Phil Steele’s preseason Top 40

[TBCat]

Based on results on the field, reasonable people should agree with you on this. Anyone who saw the last several UK-UL games would know that the strength of UL's program is not comparable to UK's. Our lines shoved their lines all over the field. That difference hasn't been turned around in 8 months.

This particular ranking for UK is the lowest I have seen. Almost everyone has UK between 15-25. Of course, preseason rankings don't have any actual importance. They don't win games, and they don't have any impact on bowl invitations. In fact, it is more impressive when a team with lower expectations really plays well and outperforms.

If one buys into an optimistic narrative regarding UK's season, one assumes our OL, DL, and secondary will perform well. Conversely, a lack of respect for our OL, DL, and secondary would be the basis for discounting this team, especially if one believes Chris Rodriguez will not be back. At this stage, there are a lot of variables. My opinion is that Deondre Buford's performance plus keeping Will Levis, Tayvion Robinson, and Keidron Smith healthy will go a long way toward determining the results.

It's not just the score either. The eyeball test was even more lopsided. UK could have beat UL by 100 last year if we wanted.

 

[megablue]

Alabama 1
Ohio State 2
Georgia 3
Clemson 4
Michigan 5
Utah
Notre Dame
Oklahoma
Texas A&M
Oregon
Pittsburgh 11
Miami 12
NC State
Baylor
Oklahoma St
USC
UCF
Texas
Wisconsin
Iowa 20
UAB
Penn State
Michigan State
Wake Forest
Cincinnati
BYU
Tennessee 27
UCLA
Air Force
Ole Miss
Boise State
Florida 32
Louisville 33
Houston
Kentucky 35
Arkansas
Minnesota
Kansas State
App State
Fresno State 40

We shall see how this list looks at the end of the season.

SEC with only 3 teams in the top 26 ??

 

[southindycat]

Phil got three days free accommodation at the Galt House with a daily round at Valhalla and a long weekend in some twit's Gatlinburg compound for that turd. He's cheaper than a Vegas hooker at 4 am.

 

[The-Hack]

SEC with only 3 teams in the top 26 ??

Uh, yes.

Given that that has never happened, I find it reasonable for Steele to predict.

 

[The-Hack]

He's cheaper than a Vegas hooker at 4 am.

I need your number for my next trip to Vegas.

Is 4:00 am the magic number?

 

[hmt5000]

SEC with only 3 teams in the top 26 ??

I think there is a large group of other fans that feel like the sec gets ranked high preseason and that gives us a lopsided SOS and leads to having more teams ranked higher than they should..... Now that falls apart when you look at bowl games most years. Granted, we take a beating every 3 or 4 years but usually beat the snot out of who are matched with even when it's a SEC 5 vs a BiG 2 or something like that.