thependulumswings

And just like that most teams are half way into their schedule having played six games.  Enjoy your ten pieces below.

1,  Nothing new at the top.  Bama, Ga, THE Ohio St, and Clemson are comfortable in the top four.  Nothing new at the top of the coaching profession either.  Nick Saban is mad at his defense for surrendering 31 to Arkansas. Nick being mad isn’t new.  Oh, and Bama scored 65.

2.  LSU got beat in Florida.  It cost them 8 spots from fifth down to 13th in the AP Poll.  Florida was better on both sides of the trenches and Mullen and his staff out coached Orgeron and his.

3.  Notre Dame jumped into the 5 spot with a convincing road win at Va. Tech.  Beating Stanford and Va Tech solidly in the last two weeks has them in a good place as their schedule softens down the stretch.

4.  West Virginia has quietly risen to 6th.  They snoozed a bit against Kansas but still won by 16.  Kansas is better than they have been in a while, but still have a long way to go.

5.   Texas jumped up to 9 with a wild west win over Oklahoma 48-45.  It’s their first appearance in the top ten since 2010.  The turnaround with Tom Herman steering (see what we did there?) must be mostly deemed complete.  The season opener loss to Maryland, their lone blemish is distant in the rear view mirror now.

6. Oklahoma dropped to 11 with the loss.  Nick Saban wasn’t the only one upset with his defense.   Sooner Head Coach Lincoln Riley fired defensive coordinator Mike Stoops yesterday.  Mike is the older brother of Kentucky Head Coach Mark Stoops.  It was his second stint as DC in Norman.

7.  The sneaky team in the top ten?  UCF.  They remain undefeated.  Their schedule isn’t going to help them climb much higher unless several above lose and lose convincingly.

8.  Michigan is 12 and Wisconsin is 15.  Along with THE at three and Penn State at 8 the Big 10 has four teams in the top 15.  They all are 5-1 except Ohio St. who remains undefeated.  The Big 10 also has 14 schools.  Go Figure.

9.  South Florida jumped into the pool for the first time at #23.  They’re 5-0 and have five wins over mostly nobody except Georgia Tech.  Their season opening win was over a team called Elon. Bonus points to anyone who knows what state Elon hails from and what their mascot name is.  If you answered North Carolina and Phoenix take a bow.   USF, UCF, Florida, and Miami are all ranked.  They play some good football in the great state of Florida.

10.  Some early lines are out.  USC is -7 hosting Colorado.  That’s a bit of lack of respect for a 5-0 Colorado team.  Texas is -15 hosting Baylor.  That’s a lot of respect to Texas.  Georgia is only favored by 6.5  in LSU’s Tiger Stadium.  Washington is minus 3.5 at Oregon.

Friday Abby will give you the winners.  It’s early but she has her eyes on USC, Baylor, LSU, and Washington.