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
- Cal
- Georgia
- Auburn
- Tennessee
- Rutgers
- Penn State
- Nebraska
- Arkansas
- Florida State
- Boise State
- Hawaii
- Texas A&M
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
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!