I've been waiting for the pre-season rankings to come out and now they are here.  A couple weeks ago the coaches poll was released and here is Rivals.com's poll.  I had predicted that Alabama and Ohio State would be ranked #1 & #2 and it turns out they are.  Alabama is a no brainer as the defending national champs with most of last season's offense still intact (defense might be a question) and Ohio State is loaded with talent, led by Tyrell Pryor who will be a dominant force on the field.

After that, I had no idea where the other teams would fall.  Boise State has never been ranked this high pre-season before as far as I know.  I knew they would have a good team, but because of their strength of schedule, I figured bottom half of the top ten at best.  And Nebraska #5?  That's a big surprise to me.  I didn't think their program had improved that quickly.  We'll see.

It seems Florida and Texas got pretty generous rankings considering they both lost their star quarterbacks last year.  And Florida lost a lot more than just Tebow.  But considering the strength of their programs, it wouldn't surprise me that they have a lot of young talent coming in.

The other surpise is that I expected Oklahoma and LSU to be ranked higher.  Basically, I would have expected Oklahoma and LSU to be essentially flipped Texas and Florida.  But what do I know?

On the Heisman watch, I haven't really looked very deep into the talent out there yet.  Mark Ingram and Pryor should be the early favorites.  As a Buckeye, I'll obviously be pulling hard for Pryor.  Not just because he's a Buckeye, but because I want Archie Griffin to remain the only two-time Heisman winner in college football history.

Unless there is a major stumble by one or both, I expect to see 'Bama and OSU play for the championship this season.

I don't care what the rankings say, I am and always will be a Mountaineer.

hell yeah now just need to make sure I get season tickets to OU home games. Freaking freshmen lottery.

Me too, I'd better grab tickets fast.

I love football, and I don't really have a favorite team. Which works out well, because I can turn on pretty much any game and enjoy it. Sometimes I wonder what it's like to not be a College Football mercenary.

Boise States first game is against V Tech.  If they can beat V Tech the rest should of their season should go pretty smoothly(provided no injuries).   Boise States schedule is not a very strong one this year at all unfortunately.   So whether they end up in a BCS bowl game this year is questionable.   :(

Originally posted by Teala

Boise States first game is against V Tech.  If they can beat V Tech the rest should of their season should go pretty smoothly(provided no injuries).   Boise States schedule is not a very strong one this year at all unfortunately.   So whether they end up in a BCS bowl game this year is questionable.   :(

Many people have speculated that going in ranked 3rd is good for Boise St. All they have to do is win all their games (which only one looks difficult) and have either Alabama or Ohio State lose sometime during the season and they are in.

Originally posted by Teala

Boise States first game is against V Tech.  If they can beat V Tech the rest should of their season should go pretty smoothly(provided no injuries).   Boise States schedule is not a very strong one this year at all unfortunately.   So whether they end up in a BCS bowl game this year is questionable.   :(

 They also play Oregon State the third game of the season which could be good.  Although the game is in Idaho and BSU pretty much never loses at home.

Looks like Heisman winner Mark Ingram injured his knee this week in practice and will miss the saeson opener.  Awww...sob, sob.

Actually, I do feel bad for him.  I hate to see a great player (or any player for that matter) sidelined by an injury.  But that will make the chances of him repeating as Heisman winner extremely difficult and firmly establishes Tyrell Pryor as the preseason favorite.  Although, Kellen Moore, the QB from Boise State is getting a lot of attention too.  I didn't realize that last season he threw 39 TDs with only 3 INTs.  That is impressive.

Yeah, I think Ingram is going to be out longer than just the first week.

That'll just give Ryan Mallet time to throw 10 TD passes his first two games and become the heisman front-runner. Woo pig!

As usual I say again....Go Iowa!

Originally posted by Mandarr

As usual I say again....Go Iowa!

Just messing with you Mandarr, good luck with your season and I hope both of us are undefeated when we meet.

I'm glad it's College Football season again! Don't forget it's starts tomorrow at 4:30pm PST 7:30pm EST.

Yes good luck to Ohio State as well.  It was a great game last year and looking forward to another this year.  Did ya'll see Nebraska's schedule for the 2011/2012 seasons lol.  Welcome to the Big 10 Nebraska!

Originally posted by Mandarr

Yes good luck to Ohio State as well.  It was a great game last year and looking forward to another this year.  Did ya'll see Nebraska's schedule for the 2011/2012 seasons lol.  Welcome to the Big 10 Nebraska!

No I haven't seen Nebraska's schedule. Is it rough? I saw that they announced the splitting of the divisions and I don't like the way they did it. I think it is terrible. Well, maybe not that bad but it seems a little funky. It is almost an east/west split but has like a more of a North-West vs. South East feel to it. I don't know I freaking tired.

Yeah it's a weird split, Wisconsin people aren't happy about it.  Nebraska will be joining the division with Michigan, Michigan St., Iowa, Minn., and Northwestern.  And their protected crossover game will be with Penn State.  Then for the first two years they'll have Ohio State and Wisconsin as crossovers as well lol.  They really stuck it to them.  I live in the Omaha area and it really is a rivalry here between Nebraska and Iowa so I'm looking forward to my boys playing them regularly. 

Domination!  Go Boise!!!!!!!!!!

OMG I think I jinxed them.  ::sniffles::  They've made some serious mistakes since my last post.  V Tech doesn't have to play to win, Boise is killing themselves with penalties and really bad mistakes.  

Originally posted by Teala

OMG I think I jinxed them.  ::sniffles::  They've made some serious mistakes since my last post.  V Tech doesn't have to play to win, Boise is killing themselves with penalties and really bad mistakes.  

 You must have un-jinxed them b/c they just took the lead 33-30.  But it ain't over till it's over.  VT has one last chance with about a minute left and 2 TOs.

Oh yeah, oh yeah....::does her happy dance::  Oh yeah, oh yeah....no more jinxing Broncos...I'll not say a word until the game is over the rest of the season!  Thank you Mr. Moore!  Awesome...cool as ice he was and he did what he had to do...love meh Broncos.   :)

As I said, V Tech is a good team, but it was Boise beating Boise tonight.  They made some serious mistakes and those 11 penalties killed them.    The roughing the kicker one...ugh...unforgivable.   That allowed a give-away touchdown to V Tech.   Also, the pass interference call...ugh.   Then Boise states defense seriously under estimated V Tech quarterback...holy...that guy can move.   Scary he was.   I'd say he was the best player of the whole game - V Tech's quarterback was the team.  He carried them.  

As for Boise...now they must face Oregon Beavers...and if they can win that game...well, I think the one thing that will hold them back from the BCS Championship will be strength of schedule.   If Alabama and some of the other teams can manage to go undefeated - Boise will not be allowed to play in the BCS Championship bowl game.   Some teams are going to have to loose to open the door for Boise.

Anyway...what a game.   The fact that they played in a very hostile environment(and it was - 80k hokies fans to Boise States what 10K if that fans) and the humidity was killing them.    All I have to say is, Boise pulled that one off by the skin of their teeth, but it did prove one thing - Boise can hang with the best.   Go Broncos!