To get things warmed up for this weekend, we decided to take you thru our Preseason Top 25, as voted in the first week of Season 2 of the BlogPoll. We’ve made our feelings on preseason polling known in the past, so take these for what they are — our blind stab at 2006, with the help of Phil Steele and a couple other magazines that were printed 6 weeks ago.

Here’s #1-5:

1.
Southern Cal
We’re going to go ahead, play ultra-homer, and put our boys at #1. Let it be known — we know, the teams at #2-10 can all make a good case for their place at the top of the charts at this early juncture in the season. And we fully acknowledge there are some issues to be worked out going into the season — namely the emergence of load-carriers in the backfield and at Booty
stepping up and OWNING the starting QB job. But Booty has the benefit of throwing to the most-talented receiving corps in Trojan history, while standing behind a very sturdy offensive line. Meanwhile on other side of the ball, outside of a few overzealous moments in Sunday’s scrimmage, this defense looks as good as the offense did
this time a season ago. Put all those things together with the various issues with #2-5 we list below, and we’re putting our Trojans back on top in our preseason poll.

2. Ohio State
If Ohio State had a couple more Ted Ginn Jr.’s, we’d rank them #1. But
considering this team very well could have played for the title last
year, if Jim Tressel didn’t decide to get crazy with his QBs against
the Longhorns early in the season, we’ve got to put most of this year’s
expectations squarely on Tressel’s shoulders.  Assuming he doesn’t fuck
up, his team should be in Arizona on January 8 (I still can’t believe
the Championship isn’t until Jan. 8, 2007 — incredibly stupid).  But
then again, they did get
rid of the grey on their jerseys. And judging by the reactions
of Ohio State fans, that might be the ultimate Tressel mistake.

3. Notre Dame
Everyone tells us they’re gonna be nasty this year.  We’ve gotten no
less than 100 comments across various posts, guaranteeing that
Notre Dame is going to march into the Coliseum and beat the Trojans
this year.  The funny part is, we got the same emails, saying the same
junk back in 2004, and in then again in 2005.  While we give you all
the props in the world for a tough game last year, you guys are going
to have to come into L.A. and earn our respect by finally making good
on the last few years’ shit-talking before we even think about putting
you ahead of us in any preseason poll.

4. Auburn
We like Auburn.  It’s the alma mater of such legends as Bo Jackson and
Charles Barkley, and that’s gotta count for something.  Plus, they were
real friendly to us when we went down to play them in our season opener
a few years back.  And they’ve got most their toughest games (Florida,
LSU, Georgia) at home this season.  Come to think of it, why the hell
did we put them behind Notre Dame anyways?

5. West Virginia
These Mountaineers are running downhill this year
with one hell of an easy schedule. I think they play the guys from that Scott Bakula movie
in one game, and the highscool team from Friday Night Lights in
another. That being said, this ranking is entirely dependent on the team staying healthy — b/c everywhere but RB, they are not a deep team. So, we’re basically betting on a healthy Mountaineer team in 2006. Yet another example of the questionable logic that pervades all Top 25s.