Austin paper's early Top 25

[Frog81]

Thought you guys would enjoy this courtesy of the Austin American Statesman:

1. Southern Cal: Could be even better next season now that QB Matt Leinart has gained experience.

2. Georgia: 18 starters, including QB David Greene, return. All Bulldogs need is a kicker.

3. Florida State: 10 offensive starters back, but only 3 on defense. Have to beat Miami some time.

4. Oklahoma: Jason White and most of the defense return. Now they're mad, too.

5. LSU: 9 senior starters back from title team, and the coach is staying put, too. Lots of young talent.

6. Miami (FL): QB Brock Berlin must lead better as one of 9 returning offensive starters.

7. Clemson: QB Charlie Whitehurst first sophomore since Phillip Rivers to top 5,000 career passing yards.

8. Virginia: 18 regulars back. Now Cavaliers must find replacement for QB Matt Schaub.

9. Texas: B-C-S, B-C-S...ah, heck, what time is the Cotton Bowl kickoff?

10. Wisconsin: May have the best offensive line in college football.

11. Florida: Must fix the secondary, but the Gators did beat LSU.

12. West Virginia: Strong front 7 and offensive line.

13. Ohio State: Buckeyes, who lose 26 seniors, might even mix in a pass or two with new QB Justin Zwick.

14. Missouri: Must rebuild the offensive front, but Brad Smith and nine defensive starters are salty.

15. Michigan: Best receivers in the nation, but who will throw to them?

16. Tennessee: Defense will have to carry the Vols in the early going.

17. TCU: Depth at QB and RB, and Gary Patterson is a defensive whiz.

18. Kansas State: Darren Sproles will be a legit Heisman candidate.

19. Purdue: Orton to Stubblefield a great combo, but the defense will need to rebuild.

20. Auburn: I got a weak spot for the Tigers; their only weak spot is the front seven.

21. Toledo: Four of six All-MAC players are back with stellar passing game.

22. Cal: A top QB (Aaron Rogers) and an even better coach (Jeff Tredford).

23. Maryland: Friedgen's gone 31-8 past three years at a basketball school, but he loses several key players.

24. Fresno State: Could be last year's TCU with almost entire offense back, including QB Paul Pinegar.

25. Utah: Utes posted only bowl shut-out and didn't allow a point in their last 10 quarters.

[Sam I Am]

How come Boise State is not rated? Seems like bowl game winners should be ranked ahead of bowl game losers doesn't it. :p

[gostangs]

And where is USM? They are clearly the class of CUSA? Since they squished the toads they should be about 14-15th ?

[Sam I Am]

Come to think of it, Hawaii and Fresno State probably should be rated ahead of TCU since they won creditable bowl games too.

[Mustangs35SMU]

Originally posted by gostangs:
And where is USM? They are clearly the class of CUSA? Since they squished the toads they should be about 14-15th ?

:hmm: :thumbupcool: *claps*

[MrMustang1965]

Gimme a break! The Teasips at #9???? ROFLMAO Of course, the Austin American-Statesman did this article/ranking so, of course, they had to put 'em in the top 10. The Teasips shouldn't even be in the Top 20, IMO. They can go to h*ll, and the sooner the better.

[Sam I Am]

UT plays Arkansas in their second game. They open with North Texas and Play Rice in thier third game. If they win the Arkansas game they will be a Top Ten team until they play OU. UT will have a new defensive coordinator and could be better than last year's ten win season.

[WreckEm16]

I hope the Ft. Worth Suicide Hotline hires extra volunteers next September. After the game in Lubbock, TCU's not going to see the polls again for a long long time.

<small>[ 01-19-2004, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: WreckEm16 ]</small>

[Sam I Am]

I wish the Frogs were playing Tech before SMU. Unfortunately, SMU plays Tech before they play TCU. The schedules work to Tech's advantage and TCU's advantage among the three schools concerned. Oh, well, come 2005 maybe we'll have a more favorable schedule.

[Vitale]

At the risk of sounding like a flame, which is not my intent, would a TCU fan have posted this if the Frogs weren't mentioned? In my opinion, Texas and Florida are grossly overrated. And with all due respect to the accomplishments those purple folks in Fort Worth have had in recent years, they're losing way too much talent and should not crack the preseason top 25. If they roll through another season with a gaudy record, throw them back in there, but that team's going to have a totally different look next year, and the initial reports are that they'll take a step back.

