USA Today just released their first coaches poll of the season. And again, I wonder how these coaches come up with this stuff.

1. Georgia

2. Southern California

3. Ohio State

4. Oklahoma

5. Florida

6. LSU

7. Missouri

8. West Virginia

9. Clemson

Okay, so far so good. Georgia, USC, and Ohio State are basically everyone’s favorites to make the BCS championship game. Oklahoma was a pretty young team last year that should only improve. Same goes for Florida. I’m more than a little concerned about LSU, though. They’re losing a lot of offense, their top 2 QBs from last year in Matt Flynn and Ryan Perilloux, Jacob Hester, and Early Doucet. And on defense, Glenn Dorsey might be the only big name loss, but he kinda won just about every single award a defensive player can win. They could have some serious problems this year, but I don’t fault the coaches for giving them the benefit of the doubt. And as for Missouri, I like them a lot. I think Chase Daniel is a special player, and I love that crazy “pistol” offense. They’re easily the class of the Big XII. Frankly, I’d have them bumped up a few places. And West Virginia, who would’ve been playing in the Championship game last year were it not for a kinda fluky loss to Pitt, lost Steve Slaton, but Noel Devine is an absolute beast. They’re easily the class of the Big East. And losing RichRod won’t hurt too much. Clemson’s got plenty of running backs and return like 9 defensive starters. Okay. The top 9 is pretty solid.

10. Texas

11. Auburn

12. Wisconsin

13. Kansas

I’m really wondering where the coaches came up with this one. Texas as the 10th best team in the country? They lost 7 offensive starters, including basically every single skills position player: Jamaal Charles, Limas Sweed, Jermichael Finley, and Nate Jones. But here’s the good news: they return turnover machine Colt McCoy! And the defense lost just about as much. I don’t think Texas is a great team, and considering they play in the loaded Big XII South, I see at least 3 losses. Not the #10 team by any stretch. Auburn, well, no qualms here. They very well may be a Top 10 team by the time the season ends. They return 14 starters. I might not buy the offense, but they’re almost always great on D. Wisconsin at 12 is another rank I have a problem with. They finished the 2007 season ranked #21 in the AP polls, and even though they return 17 starters, they having a gaping hole at QB. True, Travis Beckum might be the best TE in the nation. And PJ Hill is a bruiser. But I’m not buying Wisconsin until I see a solid offense. Frankly, I don’t see them as the second best team in the Big Ten, but then again, I’m a Penn State fan. I think Kansas was pretty lucky and had a really easy schedule last year, but their schedule is just as easy this year, so they’ll probably go 10-2 at worst just by sheer scheduling.  But that’s not to completely discredit them.  Todd Reesing looks like the real deal at QB, and I like Jake Sharp because after Hester’s graduation from LSU the NCAA needs a white running back.  But seriously, they had a great season last year, culminating with a BCS bowl win (even though they shouldn’t have been there) and return most of their starters.  They could be bumped up a few spots.

14. Texas Tech

15. Virginia Tech

16. Arizona State

17. Brigham Young

18. Tennessee

19. Illinois

Texas Tech at 14 is a very interesting rating. They return 18 starters, including the ridiculously productive duo of Harrell and Crabtree. They have an awesome offensive line. Granted, there’s not much depth behind the starters, but you know they’ll rack up points. The defense is pitiful, which at the least should make their games fun to watch. Their out of conference schedule is a joke (Eastern Washington, @Nevada, SMU, Massachusetts) so they could well go 10-2. I don’t love VTech at 15. They return just 10 starters, and lost their top 4 skill position players on offense. I’m not in love with Sean Glennon or Tyrod Taylor or the entire 2-headed quarterback approach. And on defense, losing more than half the starters does not bode well, even if the ACC really does suck so much that that they only deserve 1 top-20 team. Arizona is another team that returns just 12 starters, and losses included 3 starters (including both tackles) from the unit that allowed the 3rd most sacks in football. I love Rudy Carpenter, but he’s got to have happy feet by now. On defense, I worry about the linebackers a lot. This is a team with big upside, but also big downside. Next we have BYU, and I’m glad to see the coaches give a non-BCS team some respect, but frankly BYU is better than #17. I’d have them right at the cusp of the Top Ten. The offense loses just two starters from a unit that averaged 30 points per game last year, and I’m a big fan of Max Hall and Harvey Unga. This team will put up a ton of points. If you’re going to hate on BYU, though, here’s why. The defense returns just 3 starters, and the 8 losses includes all 4 starting linebackers from the 3-4 BYU runs. But I’m not completely selling this defense short. I like the defensive line, which returns Jan Jorgenson who had 14 sacks last year. The defense has allowed fewer than 19 points per game each of the last two years, and I expect that to continue. If I’m BYU, I might well take a #17 ranking as a slap in the face. I’m really looking forward to their last game of the year, against Utah. Tennessee at #18 is yet another ranking I take issue with. Okay, the finished last year ranked #12 in the AP. But Erik Ainge had a crazy good year, with 31 TDs and just 10 INT, and I do like Arian Foster, but I’m not loving the Tennessee offense. The defense only loses 5 starters, but #10 overall pick Jerod Mayo was one of them. Tennessee struggled against the run last year, and in the pass rush. Their secondary is solid, but the gameplan if you’re playing Tennessee: run it down their throats. And at #19 might be my biggest problem with the entire rankings. Illinois should not be considered a Top 25 team. They lost Rashard Mendenhall, who was awesome last year. Before the season nobody knew the name Mendenhall, but the 2007 season led him to come out a year early and become a first round draft pick. So the offensive reigns are handed to Juice Williams who has been atrocious the past two seasons. Last year, with a great running game to take the pressure off of him, he managed to actually get his completion percentage over 50% with a 13 TDs to 12 INTs. True, he’s a scrambler, but with question marks at running back, he’s going to have some major problems this year. The defense also lost their best player, in J Leman, but they also lost both starting safeties and Antonio Steele, who’s 89 tackles were second on the team. Frankly, I don’t like Illinois at all, and if it weren’t for that upset win over Ohio State, we wouldn’t have to hear this anymore.

