30 Jun
College Football Power Rankings: July 1
Posted by: nflmocks
The college football season is just 58 days away. It’s time for the first batch of NFLmocks power rankings for college football. At the top things are pretty complicated, because in my opinion five teams could argue that they should be #1 and the top eight seem to just be better than everybody else. Let me know what you think about the rankings by commenting at the bottom of the page.
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| # | +/- | Team | Comment | |
| 1 | – |  |
Georgia Bulldogs | I have to rank Georgia as #1, only because they beat Florida last year when Tim Tebow had a bummed shoulder. The battle in Jacksonville between the two SEC East rivals will be great theater. |
| 2 | – |  |
Florida Gators | Tim Tebow did everything last season but he won’t have to this year. Chris Rainey is probably going to emerge as a star beside Cornelius Igram and Percy Harvin in the nation’s most potent offense. |
| 3 | – |  |
USC Trojans | USC is the program every athletic director in the country wished they had. With Mark Sanchez under center the Trojans are once again loaded with talent and should run through the Pac 10 with ease. |
| 4 | – |  |
Ohio State Buckeyes | Back to back national championship games and back to back embarrasing losses to SEC teams once they get there. Don’t even begin to ask me why two SEC teams are ahead of the Buckeyes. |
| 5 | – |  |
Oklahoma Sooners | What Sam Bradford did last season was amazing, but he was overshadowed by Tebow’s record breaking year and the fact that OU has struggled in recent BCS games. Expect them to bounce back in a big way this year. |
| 6 | – |  |
West Virginia Mountainners | You are reading it here first (gulp)….Noel Devine will be better than Steve Slaton was during his career if he can stay out of trouble in Morgantown. He has all the talent in the world. |
| 7 | – |  |
Clemson Tigers | Here’s the team I think could surprise a lot of people this year. They’ve probably got the most talented backfield in all of college football; Cullen Harper, James Davis, and C. J. Spiller. |
| 8 | – |  |
Missouri Tigers | Chase Daniel led Missouri to a #1 ranking going into the Big 12 Title game last year. This year their goal is to prove that last season was no fluke. They have the talent to do that very thing. |
| 9 | – |  |
Wisconsin Badgers | Is Wisconsin really the nation’s 9th best team? I feel as if there is a small bit of separation between the top eight and the next tier of teams. The Badgers have P. J. Hill and Travis Beckum and they seem like a good place to start. |
| 10 | – |  |
Texas Longhorns | I actually like Colt McCoy, although it seems no one outside of Texas does. The big question for the Longhorns is at running back after losing Jamaal Charles to the NFL Draft. |
| 11 | – |  |
Auburn Tigers | Kodi Burns will be the starting QB for Auburn, and the Tigers should be very good. The SEC West race appears wide open and should be Auburn’s for the taking. |
| 12 | – |  |
LSU Tigers | The first problem in Baton Rouge is trying to find a replacement to Ryan Perrilloux. It appears Harvard transfer Andrew Hatch will fill that spot. With that talented defense it may not matter who starts at QB for the defending national champions. |
| 13 | – |  |
Kansas Jayhawks | Were the Jayhawks a fluke last season? I sure hope not. Quarterback Todd Reesing is the real deal when it comes to running the spread offense. |
| 14 | – |  |
Texas Tech Red Raiders | I keep talking about how WR Michael Crabtree is a can’t miss prospect. At least I’m not the only one who thinks that way, I actually heard ESPN college football analyst Joe Schad say that Crabtree could catch 30 TD passes this year. |
| 15 | – |  |
South Florida Bulls | I am a Matt Grothe fan. The kid has a great arm and understands the game of football. Plus somebody has to challenge West Virginia in the Big East right? Why not the team that actually beat the Mountaineers last season? |
| 16 | – |  |
Virginia Tech Hokies | The ACC looks like it is headed for another very down season. Despite losing Brandon Ore by dismissal the Hokies should still be one of the favorites to win the conference. |
| 17 | – |  |
BYU Cougars | The next tier of the top 25 seems to be here. BYU has the nation’s longest winning streak and is led by quarterback Max Hall. Their battle against Utah to end their regular season November 22nd could be for a BCS bowl. |
| 18 | – |  |
Tennessee Volunteers | The Volunteers are the 5th SEC team already listed here, and yet people ask who the strongest conference is. Last year they made the SEC Championship game after blowout losses to Florida & Alabama, so there’s no telling what to expect. |
| 19 | – |  |
Utah Utes | I really think that either BYU or Utah will be playing in a BCS Bowl game at the end of the season. The Utes get both TCU and BYU at home, so they should be favored in both of their tough games. |
| 20 | – |  |
Arizona State Sun Devils | Rudy Carpenter and the Sun Devils are out to prove that their amazing turnaround in 2007 was a fluke ( a word I’ve used a lot in this article). They play both USC and Georgia, which means they will be a team to watch. |
| 21 | – |  |
Penn State Nittany Lions | I’ve seen Penn State ranked as high as the top ten by some experts’ rankings and as low as completely outside the top 25 in others. I think Maurice Evans will be great, but can they find a succesfful quarterback? |
| 22 | – |  |
Michigan State Spartans | Even losing Devin Thomas I think the Spartans can be very good in 2008. If they can win their opener at California and survive games against teams they should beat (ND & IND) then they could get Ohio State at home at 7-0. Think of that OSU fans. |
| 23 | – |  |
Fresno State Bulldogs | The last two seasons WAC teams have made BCS Bowl games. This year Pat Hill’s bunch has a tough schedule; Rutgers, UCLA, Wisconsin, & Boise State but if they can somehow manage to escape those four with one loss then they should be in the top 15 when the final polls are released in January. |
| 24 | – |  |
Illinois Fighting Illini | Quarterback Juice Williams is very inconsistent but if he can play well all season (which I know he is capable of) then Illinois has a chance to play in the Rose Bowl again. |
| 25 | – |  |
Pittsburgh Panthers | LeSean McCoy is one of the nation’s best running backs, but he will have to carry this Panthers offense. Last year he ran for 1,328 yards and 14 TDs. |
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Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment. |
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