2009 Week 4 Top 25

Two more Top 10 teams went down. USC had its annual conference slip-up, not surprisingly the game after the Ohio State showdown, and BYU was blasted at home. Cal and Miami jumped up significantly as they continue to impress. I wasn't a believer in Auburn until this weekend, but now the Tigers have rocketed all the way up to #19. Florida State and Iowa also return to the rankings for the first time since the preseason after big wins.


1 - Florida (1)
2 - Texas (2)
3 - Alabama (4)
4 - Cal (9)
5 - Penn State (5)
6 - Mississippi (6)
7 - Boise State (8)
8 - Miami (20)
9 - TCU (10)
10 - LSU (11)
11 - USC (3)
12 - Ohio St (13)
13 - Oklahoma (14)
14 - Virginia Tech (15)
15 - Cincinnati (18)
16 - Houston (19)
17 - Missouri (23)
18 - Michigan (25)
19 - Auburn (UR)
20 - Nebraska (16)
21 - Florida St (UR)
22 - Utah (12)
23 - BYU (7)
24 - Iowa (UR)
25 - Pitt (21)


Others Receiving Votes: Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma St, UCLA, Washington
Added: Auburn, Florida St, Iowa
Dropped: Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Texas Tech

2009 Week 3 Picks

Week 1: 63-15 (80.8%)
Week 2: 51-11 (82.3%)
Season: 114-26 (81.4%)


Thursday, September 17
Georgia Tech at Miami

Friday, September 18
Boise St at Fresno St

Saturday, September 19
Louisville at Kentucky
Eastern Michigan at Michigan
Cal at Minnesota
East Carolina at North Carolina
Temple at Penn St
Boston College at Clemson
Wofford at Wisconsin
Ball St at Army
Duke at Kansas
Northern Illinois at Purdue

Ohio St vs Toledo at Cleveland
North Texas at Alabama
Furman at Missouri
Wyoming at Colorado
Tennessee at Florida
Michigan St at Notre Dame
MTSU at Maryland
Tulsa at Oklahoma
Nebraska at Virginia Tech
USC at Washington

Indiana at Akron
Alcorn St at Central Michigan
Utah at Oregon
Virginia at Southern Miss
UAB at Troy
Arizona at Iowa
Nevada at Colorado St
San Diego St at Idaho
FIU at Rutgers
Connecticut at Baylor

SMU at Washington St
Gardner-Webb at NC State
Navy at Pitt
Elon at Wake Forest
Cincinnati at Oregon St
Charleston Southern at USF
Central Arkansas at Western Kentucky
Louisiana-Lafayette at LSU
Northwestern at Syracuse
Cal Poly at Ohio

Rice at Oklahoma St
Mississippi St at Vanderbilt
Utah St at Texas A&M
Florida St at BYU
Bowling Green at Marshall
Iowa St at Kent St
Nicholls St at Louisiana Tech
FAU at South Carolina
Texas St at TCU
Miami (OH) at Western Michigan

SE Louisiana at Mississippi
Air Force at New Mexico
Buffalo at UCF
West Virginia at Auburn
Georgia at Arkansas
UTEP at New Mexico St
Tennessee-Martin at Memphis
Texas Tech at Texas
San Jose St at Stanford
Louisiana-Monroe at Arizona St

Kansas St at UCLA
Hawaii at UNLV

2009 Week 2 Notes

Coaches on the Hot Seat: Dan Hawkins is now 0-2 this after a loss at Toledo. Next up is Wyoming at home and then a Thursday night game at West Virginia. Colorado needs to win this week or they will likely be 0-4 going into conference play. Al Groh also falls to 0-2. Getting blown out at home and then losing to MTSU can't be good for Tommy West at Memphis.

So Houston goes to Stillwater, OK and defeats the #5 team in the country by 10 points, and somehow they still are ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll? How is this possible? Missouri wasn't ranked last week and now they are. What did they do that granted them inclusion over Houston? They beat Bowling Green at home by a single score, in a game they were losing 20-6 at one point in the third quarter.

Another week, another two ACC teams struggle with FCS teams. Florida State, who the conference was counting on after the fun opener with Miami, scored twice in the final 35 seconds to beat Jacksonville State. Maryland needed overtime to beat James Madison.

UCLA picked up a nice win over Tennessee in Knoxville, but I think the media is overrating the win. I'm not convinced on Tennessee being any better than last season, and I wouldn't be surprised if they stay home for the postseason again. UCLA's quarterback Kevin Prince broke his jaw at the end of the game and will be out 3-4 weeks. Fortunately they have an unimpressive Kansas State team coming and then a bye week. Rick Neuheisel will be able to settle the backup quarterback situation before conference play begins.

