LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The first college football playoff rankings will not be released until Nov. 5 -- as a lead-in to tip-off for the Kentucky-Michigan State basketball game.
Who has time to wait?
Not me.
I need a Top 5 every week. I also need a Bottom 5. Clowns, knuckleheads and chumps need love, too.
On to the rankings.
Top 5
1. LSU (5-0) — If a team coached by Nick Saban had rolled into Austin, beaten No. 11 Texas and also won four more games by an average of nearly 41 points, do you think they would be ranked No. 5 or No. 1?
If a team coached by Dabo Swinney was 5-0 and had a quarterback who completed better than 78 percent of his passes with 22 touchdowns and three picks, do you think that team would be ranked No. 2 or No. 5?
Start with this: People doubt LSU because they doubt Ed Orgeron, the Tigers Bayou-bred coach. He's never taken a team to the playoffs.
They doubt LSU because the Tigers were ranked sixth in the AP pre-season Top 25. LSU hosts No. 7 Florida Saturday. If the Tigers win, the pollsters should see things my way.
2. Ohio State (6-0) — The Buckeyes are halfway through their schedule without a single furrowed brow. Michigan State usually makes Ohio State squirm. Didn’t happen. Don't hear much about Urban Meyer any more.
People who know more about football than me say this Ohio State team is stacked with NFL prospects and playing as if nothing less than a national championship will be acceptable.
Ohio State vs. Wisconsin on Oct. 26 will be the Game of the Year.
Until the following weekend.
3. Georgia (5-0) — The Bulldogs earned their second road win in the Southeastern Conference while scoring the final 33 points in a 43-14 win at Tennessee. Now they get South Carolina and Kentucky at home before having an extra week of preparation for Florida. Georgia's win over No. 9 Notre Dame is a credential Alabama and Clemson lack.
4. Alabama (5-0)/Clemson (5-0, tie) — I know the Tide and the Tigers are both going to make the playoffs. You know they're both going to make the playoffs. Can't have a playoff without them.
LSU, Ohio State and Georgia know they must overcome Saban and Swinney in the court of public opinion to make the playoff. But as of the seventh day of October, the Tide and the Tigers are atop the human polls for as much as what they did last season as what they've done this season.
5. Charlie Strong (2-3) — I've questioned Strong and his South Florida football team. I've wondered if he's on the Hot Seat.
I've asked what happened to his ability to coach prime-time defense. I said that if he didn’t beat lowly UConn last Saturday that I was uncertain if he'd make it to the finish line this season.
I wondered if he ever admits that he erred by leaving Louisville.
Charlie Strong finally beat an FBS opponent for the first time since last Oct. 20 when USF defeated … UConn.
OK, time to raise the standards around here. Strong needs to beat BYU or Navy or East Carolina or he'll plop back into the Bottom 5.
5. David Cutcliffe — My goodness. A week after this guy had Duke looking like the team to beat in the ACC Coastal while blitzing Virginia Tech, Cutcliffe's team came out and played like the Cameron Crazies Intramural Team against Pittsburgh.
After falling behind 26-3 in Durham, the Blue Devils roared back for a 30-26 lead.
This is not the Duke program with Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Jahlil Okafor in its DNA.
Duke gave up a touchdown in the final 45 seconds to lose, 33-30, leaving the ACC with three teams unbeaten in league play — Clemson, Wake Forest and Virginia.
In North Carolina, thoughts will turn to ACC Operation Basketball, which starts Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C.
4. Michigan (4-0) — I had to find a way to work the Wolverines into the conversation because there is something I cannot understand.
They scored 10 points in the first quarter and then held off Iowa, 10-3, Saturday in Ann Arbor. It was the fewest points the Wolverines have scored since Nov. 18, 2017.
After the game, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said this about his offense: “I think we’re really hitting our stride.”
I’ll hang up and listen, hoping somebody can explain how getting shut out for 45 minutes equates to hitting your stride, not hitting the wall.
3. Lovie Smith (2-3) — His Illinois team took a major step toward another losing season with a 23-point loss at Minnesota.
The Illini play their next two against Michigan and Wisconsin — and still must visit Michigan State and Iowa.
The novelty is over. It ain't working, Illini.
2. Chip Kelly (1-5) — Two numbers tell his story:
Kelly's UCLA Bruins allowed 48 points while losing at home to lowly Oregon State, which had lost three of its first four.
The announced crowd of 48,523 filled barely half of the Rose Bowl.
Turn in your genius card, Chip. It ain't working, Bruins.
Kansas — Nothing against Kansas football. In fact, I can’t remember ever watching a Jayhawks' football game. Hey, I loved Gale Sayers. He's the last Kansas football player I can name. Him and Bobby Douglass, one in a long, long line of terrible Bears' quarterbacks.
But I had to recognize the remarkable work by Kansas basketball coach "Dollar" Bill Self and athletic "Jazzy" Jeff Long.
They turned the opening of basketball practice and the night before the Oklahoma football game into soft-core pornography, featuring Snoop Dogg, pole dancers, fake bill launchers and, ultimately, fake contrition by Self, Long, Barney Fife, Alfred E. Neuman, Eddie Haskell and other Kansas administrators.
Guess who got fired at Kansas?
The offensive coordinator, Les Koenning, after the Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma, 45-20.
Quite lame.
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