By TexasFootball.com staff
Putting together the DCTF weekly Power Poll is never easy, but at least the football world tried to throw us a bone this time — half of the ten in-state teams were unanimous selections at the positions you see below. It was the other five that were such a problem this time around.
A&M and Baylor, both coming off of impressive wins over clearly inferior opposition, stick in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for the second week in a row. Safe to say it's no coincidence that the two of them also claim the top two players in Texas — Aggie RB Cyrus Gray and Baylor QB Robert Griffin. Have stars, will travel. Our staff was in total agreement on how these two schools fit into the football family tree this week.
The bottom end of the spectrum was pretty crystal-clear, too: North Texas is stuck at No. 10, while UTEP hangs on at No. 9 and Rice languishes at No. 8. Of those three, Rice, with a win over Purdue in its belt, seems best equipped to claw its way past SMU at No. 7. The Ponies, which hammered Northwestern State last weekend, are only a few points behind a UH squad that appears to have lost some of its luster: it's key victory, UCLA, is losing value by the week, and the near-miss against Louisiana Tech last week didn't exactly right the ship.
And that brings us to the final three — and the ones no one could seem to agree on in this week's poll. TCU barely holds onto the third spot, mainly because of the higher quality of its competition — Baylor and Air Force, namely — while UT and Tech are locked up in the fourth spot. Don't be surprised if that ends next week — UT is off before its big game against Iowa State in two weeks, while TTU has yet another uninspiring foe (Nevada) ripe for the picking.
DCTF's 2011 Texas College Power Poll — Week 3
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous week |
| 1 | Texas A&M Aggies | Points: 40 (4) | 1 |
| Travis Stewart: Cyrus Gray has now run for more than 100 yards in nine straight games. Just asking: If A&M wins the conference, will he end up being a Hesiman candidate? I fear that he started too far off the map this year, at least on a national scale. But if the Ags sweep the conference and he passes the century mark in every game, that's a mighty convincing case. | |||
| 2 | Baylor Bears | Points: 36 | 2 |
| Greg Tepper: There was no hangover effect in the first game since the huge upset of TCU. The only thing that can slow down the Baylor offense right now is lightning. | |||
| 3 | TCU Horned Frogs | Points: 28 | 3 |
| Adam Hochfelder: A very sluggish start for the Horned Frogs against a Sun Belt team. Still, this team is young and well-coached with a very good QB. While I have the Frogs low right now, I bet they’ll be in my top two or three in Texas by year’s end. | |||
| t-4 | Texas Longhorns | Points: 27 | 5 |
| Adam Hochfelder: While UCLA is officially a push-over now, Texas dominated from the opening kick-off. Iowa State will be the toughest foe of the first four the Horns play (yes, I typed that correctly), and don’t forget the 5-7 team last year started 3-0. Big game coming in Ames after bye. | |||
| t-4 | Texas Tech Red Raiders | Points: 27 | 6 |
| Travis Stewart: There's a chance that TTU's two foes to date could end the year with one or two wins combined. So I'm taking the impressive start with a grain of salt. And this is coming from the guy who wanted to put them fourth in a very competitive Big 12 this year. Tech is good, but I won't know how good until the A&M game. |
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| 6 | Houston Cougars | Points: 21 | 4 |
| Greg Tepper I’ve been the Coogs’ biggest proponent, but I’m souring. It’s becoming clear that UCLA isn’t very good, and needing a miraculous comeback against Louisiana Tech doesn’t inspire confidence. | |||
| 7 | SMU Mustangs | Points: 19 | t-7 |
| Travis Stewart: SMU pummeled an inferior foe this week, which is good — we've seen this squad play down to the competition before. But the more I watch this team, the more I think DCTF should have given more recognition to RB Zach Line in the preseason. He may not be a Hesiman front-runner, but he's a pretty good player who works hard. |
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| 8 | Rice Owls | Points: 12 | t-7 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Rice can make some big noise if it can hang with Baylor and pull off a huge upset this week. I am not predicting that, but it would sure upset the order of things in this Power Poll. | |||
| 9 | UTEP Miners | Points: 8 | 9 |
| Greg Tepper: The Miners are 2-1, but that is about the best thing you can say about them right now. The running game is in shambles, and with Javia Hall at QB, the offense is treading water. | |||
| 10 | North Texas Mean Green | Points: 4 | 10 |
| Travis Stewart: I haven't seen anything from UNT yet that surprises me — I think 0-3 seems about right. New coach, tough opening schedule, inexperienced roster. But I still think we'll see a better product by season's end. As hard as it is to believe, I think the Mean Green's rough start is more or less according to plan. |
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ABOUT THE PANEL:
> Travis Stewart is the managing editor of DCTF
> Greg Tepper is the associate editor of DCTF
> Adam Hochfelder is the Executive Director of DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Brad Hilliard is the operations coordinator for DCTF and several other IMG College properties (inactive this week)
> Tom Sullivan is an account executive for DCTF