Back to Kansas State, Bill Snyder Part 2 is bad. I was concerned when I saw UMass play them closely, but I still thought they could beat a middle-tier Sun Belt team on the road. The Wildcats have to win seven games to go to a bowl game since they have two FCS teams on their schedule. It's not going to happen, and I don't think it will even be close.

Ball State is bad. They've lost at home to a team that was winless against its Sun Belt conference foes and to an FCS team. I don't think they will beat Army on the road this week.

Washington State is bad. SMU - who does look much improved in June Jones second year - is favored over them by a touchdown in Pullman.

Miami (OH) is bad. They haven't scored a point in the first two games of the season. They just kicked off a string of five road games in six weeks. The home game in that stretch: Cincinnati. Good luck Mike Haywood, you need it.

USC beat Ohio State on a late fourth quarter drive. Much like last year, this was considered one of the year's best games in the preseason. This time it lived up to its billing. Last year, USC won easily and lost the next week at Oregon State. A close win might be better for the Trojans, since it may keep them more focused and sharp for the road trip to Washington.

Heisman Thoughts: Jimmy Clausen probably takes a hit due to the loss to Michigan, but not much movement other than that. Tebow and McCoy are still the favorites. Max Hall is the proverbial third wheel. Bradford and Clausen will have to play themselves back into the race. Jahvid Best remains the token running back with his 10.4 ypc average, but Cal will have to have a huge year for him to get any support. None of the next wave of QBs (Pryor, Forcier, Barkley) will get much support against the popular group of upperclassmen.

Upset Specials: Not all of these will happen, but not all of the favorites will win either.
* West Virginia over Auburn - Auburn needs to show me more before I start believing in them.
* Arizona over Iowa - Hawkeyes, beating up on Iowa State hasn't made me forget about your Week 1 performance.
* Georgia Tech over Miami - Did Miami learn how to stop the triple option in the offseason?
* Nebraska over Virginia Tech - VT either solidifies its Top 15 ranking here or falls out completely.
* East Carolina over North Carolina - The Tar Heels looked mediocre against Connecticut.
* Florida State over BYU - Will the pressure get to BYU?
* MTSU over Maryland - If James Madison can push the Terps to OT, why can't MTSU win?

2009 Week 3 Top 25

Two more Top 10 teams go down. Ohio State was expected, Oklahoma State was not. Houston deserves a ton of credit for that win, they could be ranked even higher.

Much better matchups this weekend between ranked teams. Georgia Tech travels to Miami on a short week, Nebraska makes the return trip to Virginia Tech, and Texas hosts Texas Tech. Cincinnati at Oregon State just misses the cut.

1 - Florida (1)
2 - Texas (2)
3 - USC (3)
4 - Alabama (4)
5 - Penn State (6)
6 - Mississippi (7)
7 - BYU (9)
8 - Boise State (10)
9 - Cal (17)
10 - TCU (11)
11 - LSU (12)
12 - Utah (13)
13 - Ohio St (8)
14 - Oklahoma (14)
15 - Virginia Tech (15)
16 - Nebraska (16)
17 - Georgia Tech (18)
18 - Cincinnati (19)
19 - Houston (UR)
20 - Miami (20)
21 - Pitt (24)
22 - West Virginia (22)
23 - Missouri (21)
24 - Texas Tech (23)
25 - Michigan (UR)


Others Receiving Votes: Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma St, Oregon St, UCLA
Added: Houston, Michigan
Dropped: Oklahoma St, Oregon St

2009 Week 2 Picks

Week 1: 63-15 (80.8%)
Season: 63-15 (80.8%)

I see a lot of potential upsets this week. Dangerous home dogs include Toledo (vs Colorado), Iowa State (vs Iowa), Louisiana-Lafayette (vs Kansas State) and obviously Michigan and Ohio State (vs Notre Dame and USC respectively). Road teams capable of a noticeable upset include East Carolina (@West Virginia), Purdue (@Oregon), Fresno State (@Wisconsin), and UCLA (@Tennessee).


