Still having intermittent problems with the blog, both on my side and on my host’s side. Sneaking this in before the window of opportunity closes again.

1. Texas

2. Southern Cal

3. Penn State

4. West Virginia

5. Ohio State

6. Georgia

7. Louisiana State

8. TCU

9. Virginia Tech

10. Alabama

11. Oregon

12. UCLA

13. Notre Dame

14. Wisconsin

15. Auburn

16. Florida

17. Boston College

18. Miami

19. Texas Tech

20. Louisville

21. Florida State

22. Clemson

23. Oklahoma

24. Nebraska

25. California

Pete Fiutak of College Football News says the Tennessee Volunteers’ schedule is as brutal as it gets:

Well, there is some excuse for Tennessee. I don’t care what any formula says, playing at Florida, at LSU, Georgia, at Alabama, and at Notre Dame is as brutal as it gets. Based on winning percentage, the teams with the toughest schedules played so far are: 1) Arkansas, 2) Oklahoma, 3) Tennessee, and tied for fourth are South Florida and Michigan. Going into this weekend, if you want to go by the teams with the toughest schedules yet to be played, they are 1) Cal, 2) Stanford, 3) Iowa, 4) USC, 5) Kansas.

John Pennington has examined teams’ perceived recruiting successes in the past few years and compared them with those teams’ current rankings.

Here are Pennington’s top ten recruiters over the last five years and their current BCS rank:

1. Southern Cal: #2 in BCS
2. Michigan: #25 in BCS
3. LSU: #8 in BCS
4. Oklahoma: NR in BCS
5. Florida State: #10 in BCS
6. Miami: #7 in BCS
7. Tennessee: NR in BCS
8. Texas: #1 in BCS
9. Florida: #19 in BCS
10. Ohio State: #13 in BCS

Pennington’s info is much more exhaustive than the above list. His data brings to light several interesting facts. On one hand, the current top two BCS teams — Southern Cal and Texas — have excelled in recruiting, so that would suggest that there is a positive correlation between recruiting success and winning games.

On the other hand, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have recruited well, and have been terrible disappointments so far this season. Plus, some of the other data shows the vast disparity between the current success of teams that have enjoyed about equal recruiting success.

My take is that we fans too often fall victim to the old necessary-sufficient fallacy. In order to win regularly, a school must have a certain level of success in luring top players to the team, but simply having good players is not enough. There are just too many other factors that come into play.

Fixin to head down to Knoxville and Neyland Stadium with Freaktoe to see the Tennessee Vols take on the Georgia Bulldogs. Hoping for a big win.

Of course, the Vols need a big win to stay in the Race to the Rose Bowl. Here are the other important games in the Race, from a Rocky Top perspective:

Best Chances for the Volunteers to Advance

• No. 2 Texas v. Oklahoma. The Red River Shootout has been the other UT’s can’t-get-over-the-hump game for years. They should get it done this year against a sub-par Oklahoma team, but the Longhorns could suffer adverse consequences from the Spotlight Effect.
• No. 6 Ohio State v. Penn State. Ohio State probably wins this one, but as-yet undefeated Penn State is on a mini-roll, and might pull off an upset.

Long Shots for the Volunteers to Advance

• No. 1 Southern Cal v. Arizona.
• No. 3 Virginia Tech v. Marshall.
• No. 5 Florida State v. Wake Forest.

The Tennessee Volunteers arguably didn’t get the bump they deserved for beating the LSU Tigers last Monday night (because the win was after last week’s Coaches’ Poll), but they survived a potential let-down game against the Ole Miss Rebels.

Here are the horses after Week Five:

The Gators fall out of the top ten to number 15 after getting thumped by the Alabama Crimson Tide, who enter the race at number 10. The Gators’ loss makes the Vols’ loss to the Gators look worse, but it’s a necessary evil because the Vols have virtually no chance at the Rose Bowl without winning the SEC Championship, and they can’t do that unless the Gators lose two SEC games. The Gators losing to Bama is a good start, and they play both Georgia and LSU in the next several weeks, so it’s not out of the question. Plus, the Vols can redeem themselves by beating the Crimson Tide if Bama is still in the top ten at that time.

Again, look at UT’s schedule:

• Play Florida when the Gators are ranked, what was it, number 5?
• Play LSU when the Tigers are ranked number 4.
• Play Georgia this week when the Bulldogs are ranked number 4.
• Play Alabama and Notre Dame later, who are now numbers 10 and 12, respectively.

Potentially 5 top ten teams. Maybe another in the SEC Championship. If the Vols can come out of that schedule with only one loss, should they be ranked above even some no-loss teams with lesser schedules?

• Week Four
• Week Three
• Week Two
• Week One
• Preseason

Well, the Week One Coaches’ poll is out, and here’s how the top ten shakes out:So, the Wolverines edge past Tennessee to take up the number 3 spot behind USC and Texas, but the Vols only fall to number 4. Not bad, considering their less than impressive performance. Oklahoma and Miami fall out of the race after losses and are replaced by newcomers Florida and Georgia, who are at numbers 10 and 9 respectively.

This does not bode well for the Volunteers, who barely squeaked out a victory over Alabama-Birmingham, as three of their future opponents are now in the top ten. The Big Questions about Florida were whether the team would catch on to Urban Meyer’s offense soon enough and whether it would work in the SEC. A 32-14 win over Wyoming tends to confirm that the answers are in the affirmative. The Big Question for Georgia going into the year was whether quarterback D.J. Shockley could replace David Greene. Consider the answer to this question a resounding YES!, as Shockley threw five touchdown passes and ran for another in a 48-13 thumping of Boise State.

Tennessee’s questions were whether it could survive games at Florida and at LSU on consecutive weekends. Those questions remain, but now there are more. Can it beat Georgia at home?

And if that were not enough, the game later in the season at Notre Dame looks tougher now after the Fighting Irish clobbered Pitt 42-21.

My preseason Race to the Rose Bowl post is here.

And they’re off! The Race to the Rose Bowl is on. Of course, the Bowl Championship Series rankings will determine which two teams will actually play for the national championship this year, but those rankings don’t start coming out until the end of September. Until then, I’m using the USA Today/Coaches poll.Because this race is more like NASCAR than the Derby, the participants don’t start out even. Here are the ten leaders, before the first kickoff: