SEC Power Poll Ballot: Week 11

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 18, 2009 6:08 PM EST in Football Comment 42 comments

2009secpowerpoll_medium

It's time for the SEC Power Poll for Week 11, and Alabama once again rises to the top both on my ballot, and in the aggregated totals, which are found at Team Speed Kills, as always.

For my part, I obviously think a little more of the 'Cats and a little less of Tennessee than other voters, but other than that, there isn't a whole lot of difference. Alabama has pretty much cemented itself as the best team in the league with more or less consistent domination of everyone, while the Gators seem to be running into more difficulty of late. The Tide takes on an FCS school this week (Wait--didn't we get heat for doing that from TSK?) in UT-Chattanooga, then finishes the season at detested in-state rival Auburn for the Iron Bowl, which is the Tide's biggest danger of a loss in a while.

Florida, on the other hand, gets two schools from in-state to finish off the season -- Florida International and hated rival, Florida State. As with Alabama and Auburn, the possibility of an upset looms somewhat larger with the Seminoles.

My ballot follows the jump.

Team	cWL	W-L	bWL	SoS	MoV	PF-PA	Next opponent	Polls	Comments
Alabama	7-0	10-0	8-0	53.66	20	309-109	UT Chattanooga	2,3,[2!]	The Elephants are looking stronger every game, and they sat on the Bulldogs.
Florida	8-0	10-0	8-0	49.49	23.4	339-105	Florida International	1,[1!]	Tim Tebow averaged 1.6 yards/carry? In 16 tries? Has Superman reverted to Clark Kent?
LSU	4-2	8-2	5-2	46.08	11.3	250-137	@ Ole Miss	10,8	LSU's offense could not offend anybody unless they wore the Confederate flag.
Georgia	4-3	6-4	5-4	50.94	1.6	275-259	Kentucky	33,41	Rambo wound up saving the day, and didn't even need his field knife. What a great name for a football player.
Arkansas	2-4	6-4	3-4	50.17	12.1	376-255	Mississippi St.		Man, Arkansas can really torch non-SEC cupcakes.
Auburn	3-4	7-4	4-4	46.79	7	374-297	Open	33,37	Wasted a great game by Chris Todd.
South Carolina	3-5	6-5	4-5	49.33	-0.1	227-228	Open		Garcia had 186 yards passing to Gamecock receivers, and 73 yards passing to the Gator defense.
Mississippi	3-3	7-3	3-3	37.92	15.2	311-159	LSU	30,31	Jevan Who? McCluster was the Vol's daddy. Maybe the Rebs should, you know, get him the ball more.
Kentucky	2-4	6-4	3-4	45.49	5.1	268-217	@ Georgia		The 'Cats looked in trouble early, but Locke and Cobb ran amok.
Tennessee	2-4	5-5	2-5	46.07	9.4	306-212	Vanderbilt		All the Vols saw was Dexter McCluster's hind parts. All game long.
Mississippi State	2-4	4-6	2-5	56.05	-0.7	245-252	@ Arkansas		On the receiving end of a good, old fashioned Pachyderm pounding.
Vanderbilt	0-7	2-9	0-8	43.3	-6.3	180-249	@ Tennessee		In the parlance of horseracing: Pressed the pace early, no factor late.

Additional comments:

Steve Spurrier still can't beat his old school. I find that almost as hilarious as his streak against UK.
Alabama is like a broken record. They just keep repeating the same thing every game, and it is devastating.
Georgia edged out rival Auburn, and that surprised me. It also made me feel like our chances of an upset just improved marginally.
All I can say about the Vols is -- Toldja! I thought they had a good defense, but it wasn't good against the Rebs.

Your comments are welcome, and encouraged.

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Comments

Rambo ? Oh no! :-)

Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!

by a2d2 on Nov 18, 2009 6:17 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I believe UK's next game is against Georgia?

by Clay Mason on Nov 18, 2009 7:41 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah ...

… I don’t know what happened there. Software snafu, I guess.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 6:26 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Upon further review...

