2007 Biggest Winners/Losers
by ethan on Dec 5, 2007 5:19 PM CST
19 comments
Reviewing the AP Preview Poll vs the last regular season poll comes up with some interesting findings. It would be good to do the same with the Blog Poll as well.
Out of the original top 25:
10 teams dropped out entirely:
- Michigan
- Louisville
- California
- UCLA
- Rutgers
- Penn State
- Florida State
- Nebraska
- TCU
- Texas A&M
opening the path for the following 10 to enter:
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Arizona State
- Illinois
- Boston College
- Clemson
- Brigham Young
- Cincinnati
- Virginia
- South Florida
Within the 15 who are represented in both polls
9 have the ended within +/-5 spots of their original ranking:
Initial End
LSU 2 2
Oklahoma 8 3
Virginia Tech 9 5
USC 1 6
Florida 6 9
Tennessee 15 16
Auburn 18 22
Boise State 24 24
Arkansas 21 25
3 teams who improved greatly:
Initial End
Ohio State 11 1
Georgia 13 4
Hawaii 23 10
and finally 3 who declined greatly without dropping out:
Initial End
West Virginia 3 11
Texas 4 17
Wisconsin 7 18
Almost everyone knew that Hawaii would end up where they did, but didn't want to rank them there to begin the season as their suspect schedule doesn't really tell us much.
Ohio State, Mizzou and Kansas ended up as the biggest suprises/winners. Even though OSU and KU's schedules are suspect.
West Virginia has two losses without their QB.
I would put the biggest disappointments as:
Michigan, Louisville, Cal and our Longhorns. All 4 had a large fan base rationally thinking (not dreaming) championship and all fell well short.
Who do you think are the biggest winners and losers?
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Mizzou and Kansas
certainly put the Big 12 North back on the map. When Nebraska blazed out, the North took a big hit. But Mizzou and Kansas would garner great press by season's end. The South was somewhat lackluster, but OU's win over Kansas reasserted the claim of the South as the best. All in all, next year's pre-season will show a more balanced and powerful Big 12, with at least four teams in the top 25.
While South Florida grabbed the lion's share of the early attention, the quite success in the end for BYU and Cincinnati was largely overlooked.
Boston College, Illinois and Arizona State all had tough fights and despite a few knock downs, were standing and successful at the final bell.
While Boise State didn't beat Hawaii, they still were in there with the usual suspects, a bit of respect still remaining from last year's glory.
Apart from Michigan's flame-out early, TCU probably got slapped around the worse. Three games in a short span, with the last two road loses to Texas and AF dropped them into oblivion. They may take a while to dig out.
The most obvious bust to me was Oklahoma State. It wasn't the press that lost six games.
by whills on Dec 5, 2007 5:56 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Big 12 north
Though Nebraska's collapse, it looked really good when KSU and Colorado beat Texas and OU, respectively, on the same day
Then it all hit the fan for the rest of the north. How many 60-plus point games were there this year?
Despite how good Mizzou and KU did, they really needed that win over OU for validation
by FreedomDip on Dec 5, 2007 6:16 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Outside the Big 12...
I think that Illinois ended up being one of the biggest winners. Not only did they beat tOSU, but they are also in RB. Granted both teams could get throttled in their respective games, but when it comes down to it did anyone expect this from Illinois. Zook has made quick work up there and no matter what the result of the RB I think they would have to be considered a big winner.
by aarontexas01 on Dec 5, 2007 6:24 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Cal is 6-6 in the Pac 10.
After the Tennessee game, they had legitimate National Title hopes, especially with USC in a down year (for them). To fall apart to 6-6 stinks something awful.
Steve Kragthorpe: Louisville's coach has to be a close number two. To do that little with that much in that conference is awful.
The third biggest disappointment is Michigan. All those seniors, to get beat down by a 1-AA is too much. Now, they have to play Florida who might hang 50 on their defense.
by the1austin on Dec 5, 2007 6:38 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Unranked-unranked
Kansas state.
by bendj on Dec 5, 2007 7:43 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Texas Biggest Disappointment?
Michigan lost to Appy State, Louisville was awful, and Cal went 6-6...how does Texas having a down year going 9-3 even compare? Texas isn't even in the top 10 in most disappointing teams. Texas did exactly what I thought they'd do and can still finish in the top 15.
by 40AS on Dec 5, 2007 9:04 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Disappointing by our standards
I think the biggest reason to dock us points is on SOS...when you think about our 4 year schedule cycle this was definitely the easiest year. Only OU ended up in the Top 25.
Going into the season people circled TCU at home with OSU and A&M on the road and OU obviously. TCU, A&M and OSU turned out to be so-so teams.
At the very worst, we should have gone 10-2.
Next year, @CU, @Tech, and @KU will be circled along with Arkie at home and OU.
9-3 would be a good mark for most teams, but not for Texas when we were favored in every game except OU.
Even with a loss to OU, if we'd taken care of business elsewhere, we would have been in the BCS mix.
You can't win every game, but still 9-3 was underachieving for us.
by 54b on Dec 5, 2007 9:24 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
All true
but 40AS is right that we are not close to Cal.
They went from 5 - 0, staring by beating Tenn at home and finishing the streak with a win on the road against Oregon, then proceeded to go 1 - 7 to end the year with a loss to Stanford. That hurts.
by Wells on Dec 5, 2007 10:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Wasn't Cal like #1 or #2????
Or did they get beat when they could have taken the #1 spot? Or were they just in the top 5?
by Bevoboy94 on Dec 6, 2007 9:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Re: Cal
They would've been #1 since LSU lost to Kentucky earlier that day.
