AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 05
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Duke and the Top 25
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m sitting here watching College Football Live and I’m extremely aggravated by the fact that teams like UNC and Auburn are ranked ahead of GT.
I’m not going to spend alot of time on Duke, so lets get that out of the way…
As predicted, our defensive line was the difference in this game. The veteran Duke defense played well as expected but they spent too much time on the field and eventually cracked and then it was all over as Tech ran out to a 27-0 win. Jaybo looked like a true freshman at times, which he is…so no surprise there.
Game Ball to Demarius Thomas…9 catches for 230 yards. Good job!
So lets get back to the Top 25 and my problems with it.
North Carolina is suddenly ranked at #22…in spite of the fact that two of their wins are against a 1-4 Rutgers and a 2-3 Miami. Don’t waste your time telling me about UNC’s win against a ranked Connecticut…UConn had only beaten Hofstra, Temple, Baylor, and a woeful Virginia before getting a quasi-decent win over a .500 Louisville.
North Carolina carries pretty much the same loss that GT does…17-20 against Virginia Tech at home. They didn’t even have to go on the road to Lane Stadium like the Jackets did.
So then lets look at Auburn…one of the worst offensive teams in the nation. They’re still milking their preseason ranking for all its worth. They’ve lost two games to LSU and Vanderbilt while barely squeaking past Mississippi State 3-2 (yes that was the score). Georgia Tech spanked that same Mississippi State team 38-7 with our backup quarterback one week later. Mississippi State then went on to give LSU a tough game at 34-24.
Lets recap Auburn overall…in case you aren’t getting the picture.
The Aubies have stumbled past Mississippi State and a BAD Tennesseee squad 3-2 and 14-12. They lost to both LSU and Vanderbilt. They’ll lose their next three games and finally disappear from the rankings for good this season.
All Georgia Tech has done is go on the road and beat Boston College, play toe to toe with Virginia Tech, and return home to absolutely BURY an SEC team in Mississippi State and a 3-1 Duke team whose only loss was 5-0 Northwestern and who was scoring 31 points a game.
At this point I hope Paul Johnson puts a big fat chip on his shoulder and gets the Jackets fired up for the second half of the season. We should be able to put Gardner Webb away early and then start getting rested up and ready for the second half gauntlet of Clemson, Virginia, Florida State, North Carolina, Miami, and Georgia.
With each season I’m more and more convinced that polls shouldn’t come out until the middle of October. The preseason rankings give teams an advantage based on expectations and reputation and its not fair. We’ll never see another team come from out of nowhere like Georgia Tech did in 1990 when we started the season unranked and won it all. I don’t think the BCS is set up to allow that anymore…if you aren’t ranked early in the season you are pretty much out of luck.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
EDIT: Apologies to Northwestern. Those guys are being overlooked at 5-0 worse than GT is. And I also forgot to mention Wake Forest remaining in the Top 25 after losing to a Navy team that beat them in Winston Salem. The pollsters are giving Wake the benefit of an earlier ranking and consciously ignoring the fact that Duke beat that same Navy team before losing to Georgia Tech.
Ultimately I’m not arguing that Georgia Tech should be ranked so much as I am arguing that we should be ranked higher than some of the teams that DID actually make the Top 25.
I’m quite content to fly under the radar until we ring up a big Clemson road win.
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