The Michigan Daily Top 10 returns for its ninth installment this season. Each week, Daily staffers will fill out ballots, with first place votes receiving 10 points, second-place votes receiving nine, and so on. The results are published with first-place votes in parentheses.
1. Texas (14): Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy called the Longhorns the best Texas team he has faced, even better than the Vince Young championship team. Just what Young needs — someone else putting him down.
2. Alabama (1): The Crimson Tide will welcome Arkansas State to Tuscaloosa for a homecoming game this weekend. Nothing says the pageantry of college football like a homecoming game between Arkansas State and Alabama.
3. Penn State (2): Joe Paterno won in Columbus for the first time since 1978. That was Woody Hayes’ last season. Before that game, Hayes closed his practices, trying to catch the Penn State off guard with a new type of spread offense.
4. Oklahoma: What was more ridiculous, the Sooners’ 55-point first half against Kansas State or their three-point second half? Sounds like Michigan, except Oklahoma’s good half was actually good.
5. Texas Tech: With Election Day approaching (and Saturday’s game against Texas), start thinking about whether you are going to vote for Graham Harrell or Michael Crabtree at passorcatch2008.com.
6. Florida: Did anybody else do a double take when they saw the 65-3 final in the Gators’ slaughtering of the Wildcats? Understatement of the week by Kentucky defensive end Jeremy Jarmon: “Today, we took a step back.”
7. Southern Cal: The Trojans offer the best defense against unwanted impregnations in the scoring area. They seal any pesky little guys that might get through. And they allow just 8.14 points per game.
8. Georgia: After rushing for a touchdown, Knowshon Moreno gestured to the LSU student section as if he was answering a phone. LSU fans got Moreno’s number and left him messages all week. What’s Curtis Painter’s number?
9. Oklahoma state: A team from the Panhandle State loses to Texas — haven’t we heard this one before? So why are the Cowboys ranked so much lower than the Sooners? Makes us want to puke.
10. Utah: Utes coach Kyle Whitingham spent his bye weekend in Bristol, Conn., talking Utah football on the Worldwide Leader. If he were to have come to Ann Arbor to plead his case, maybe the Daily staff would have rated Utah higher.
Also Receiving Votes: Minnesota (1), Boise State, Ohio State, Texas Christian, Tulsa, Missouri