BlogPoll: Week Eleven

Look out! John Stocco just got sacked again. Stocco must have been caught kissing the girlfriend of one of his linemen, because the poor guy barely had time to breathe on Saturday, much less complete a dropback and actually throw the football. It's amazing that he threw for over 300 yards since he spent most of the game in the arms of Tamba Hali.

In other news, George O'Leary now has Central Florida bowl-eligible after an 0-11 season a year ago. Resume jokes aside, this guy can coach. The fact that UCF took a step up in conference competition this year, and has still pulled off a minimum six-win improvement over a year ago, is absolutely amazing. If this were happening at a more prominent Conference USA school (say, Southern Mississippi or Memphis or even UTEP), O'Leary would be getting love as a National Coach of the Year candidate. Either way, UCF looks like they're going bowling.

In closing, we remind you of the gripping Sun Belt race, where Louisiana-Monroe (3-5 overall) is still in the driver's seat despite a home loss to Florida International. If you didn't have any fingers or thumbs, you'd have enough of them to count the number of Sun Belt teams that are currently over .500 overall.

Dropped out this week
20 Boston College--> There's a letdown, and there's losing to North Carolina because your offense continues to stink. Why is Quinton Porter still starting?

21 Cal--> It's tough to win enough games to be bowl-eligible without beating anyone who is even decent. So far, congrats to Cal on pulling that off.

25 Rutgers--> Try tackling next time.

The new Top 25 ballot
1. Southern Cal (1 last week). No reason to change...
2. Texas (2). No offense intended. I'm sold on Texas now.
3. Penn State (10). Damn.
4. Alabama (5). Unimpressive on offense, smothering on defense. Sound familiar to any tOSU fans out there?
5. Miami (6). Double-damn.
6. Louisiana State (7). Failed Refused to run it up on I-AA opponent. How classy.
7. Virginia Tech (3). And to think I almost bumped Texas down for these guys. They'll be fine, though.
8. Georgia (8). Shockley is practicing, which is great news for the Dawgs.
9. Notre Dame (11). Looked good, especially in the second half, in blowing out Tennessee.
10. Ohio State (12). Ready for challenges posed by goofy Northwestern offense.
11. Oregon (13). Good start in the post-Clemens era.
12. West Virginia (14). Still on track to finish 10-1.
13. TCU (16). Huge win over Colorado State gives TCU the Mountain West title in their first year of league membership.
14. UCLA (4). Ouch.
15. Florida (15). Not sold on the Gators yet.
16. Florida State (9). Tough day for the ACC, with both Virginia Tech and Florida State losing at home.
17. Auburn (17). And here's another team I'm not sold on yet.
18. Fresno State (18). Should be a whale of a game on Thursday at home against Boise.
19. Georgia Tech (22). Moving up by default more than anything else.
20. Wisconsin (19). I still think they belong around here, no matter how bad they looked in Happy Valley...
21. Texas Tech (23). ...after all, at least they've played someone, unlike these guys.
22. Michigan (24). Again...default.
23. Colorado (NR). Should win the North with two or three overall losses. Not bad. Certainly not as bad as last year, when they backed in on a freak missed field goal by Iowa State.
24. Boise State (NR). Welcome back, even if only for a week.
25. Northwestern (NR). Same.