A great point about J Russell and next year...

VY's insane Rose Bowl performance is very well being carried over to this year.

If Texas loses that game, they are barely a Top 10 team.

Now they are a Top 2-3 team.

 

if LSU would have won jan 1st....

you would be seeing JR on the cover of every NCAA 2006 College Football for PS2 and X-box all over the country.

and LSU would be listed a preseason top 3 all over the place..

 

Most of us were looking at him through our "National Championship goggles"... We became spoiled with Mauck being such a "clutch" QB and one who really stepped up in big games. Chalk some of Matt's success as QB here to his pro baseball career--when your job--literally--is "on the line" with every play. Being a college player, knowing that your income wasn't in jeopardy must have been a cake walk at times for Mauck.

We just forgot what it's like to have a young QB learning the ropes.

 

Great observation. Mauck was older and had the pro baseball experience. I think that showed a lot, and we didn't realize the importance of it at the time. It was MATURITY. We have to give our current QB's some time to mature. Soph's play like soph's, usually. It's why talented Sr.'s usually look more polished than talented soph's.

That said, a talented soph, if its his job, needs to do his best, and hopefully he comes through often enough that you can enjoy success.

JR will have lots of advantages and opportunities this year. A solid O-line, great running backs hopefully keep him out of 3rd and long, and the most talented receiver corps in college football. The opportunity is there for him to excell, he just has to work hard and seize it.

 

I think that Nick Saban leaving will have much more to do with our preseason ranking than what did or did not happen at the end of last year's bowl game.

If we apply your logic, then Oklahoma shouldn't be in the top 20.