20. Oregon

21. South Florida

22. Penn State

Oregon at #20 is a pretty questionable rank. We all remember how much they fell off after they lost Dennis Dixon to injury, and now they’ve lost him and first round pick Jonathan Stewart. They’re replacing Stewart with JuCo transfer LaGarrette Blount, who has brought a lot of hype with him to Eugene, but I’m not sold on Justin Roper, Dennis Dixon’s replacement, who has just 61 passes in his college career. On defense, they lose just 4 starters, but that includes both defensive tackles, so they should struggle against the run this year. They do have the chance to be a very good team in 2008, but they also could resemble the 2007 campaign, post-Dixon injury. I think the coaches are underrating South Florida by ranking them at #21. This is a team that returns 15 starters, including 8 from a very good offense. Matt Grothe is a very good dual threat quarterback, and I really like Mike Ford, who was an uberprospect coming out of high school. Ford had 12 TDs last year, and could well improve on that in 2008. On the other hand, the defense has plenty of question marks. They lost just 4 starters, but that includes both starting corners Trae Williams, and Mike Jenkins who were very effective. Ben Moffitt racked up 100 tackles for three straight seasons, and his loss should hurt USF a lot. But returning is George Selvie, who may have established himself as the best defensive end in the country with a 15 sack, 32 TFL season last year. Both safeties return, so I’m not too worried about the secondary. USF won their first bowl game just 2 seasons ago, but they have a chance to pull off another first for the program in 2008: The first BCS game. Penn State checks in at 22, which wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t 10 points below Wisconsin and 3 behind Illinois. Now here comes a stat for you: if it weren’t for the injury to Sean Lee and the suspensions of Andrew Quarless and Chris Baker, we would be returning 18 starters which is pretty nice. Frankly, moving on from Anthony Morelli to Daryll Clark could well be addition by subtraction, and though Rodney Kinlaw moves on, I don’t think any of us are too worried about Evan Royster and Stephfon Green. The Triple Threat of Butler, Williams, and Norwood along with our 5 returning starters from the offensive line makes us pretty well set on offense. Losing Sean Lee and Chris Baker (although, as Charlie noted, Baker’s suspension might not be permanent), in addition to Dan Connor and Justin King will hurt. That’s a given. But we still have great depth on the D-line, with Evans, Gaines, Maybin, Odrick, Still, Ogbu, and Latham. Anthony Scirotto will anchor a very good secondary, and we should be fine at linebacker, even with those aforementioned losses. Frankly, I consider Penn State to be far superior to Illinois and comparable with Wisconsin. If Wisconsin’s going to be ranked at #12, Penn State should be closer to #15 than #25.

23. Wake Forest

24. Michigan

25. Fresno State

Wake Forest checks in at #23, and Riley Skinner quarterbacks a solid offense, but one that returns just 2 starters from the Offensive Line. This team, however, is not going to win because of their offense. They return 9 starters on defense, and project to have a great unit in 2008. This is a havoc causing defense that produces a ton of turnovers. Alphonso Smith tied for the lead with 8 interceptions, three of which he turned into scores. Brandon Ghee at the other CB spot helps give Wake Forest perhaps the best secondary in the NCAA. In a weak ACC, they might well be the #2 team. Michigan at #24, though, is an awful rank. You talk about hype by name alone, and that’s definitely the case with Michigan. They’ve been compared constantly to last year’s Notre Dame team, another team that had major struggles to replace graduating seniors. Michigan lost 12 starters including 9 on offense, most notably Michigan legends Chad Henne and Mike Hart. Steven Threet takes over the reigns on offense after the Ryan Mallett transfer , but he isn’t exactly the prototype QB for RichRod’s offense. There’s a lot of depth at running back, but no bona fide star. The offensive line and wide receiver corps are both in shambles. This offense is not going to score a lot of points next year. The defense will be good. That’s a given, as they actually have depth and experience here, returning 7 starters, including the entire defensive line and both starting corners. When Michigan wins this year, it’s going to be by gritty, grind-it-out kind of football. A tough schedule, starts against Utah, which could well drop Michigan to 0-1. They play @Penn State, @Ohio State, @Notre Dame, @Purdue and host Wisconsin and Illinois. They could well finish the year at 6-6 or 7-5. Frankly, I see 8-4 as the ceiling for Michigan. With Fresno State at #45, the coaches put 2 non BCS-conference teams in the top 25. Well done, coaches! Fresno State returns 16 starters, including 9 from an offense that ranked #14 in the country in rushing. With a running attack so good, all the QB needs to do is not turn the ball over, and Tom Brundstater did just that, throwing just 5 interceptions in 2007. The emergence of Bear Pascoe gives him a great option to throw to. Now, Fresno State returns 7 starters on defense, but that might actually be a bad thing, considering they allowed more than 27 points per game last year. Still, another year of experience for the unit should definitely help. I’m really impressed with the out-of-conference schedule, which features games @Rutgers, @UCLA, and against Wisconsin. Win 2 of them, and I’m sold that this is a top-20 team.

So considering I bashed a lot of the selections, who would I put in the top 25? Well, I really like Cincinnati, Utah, and Pittsburgh, but as we saw last year, pre-season rankings don’t mean much. Sure, a lot of people might have had Ohio State and LSU in the championship game, but we saw Boston College, South Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, and California all in the #2 rank at some point.