This team lost to Stanford @ home!! The team that has the most talented athletes does not equate to the best team.
