As a new member of the blogpoll team, I shall be participating in the roundtables. The first comes from HeyJennySlater.
1. Without naming names, a few teams seem to have popped up frequently on everyone's "overrated" lists in the preseason, so let's forget about them for the moment and concentrate on a different group: sleepers. Which currently unheralded team are you currently putting at least a few of your chips behind in the hopes that you'll be able to say "totally called that" once they've accomplished big things by the end of the season?
There's got to be at least one Big East team that's deserving of love, they can't all suck a fat one. So with that opinion I'm throwing my chips in South Florida's basket. They bring back Grothe who's been a successful QB the past few seasons and they have yet to break through and take the Big East title. This would seem like the logical year to do so with West Virginia down.
2. In a similar vein, pick a sleeper player on your team whom nobody's talking about right now and tell us why we will be talking about them by December.
Anybody... Really how many people can name a single player on UConn's roster with Donald Brown off to the NFL. He was essentially their entire offense last year. The hope would be that someone, perhaps Jordan Todman can fill in and garner at minimum 1/2 of Brown's stats.
3. Florida is about as big a consensus favorite as we've seen in recent years, but remember, USC got 62 out of 65 first-place votes in the AP's 2007 preseason poll and still managed to lose to Stanford. Given how difficult it is to go undefeated period these days, where do you think the Gators are most likely to stumble in the regular season?
For and SEC team and defending National champ Florida's schedule looks relatively easy. They avoid Bama and the SEC East is relatively down with UGA having to replace their two biggest offensive components. The natural selection is than LSU and the potential that they will rebound from their difficult 2008 season. The fact that they host the Gators in the Bayou should help them some, but they will likely fall just like the other 11 teams on the Gators schedule.
4. Which regular-season game not involving your team or conference are you most looking forward to this year?
The debate for me comes down to the Buckeyes vs. USC or the Red River Shootout. I'm going to go with the Red River Shootout simply because there's a very very good chance that it will be the one game that catapults the winner to a BCS title game appearance. Additionally, there will be tons of additional bad blood between the rivals as one team feels shafted for last years BCS selection and the other wants revenge for last years loss. It's a can't miss game.
5. In honor of Georgia's opening-weekend opponent and their most prolific booster, let's say you somehow come into T. Boone Pickens money and can buy anything you want for your program -- facilities upgrades, an airplane for recruiting, buy out the contract of that coach you hate, you name it. Where does your first check go?
If I had T. Boone Pickens money I would spend it like Ohio State, aka I would buy Uconn countless 5 star recruits to legitimize their program. With a couple of BCS births the fanbase in Connecticut and Southern Mass would build and the program would start to morph from a small time BCS school to a big time contender, like the basketball team.
For the Blogpoll I masquerade as a UConn fan/blogger...
1. Without naming names, a few teams seem to have popped up frequently on everyone's "overrated" lists in the preseason, so let's forget about them for the moment and concentrate on a different group: sleepers. Which currently unheralded team are you currently putting at least a few of your chips behind in the hopes that you'll be able to say "totally called that" once they've accomplished big things by the end of the season?
There's got to be at least one Big East team that's deserving of love, they can't all suck a fat one. So with that opinion I'm throwing my chips in South Florida's basket. They bring back Grothe who's been a successful QB the past few seasons and they have yet to break through and take the Big East title. This would seem like the logical year to do so with West Virginia down.
2. In a similar vein, pick a sleeper player on your team whom nobody's talking about right now and tell us why we will be talking about them by December.
Anybody... Really how many people can name a single player on UConn's roster with Donald Brown off to the NFL. He was essentially their entire offense last year. The hope would be that someone, perhaps Jordan Todman can fill in and garner at minimum 1/2 of Brown's stats.
3. Florida is about as big a consensus favorite as we've seen in recent years, but remember, USC got 62 out of 65 first-place votes in the AP's 2007 preseason poll and still managed to lose to Stanford. Given how difficult it is to go undefeated period these days, where do you think the Gators are most likely to stumble in the regular season?
For and SEC team and defending National champ Florida's schedule looks relatively easy. They avoid Bama and the SEC East is relatively down with UGA having to replace their two biggest offensive components. The natural selection is than LSU and the potential that they will rebound from their difficult 2008 season. The fact that they host the Gators in the Bayou should help them some, but they will likely fall just like the other 11 teams on the Gators schedule.
4. Which regular-season game not involving your team or conference are you most looking forward to this year?
The debate for me comes down to the Buckeyes vs. USC or the Red River Shootout. I'm going to go with the Red River Shootout simply because there's a very very good chance that it will be the one game that catapults the winner to a BCS title game appearance. Additionally, there will be tons of additional bad blood between the rivals as one team feels shafted for last years BCS selection and the other wants revenge for last years loss. It's a can't miss game.
5. In honor of Georgia's opening-weekend opponent and their most prolific booster, let's say you somehow come into T. Boone Pickens money and can buy anything you want for your program -- facilities upgrades, an airplane for recruiting, buy out the contract of that coach you hate, you name it. Where does your first check go?
If I had T. Boone Pickens money I would spend it like Ohio State, aka I would buy Uconn countless 5 star recruits to legitimize their program. With a couple of BCS births the fanbase in Connecticut and Southern Mass would build and the program would start to morph from a small time BCS school to a big time contender, like the basketball team.
For the Blogpoll I masquerade as a UConn fan/blogger...
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