Preseason BlogPoll Ballot

The BlogPoll is back for another year. My initial ballot is below.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	25
2	Ohio State	24
3	Auburn	23
4	Louisiana State	22
5	Texas	21
6	Notre Dame	20
7	Cal	19
8	Michigan	18
9	Florida State	17
10	Iowa	16
11	Louisville	15
12	Florida	14
13	Oklahoma	13
14	Georgia	12
15	Clemson	11
16	Miami (Florida)	10
17	West Virginia	9
18	Nebraska	8
19	Virginia Tech	7
20	Tennessee	6
21	Oregon	5
22	Penn State	4
23	Arizona State	3
24	Arkansas	2
25	Boston College	1

Dropped Out:N/A

Notes:

-- It's safe to say that I respect Pete Carroll's recruiting. USC returns a total of ten starters--just four on offense. I expect those four--Steve Smith, Dwayne Jarrett, and two All-American caliber OL--to make the offense a potent one despite the inexperience being plugged in around them.

-- I was down on FSU prior to last season because they were replacing a lot of starters. They'll have a lot of new faces again this season, but I've learned my lesson. The Noles have the skill position talent to take a large leap in offensive production, Jeff Bowden be damned. Greg Carr is a monster.

-- Clemson looks great to me on paper. Lots of starters back, including the entire offensive line and one of the best placekickers in the nation. The Tigers didn't make a lot of mistakes last season (they were among the least penalized teams in the nation and had an excellent turnover margin), and if they can carry at least some of that into 2006, they'll put themselves on solid footing for a breakout year.

-- West Virginia is one of those teams that's gonna have to prove it to me.

-- Can Arizona State figure out how to stop anybody? They have the scoring points thing down.

-- BC's Matt Ryan is probably the best quarterback in the ACC, though the Eagles lost all of their starting receivers from a year ago. LV Whitworth and Andre Callender combined for 1500+ rushing yards in 2005, and they both return.