On the other end of the spectrum, Maryland is very underrated on that list. The Terps lose their starting QB (McBrien, I think his name is), but I read where the two guys who will compete for the job might turn out to be even better. And they have great depth all over their offense, which coupled with Coach Friedgen's offensive creativity might mean a frightengly explosive offense in College Park. Likewise, Boise State is losing Dinwiddie, but most early projections I've seen have the Broncos even better than they were the last couple of years .... which is a little frightening for those teams on BSU's schedule.

[Ikus]

Good call, Vitale - there's no way a froggy fan posts that if his team isn't listed. Good for him that they made it (although we all know the validity of preseason polls). I hope for his sake that he has as much to celebrate after the season .... although I doubt he will. Not trying to start a fight, just doubting TCU will equal its success in recent years. (They'll be good, just not quite as good as before.)

And I couldn't agree more with your guess that Maryland will be better than they're listed -- they're losing their QB and their RB, but they have backup RBs who are as good as Perry, and they have a ton of talent (especially on defense) that sat out this year with redshirts or injuries. They probably were overrated at the beginning of the 2003 season, but it sounds like they'll be underrated going into 2004. At the end of this season, they were playing as well as anyone in the country outside of USC and LSU.

The other team that jumps out at me on that list is Tennessee -- I just can't see them doing that well. They lose Clausen, I think, and several starters on each side of the ball. And it sounds like they don't have the depth they once had. I see them slipping to the 20-25 range, if not out of the rankings altogether.

[Lefty]

It will be interesting to see where the prognosticators outside of Austin rate the Horns. I wonder if the media will stop buying into the hype and look at their performance and rank them where they should be -- somewhere between 10 and 20.

[GoRedGoBlue]

Originally posted by MrMustang1965:
Gimme a break! The Teasips at #9???? ROFLMAO Of course, the Austin American-Statesman did this article/ranking so, of course, they had to put 'em in the top 10. The Teasips shouldn't even be in the Top 20, IMO. They can go to h*ll, and the sooner the better.

It's based upon their 6 straight top5 classes...adjusted downward for Mack Brown's coaching deficiencies

[GoRedGoBlue]

Originally posted by Lefty:
It will be interesting to see where the prognosticators outside of Austin rate the Horns. I wonder if the media will stop buying into the hype and look at their performance and rank them where they should be -- somewhere between 10 and 20.

Say what you want, but they have been going 10-2 or so for 5 straight years...that puts them in the Top10 regardless, considering they play in the Big12.

Yeah, I think they suck because they SHOULD be a TOP3 team given their talent base. But, they are still a Top6-12 team.

[Frog81]

Originally posted by Vitale:
At the risk of sounding like a flame, which is not my intent, would a TCU fan have posted this if the Frogs weren't mentioned? In my opinion, Texas and Florida are grossly overrated. And with all due respect to the accomplishments those purple folks in Fort Worth have had in recent years, they're losing way too much talent and should not crack the preseason top 25. If they roll through another season with a gaudy record, throw them back in there, but that team's going to have a totally different look next year, and the initial reports are that they'll take a step back.

Seriously, do you have any clue at all? TCU has almost every starter back next year. The only place where we lose anyone of substance is on the D-Line. And we have several solid underclassmen and some outstanding JUCO's who will fill those holes. We have two QB's coming back who both have proven to be very solid starters in Gunn and Hassell. Battle, a RS Frosh, could be even better. We have two top notch running backs, who have each set the TCU freshman rushing record each of the last two years, one of which, Robert Merrill, was one of the top running backs in the state of Texas. We're loaded at wide receiver. According to Mel Kiper, Reggie Harrell is a Top 5 wide receiver, and All-America candidate. We only lose 1 offensive lineman. OK...we lose our fullback, I'll give you that. The d-line is being rebuilt, but there is talent there, and all of the starting linebackers will be back since it appears Goolsby will be given a medical redshirt. And our DB's which were decimated by injury are all back, except for Tyrone Sanders, and he isn't that big of a loss. We have seasoned depth because of the injuries, Mark Walker was a semifinalist for the Thorpe, and Marvin Godbolt was so good that he was 3rd Team All-CUSA despite only playing in 4 games before being injured. He'll be back. We lose Nick Browne, which hurts, but Mike Wynn was a solid kicking prospect from Midland Lee. I hate to break it to you, but we'll probably be better next year than we were this year.