2012 preseason Top 25 (really?)

[BigAppleBadger]

Wisconsin with Montee Ball and Dayne Crist / Bart Houston being good as a frosh: #9

Wisconsin without Montee Ball or a solid QB: #17

 

[Smart]

Wisconsin with Montee Ball and Dayne Crist / Bart Houston being good as a frosh: #9

Wisconsin without Montee Ball or a solid QB: #17

Montee Ball is going pro. He inquired about it before he was attracting national attention. Now that his stock has risen, it is almost guaranteed that he is gone.

Houston has really struggled this year, and was downgraded significantly by Rivals recently. He's definitely not starting material as a Freshman. Crist could be really good with our line, and I hope we go after him. If we don't get a Wilson-style one year QB, we really have to pray that Phillips or Budmayr (both solid QBs) are healthy.

 

[starbigd]

Montee Ball is going pro. He inquired about it before he was attracting national attention. Now that his stock has risen, it is almost guaranteed that he is gone.

Houston has really struggled this year, and was downgraded significantly by Rivals recently. He's definitely not starting material as a Freshman. Crist could be really good with our line, and I hope we go after him. If we don't get a Wilson-style one year QB, we really have to pray that Phillips or Budmayr (both solid QBs) are healthy.

I can't imagine WHY Crist would want to go to KU. That's a guaranteed 8+ losses, hits every game, no real exposure, for a crappy coach and even worse program. Hopefully he's smarter than that. Good luck to you guys. Wish my Longhorns were looking to pick him up.

 

[HighTide]

I disagree a little bit. I think we will lose a lot on defense, but thanks to Saban we are pretty deep, we got some good talent coming in to stock up the secondary, and I think Sunseri is gonna be a beast in the secondary. That dude loves to knock off heads. Our defense is still gonna be stout, there will be a drop off in the secondary like last season, but even last season we still had a top 5 defense in the country.

As for the offense, this might sound crazy, but I think it will be better whether Trent stays or goes. Eddie Lacy is a damn good running back and it wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't getting some Heisman hype somewhere along the season, then you got Dee Hart coming back from that injury, he's gonna provide that speed that will counter Eddies power and SPIN MOVE!! And lets not forget Kenyan Drake coming in next season also, he's gonna be special. At WR, yes we lose two reliable seniors, but we have some very young and talented WR's this year, not to mention the great WR class that Saban is bringing in this year with Cooper and Black. The offensive line will take a hit without our Outland winner Barrett, but I got a good feeling about the Kouanjio brothers. Also, anybody can say what they want about AJ McCarron, but I think he is the most talented QB we've had in a while. This is his first season as a starter and he's done a very good job of running our offense, I think he will be a great QB next year.

My best and worst case scenario,

Best case, our young secondary catches on quicker than we expect and we finish the regular season 12-0.

Worst case, our secondary struggles to stop the pass and we finish the regular season 9-3, with 3 close losses.

My prediction is 10-2 for the season.

No matter what it's gonna be a good year. If we're not in the title race next year, we most certainly will be in 2013.

I see what you saying....my questions are

1.) Who is going to take over for our receivers? We lose Hanks, Smelly, Maze, and Richardson, which accounted for 61% of the receptions. Even if A.J. is better, he doesn't have a lot of options surrounding him.

2.) Who is going to be on the lines? A lot of juniors on both lines that could and probably should go pro like Barret Jones.

3.) Who will in the secondary?

Until I know those answers, I would have them in the top 10 or just outside of the top ten.

 

[BamaInHoustonRTR]

StarBigD...what is Texas returning? If they are returning a veteran line they should be pretty dominant in the running game with those 2 backs; Malcolm Brown and that 2012 HS sensation. Also i saw flashes of a really good defense against TAMU, CB Diggs looked every bit a 5 star shut down corner in that game.

 

[TigerBait1971]

LSU should be better next year.

