#35 And #37 In Polls - Should We Be Higher?

[Cubanbull]

The Auburn game will determine if we crack the top 25. If we lose that one, we will get another shot when we play WV.

To be ranked USF MUST beat either Auburn or WV and be 3-1 or better at the end of september.

[Guest]

, but third place in the Big East and a berth in the Gator Bowl is definitely an attainable goal.

3rd place in the big east does NOT get us to the Gator Bowl.

3rd place and we are probably still back in Charlotte.

Yeah it does if West Virginia goes undefeated and Louisville's only loss is to West Virginia or vice versa they would both make BCS bowls most likely and that would mean that the third best Big East team (or Notre Dame) would make the Gator Bowl. I don't think Notre Dame is going to be too good this year so hopefully USF would get a Gator Bowl bid over Notre Dame, but then again all bowls care about is the $$s and Notre Dame has a slightly bigger following than USF.

I forgot about Notre Dame when I originally predicted Gator Bowl, so I guess we'll be back at the Meinke Bowl.

Colby ... Bowls are not required to pick based on "place" ... The Gator Bowl committee gets the first selection after the BCS bowl(s)... they do not hae to take the next place team -- it's up the to committee to decide.

The only rule that applies is they can't take a team with 2+ fewer wins than another eligible & availalble team. (If USF goes 9-3 and Notre Dame goes 7-5, they can't take Notre Dame over USF.)

Also, the Gator Bowl has the chance to take a Big 12 team instead... and if their choice is USF or Oklahoma or Nebraska - expect the Big 12 team to be in Jax.

[windbane]

There are some folks out there that feel USF should have been ranked higher than we were in the AP and Coach's polls.  Personally, I disagree, I think we're probably ranked about where we should be.  Why?  Because we lost games last year that we should have won.  Inconsistency in our football program is one of the last remaining stumbling blocks that needs to be overcome in order to make it to the next level, as far as I'm concerned.  Since we were inconsistent last season (Kansas and  Cincy come to mind), I cannot see us ranked this year unless we show that we have resolved that during this season.

However, I'm interested in hearing from the people that think we got robbed.  If you believe USF should have been preseason ranked, then who do you think should NOT have been ranked?

First of all, Kansas and Cincy aren't terrible teams, especially Cincy.

But besides that...in our first game we trailed a 1-AA team in the 3rd quarter.  Our second took a come-from-behind last-few-minutes TD score to win.  Our 3rd game we almost lost to UCF.

Despite that terrible start we rebounded and got better throughout the season.  We crushed Pittsburgh, nearly took Rutgers to OT, beat Syracuse and UConn, and most importantly beat WVU on the road before winning our first bowl game against a tough ECU team.

Clearly, we had a giant progression throughout last year.  We ended the season ranked 29th in the AP Poll, and we lost 2 LBs (replaced by T-Mac and C. Rob.), Ian Randolph (unfortunately not replaced by Erskin anymore), and a few others.  We return most of our starters and gained at least 4 RBs that can challenge for the starting job (1 injured, 1 redshirted, 2 transfers).  RB was our weakest position last year.  It can be argued that despite the loss of draft-pick Stephen Nicholas that we have gotten better at every position this year.

And yet, we drop from 29th to 35th in the AP Poll.  That's too low, to me.

[USFMikeB]

Kansas and Cincy aren't terrible teams, especially Cincy.

However, they are unranked teams.  How can people expect us to be a ranked team when we lose to unranked teams?  These kinds of losses have occurred year after year, it isn't like they are one time things.  Our program has consistently lost games it should have won against inferior teams.  Until those kinds of losses stop, how can we expect to be a ranked team?

[WaREaGle316]

I think polls should not start until after week 7 because guess what USF has to pass 34 teams to make it to #1 in one poll and 26 teams to make it to #1 in the other poll. So basically to make it to number 1 they need to go undefeated and then hope all of those teams lose at least one and some would have to lose twice like USC and Florida who play tough schedules and are already ranked high.

