Tuesday at 7:30 pm the first college football official ranking comes out. Since I vote in the USA Today Coaches poll I thought it might be interesting to go ahead and list my top 6 and see how they compare to the selection committee’s poll that comes out Tuesday. I’ll list my top six and a short explanation of why I ranked them at their position.
1. Mississippi State – They have beaten two presently ranked Top 25 Teams, Auburn and LSU.
Very similar defensive statistics as FSU but more balanced on offense.
2. FSU – They also have beaten two presently ranked Top 25 Teams, Clemson and Notre Dame.
Their deficiency in the running game is what puts them behind Mississippi State.
3. Tie – Michigan State and Alabama. Both lost to Top Ten teams, Oregon and Ole Miss.
A. Michigan State – Beaten one presently Top 25 Team, Nebraska who ranks higher than West
Virginia, who Alabama beat.
B. Alabama – Their defensive statistics overall are better than Michigan State.
5. Auburn – Has beaten two presently Top 25 Teams, Kansas State and LSU and their one loss
is to #1 Mississippi State.
6. Oregon – Has beaten one Top 25Team, Michigan State. Their Total Defense is # 106 in the
nation, giving up 462 YPG., which is the lowest of all the Top 6 teams.
As I have mentioned before, the 3 most important criteria to me are, strength of schedule, margin of victory, and defensive statistics. And after coaching 32 years, 12 as a Head Coach, I probably look at these teams differently than a committee member who has never coached. Too many stats can give you “paralysis by analysis”, therefore a lot of my criteria in ranking comes from my personal experience of knowing the difficulty of having to defend a certain a certain style of offense or how to attack a particular style of defense.
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