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

my Top 25 right now

1. USC- this team is clearly dangerous they got a lot of talent, people assumed they would leave for the draft but that doesn't seem to be the case, remember these players toughed it out through the sanctions they may see this season as the reward
2. Georgia- this team looks to be the best in the SEC, they have both a good offense and good defense.
3. LSU- starting a new QB that really hasn't played much will be trouble plus they will lose some people
4. Oregon- they return some players, concern will be that the players never really bought in this last year.
5. Virginia Tech- this team was already pretty good last year and they will return mostly everyone it appears.
6. Kansas State- they return a lot of people only concern is losing 5 starters on defense.
7. TCU- they return a lot of players from a team that ended the year very strong, Tank Carder will be a loss but TCU is deep at linebacker.
8. Baylor- I think Griffin will return and that will make this team very good. If Briles does go to UCLA(which I don't see) Griffin would then probably leave and Baylor will probably go back to being Baylor.
9. South Carolina- Connor Shaw ended the year very strong that and the return of Lattimore will make this offense great, they will lose a few people on defense though.
10. Clemson
11. Alabama
12. Wisconsin
13. Ohio State- I find it tough to rank a team that went 6-6 this high, but if any 6-6 team ever deserves to be this high it's them, Meyer is a major upgrade at head coach and at times this year this team showed it has talent.
14. Boise State- the players we lose takes away a lot of expectations for this year, I'm alright with that
15. Michigan State- the offense is going to be a major issue, they lose their two biggest parts
16. Oklahoma- after a disappointing year this year, their expectations can't be high for next year, especially with them possibly losing some of their best offensive and defensive players, bad news is one of those might not be Landry Jones, if he leaves it might be addition from subtraction for Oklahoma.
17. Arkansas- Tyler Wilson will be a year more experienced and getting Knile Davis back is a plus, but they will lose some of their best recievers which will hurt.
18. Nebraska- their offense will have issues with some lost starters on the line but other than that their offense should be good, their defense has to improve.
19. Texas- this team can be dangerous if they solve their quarterback issues.
20. Washington- this team will be pretty good, they have a big early test against LSU.
21. Stanford- Andrew Luck is probably gone, but this team won't fall completely, they have been bringing in lots of talent, whoever their new QB is will get a great chance to ajust to playing in college football because their OOC schedule is simple.
22. Florida State- they don't lose much from this year's team but they weren't that good this year, top 10 is crazy right now for them I can't believe people have them there, especially after this last year.
23. Michigan- the losses on the line aren't going to give Robinson holes to run through which is going to hurt their offense a lot, more than the media wants to think about.
24. Utah- getting Jordan Wynn back is huge for this team, if he can stay healthy their offense will be much better, if it is better this team will be a factor in the Pac-12 because they're one of the few in the conference that has a defense.
25. Arkansas State- why not?? this team returns just about every good player from a 10 win team(maybe even 11 wins) this ranking is assuming they hire a good coach.


could potentially sneak in depending on how the offseason goes

Oklahoma State- they lose a lot, but if they can replace those players this team can be at least in the middle of a deep Big 12.

Georgia Tech- this team started out good last year but kind of fell apart mid year, and were alright at the end, we'll see if they can play good throughout the year next year.

Virginia- this team had a great year this last year, I'm not sure who they're returning so I'll keep them out of the top 25 for now.

Auburn- this team could be really good if they develope well in the offseason, that remains to be seen if they do though.

Iowa State- they return a lot of great players from a surprisingly good team last year, sure they went 6-6 but they had a tough schedule that they really should have only won 3 games against.

Iowa- they went 7-5 this past year but should improve as long as they don't lose to Minnesota again.

Washington State- Mike Leach will make this team relevant again, he has more pieces for his offense here already than most think.

Penn State- this team was pretty young last year and figures to be pretty good, I just want to see who they hire first.

Illinois- with the apparent hire of Tim Beckman this offense should improve greatly next year, the offense was the weakness in their 6 game losing streak to end the season. They could be a surprise team.

SMU- at times this team looked good but they ended the season badly, the surprising Quarterback issue at the start of the year hurt their season, they can be good next year.

Ohio- this team was pretty good and I don't believe they lose a lot of players.

Toledo- this team came so close to being 11-1 instead of 8-4 with pretty much all their starters maybe they can get on the other end of close games, depending on who's their new coach though.

Louisiana Tech- maybe not top 25 worthy but this team does return some good starters from an 8-4 team including their quarterback Colby Cameron, who took over when they were 2-4 and didn't lose a single game as a starter while throwing 11 touchdowns and only 2 picks. They by the way lost to Mississippi State, Houston and Southern Mrs by a combined total of 9 points, the Mississippi State loss was by 6 but was in overtime.

done

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

Virginia Tech will be losing four starters on our offensive line, our starting two receivers and our starting tight end sir, along with possibly our starting running back. We have experienced depth at receiver, in davis, Coles and Roberts but none at RB, little at line and none at TE.

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Virginia Tech will be losing four starters on our offensive line, our starting two receivers and our starting tight end sir, along with possibly our starting running back. We have experienced depth at receiver, in davis, Coles and Roberts but none at RB, little at line and none at TE.

yikes, that's worse than I thought

might move you down to around 16th or so

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

That being said, or defense will be back and more nasty with Gouveia-Winslow, Taylor and the other Hopkins coming back from season ending injuries. We lose two guys......two.....

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

That being said, or defense will be back and more nasty with Gouveia-Winslow, Taylor and the other Hopkins coming back from season ending injuries. We lose two guys......two.....

so maybe 12th or so

our defense should be a lot better next year with our secondary getting players back who were lost to injury.

 

[bchampy]

I wonder where Michigan will be ranked if UF snags their OC?

 

[mysfit]

pre season polls are beauty contests and should be banned

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

pre season polls are beauty contests and should be banned

yeah they're a joke

but the problem is I wonder

without preseason polls would it actually allow bias to happen further???

 

[bchampy]

yeah they're a joke

but the problem is I wonder

without preseason polls would it actually allow bias to happen further???

People will be just as biased with or without preseason polls. No preseason polls would cut back on ESPiN's ability to over hype matches during the season, but teams would end the season ranked where the media/coaches want them to.

 

[The Crimson King]

we should be around 15 preseason

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

We should start the season around 16-20, IMO.

If David Wilson comes back, then 12-14

If David Wilson and Jayron Hosley come back, top 10.

 

[bchampy]

If we get Al Borges or Kerwin Bell as OC, we'll be top 5 for sure.

 

[Red_Alert]

Nebraska @ #14 is too high.

20 - 25 IMO

 

[yeodonie]

any pre-season poll that doesn't have 11 SEC teams in it is a joke.