… I blamed the software unfairly. It was operator error. :-)

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 8:36 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You know what you get for that.....

First time I shot her, shot her in the side.
Hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died...

by btcoop71 on Nov 19, 2009 9:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We call that

an ID-10-T problem (IDIOT)

by hoboat33 on Nov 19, 2009 1:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

TRU, you have game 12

opponents on all the teams instead of game 11.

by Grasslands1 on Nov 18, 2009 7:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah ...

… I see that now. No idea why. Ghost in the machine, I guess.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 6:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

please

you said two games would not change your mind about tennessee yet one game will especially considering the distractions. Kentucky better then tennessee. We shall see in two weeks. Please dont say you are not biased against tennessee. I grant you they are not high up as i had them last week but 10th ? Come on

Kentucky bretheren united once again! Thanks Cal!

by tenken on Nov 18, 2009 10:06 PM EST via mobile reply actions 0 recs

I did not say that.

I said that this week’s game would convince me. It did convince me — that UT is exactly what I thought they were.

Distractions are an excuse. Distractions did not cause them to get run over by a back that has been relatively pedestrian all year. If anything should have gone bad because of “distractions,” it should have been the offense, which has been anything but consistent. Where was Monte’s much-vaunted D?

UT is not ready for prime time, and that is my opinion. I think Kentucky is better, and would you have me put UT above them?

I am not biased against Tennessee. I like Tennessee just fine, much better than many, I grew up in the state. I am waiting for you to make a cogent defense of your argument that I should have them higher. Here’s why I don’t:

Crushed by a team they should have at least been competitive with;
2-4 conference record, same as Kentucky, Arkansas, and Mississippi St.;
5-5 Overall record, worse than every team in the league except Mississippi State and Vanderbilt;
All this with the fourth weakest SoS in the conference so far.

So now you tell me — am I biased, or are you looking at the Vols through orange-colored glasses?

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 7:01 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

My point

is they have been outstanding the pst few weeks with the exception of Mississippi. No matter how much anyone says………this week was a distraction but you are right its not an excuse to get run over. I liken that kids running game to someone having a great shooting night that Kentucky just cannot stop no matter how good their defense is……..hmmm can we say Marquette 03? He had a great game and I am sorry even you said that Tennessee had the stats to say they were the third best defense in the conference. Just one of those games. It happens. Janzen would have been the only not there that could have made a difference but I don’t think that he would have been a great factor. I would like to point out that Stewart Mandel has us in the outback bowl which is pretty good I thnk especially if we are only the tenth best team in the SEC. I love my Cats and you so I will just yield to your opionioin but I just really am giving you a hard time :).

Kentucky bretheren united once again! Thanks Cal!

by tenken on Nov 19, 2009 1:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Okay ...

… just a couple of points:

My point is they have been outstanding the pst few weeks with the exception of Mississippi.

They are 3-3 the last six games, 2-2 in the last four, and 2-1 in the last three. I just can’t bring myself to agree that is outstanding, result-wise. I would agree that they played good games against South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Aburn, even though they only went 2-2 in that strech.

I agree, teams have bad games. We had one against MSU, but we weren’t uncompetitive like UT was. The only time we have been uncompetitive all year was against Florida.

To be fair to Tennessee, the only time they have been uncompetitive this year was vs. Ole Miss. I think UT is a year or two away from competing for an SEC East championship again. They have talent, but the deck is stacked against them this year.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 1:29 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Can't find it

I can’t find the Msu and Tennessee score?
What was it?
Do you think playing Ole Miss would be the same as Miss State?

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 2:08 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I have NO idea

why we stunk it up against Mississippi except to say that their running back was just unbelievable and that well we were competitive until the fourth quarter :). I am afraid your right though about being a few years away from competing in the SEC championship. We lose alot this year. We don’t have a good QB propect coming in that I know of and I am sorry in college football you cannot dance with the big dogs without one. Although I don’t know of the other SEC teams that have a great QB either next year except I got to see the Florida QB backup and he looked pretty good. I didn’t like Kiffin at first but I do like him now and I think that Tennessee will one day return to being talked about in the National Championship.

