The 2007 college football coaches' top 25 poll was recently released and it begs one to ask an important question. Shouldn't college coaches actually know college football? I'm not saying they completely botched this thing, but Florida at #3. Are you kidding me? That absolutely leaps off the page. Even putting them in the top 10 seems like a pretty big stretch. I understand they're the defending champs, but who exactly is returning to the team this year? Their defense ranked 6th in points allowed last year, but they have only two of eleven defensive starters coming back for '07. That's not exactly the ratio coaches are looking for. The Gators defense is going to be in big trouble when they play good teams this year. On offense things don't look quite as bleak. They have a lot of talent on that side of the ball and Urban Meyer seems to believe in sophomore QB Tim Tebow. But any team that loses it's starting quarterback (Chris Leak), it's top rusher (DeShawn Wynn) and it's top receiver (Dallas Baker) is going to struggle at times. Consistency is what separates the top three or four teams from the next fifteen. I'm just not buying that a team with nine new faces on the starting defense and an inexperienced QB is going to be able to navigate the troubled waters when it matters most.
Just in case you haven't seen them yet, these are the rankings the coaches came up with:
1. USC (45) 0-0 1,481
2. LSU (4) 0-0 1,372
3. Florida (9) 0-0 1,278
4. Texas 0-0 1,231
5. Michigan (2) 0-0 1,218
6. West Virginia 0-0 1,205
7. Wisconsin 0-0 1,114
8. Oklahoma 0-0 1,026
9. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,005
10. Ohio State 0-0 919
11. Louisville 0-0 836
12. California 0-0 763
13. Georgia 0-0 604
14. Auburn 0-0 595
15. Tennessee 0-0 583
16. Rutgers 0-0 466
17. UCLA 0-0 454
18. Penn State 0-0 440
19. Nebraska 0-0 388
20. Arkansas 0-0 360
21. Florida State 0-0 301
22. TCU 0-0 233
23. Boise State 0-0 222
24. Hawaii 0-0 214
25. Texas A&M 0-0 209
