Early year rankings and program perception

[eastbaycat99]

Three teams that would be ranked if they were named
Southern Cal, Auburn or Florida:

Vandy
Cal
Duke

Compare Cal and USC based on three game performance: Trojans slip by Texas team that was thumped by Maryland, beat a Stanford that loses to SDSU, and Western Mich. Cal beats NC on the road, Weber State and Ole Miss. USC is ranked 5 and Cal gets a handful of votes.

Vandy, Cal and Duke combined don't get enough votes to crack top 25 despite being 9-0 overall, 5-0 over power 5 and 1-0 over ranked.

I'm not saying all three will end season in top 25, but would not be surprised if any one of them did.

 

[NJCat]

Three teams that would be ranked if they were named
Southern Cal, Auburn or Florida:

Vandy
Cal
Duke

Compare Cal and USC based on three game performance: Trojans slip by Texas team that was thumped by Maryland, beat a Stanford that loses to SDSU, and Western Mich. Cal beats NC on the road, Weber State and Ole Miss. USC is ranked 5 and Cal gets a handful of votes.

Vandy, Cal and Duke combined don't get enough votes to crack top 25 despite being 9-0 overall, 5-0 over power 5 and 1-0 over ranked.

I'm not saying all three will end season in top 25, but would not be surprised if any one of them did.

Excellent point. Of the three I think Duke is most likely. They have both an offense and a defense, while Vandy shines on D and Cal on O. You could also add Wake Forest to the list. The Deacs are 3-0 and Clawson has his won guys now. They are scoring in bunches after being anemic last year, and continue to play strong D, giving up an average of 8 point per game in 3 games.

 

[mikewebb68]

Excellent point. Of the three I think Duke is most likely. They have both an offense and a defense, while Vandy shines on D and Cal on O. You could also add Wake Forest to the list. The Deacs are 3-0 and Clawson has his won guys now. They are scoring in bunches after being anemic last year, and continue to play strong D, giving up an average of 8 point per game in 3 games.

Most impressed with Cal thus far; their strength of schedule of the four teams mentioned is the best, and it is not close (NC on the road, Ole Miss at home). Duke's best win is vs. us, where we played just atrociously; they were clearly looking ahead in the Baylor game, but that win was not impressive given that Baylor may not win a game this year.

 

[eastbaycat99]

Excellent point. Of the three I think Duke is most likely. They have both an offense and a defense, while Vandy shines on D and Cal on O. You could also add Wake Forest to the list. The Deacs are 3-0 and Clawson has his won guys now. They are scoring in bunches after being anemic last year, and continue to play strong D, giving up an average of 8 point per game in 3 games.

Wilcox was a great hire for Cal. They still have soft spots on defense but are already vastly improved over the Dykes teams. Last night they shut out Mississippi in the second half, and did a similar job on NC.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I still think USC is a very good team though the performance thus far suggests they are ranked too high. Having Darnold at the helm is a big plus.