Longhorns Jump Sooners in Coaches Poll

A convincing road win was enough for Texas to move ahead of OU in the USA Today poll. The Sooners were obviously off yesterday while Texas is off next Saturday. The real question will be where we stand next Sunday, if OU defeats Tech.

7 months ago awiggo Comment 35 comments 0 recs |

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hmm

well, i was hoping for a bigger jump in vote totals. but i suppose going from behind by 14 votes to ahead by 17, a 31 vote swing, is pretty significant considering OU didnt even play.

The real question is, will it be a big enough gain to minimalize the gains of OU the next 2 weeks should they win out. We are definitely in a much better position than we were 2 weeks ago right after the Tech game. I know OU will make gains in the human polls if they win out, but us having pulled ahead now may minimize how far ahead of us they are able to get if they do jump us, which may enable us to stay ahead of them in the BCS with stronger computer numbers.

At the very least, we’ve put ourselves in the best possible situation and its out of our hands now.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 11:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Sagarin has Texas No. 1

while OU is No. 6.

by Horns82 on Nov 16, 2008 11:46 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yes and No

Yes, Texas is No. 1 in overall ratings. But the BCS uses his Elo-Chess ratings—Tech is 1, Texas is 3, and OU is 6.

http://www.kiva.net/~jsagarin/sports/cfsend.htm

--AW--

by awiggo on Nov 16, 2008 11:50 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

overall rating

that is a synthesis of his ELO Chess and Predictor or Pure Points ratings. If you go to Sagarins page at USA today, he kind of explains the thought process behind both rankings. The ELO Chess doesnt factor in MOV and is used in BCS.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

If OU beats OSU and Tech they will jump us …look how small the margin of votes is. Plus we’re off next week

by MJY6087 on Nov 16, 2008 11:53 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

not that easy

not a foregone conclusion. certianly with decisive victories by OU, it looks probable. But its not a given that voters will jump them over us. To do that, they would have to look at OU and say that they are clearly a stronger and better team than us. But, theyve moved us slowly ahead of OU over the past 2 weeks, so it would be odd for them to make those moves the past 2 weeks and then simply reverse course because of an OU win at home next week.

its far from a given.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:14 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

HA!

they have LSU in the top 20?? are you kidding me. This ranking system is a joke.

"There aint nothin' over till it's over. "
~Rocky Balboa

by Hook'em13 on Nov 16, 2008 11:56 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

fault the human voters

after having to stage such a comeback to beat lowly Troy, they should have dropped in the polls. they have not.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:15 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

i think in the AP...

they actually moved up a spot..thank god those don’t matter

by vy til i die on Nov 16, 2008 2:37 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Unfortunately

If OU beats Tech and OSU, they jump us in both the Harris and Coaches. There’s no way around that. They prob even jump or tie us in the computer rankings.

I cannot believe that this team, possibly the best in the Big12, will not play for the conference championship. ugh.

Right now our only hope is that OU wins, and Tech gets some major injuries, and Baylor jumps them unsuspectingly. But rooting for injuries is evil, so I cant even do that. [sigh]

by DogTown on Nov 16, 2008 12:00 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

again, this is far from a given

they will not jump us in the computers. while their SOS will likely be better, we will have an edge in record vs the top 10 and head to head, which will keep us ahead of them.

and i think, even if they do jump us in the coaches/harris polls, it will not be enormous jumps. the movement has been in our direction the next 2 weeks. it will require a significant victory over Tech, like 3-4 TDs (very unlikely) for them to shift momentum back in their favor and significantly change the votes.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:18 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not going to happen

Have you seen OU’s defense lately? It’s looking more and more like Tech wins out. Well at least until they face Missouri in Kansas City.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 16, 2008 12:23 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree.

Its like swiss cheese. I think OU will score on Tech, but if Tech executes like they did last week, I dont know how OU can even begin to slow them down. Maybe they play inspire at home, maybe Tech comes in and plays without energy after 2 huge games at home with the energy of the home fans…

but barring some change…i have a hard time believing OU can pull this off. Tech’s offense is just too good this year. I look now and think its extremely significant that we were able to hold them to 39. Our second half defense against them, last drive excluded, may be the most telling factor of just how good our team is this year.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I've been saying this for a week. Tech will kill them. And Missouri, too. nt

by whills on Nov 16, 2008 2:30 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

missouri? you mean OSU?

by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 16, 2008 4:04 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

reference to CCG...

by vy til i die on Nov 17, 2008 1:06 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Tech may win

But I honestly doubt this will be a blowout. Even if Tech scores 56, OU will score 45.

by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 16, 2008 4:06 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think Tech could be set up

for a trap game with Baylor if they lose convincingly to OU. Raiders will be at the end of the “tester” portion of their schedule (Texas, OSU, open date, OU, Baylor).

Tech is a blow-hot, blow-cold kind of team. They really struggled in a couple of early games against very average competition, were damn fortunate to get by a good but certainly limited Nebraska team, then ravaged Kansas and Oklahoma State.