Kentucky bretheren united once again! Thanks Cal!

by tenken on Nov 19, 2009 2:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

One more point

this may come back and bite me but the hard part is over for UT. I still think they finish second in the SEC East and fourth overall.

Kentucky bretheren united once again! Thanks Cal!

by tenken on Nov 19, 2009 2:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Tru,

I don’t know that I would characterize Spurrier’s streak over Kentucky as “hilarious”. Regarding the poll – looks about right for this week except maybe Ole Miss ahead of SC. A couple games this weekend could really change the look of the poll next week.

by hoboat33 on Nov 19, 2009 12:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I actually ...

… find it funny, because it is so inexplicable. :-)

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 7:02 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We are going to eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek by Georgia, get all excited about it

and flop against Tennessee……..

Sounds as good as anyone else’s projection…..lol…

Honestly I dont see us winning the next 2 games….but I am holding out hope…..that would justify us switching places with Auburn in the poll……????

Remember, we're having fun now!!!

by ALLBLUCAT on Nov 19, 2009 9:36 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I would say so, at the very least.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 10:03 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

We have got all excited about a bowl

and will flop against Georgia, and then get fired up and mad and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek by Tennessee not going to bet on it though. UK is due a win over UT but you can say that about almost everyone UK plays. I’ll take either win, would love to see 2 wins but very likely to be 2 L.

by UKFever on Nov 19, 2009 11:44 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I could, I say I could be wrong....... ;-}

Remember, we're having fun now!!!

by ALLBLUCAT on Nov 19, 2009 12:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Huh?

I love it. Beat Vanderbilt and we jump ahead of Tennessee. makes sense to me.
Lose to Mississippi State at home and we’re better than they are?
Tru, your reasoning mystifies me.

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 1:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

If you want to see my reasoning, just read up a few comments.

I responded to Tenken on the issue in detail, with full reasoning

If you want to disagree, state your reasons.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 1:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Aren't we better than Auburn?

I beiieve Spurrier has beat Florida since he’s been at South Carolina. Who has beaten Florida this year?
Why aren’t we ahead of Auburn? We beat them on their home field. If we can justify being ahead of Mississippi State surely we can do the same in the Auburn situation.

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 1:05 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Do records and strenght of schedule mean nothing to you?

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 1:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

SOS

means nothing to me honestly……….unless you are a Utah or Boise State. If you play in the SEC, you have a darn good SOS. Well except for some teams who didnt’ have to play BOTH Alabama and Florida :)

Kentucky bretheren united once again! Thanks Cal!

by tenken on Nov 19, 2009 1:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah.

But it means a lot to me. :-)

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 1:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

there is one little quirk in the SOS theory though, and there is absolutely

no way to correct it. The reason that Bama and Florida and LSU, etc. have such lower SOS is because the teams they play against in the SEC dont measure up. When 4 of your IN-CONF opponents are Miss St, Vandy, UK, and Tennessee(this year) your SOS is going to suffer when you count the 2-3 cupcakes that you play which are non-conf. Our SOS is better because we play BAMA, Florida, etc. They dont get credited for a game against us, but we do get credited for a game against them.

Remember, we're having fun now!!!

by ALLBLUCAT on Nov 19, 2009 1:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Having to beat Eastern Kentucky, Miami of OHIO, Louisiana Monroe and Louisville means a WHOLE lot. A loss to any of them and we’re still praying for a win to get to the sacred six.
I was teasing about Auburn. Pertect games don;t come around that often.
Is Tennessee SOS better than the Cats?

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 1:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Now Now boys....lets not fight....lol

C’mon gang…….we cannot get ahead unless we beat Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU,Bama…..and we just dont beat them enough to get ahead…..until then we will be the red-headed step-children of the SEC…….and I hate it more than anyone on here……just dont think we want to do anything about it is all……We claw and scratch and slowly inch by inch gain a little respect, then we go play the way we did against Florida and Miss St, etc. And it all goes…………. Poof!(insert your favorite Robin Williams as the genie quote here)

Remember, we're having fun now!!!

by ALLBLUCAT on Nov 19, 2009 1:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I'm so glad some one mentioned strenght of Schedule.