As for where we should rank right now #1, and we should be tied with the other 119 teams because none of the teams have played a game yet. I don't think it's fair that after week 1 USC could beat Idaho 35-30 and remain #1 and yet Tennessee could go to Cal and win by 50 and only be ranked #9 or 10 probably at best. Thats why I think preseason, and early season polls are stupid. USC hasn't played a game and yet they already control their own destiny just like they did in 2004 when Auburn went 12-0 in the SEC and didn't make the title game. Go undefeated in the nations best conference and not make the title game? Thats a byproduct of preseason polls. I guarantee if the polls started in week 7 Auburn would have made the national title game and I don't think USC would have made it because they had some close calls, either that or Oklahoma would have been left out because of their weak schedule.

USC and Oklahoma also went undefeated.Maybe they should of replaced OU, but if Auburn was so tough they wouldn't have squeaked it out a 16-13 win over a 3 loss Virginia Tech team.

Don't kid yourself, Auburn would have gotten spanked that year just like they did by USC the year before in Jordan Hare.

Last year too, if USC doesn't lay an egg to UCLA they would have killed OSU. Just for persepective, USC beat the SEC runner-up last year 50-14. They shut down Darren McFadden. No doubt in my mind they would have beaten UF too.

we were beating Virginia Tech 16-0 with 5 mins left in the 4th and they bombed 2 touchdowns at the last second......in 2004 usc nearly lost 5 games including beating Stanford by 3 points.....so dont even try that ******** auburn also dominated Georgia Tennessee 2x and had a close one with LSU

Note: Modified by Moderator to remove name calling.

[RSSMOOTH]

I think polls should not start until after week 7 because guess what USF has to pass 34 teams to make it to #1 in one poll and 26 teams to make it to #1 in the other poll. So basically to make it to number 1 they need to go undefeated and then hope all of those teams lose at least one and some would have to lose twice like USC and Florida who play tough schedules and are already ranked high.

As for where we should rank right now #1, and we should be tied with the other 119 teams because none of the teams have played a game yet. I don't think it's fair that after week 1 USC could beat Idaho 35-30 and remain #1 and yet Tennessee could go to Cal and win by 50 and only be ranked #9 or 10 probably at best. Thats why I think preseason, and early season polls are stupid. USC hasn't played a game and yet they already control their own destiny just like they did in 2004 when Auburn went 12-0 in the SEC and didn't make the title game. Go undefeated in the nations best conference and not make the title game? Thats a byproduct of preseason polls. I guarantee if the polls started in week 7 Auburn would have made the national title game and I don't think USC would have made it because they had some close calls, either that or Oklahoma would have been left out because of their weak schedule.

USC and Oklahoma also went undefeated.Maybe they should of replaced OU, but if Auburn was so tough they wouldn't have squeaked it out a 16-13 win over a 3 loss Virginia Tech team.

Don't kid yourself, Auburn would have gotten spanked that year just like they did by USC the year before in Jordan Hare.

Last year too, if USC doesn't lay an egg to UCLA they would have killed OSU. Just for persepective, USC beat the SEC runner-up last year 50-14. They shut down Darren McFadden. No doubt in my mind they would have beaten UF too.

we were beating Virginia Tech 16-0 with 5 mins left in the 4th and they bombed 2 touchdowns at the last second......in 2004 usc nearly lost 5 games including beating Stanford by 3 points.....so dont even try that ******** auburn also dominated Georgia Tennessee 2x and had a close one with LSU

Note: Modified by Moderator to remove name calling.

Listen, I didn't mean any disrespect, (I figured my post might have pissed off some Auburn Fans), but it is a fact that you guys were shut out by USC the year before at home. Then in 2004 USC beat that same Va Tech team by a larger margin, sure they squeaked out that game against Stanford, but don't act like Ronnie Brown and Cadillac williams were better than Reggie Bush and Lendale White. Jason Campbell was not better than Matt Leinart and your recievers were no where close to Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett. USC was capable of scoring on anyone.

[E.T.]

...  Nice to see WVA, L'ville, and Rutgers all top 16!  Go BE.

This will help us.

Win the Big East and we'll be in a BCS Bowl ... no matter the ranking.

;D

[Bulls 1]

The one that got robbed is Boise State.

[usfgrad84]

Kansas and Cincy aren't terrible teams, especially Cincy.

However, they are unranked teams.  How can people expect us to be a ranked team when we lose to unranked teams?  These kinds of losses have occurred year after year, it isn't like they are one time things.  Our program has consistently lost games it should have won against inferior teams.  Until those kinds of losses stop, how can we expect to be a ranked team?

I'm not so sure I would have called Cincinnati an inferior team compared to us last year.  If they would have played Mcneese State and FIU instead of Virginia Tech and Ohio State they probably would have been 10-3 and definitely ranked above us.  They also beat Rutgers pretty good.

At that point in the year last year we were not a better team than KU.  Maybe more athletic ability on the field, but we were still trying to figure out who our offensive lineman were going to be. We had no running back (our most experienced running back going into the game had less than 20 touches).   I can't remember for sure, but I don't think we were favored in that game.

I agree that we shouldn't be ranked yet because there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered on offense.

[WaREaGle316]

I think polls should not start until after week 7 because guess what USF has to pass 34 teams to make it to #1 in one poll and 26 teams to make it to #1 in the other poll. So basically to make it to number 1 they need to go undefeated and then hope all of those teams lose at least one and some would have to lose twice like USC and Florida who play tough schedules and are already ranked high.

As for where we should rank right now #1, and we should be tied with the other 119 teams because none of the teams have played a game yet. I don't think it's fair that after week 1 USC could beat Idaho 35-30 and remain #1 and yet Tennessee could go to Cal and win by 50 and only be ranked #9 or 10 probably at best. Thats why I think preseason, and early season polls are stupid. USC hasn't played a game and yet they already control their own destiny just like they did in 2004 when Auburn went 12-0 in the SEC and didn't make the title game. Go undefeated in the nations best conference and not make the title game? Thats a byproduct of preseason polls. I guarantee if the polls started in week 7 Auburn would have made the national title game and I don't think USC would have made it because they had some close calls, either that or Oklahoma would have been left out because of their weak schedule.

USC and Oklahoma also went undefeated.Maybe they should of replaced OU, but if Auburn was so tough they wouldn't have squeaked it out a 16-13 win over a 3 loss Virginia Tech team.

Don't kid yourself, Auburn would have gotten spanked that year just like they did by USC the year before in Jordan Hare.

Last year too, if USC doesn't lay an egg to UCLA they would have killed OSU. Just for persepective, USC beat the SEC runner-up last year 50-14. They shut down Darren McFadden. No doubt in my mind they would have beaten UF too.

we were beating Virginia Tech 16-0 with 5 mins left in the 4th and they bombed 2 touchdowns at the last second......in 2004 usc nearly lost 5 games including beating Stanford by 3 points.....so dont even try that ******** auburn also dominated Georgia Tennessee 2x and had a close one with LSU

Note: Modified by Moderator to remove name calling.

Listen, I didn't mean any disrespect, (I figured my post might have pissed off some Auburn Fans), but it is a fact that you guys were shut out by USC the year before at home. Then in 2004 USC beat that same Va Tech team by a larger margin, sure they squeaked out that game against Stanford, but don't act like Ronnie Brown and Cadillac williams were better than Reggie Bush and Lendale White. Jason Campbell was not better than Matt Leinart and your recievers were no where close to Steve Smith and Dwayne Jarrett. USC was capable of scoring on anyone.

Yall lost to Cincinnati and ur wanting respect against the bigger tier teams....which i do but lets just put it that