Athlon Sports: Three Out of Four Ain't Bad
2007-06-03
Posted by: badanov
Wisconsin?!?!
Here's how Athlon Sports sees it: The Badgets have a sophomore running back P.J. Hill, who ran for more than 1600 yards last season and is expected to do well this year behind four returning starters on the offensive line. You may recall, offensive tackle Joe Thomas went very high in the NFL draft, and we guess that Thomas is just an exemplar for the rest.
The Badger sked ain't too hard either. They have a road game against Ohio State, but the rest are home games against the top teams in the Big ten.
Obviously, Michigan will be the second biggest challenge behind Ohio State; they play Michigan late in the season when injuries start taking their toll, and it looks to be a real dogfight worth watching.
The only other fly in the oinment for Wisconsin will be Penn State whom the Badgers play earlier in the season.
The only thing about this poll we have a huge problem with is West Virginia. We watched them last year against Rutgers and even though West Virginia won, it was an ugly win.
We were not impressed. A shoot-out type offense does not a BCS team make. We love Pat White. He will be a terror of the NFL, no question about it on the order of many great quarterbacks, but unless Rich Rodriguez has recruited some blue chipper defensive backfield folks, we see the Mountaineers failing late in the season.
Another problem we have is with Texas. Yes, they have this brilliant sophomore quarterback Colt McCoy, and while they may be loaded at many postions, the Longhorns have not only to deal with Oklahoma in October, but they have to deal with the dark horse Texas A&M, which is returning 17 starters, expected in our book to make a credible run for the Big 12 championship.
Also, see Nebraska in the top 25? Why? We think that Missouri has a slightly better chance in the overly weak north division to reach the Big 12 Championship than Nebreaska.
Preseason polls, no matter who commissions them, rather take liberties with the facts on the ground and this poll is no exception. We suspect that with the exception of USC, Florida, Michigan and Virginia Tech, the final polls will be much different.
If you have something to add, Fire Away!
Number of Comments so far: 0
Click here
for a list of stories in the College Sports category