I have to hand it to USA Today. This is the coolest interactive tool that I've seen for this type of application. We use a ton of Flash at the office, but nothing quite like this.
Basically, they have published each vote in the Coaches Poll by both Coach and by Team.
Three most interesting ballots to me are:
1. Steve Spurrier
2. Frank Solich
3. Mark Richt
Spurrier -- The Head Ball Coach is all class in his ballot. He ranks UGA as the #4 team in the country, and he ranks Notre Dame as #14. That's good stuff.
Frank Solich -- He has LSU #5, Virginia Tech #7, Auburn #13, TCU #14 and Georgia #15. LSU at #5, are you kidding me? Was that some sort of payback for Les Miles bailing him out jail? Did he turn in this ballot drunk? Was this vote his one call from prison? I mean get serious.
Richt -- Ok, his isn't the most interesting ballot. Just nice to see what our head coach put together.
The odd thing is that I have Auburn at #4 in my Blog Poll ballot. An opinion only shared by Tommy Tuberville (AU), Larry Blakney (Troy) and Rich Brooks (UK). I keep lousy company; although, Houston Nutt has Auburn at #3.
One thing is clear, it would be a gigantic distraction for the coaches to have their votes published during the season.
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7 comments:
Paul, Paul, Paul.....how in the Hahira hell do you vote awebarn #4? Sympathy?
No Dawg worth his spiked collar would not believe in his heart that a reamatch with the Lee County Wannabes would have resulted in vengence for UGA.
No matter, your opinion, but Frank Solich's voting is actually a cry for help available only through rehab, shock treatments, and ice water enemas. Not even the most jaded gayturd or jock jealous tigereagle could come up with 14 teams better than UGA.
I agree - Solich was drunk when he voted. Spurrier is a great coach who recognizes a great team - Go Dawgs!
Solich has Alabama at #10 too, ahead of Auburn and Georgia.
It almost seems like he hasn't turned in a ballot since the weekend of November 12th. He hasn't noticed the Auburn (#13) win over Alabama (#10) or the GT win over Miami (#6).
But he also gives a vote to Nevada, which didn't have a decent win until the 26th.
Take a look at this, just looking at Georgia and LSU (since I can't see any argument whatsoever that LSU should be ranked ahead of UGA).
Tommy Bowden: LSU 10, UGA 12
Bobby Bowden: LSU 8, UGA 12
Mack Brown: LSU 6, UGA 12
Larry Coker: LSU 9, UGA 11
Darryl Dickey: LSU 7, UGA 13
Joe Glenn: LSU 9, UGA 10
Mike Gundy: LSU 9, UGA 11
Ken Hatfield: LSU 8, UGA 12
Howard Schnellenburger: LSU 8, UGA 12
Frank Solich: LSU 5, UGA 15
So about 1/6th of the coaches voted LSU ahead of UGA, despite the same record and a resounding head to head victory on a neutral field where one team thoroughly dominated the other in all aspects of the game, offense, defense and special teams. These are indefensible votes.
1 out of 6 ballots can completely skew the result. Luckily this year didn't have that kind of controversy like last year. If I were an Auburn fan, just looking at these ignorant ballots would piss me off from last year.
I've said it before: This is no way to decide a champion.
That is a fascinating little look at how everybody voted. Two comments:
One, the coaches who inexplicably voted LSU ahead of Georgia are a combined 53-59. So outside of a few elites like Brown, Coker, and Bowden the Elder, we're clearly not dealing with football geniuses here.
Second, in terms of our upcoming bowl opponent, it was nice to see Richt rank WVU 9th (2 spots ahead of their final ranking) and Rich Rodriguez put Georgia 7th (one spot ahead of ours). Clearly both coaches respect each other's teams, and nobody's going to be underestimating anybody else come kickoff time on January 2.
Frank Solich has LSU 10 spots ahead of Georgia? That makes you wonder if he didn't fill it out before hand.
I liked Spurrier's ballot as well because he ranked the Sooners.
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