Thursday, September 10
Clemson at Georgia Tech

Friday, September 11
Colorado at Toledo

Saturday, September 12
North Carolina at Connecticut
Eastern Michigan at Northwestern
Western Michigan at Indiana
Central Michigan at Michigan St
Stanford at Wake Forest
Syracuse at Penn St
Fresno St at Wisconsin
Duke at Army
Pittsburgh at Buffalo
Iowa at Iowa St

Troy at Florida
Marshall at Virginia Tech
Kent St at Boston College
Arkansas St at Nebraska
Morgan St at Akron
Notre Dame at Michigan
Howard at Rutgers
Houston at Oklahoma St
TCU at Virginia
Idaho at Washington

East Carolina at West Virginia
Louisiana Tech at Navy
BYU at Tulane
Texas at Wyoming
SMU at UAB
UCLA at Tennessee
Weber St at Colorado St
Eastern Washington at Cal
Jacksonville St at Florida St
James Madison at Maryland

Murray St at NC State
Mississippi St at Auburn
South Carolina at Georgia
Vanderbilt at LSU
Air Force at Minnesota
Bowling Green at Minnesota
Idaho St at Oklahoma
Ohio at North Texas
Hawaii vs Washington St at Seattle
Kansas St at Louisiana-Lafayette

FIU at Alabama
Illinois St at Illinois
New Hampshire at Ball St
Memphis at MTSU
Texas Southern at Louisiana-Monroe
UCF at Southern Miss
Rice at Texas Tech
USF at Western Kentucky
SE Missouri St at Cincinnati
Western Illinois at Northern Illinois

Kansas at UTEP
Miami (OH) at Boise St
Prairie View A&M at New Mexico St
Tulsa at New Mexico
USC at Ohio St
Southern Utah at San Diego St
Northern Arizona at Arizona
Purdue at Oregon
Utah at San Jose St
Oregon St at UNLV

2009 Week 1 Notes

5 of 8 "experts" at ESPN predicted Rutgers to win the Big East. Even though only one week has passed, that pick isn't looking too good.

Come on, Temple! You haven't been to a bowl game since 1979. You have a team capable of playing in the postseason. You CANNOT lose to Villanova. Nova scored 13 points in the last ten minutes of the game, including a field goal as time expired. Temple had five turnovers.

Syracuse and Washington both lost, but both look much improved from last season. Washington should have an easy win against Idaho this week, but Syracuse has to go to Penn State.

LSU needs to shore up its defense if it wants to be considered a contender. I thought defensive coordinator John Chavis would be a worthy replacement of Bo Pelini. Maybe he just needs more time.

I never should have believed in you Iowa and Illinois. The Big Ten may not be very good this season. Ohio State barely beat Navy, and now has USC coming to town. The conference needs that win in the worst way. Penn State doesn't have any decent non-conference opponents to hang it's hat on. Who's next in the Big Ten pecking order? The Michigan teams? Other than Notre Dame, neither one will have any notable non-conference wins either.

I never should have doubted you Buffalo, Colorado State and Missouri.

Whose seat is hotter right now, Al Groh or Dan Hawkins? I'll keep this section updated throughout the season, but as of now only those two appear to be in trouble.

Is Cal legit? Could they win the Pac-10? Let's see how they handle the road trip to Minnesota in Week 3 before jumping to conclusions.

Heisman Thoughts: Sam Bradford is out of the race. McCoy and Tebow are still the favorites. Jahvid Best and Jonathan Dwyer are the running backs for now, although I'm not sure how much recognition they have at the national level. Jimmy Clausen and Max Hall will keep getting attention as long as the wins continue.

2009 Week 2 Top 25

Two Top 10 teams go down in Oklahoma and Virginia Tech. Even with losses, these two seem too elite to remove from the rankings. Georgia, Florida State and Oregon are the other ranked teams that lost. I also dropped Iowa out of the rankings due to its poor performance against Northern Iowa. These four will have to fight their way back into the rankings.

The only matchup of ranked teams is USC @ Ohio State. Other interesting games are Georgia Tech hosting Clemson on Thursday and East Carolina at West Virginia.

1 - Florida (1)
2 - Texas (3)
3 - USC (4)
4 - Alabama (5)
5 - Oklahoma State (8)
6 - Penn State (6)
7 - Mississippi (7)
8 - Ohio State (9)
9 - BYU (23)
10 - Boise State (12)
11 - TCU (11)
12 - LSU (13)
13 - Utah (15)
14 - Oklahoma (2)
15 - Virginia Tech (10)
16 - Nebraska (19)
17 - Cal (20)
18 - Georgia Tech (21)
19 - Cincinnati (UR)
20 - Miami (UR)
21 - Missouri (UR)
22 - West Virginia (22)
23 - Texas Tech (24)
24 - Pitt (25)
25 - Oregon State (UR)


Others Receiving Votes: Florida State, Iowa, Michigan State, North Carolina, Notre Dame
Added: Cincinnati, Miami, Missouri, Oregon State
Dropped: Georgia, Florida State, Iowa, Oregon