But Horns are just caught in a vise — they’re hurt, obviously, by the outcome of the Tech game if Tech wins out, screwed by OU’s six straight wins to close the season (and mega-points totals) is OU wins out.

by edsp on Nov 16, 2008 4:31 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

If they Beat OU then lose to Baylor

They are still in the Big 12 CCG due to the head to head over us, and OU having 2 losses.

From your post it wasn’t apparent if you were aware of that.

by Horncasting on Nov 16, 2008 4:34 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Nevermind - I read your post wrong nt whills

by Horncasting on Nov 16, 2008 4:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think they are rolling now. Baylor will be blown out.

The real key for Baylor isn’t even the game but Leach’s need to beat Briles head-to-head for recruiting purposes.

I just stopped seeing Tech through our eyes and tried to see them for what they are this year. As long as they are healthy, there’s no one going to stop them in the Big 12. Unless Florida (or Bama) have exactly the right kind of defenders to stop them on third and fourth down – which I doubt – Tech will roll.

The actual key is not the other teams, imho, but Tech’s own self-destructive tendencies. Texas encourages that and nearly had them the second half…but they overcame themselves, the players, not Leach. Their defensive game plans have been a thing of beauty (from a football point of view). OU just doesn’t have the horses both ways {not now, anyway}, but they’ll run with them for a while.

Quite frankly, I think Texas is the only team who could beat them. And we know that’s problematical for a one-game showdown, for they represent more offensive threat than any other team in the USA, bar none. This is their shot at glory…and, quite frankly, they’re the only ones who can fuck it up.

by whills on Nov 17, 2008 2:32 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs

I find myself in total agreement on this, (nt) whills.

proud to swim home

by learned hand on Nov 17, 2008 4:43 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think USC will pick up some points in the BCS

With both Oregon State and Oregon ranked this week.

Cincinnati moves up a couple, which will help OU too. But they have to get through Pitt next week – which steamrolled the Louisville team Cincy just barely escaped. On an unrelated note – anyone know why Cincinnati has 13 games on its schedule this season?

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 16, 2008 12:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Cincinatti plays at Hawaii

Teams that schedule road non-conference games at Hawaii have long been able to play that game as an “extra” game — I assume it’s to provide teams an incentive to take on the expense of traveling to Hawaii to play a game.

by kjm017 on Nov 16, 2008 1:12 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I mean Cincinnati

Can’t even blame alcohol on bad spelling this time of the afternoon…

by kjm017 on Nov 16, 2008 1:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Number 4 in AP as well

1. Alabama (42) 11-0 1,601
2. Texas Tech (21) 10-0 1,574
3. Florida (2) 9-1 1,476
4. Texas 10-1 1,437
5. Oklahoma 9-1 1,369

We’re closer to #3 than #5

by wizardimps on Nov 16, 2008 12:46 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Seriously? Two coaches switched their votes from Bama to Florida this week?

Shouldn’t they wait until the two teams play each other??

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 16, 2008 12:48 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

bama is seen by many as being pretty weak, and almost basically lucky to be where they are. especially since they barely beat an LSU that was getting beat for 3.5 quarters against troy of all schools.

florida however just man handled south carolina (and 3 or 4 opponents in the last few weeks) who played absolutely terrible.

by Displaced Longhorn on Nov 16, 2008 1:11 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

no change in vote total for us. still in position to end up atop the AP poll if Tech ends up with a loss and winning the MNC and/or both both Florida/Bama lose one more.

by 6th street on Nov 16, 2008 12:50 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

OU and USC lost a few votes, PSU picked up a stack

This is going to be a squeaker.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 16, 2008 12:53 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Just took a look at the coaches' numbers

Looks like Florida is consolidating their place at #3, with even a few more voters than last week putting them ahead of texas tech. Texas is also not that far from being a consensus #4, and is in better position relative to OU than OU was relative to Texas last week.

The question I have is how much can we improve in the Harris Poll this week considering that we were already ranked ahead of OU in the majority of ballots. Are we going to see the same sort of change there too or is it just that the Harris pollsters figured came to their senses a week earlier than the coaches did. We shall see.

by billyzane on Nov 16, 2008 12:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I'm OK with Florida consolidating its place at #3

One of my worries is that OU not only jumps us but Florida as well in the human polls, and Florida winds up acting as a wedge between us and OU, making it that much more difficult to make up ground with the computers. So ideally I would have liked to see Florida lose yesterday, but if they were going to win, it’s good that they won as impressively as possible, hopefully sucking up all the #3 votes they can, leaving us lumped closely with OU.

by kjm017 on Nov 16, 2008 1:17 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Great point

If we split in the human polls behind florida, I think we can sneak in with computer votes, but it will be oh so close.

by Horn Brain on Nov 16, 2008 1:23 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Harris is out, Texas still #4

Florida has a #1.

Poll is here.

Still a Blaine Irby fan

by patienthornsfan on Nov 16, 2008 2:03 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Texas up 118 pts over OU in human polls

Coaches – +17pts
Harris – +101

We were up +30pts last week;

I think we will still have the edge in computers in 2 weeks but the human polls are tough to predict; let’s hope OU wins a close one the next 2 weeks;

by memphizbell on Nov 16, 2008 2:11 PM CST reply actions 0 recs