USA Today Coaches Poll out

by JazzyUte on Aug 3, 2007 11:53 AM MDT in Football

The USA Today Coaches Poll has been released. While not surprising, Utah is nowhere to be found. The first time since the start of the 2003 season, where Utah was coming off of a 5-6 start. The Utes opened the 2004 season ranked and were barely out of the top-25 in 2005 and 2006.

USC
LSU
Florida
Texas
Michigan
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Oklahoma
Virginia Tech
Ohio State

11. Louisville

Cal
Georgia
Auburn
Tennessee
Rutgers

17. UCLA

Penn State
Nebraska
Arkansas
Florida State

22. TCU

Boise State
Hawaii
Texas A&M

Others receiving votes (with 2006) records:

Boston College (10-3) 150; Georgia Tech (9-5) 150; Miami (Fla.) (7-6) 91; Notre Dame (10-3) 90; South Carolina (8-5) 90; Wake Forest (11-3) 71; Missouri (8-5) 58; Oregon State (10-4) 52; Brigham Young (11-2) 47; Clemson (8-5) 30; Oregon (7-6) 30; South Florida (9-4) 26; Texas Tech (8-5) 20; Alabama (6-7) 16; Oklahoma State (7-6) 15; Southern Mississippi (9-5) 14; Iowa (6-7) 12; Kansas State (7-6) 8; Memphis (2-10) 5; Houston (10-4) 4; Arizona (6-6) 1; Duke (0-12) 1; Kentucky (8-5) 1; Washington State (6-6) 1.

Teams in bold are Utah opponents.

Firstly, Utah is going to have the toughest schedule in school history. Here's the ranked teams Utah will face.

Louisville
UCLA
TCU

BYU and Oregon State both received preseason votes. Maybe Utah will surprise, but I wouldn't be surprised if every game I listed, including Oregon State and BYU, turned out to be losses.

Preseason rankings don't mean jack, unless you're gearing up for a national championship run, or in Utah's case in 2004, a BCS run. But it does show respect for those programs and Utah is getting none this season. Not even with Brian Johnson returning and this time it can't be blamed on the schedule, as coaches don't vote on how tough a schedule will be in a preseason ranking. That only comes later, when decided on which non-BCS team they want to screw one week after another.

Hopefully that changes, with a 3-0 start, which includes victories over Oregon State, Air Force and a 17th ranked UCLA squad. Even though that's highly unlikely.

Oh well, if anything, this shows us just how close we are to the start of the 2007 season. Less than a month now!

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While I am be the super optimist here. However he are some reasons why Utes will be 3-0 to start the year. The first is Air Force should be a gimme with their new offense and playing a road conference game that early. Now the OSU game I think they are a run of the mill Pac-10 which would mean an upper tier MWC which Utah is, but I think the coaches and Brian Johnson will be pumped to be back they will win that game. As for UCLA they have a QB controversy an inconsistent coach, and they never play well on the road against teams that are at least .500. To come down to earth, I know the Utes will score points, but it will come down to their D. I honestly think they will be 2-1 after the first 3 games.

by Jeremy Mauss on Aug 3, 2007 11:02 PM MDT reply actions