Tech #12 in AP and Coaches polls
by pcrawttu on Jan 9, 2009 1:44 PM CST
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PrintTech finishes the year at #12 in both of these polls. I guess that is about where I assumed they would finish, if not a little higher than I anticipated. I'm not entirely mad at that ranking, but if you compare Tech's ENTIRE body of wins and losses to some of the teams around them, you might argue that Tech could have been a few slots higher. But like always, if Tech had lost earlier in the season and not finished up with their sub-par performances, it would be a totally different story.
If voters just looked at who each team beat and lost to, Tech definitely would be bumped up a few slots. Using the final rankings, we can compare Tech to those around it:
#12 Tech beat #4 and #16 lost to #5 and #14
#7 TCU beat #11 and #25 lost to #5 and #11
#8 Penn St. beat #24, #18, and #9 lost to #20 and #3
#9 Ohio State only beat #24 lost to #3, #4, #8
#10 Oregon beat #18 and #25 lost to #3, #11, and #26
#11 Boise State beat #10 lost to #7
I think if you compare these resumes, Tech definitely has an argument to move up at least 3 or 4 spots, despite their rather poor performance to end the season. Voters obviously take into account how hot a team is at the moment and have short memories. In my opinion, for the final poll, they should sit down and look over the entire season, not just how a team fared in their bowl game while adding that to the name power some schools have.
Here's my biggest gripe: When all is said and done, Ohio State's only "good" win of the season came over #24 Michigan State, AND they have 3 losses AND they lost their bowl game (and big10's overall bowl record was 1-6). How does that add up to being the #9 team in the country? Even Boise St. with a joke of a schedule managed to pull off a better win over #10 Oregon which is discussed next.
To prove that voters vote for "hot" teams, Oregon crazily moved up to number 10 after finishing the season with their two best wins over #18 and #25. They also have 3 losses. So apparently 3 losses aren't so bad as long as you have that awesome signature win over the #18 team in the country. Huh.
Tech played arguably the toughest schedule of this lot, had the best win over a highest ranked opponent by far (next closest was a win over a #9 team), only had 2 losses total, and is ranked the lowest. Penn St. and TCU might have an argument to be ranked higher, except that Tech's middle grade wins over Kansas and Nebraska would trump anything crap pile other wins they have (TCU's Air Force win and PSU's Wisconsin win).
Overall, Tech had its chance to make a statement and they didn't. But that still should not negate their entire season of work, which was quite impressive by any standards.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Double-T Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Double-T Nation's writers or editors.
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Sorry...
Ok, so I just hit the publish button and then read the little thing from Dr. Saturday that basically says the same thing I just wrote. Sorry about that. But I did lay out a few more details. At least I (being a Tech fan) am not the only one who saw this discrepancy from the voters. It was apparent to an unbiased person on the national scale.
This year...
The media had a strong love/hate relationship with Tech. This has been the first year Tech has really been covered in the limelight with the top schools, and that gets perceived in many different ways. There simply werent enough people who backed us all year. When we upset Texas that made allot of people in the sports world look stupid, then we did it again with OSU. Its not surprising that when we fell to OU there were more than a few writers out there licking their chops at a chance to take us down a peg.
The big thing to keep in mind here is that we were in the top 10 all year, and for most of that year looked damn good. As long as we keep up the pace in 09, and our NFL prospects turn out like Welker the support from the AP voters will follow. TCU had a big time win in their bowl versus Boise, Ohio is always over rated, Boise is still riding the wave from a few years back beating OU, Penn State will always get the benefit of the doubt, and Oregon always gets celebrated being the only other team in the PAC-10. For the most part Tech is still new on the national scene. Losing the Cotton Bowl is a step back, but nothing we can’t overcome.
09 looks to be a good year for us, as soon as we prove to the rest of the nation that the loss of Crabtree and Harrell doesnt mark the death of Texas Tech football, we will be back in the spotlight again. As I have said earlier Tech is still really new to the ‘scene’, and allot of people are trying to find reasons for us not to be there. This will pass in time.
Wreck ’Em
I’m pretty disappointed in our ranking, but I don’t fault the coaches/writers who slotted us there. It’s about where we should be. We had a chance to make a statement and simply didn’t get it done. Frustrating that at the end of the year, we didn’t really move much from the pre-season poll. We had a 1-3 finish and that is what it is. The final vote isn’t a comprehensive vote based on the season, it’s a vote based on where a team is at the end. Oh, well. Good year, regardless.
all but one...
I can take ANY of those other teams (including Boise State) except one, that is the GARBAGE that is Ohio State being ranked above us. That is crap.