Let’s check some SOSs

Mississippi State 17
Louisville 42
South Carolina 16
Auburn 35
Vanderbilt 30
Eastern Kentucky 193
Miami of Ohio 40
Louisiana Monroe 122
KENTUCKY 51

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 2:01 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Actually ...

I have Kentucky considerably lower and MSU higher — #61 and #7 respectively.

Vanderbilt’s at #71 so far, not 30, according to my calculations. So it seems that we disagree on that. But no matter.

Strength of schedule only matters when a team is, well, winning games. An SOS of 17 doesn’t do MSU any good, Paris, because they have only managed 4 wins. Is it a moral victory to play a tough schedule and wind up 4-9? Maybe, but I’ll take a 7-5 with a much weaker schedule any day.

When it comes to ranking, I only consider strength of schedule when the teams are close record-wise. I gave the nod to USC over Ole Miss despite having one less overall win due to the fact that the Rebs have played not one but two FCS teams — Like the Bowls, I only count one of those as a win.

Conference record matters the most, overall record next, then strength of schedule. Then, finally, I look at head to head. That’s why Auburn winds up below Arkansas, despite having one more conference win.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 6:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Why play any one we can't beat?

Since ending up with a much weaker schedule at 7-5 is better than playing a tough schedule then why is the Cats improving over all?
If that’s what we want, I suggest we get out of the SEC and go into Conference USA. For a short period, or until all those kids that thought they would be playing SEC quality teams either graduate or quit, we’ll be the up and cominjg team in the country.
The problem is thost kid at LaGrange, GA who wanted to show those school in the SEC they shouldn’t have been over looked will start going to some other school that picks up the scraps left by the Big Boys.
Playing the worst we can schedule isn’t going to improve the program. Still we’ll be buy three, hope Louisville doesn’t improve at least five points and pray for two SEC schools to be having a bad year. A great formula for staying in the position of last or next to last in the Eastern Division.

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 19, 2009 6:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Much weaker is relative.

Ole Miss’ schedule is much weaker than Kentucky’s. Why don’t you complain about them?

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 20, 2009 7:27 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Seems they are doing OK as far as wins. And rankings. Weren’t they in a bowl, I beleive the Cotton Bowl last year? One of the big time ones.

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 20, 2009 9:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I thought ...

… we were talking about the schedule. Wasn’t it you who suggested UK was playing “the worst schedule” and how it isn’t going to improve the program?

Now, you’re suggesting that in Ole Miss’ case, it actually has?

Hell of a logic. :-)

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 20, 2009 10:55 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

A typical response from you

Instead of trying to improve the non conference schedule to move up in the numbers listed for the ten teams of the SEC above us, you want to discuss the only team in cinference ranked below the Cats.
A VERY TYPICAL example of the way Cat fans think.
Let’s not ry to improve, let’s just hope some one is worst than we are.

I have be correctly accused of having a 'football fetish'. You know, someone who doesn't think football is the warm up sport to basketball season.

by ParisGuy on Nov 20, 2009 2:13 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Conference Statistics

Might be a better gauge of how teams measure up:

In the 31 statistical areas UK’s average rank is 6.8 a shade below middle. With the best areas being: #1 in 4th down convesions; the worst: 12th in Sacks and Opponents’ 3rd down conversions.

"Learn(ing) without thinking begets ignorance. Think(ing) without learning is dangerous."
-Confucius

by Wild Weasel on Nov 19, 2009 3:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah ...

… that’s not a bad way to look at it, particularly at this point in the season.

My computer software actually has UK ranked way higher than I have them, so there is some subjective input on my part. I don’t think UK’s proven themselves to be much better than 9th or 10th. If they win at Georgia, though, I’ll be moving them up.

A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan

by Truzenzuzex on Nov 19, 2009 6:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs