Blogpoll Ballot: Week 7 (and other notes)

There are a few things to talk about after the ballot, but here is your weekly ballot with some analysis afterward:

Hammer & Rails Ballot - Week 7

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
3	Wisconsin Badgers	--
4	Boise St. Broncos	--
5	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
6	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
7	Stanford Cardinal	--
8	Clemson Tigers	--
9	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	--
10	Illinois Fighting Illini	4
11	Michigan Wolverines	-1
12	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
13	Houston Cougars	--
14	Oregon Ducks	2
15	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
16	Baylor Bears	2
17	Virginia Tech Hokies	3
18	Michigan St. Spartans	4
19	Nebraska Cornhuskers	5
20	Arizona St. Sun Devils	--
21	South Carolina Gamecocks	2
22	Texas Longhorns	-11
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
24	Texas A&M Aggies	--
25	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
Dropouts: Texas Tech Red Raiders, Florida Gators, Auburn Tigers, South Florida Bulls

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Now onto the explanations:

• Undefeated team rules are in effect. Texas and Texas Tech drop after their first losses, leaving us with 13 unbeatens. Again, if you don't want to bitch, then don't lose.
  
• LSU cemented itself at #1 even more. Four ranked teams are among their six wins, including probably the best one-loss team in Oregon. 
• I considered moving Boise up because they keep doing what they can do, namely they are destroying everything in their path. 
• Is A.J. Jenkins the best receiver in the country? I am afraid to see how we will refuse to adjust against him in two weeks. 
• Oklahoma suffers from the bye, as Oklahoma State passes them by hanging 70 on Kansas.
  
• No major upset means not a lot of movement.
  

And now for some of the other things to discuss. First, we have some of Danny Hope's quotes about yesterday. This is what he had to say about Robert Marve:

"It's the best he's managed the game and the best he has stayed within the system since he's been a quarterback at Purdue."

Well, he came in with a big lead and handed off most of the afternoon. i don't think he even ran once. I agree with a lot of the armchair quarterbacks in saying that Hope is handcuffing Marve. First, he continues to insist on this asinine two quarterback system. Second, a senior quarterback, especially one that is alleged to have next level talent, should be able to read defenses at the line and audible as necessary. in fact, all quarterbacks should be able to do it because it gives a team the best shot at winning. To think that a coach's play called on the sideline is completely infallible is ridiculous. To most observers we don't have a system with any wrinkles right now. Surprises would be an improvement, but this is the second straight week that Hope has insisted on sticking with some mythical system.

"I think we played better in every phase of the game defensively, assignment, alignment, attacking the line of scrimmage, swarming to the football, execution, tackling,"

Well, part of that could be because Minnesota is next-level awful and Notre Dame is pretty good, but aside from that yes, we did look better.

"I thought our line played well, and again, we kept it simple, and that helps a lot.We were able to keep them off balance some with the passing game"

I want to bash my head against my keyboard. We gave up three sacks against a team that had two in five games against pretty bad competition in Miami (OH), North Dakota State, and New Mexico State. We threw for less than 200 yards and no passes were farther than 15 yards from the line of scrimmage. That is not keeping them off balance. Once again, Ken Plue was nowhere to be seen as he continues is super-duper-secret triple probation suspension for reasons that cannot be named under penalty of being forced to watch the Notre Dame game again in its entirety.

Boiled Sports' Teddy Huff Is the new Sugar-Daddy of West Lafayette officially has nothing to see here.

Teddy kindly asked me to take this story out for him, so it is gone. Sorry kids.

Robbie Hummel is just fine, thank you. 

Hilarious tweet from Rob yesterday:

All we need is Ice Cube's "It was a Good Day" playing in the background. I leave you with some Robbie-porn, namely him in our new uniforms on the newly finished court at Mackey Arena, something we haven't seen nearly enough of late.