AP Preseason Top 25 Fairly obvious Tyrann Mathuie's absence had a tremendous affect on the AP voters, and likely would have affected the Coaches Poll as well. Top 5 is great though. Some say the preseason polls are meaningless & should not be released until week 4 or so. Maybe so, but this is the poll going into week 1, plus it gives some insight to the agendas being pushed this year. USC's triumphant return etc. Some say they don't want the #1 ranking, don't want "The Target on their back". That is loser's mentality, IMO. #1 team's almost always get the benefit on calls. And whatcha gonna do, sneak up on teams at #3 rather than #1? Les Miles has beaten or equalled these preseason rankings 5 out of 7 times.
Honestly, there is a big difference in playing to get #1 than keep it. These are 18-20 year olds we are talking about.
Win them all, convincingly and the pre season polls dont matter. Lose focus, lose one convincingly and the pre season polls do not matter.
In a thread a few weeks ago the subject of teams ranked preseason #1 and being national champions was brought up in terms of truly elite programs. Interestingly enough, Florida State was one of the programs that wasn't called elite, but they happen to be the only team in the history of the AP poll to start #1 and finish #1—1999. Before Mathieu was dismissed LSU had received 28 of a possible 60 first-place votes. USC was second with 22 first-place votes and Alabama was third with nine.
LSU fans, just for discussion: we know that the media is seriously downgrading our chances now based solely on the loss of TM. What do you guys say about it? Will one player (an exciting, electric player, though he was) derail our season? The loss of RP hurt--badly. Where will this loss fall?
They're obviously oblivious to the rest of the field. Mathieu was feast or famine and as much as I loved watching him he wasn't NEARLY the best coverage guy. Neither was he a big hitter. He was more of a disrupter type playmaker. I regret his departure but we'll be fine without him. I'm seriously shocked USC is ranked so high. I'm not saying they do or don't deserve it- I didn't follow college football overall as closely last year. My question is two-fold. 1/Are we not being given enough credit based on losing one oustanding player or 2/ Are they being given too much credit based one oustanding player they have? I don't mean they only have one but think you'll get my point.
Anyone know if the AP has ever extended voting for their preseason poll before? Seems farked that they extended it because a single player got kicked off the team. Have they ever done this before?
