Monday, October 23, 2006

Round-Table Round-Up

Last week I had the honor of hosting the Blog Poll Round Table discussion. I want to say thanks to all who participated including ESPN’s Bruce Feldman, great answers and good insight by all. Here is the breakdown.

1. Which coaches are clearly on the hot seat at this point? Who is surprisingly not?
Larry Coker and John L. Smith were mentioned the most as coaches who were most in danger of losing their jobs but Sunday Morning Quarterback, Orange 44, Westsider Rider and Card Chronicle all get points for mentioning John Bunting who was given his pink slip on Sunday. Bonus points go to SMQ for being the first to mention him.

For the coach who was surprisingly not on the hot seat there were several good suggestions. There were several who agreed with me about Dennis Franchione but Card Chronicle makes a good point about Bobby Bowden.

2. Pick three of the undefeated teams and state your case as to why they won’t run the table.

A lot of people are seeing eye-to-eye on this one. Obviously Michigan and Ohio State can’t both go undefeated neither can Louisville and West Virginia because they will play in conference. For that reason they got a lot of mention on this one. Rutgers was pretty much a unanimous pick here and the USC Trojans were mentioned as well.

3. Which conference is playing the best football right now?
It’s the SEC, right… or could it be the Big 10? You couldn’t possibly make a case for the Big East, could you?

Everybody knows about the SEC so I'll go with the Big East because I like competitive football. Rutgers, WV, Louisville and Pittsburgh are all quality teams and I think that this is going be a wild conference race coming down the wire. Add in frisky Cincy and always dangerous USF and this is a finish worth watching.
- Off Tackle


Orange 44 also makes a good argument for the Big East.

4. Which team is playing above and beyond your expectations this season?
Gotta go with my man Bruce Feldman on this one.

“Arkansas has been outstanding since the USC game and since the Hogs got Darren McFadden back. He makes an enormous difference. I was stunned to see how they took it to Auburn like that. I have to give credit to my man Phil Steele who was one of the few people I know of who touted Arkansas to play this well.”


5. Which team is crashing and burning in regards to your expectations?
The most popular were Michigan State, Miami, Florida State, Georgia and then there was the shot below the belt by Texas A&M & BAseball with the mention of Oklahoma.

6. Is your pre-season BCS championship game prediction still alive?
Trojan Wire had USC/Ohio State along with Texas A&M & Baseball.
The Cover Two gave us a couple of choices.
Feldman and I both picked Ohio State and West Virginia.