2022 Blog Poll: Bye Week Edition — And the best team at the midseason mark is...

So, we’ve reached roughly the 2/3rdish mark of the season, with most teams having at least seven games under their belt, and some sitting with eight already. Alabama is on its bye, so it is as good a time to take stock and truly dive into the analytics: Who has the best offense, the best defense, the best special teams?

Who’s played the toughest schedule? Who’s done the most with that schedule.

And, sadly, after really thoroughly looking at all the numbers, you arrive at a toss-up for the No. 1 spot between two detestable cheating programs in orange. How you feel about who gets the nod is whether you think a very solid slate of Top 25 wins is better than being an analytics monster who’s earned their spot for a decent schedule, but the single best win of the season.

I went with the latter for the top spot, and I did so because the Volunteers may not be much of shit away from home, and they may collapse in Athens in a few weeks, but after 7-8 weeks, they’ve got the better CV. Hatred or not, if you’ve earned it, then the Blog Poll must recognize it. This team is functionally Ohio State with better wins and less media fluffing. So, if you’re okay with the Buckeyes being a Top 5 team — I suspect most of us are — then you have a very difficult argument to make that they’re not at least as deserving of being No. 1 as anyone else. Particularly when they’ve had the better wins and a far tougher schedule than the Buckeyes.

I’m going to go take an exceptionally hot shower now and peel the flesh from my body.

• Alabama is this high because analytics love this team — one of very few in the country with a Top 10 offense, a Top 10 defense, and a sneaky-tough schedule compared to most of the rest of the Top 10.
• Clemson is kind of a fraud, sure (title-wise, anyway. They’re plainly a Top 10-12 team). But you beat who’s on your schedule, and the Tigers have a great set of close wins over a trio of the ACC’s best non-Clemson teams. It’s smooth sailing to the ACCCG and likely another playoff, unless someone exposes these corners and can stop the run anytime soon.
• Tough game at Oregon, but UCLA is still a damned good team. You can same the same for the Utes...depending on which week you pick. USC is a secret 8-4 team lurking in the body of a PAC 11-1 team. I don’t think they really want to see Oregon in two months, TBH. But, for that matter, I’m not sure that Oregon ever wants to leave the West Coast either. They’ve been monsters since getting back home.
• Is this the best the non-Clemson tier of the ACC has looked in about a decade? I think so. UNC, NC State, Wake Forest, Syracuse are varying degrees of good.
• Speaking of power surge, We may have to acknowledge that the SEC East is perhaps better this year than the West. Sakerlina has quietly moved to 5-2, to go alongside very competitive Kentucky and Florida teams, as well as Georgia and Tennessee
• It’s a pity Jalon Daniels got injured in Kansas’s 10-9 loss to TCU, since that injury, they Jayhawks are reeling. The defense simply isn’t good enough to compensate for a bad offense. 0-3 since that injury, and the B12 race is the worst for it.
• Texas let a chance at the B12 title likely slip through their fingers on Saturday. The secondary simply didn’t show up against one of the conference’s worst passers. If the offense is getting you 30 points, the losses are on the defense. For 60 minutes, last year’s Bad Ole’ Horns reemerged. ]
• Who knows who’s winning that conference, BTW: I’d probably put my money on TCU, which would be a helluva redemption story for the oft’ dumped Sonny Dykes. It’s a fun group to watch if you love old school Lone Star State Run n’ Shoot football.
• Hugh Freeze is surely in his last season at Liberty, right? I wonder if Greg Sankey’s backchannel ban is still in effect. You have to figure this is Auburn’s dream candidate and perfect fit: An offensive-minded wannabe theocrat, who buys sketchy recruiting classes and runs programs dirtier than a sewage treatment plant. His two wins against Alabama only add more zeroes to the contract Jimmy Sexton is going to present a hard-up AD somewhere in December.