-Blowout loss to a top opponent? (both teams)
-Lost the bowl game (both teams)
-Signature win (only Tech, over the team that beat OSU)
-More losses (OSU)
There is ZERO reason to place OSU above Tech in the rankings unless you just base it entirely on "they played better in their game (which they lost) than we did in our (which we lost), which is entirely subjective.
I agree with you
In the sense that if we played against Ohio State the same way we played against Baylor or Ole Miss, we would easily lose. But don’t you think if we played like we did against UT or OSU or even Kansas that we would most likely beat them by perhaps even a considerably wide margin? UT threw the ball all over the place against them, and if we played to our potential, surely we would too.
No…Tech would be freaked out by all the buckeyes on the helmets. No, seriously. I don’t think Tech has ever beaten a team that plays really good defense in the Leach era. Not off the top of my head, anyway. The only really good teams we can seem to get “up” for are Texas and OU, and that’s only if playing at home…at night. Facts will bear that out.
Until Tech proves they can perform against great schools other than OU and UT – and away from the Jones – I’ll have my doubts. I’d love to see it, but I don’t have that confidence in Leach’s ability to motivate the guys the right way without a big Tech crowd behind them. There’s no evidence out there to make me think otherwise.
"Facts will bear that out"
Really? I don’t see any facts in your argument, only conjecture; something you seem to be good at.
Wes Welker can't be stopped.
I was implying that if you did the research,
you would see when the last three times were that Tech beat ranked opponents on the road during the regular season. One was Kansas this year. When was the other? When was a third?
We simply don’t perform well on the road against good teams (that is a fact, not conjecture). Remember the Mizzou game in 07? UT in just about any season on the road? OU every season on the road? OSU the last two trips? TCU?
Besides, I don’t need to present facts to appease you with an argument – it’s a forum, not a court of law. My thoughts are just that – thoughts. Some are accurate, some are very likely not. You are free to argue them to your heart’s content and will see no ill will from me to you if that’s an avenue you want to pursue.
depends...
Is it the Tech team that has Mike Leach fully committed to it (ie. the team from the Ok State game or earlier) or not (OU and after). Don’t get me wrong, I fully expected us to lose that OU game even if we were fully devoted, but I think Leach’s waffling affected a very emotionally driven, young team. (see: the Baylor game & the Ole Miss game) Now, if you’re saying, the season is what it is and you force Tech to play (in the state that it was) against OSU (as it was), then you’re probably right. However, if THAT is the case, if you’re ranking after the game then I think Tech COULD beat OSU after the bowl because that OSU team is NOT the same team without Chris Wells (who was knocked out around the halfway point).
Bottom line is, I think we’d have had a chance if Leach was fully committed and (more importantly) if all the players knew and BELIEVED that. Without that factor, then I agree, we’re boned. But as far as past history, while I agree we are/were better at home than on the road, we always (previously) played “up” in the bowls, we had near to a “home” advantage in Dallas (or should have) and this season (prior to the cotton bowl) we didn’t give up the “bad” loss (losing to inferior opponent) like in years past so I don’t give automatic credence to the “away” jinx)
It's fair and accurate
Lets face facts. We blew it and we came into the bowl game thinking we should be in a BCS bowl. I have no doubt that our players prepared but mentally everybody including myself was unhappy about our not being in a bowl that actally means something. After the Oklahoma loss things went down hill as the team knew our BCS hopes were crushed. That is why we played Baylor so poorly. It was a great ride this year and I will always remember the national attention we received. If Leach can get settled in at Tech we may have better days ahead. One last thing to mention – Ole Miss is a good football team and should be given the proper credit.
If Leach can get settled in at Tech we may have better days ahead.
He’s been at Tech nine years now. I would think that qualifies as settled in : )
But I understand the spirit of your comment.
Final Ranking
I am not a fan of the associated press or the coaches poll. Too much politics.
I prefer to believe that the National Champion was determined by the BCS poll, which ranks our RED RAIDERS 7th, let me say that again 7th. Not 12.
We had several players hurt for the Cotton Bowl. Crabtree could barely make his cuts and sometimes he couldn’t. 4 catches for 30 yards? After the game I visited with some Ole Miss fans back at our hotel. They said that their team played the absolute best game they had played all year. They were very complementary of the Raiders.
TTechson76
Get Your Guns UP
Keep your heads up Raiders. The whole world is watching.
Correction
Not sure Final BCS poll is out.
As pointed out in other thread
There is no BCS ranking issued after the bowl games. And the BCS reankings are not a poll, it’s an accumulation of rankings of other polls.
by jeffinhouston on Jan 11, 2009 10:11 AM CST up reply actions
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