It was a particularly painful loss, too, as they were playing a freshman quarterback who did pretty well all game. He got them down within FG range to tie it; Tedford called one more play to try and get the TD, but the QB ran around and got tackled past the LOS. Without any timeouts, Cal was unable to get to the line and spike the ball before time ran out. It was pretty incredible to watch.
by jc25 on Dec 6, 2007 9:25 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
From a possible #1 to ...
out of the top 25. Happened to us in '84 after we tied ou (we did not drop out until after the ass beating we took in the Freedom Bowl).
On a tangent, do you realize that after the '84 season till the '90 season, we were only ranked for 7 weeks (4 in '85; o in '86 & '87; 1 in '88; and 2 in '89). Damn, those were some dark years.
by Bevoboy94 on Dec 6, 2007 11:24 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
No Doubt
We can look back and be disappointed with the outcome for what we thought Texas should do, but it's almost laughable to compare it to what Michigan, Cal, and Louisville went through. Going 9-3 sucked but it isn't all that surprising.
by 40AS on Dec 6, 2007 11:01 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Re:
By the way, this is a good a place as any to talk about my winners/losers (non-Texas) from watching Big XII play this year.
Winners (who I liked):
- Graham Harrell/Michael Crabtree: yeah, Harrell was annoying against Texas, but he's the best damn QB Tech has ever had. Plus, he kinda looks like Jason Street. Crabtree is phenomenal...he probably would've gotten my vote for Big XII POY, even over Chase Daniel
- Martellus Bennett: for the quotables
- Mike Goodson: Like Murray, only woeful mis-utilized, a la Charles
- DeMarco Murray: reminds me of Jamaal Charles, only he gets space to run in
- Curtis Lofton: please, PLEASE go to the NFL
- Phil Loadholt/Duke Robinson: What offensive linemen should be named
- Jordan Lake: only player on Baylor I remember playing well in the only Baylor game I saw all year
- Jordy Nelson: how he got those numbers playing with Josh Freeman, I'll never know
- Hugh Charles: Just because I liked watching him tear up Oklahoma
- Todd Reesing: Just like Daniel, but did it with less talent around him
- Aqib Talib: if only for the name
- Chase Coffman/Martin Rucker: Hopefully, we get this deadly 1-2 punch with Irby/Finley
Losers (who I didn't like):
- Jovorskie Lane: I already watch Ron Dayne on Sundays. That's enough fat RB's for me
- Stephen McGee: Still can't throw (except against Texas). No more excuses
- Sam Bradford: I can't stand looking at his face
- Reggie Smith: Overrated. But you can go on to the NFL as well, thank you
- Allen Patrick: It's not hard to run behind that O-line, trust me
- David Gettis: I remember when he picked up the Baylor hat during the AA game, since he's also a track star and all. Too bad he's got hands of stone
- Josh Freeman: still sucks (once against, except against Texas)
- Sam Keller: way to live up to expectations
- Mark Mangino (fat)/Mike Gundy (crazy)/Fran (dumb)/Bill Callahan (dumber): for giving Big XII coaches a bad name
I probably have more, but this is getting tiring. Hope you enjoy.
by jc25 on Dec 6, 2007 9:42 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
re: Dayne
JC, if you're not already...you should come hang out with a few of us at Battle Red Blog. Good times, my friend....well, except for the 5-7 record and 16 players on IR.
by Shake on Dec 6, 2007 12:58 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Re:
Haha, I actually watch the Texans not by choice, but because there's usually no other games on during their block. To be honest, I was rooting for the Titans last Sunday, but I'll usually pull for the Texans unless they're playing a team I really like.
Nowadays, I pretty much root for Longhorn players, making my favorite teams the Titans, Bears, Broncos, Lions, et al...teams that feature a lot of Texas players. But I guess the Texans have Kasey Studdard, who was absolutely destroyed when he was forced to play late in that game.
I have stopped by Battle Red Blog in the past, though, and it's a very well-written site. Kudos. I'll try to make my way there more often, but the Texans sure don't make it easy to support them.
by jc25 on Dec 7, 2007 9:39 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
re: Easy to Support
Well, you're saying that to someone who grew up watching/rooting for the Horns in the 80's. No one in my family has any ties to UT, so they couldn't really figure out my passion for the Horns (other than I don't like getting intimate with farm animals, and have never stolen land from anyone). So unlike those who jumped on the wagon after the '04 or '05 seasons, my first 10 years as a Longhorn fan were extremely painful. I must have been a really sadistic kid.
by Shake on Dec 7, 2007 10:14 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Cal and
Biggest losers by far were Cal, Oregon and Notre Dame. Biggest winners were Hawaii, Ohio State (by default), LSU and Okalahoma (although I hate to admit that!)
by horns65 on Dec 7, 2007 4:44 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Cal beats Oregon for this one
Biggest loser, that is.
Yes, Belotti should have had a Plan B for the worst case scenario of losing Dixon, but we're talking about a player who would (and should) have been in NYC last Saturday. If nothing else, at least Oregon can say "hey, we lost a probable Heisman-winning guy, what can we say?"
Cal, on the other hand, has absolutely no way to spin what happened to the second half of its season. After the aforementioned steamrolling start, they took one punch to the gut and keeled over. The Bears completely imploded, in a manner not unlike what their sister UC down south has done in recent years. Tedford does not want to end up being mentioned in the same sentence with Dorrell, so they better figure some things out in Berkeley.
by Defender90 on Dec 11, 2007 4:25 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
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