Texas Power Poll

Texas Power Poll, Week 1

 

Because Texas is only slightly smaller than the Pacific Ocean, the state needs its own power poll. The criteria is based on very strict criteria – gut instinct, paternal instinct, and extensive experience of picking games incorrectly. No fancy shamcny computer. We’re relying here on a Big Gulp of Obvious to recognize the state’s best teams.

 

Rank; 2010 Rec.; Comment; Next Game

1. Texas; 13-1; Calm down, Froggies and Frogettes. UT deserves to be here until it loses to Oklahoma; @ Rice, Sept. 4.

2. TCU; 12-1; Beat Oregon State and this changes. Pound Oregon State, this really changes; vs. Oregon St., Sept. 4.

3. Houston; 10-4; If former Cowboys d-coordinator Brian Stewart makes a marginal impact the Cougars will flirt with the BCS; vs. Texas State, Sept. 4.

4. Texas A&M; 6-7; The Wrecking Crew will be the Aggies offense. The defense is at least a year away; vs. Stephen F. Austin, Sept. 4.

5. Baylor; 4-8; Next to Viteks’ “Gut Pack”, the best thing in Waco is Robert Griffin’s talent; vs. Sam Houston State, Sept. 4.
6. Texas Tech; 9-4; Tommy Tuberville has no idea what he stepped into; this is a hard job; vs. SMU, Sept. 5.
7. UTEP; 4-8; Mike Price hasn't posted a winning record since '05 in El Paso. But this team is veteran-heavy and the offense should be good enough to slip past SMU in C-USA; Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Sept. 4.

8. SMU; 8-5; Had TCU not done what it did last season the nation would have recognized what June Jones did in Dallas; at Texas Tech, Sept. 5.

9. Rice; 2-10; They still have a team?; vs Texas, Sept. 4

10. North Texas; 2-10; The Todd Dodge era is running out of time. UTA may be better then the Mean Green this season; @ Clemson, Sept. 4

 

- Mac Engel

 

Comments

[ScrewuTU]

Mac, you are truly either an idiot, have no business covering anything sports related, or a UT/A&M homer. There is no way in hell Baylor or A&M will be better than Tech, NO WAY!!! Coach Tuberville is a far better coach than you give him credit for...He is SEC proven (we all know the SEC kills the Big12-2 or Texas league if you will so call it that) Before you type one more crappy article for the FWST, please check you facts at the door...

[Joel]

Wow. This is AMAZINGLY STUPID.

UT is very thin, with shockingly little depth in a lot of positions. Especially if Gilbert goes down, the whole season could be lost. But I can still see putting them at #1 just in case they are lucky and the injury bug doesn't bite.

This is supposed to be a power poll. While they are a good team, TCU plays in a weak conference. They have to prove it against actual competition. Last year's bowl game exposed them a bit.

Houston's rating here is just stupid. They are nowhere near this good. Yeah, they beat an amazingly-overrated OSU last year. Props to them. Then Mike Leach made a horrible call to not kick a field goal and gave them a one-point win over Texas Tech. So what? THIS TEAM GOT SMOKED BY UTEP. I was actually at that UTEP game, and it wasn't even as close as the scoreboard indicated. They got killed on both sides of the ball by the tiny "Minors." THEN THEY GOT SMOKED BY AIR FORCE. Why do people forget that?

A&M is ranked about right. They should be better this year on defense, but they aren't better than Texas or Texas Tech.

Baylor is a one-man show. Yeah, RG is good, but as a team, with offense, defense, and special-teams squads all required, Baylor isn't in the same league as Texas Tech, and is probably worse than SMU. Even UTEP would probably give them a lot to handle. They should be just ahead of UTEP.

Texas Tech, a team that played UT close in a "revenge game" at Royal stadium, and absolutely DEMOLISHED Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma and Nebraska (in Lincoln, no less) returns every single skill player on it's power-packed offense, save for one WR. (And that WR wasn't a leader in any offensive category last year.) Everybody on that offense, including both veteran QBs who won big games last year, are even more seasoned. They should be in a comfortable #3. Somehow though, Mac Engel has them behind Baylor.

Why? The coaching change? Does this writer realize that this is nearly the same team that beat Michigan State in a bowl game last year with essentially NO HEAD COACH? You think they are going to be worse after nine months with Tommy Tuberville (a winning coach in the SEC) coaching them?

Putting SMU behind UTEP and Baylor is almost just as silly. SMU is going to be better than last year. They were good enough to go bowling last year.

If UTEP is as good as you say they are, (better than SMU,) than they should be better than Baylor easily. Hey, they demolished your lame #3 Houston, and hung 50+ pts. on them. Were you sober when you wrote this down?

What a joke. You sir, know nothing about college football.

[AggieBob]

even though i know he's just doing this to create a buzz and get the ags and techsters fired up...and even though i know this is just a worthless blog..it still infuriates me that someone actually gets paid to print somethign so ridiculous..if you matched up the aggies and houston a neutral field the ags would be favored by double digits..and this blogger knows it too..or maybe he really is the most sports ignorant sports writer in the history of the world...

[Agpwner]

Wow. Didn't know the StartleGram was so hard up for cash that the writers have been instructed to just say anything that might generate interweb hits. Nobody can possibly be this stupid.

[Casey]

so is this what it's come to? throwing out ridiculous "power rankings" to get the local fan bases stirred up and generate cheap clicks? i'm sure we'll see another one of these soon that has the cowboys ranked as the 29th best team in the NFL too.

C'mon, mac...you're above this type of thing, brother...

[really?]

Tech and SMU play on Sunday, not Saturday.

[jamal]

semicolon much?

[Michael]

Mac, do they really pay you to write crap like this?

You have no idea what you are talking about and it is very apparent all!

Please quit your job

[mark]

Most people would not keep their job if they were this inaccurate. I hope you say a prayer every night giving thanks your job has such little relevance.

[KP]

I love the blantant homerism in these comments. Give it a rest people and look at this thing logically. On paper (because right now no one has played a game yet) this isn't that bad of a list and it's one man's opinion. I think Baylor and UTEP need to be moved down below SMU, but that's MY OPINION.

Until A&M PROVES they can win more than 6 or 7 games and until Tech PROVES they can win with a coach who hasn't been on the sidelines in a few years and never coached a spread offense, they should stay ranked below teams that won 10+ games last year. Regardless of strength of schedule.

And for full disclosure, I am a TCU grad (enter the naysayers here). And to AggieBob - given the talent level both teams have, if UofH and A&M squared off at a neutral site, A&M would not be favored by double digits (they might not even be favored). That's a blatent homer comment. I can tell you this, that game will have about a 100 points scored and be really fun to watch.

[Rick]

Take this with a grain of salt. My only amazement is how little some in the Texas media know about Tech and their football program. As a side note, they were bowl eligible the previous 8 years before Leach got there, making it now 18 years in a row.