Kentucky Football Weekly Update: Week 8
By Will
In what may become a regular feature (if work rears its ugly head it’ll probably disappear), Allenby For Heisman! hopes to take a weekly look at the University of Kentucky’s place in the world of college football.
After Kentucky’s loss to Florida, nobody is projecting the Cats for a Bowl Championship Series bowl berth. But most everyone still sees the Cats as a top-15 team who will play in a non-BCS New Year’s Day bowl. We’re guessing the win against LSU has much to do with that.
On the Heisman front, Andre’ Woodson didn’t do anything to hurt his Heisman chances. In fact, we’d be so bold to say he enhanced his chances in spite of the loss if not for the fact that Kentucky’s opponent Saturday featured a Heisman candidate of its own, Tim Tebow. Most people have Woodson pegged as a finalist, but we’d think if it comes down to he or Tebow, Tebow would have the advantage for besting Woodson head-to-head. (Plus, Tebow gets another national CBS game this weekend versus Georgia, and his Gators have the inside track to play in the Southeastern Conference championship game, which would put him the national spotlight the week before the vote.)
And with that unusually lengthy prologue out of the way, let’s get to the Update.
BCS Standings. Kentucky fell from No. 7 to No. 14 in the BCS Standings. Like last week, the computers are more impressed with the Cats than the pollsters. Kentucky has the No. 12 computer average, but is ranked No. 15 in the Harris Poll and No. 14 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. [Link] (Kentucky’s week 8 opponent, Mississippi State, is not ranked in the BCS Standings.)
Associated Press Poll. Kentucky fell from No. 8 to No. 14 in the AP Poll. [Link] (Mississppi is not ranked or receiving votes.)
CBSSports. Kentucky fell from No. 7 to No. 14 in the CBSSports.com 120. [Link] (Mississippi State is No. 71.) Despite the loss to the Gators, CBSSports projects the Cats in a more prestigious bowl this week than last week. Last week CBSSports projected the Cats would face Penn State in the Outback Bowl. This week, CBSSports projects the Cats will face Michigan in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Florida, on January 1. [Link]
SI.com. Kentucky fell from No. 7 to No. 12 in Stewart Mandel’s Power Rankings. Woodson impressed Mandel on Saturday:
Gene Menez and I apparently disagree about Andre’ Woodson’s Heisman candidacy. He sees the guy that struggled against South Carolina. I saw that game, too, but since then I’ve watched him knock off LSU and shred Florida for 415 yards and five TDs. He’s second only to Tebow on my list.
[Link] (SI.com has Mississippi State at No. 67.)
FoxSports. Kentucky fell from No. 14 to No. 16 in the CollegeFootballNews.com Rankings at FoxSports:
The Ranking Should Be Higher Because … UK might have lost to Florida, but there’s that still that little matter of beating the Tigers two weeks ago. If you really believe LSU is the nation’s best team, then you have to give the proper respect to the team that beat them.
The Ranking Should Be Lower Because … it shouldn’t be. Losing to South Carolina and Florida still might mean UK is among the ten best teams in America. The offense put up 43 points on LSU and 37 on Florida. No matter how you cut it, that’s gettin’ it done.
[Link]
ESPN.com. Kentucky fell from No. 8 to No. 14 in the ESPN Power 16. [Link] (Mississippi State was not ranked.)
In their updated bowl projections, ESPN senior writer Ivan Maisel projects the Cats will face Michigan in the Capital One Bowl (last week he had the Cats facing Penn State in the Outback Bowl). Senior writer Mark Schlabach projects Kentucky will meet Penn State in the Outback Bowl (last week he had the Cats facing West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl.) [Link]
Sagarin Rankings. Kentucky fell from No. 9 to No. 12 in the latest Sagarin rankings. [Link]
Vegas Oddsmakers’ Top 25. The Sports Bog hasn’t put this together yet. We’ll update when he does.
New Item No 1 — Blog Poll. We’re adding the Blog Poll from MGoBlog. We’ll update once it goes up on Wednesday.
New Item No 2 — SEC Power Poll. We read ASeaofBlue regularly, and the power poll they contribute to at Garnet and Black Attack is well done. The Cats are 4th in this week’s poll, behind LSU, Florida, and Auburn. [Link] (The Cats were third on the ASOB ballot, behind LSU and Florida.) [Link]
That’s that. Onward and upward!