As expected given how the weekend played out, there weren’t many if any monumental shifts in the latest Amway coaches’ poll. There were, though, a handful of interesting developments, especiallylytoward the top of the poll.
Last week, Alabama was comfortable slotted in the No. 3 spot, 75 points ahead of No. 4 Auburn. Apparently not impressed by the Tide’s performance during its bye week -- and impressed by the Tigers’ play in a win over a Top-10 team on the road -- the coaches have flip-flopped the two in-state rivals, with No. 3 AU holding a scant six-point lead over No. 4 UA.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, the coaches righted one of a pair of egregious and asinine wrongs. Last week’s poll featured one-loss Michigan State at No. 5 and one-loss Oregon at No. 6. The problem with that? The Spartans one loss came at the hands of the Ducks. That was rectified this week as the two teams swapped spots from a week ago.
As for the very top of the poll, Mississippi State once again sits at No. 1, claiming 40 of the 62 first-place votes. The other 22 first-place votes went to No. 2 Florida State. That’s one more first-place vote for FSU and one less for MSU from a week ago.
The remainder of the Top 10 consists of No. 7 TCU (up three), No. 8 Notre Dame (down one), No. 9 Kansas State and No. 10 Baylor, both up two spots each from where they were seven days ago. It’s at this point in the program where I’m compelled to remind you that both the Horned Frogs and the Bears have one loss, with TCU’s lone loss coming to, of course, Baylor.
Well coaches, at least with UO/MSU you got your cranium halfway out of your rectum. Maybe next week you’ll get to the other half.
The biggest tumbling honors for those teams that remained inside the Top 25 belongs to Georgia, which dropped nine spots to No. 17 coming off its laughable loss to unranked Florida. No. 21 Arizona dropped six places, while No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 22 Utah are four spots lower.
East Carolina, No. 19 last week, was the only team to drop completely out of the rankings.
At the opposite end of the ranking spectrum was UCLA, which vaulted up seven spots to No. 18. No. 16 Oklahoma and No. 20 Duke each climbed four spots apiece.
