I thought I would note where Phil Steele ranked all our units on the national and SEC levels in his preseason magazine, and how it compares to uGa. He doesn't separate LBs or DBs, his Receivers rankings include TEs, and he combines kickers, punters, coverage and returners into a Special Teams rank.
QB - Natl: UA 2, GA 20, anOsu 1 / SEC: UA 1, GA 5
RB - Natl: UA 5, GA 19, Texass 1 / SEC: UA 1, GA 4
REC - Natl: UA 10, GA 4 (due to those TEs), USCw 1 / SEC: UA 3, GA/LSwho tie for 1
OL - Natl: UA 13, GA 2, Mich 1 / SEC: UA t3, GA 1 (fAU 2)
DL - Natl: UA 11, GA 12, Clem 1 / SEC: UA/GA/MSU t3, (fAU/LSwho t1)
LB - Natl: UA 1, GA 3, NCSt 2 / SEC: UA 1, GA 2, (fAU/MSU/UF/aTm/OM/UK tie for 3 to 8)
DB - Natl: UA 6, GA 1, aTm 2 / SEC: UA/GA/aTm t1 (so diff in Natl rank not that significant)
ST - Natl: UA 9, GA 14 // SEC: UA/aTm/fAU t1 (should include uTk based on Natl rank of 10)
Coaching: SEC: UA 1, GA/aTm t2 (Ha! Fisher still getting credit for 2013)
I was curious how a weighted average unit rank would compare to his national power poll ranks. PS gives most SEC teams a national ranking for each unit, but I had to make a SWAG at the rest (Scientific Wild Ass Guess, the basis of most of my former actuarial work) to come up with a weighted rank for all 131 FBS teams. The weights are some I came up with a few years ago for each unit and does include ST, but can't directly factor in coaching. Obviously none of this factors in fall camp developments.
Team / PS Power Poll (PSPP) / Wtd Unit Ranks (WUR)
UA 1, 1
GA 3, 3
aTm 8, 6
uTk 11, 11
fAU 19, 16
MSU 20, 18
OM 26, 24
ARK 27, 23
UK 32, 36
uF 35, 13 (dramatic down rank due to coaching change I guess)
USCe 38, 20 (not sure why PSPP so low, uGA should watch out at USCe)
LSwho 36, 25 (coaching change, bad Southern accent)
Misery 64, 53
Vandy 113, 121
Here is the comparison for his top 10, lowest ranks shown:
Team / PSPP / WUR
UA 1, 1 (worst rank OL 13, see above)
anOsu 2, 2 (LB 18)
uGa 3, 3 (QB 20, RB 19)
Clem 4, 7 (QB 58, ST 46)
Mich 5, 5 (LB 36, QB 28)
Nd 6, 4 (RB 50, QB 39)
Utah 7, 9 (REC 61, ST not ranked in PS top 64)
aTm 8, 6 (DL 35, hence all the purchased DL recruits, LB 26)
Pitt 9, 14 (REC 55, Biletnikoff winner now paid by USCw, LB 49)
Miami 10, 8 (OL 35, LB 30)
PS clearly factored in coaching changes/stability in moving some teams around (Clem up 3, ND & Miami down 2, OK is WUR 10, PSPP 15), but the top 10 aligns reasonably well and it's easy to see why the top 3 are who they are.
Top 5 Offensive WUR: anOsu, UA, USCw (PSPP 28, WUR 33), uGa, Mich
Top 5 Defensive WUR: uGa, Clemson, UA, Nd, Iowa (PSPP 17, WUR 22, Ferentz over-rated)
The top 5 Defensive WUR are in a virtual deadlock, but anOsu runs away with the Offensive WUR, so expect the press to ooh and aah over a historically great offense when they plow over all those B1G defenses.
No surprise, our chances at a magical season depend on the development of our OL under Coach Wolf, and the stoutness of our DL (Oatis sounds pretty stout.) And as always, no Loki.
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