By TexasFootball.com staff
This week's Power Poll brings the DCTF staff something we've never had before — three teams with No. 1 votes in one week. Can you blame us?
Houston, Baylor and Texas A&M all impressed at least one person on the Texas Football roster this time around, and each team has a legitimate claim to the throne. Houston, for starters, is the only undefeated team in Texas, and its induction to the top 25 poll this week means the rest of the country is taking notice. But this is also the same Houston team that barely survived last-place UTEP and squeaked by a UCLA team that UT hammered a few weeks back.
Baylor has the most polarizing player in quarterback Robert Griffin III and a near-unstoppable offense. But its frustrating loss to Kansas State (now ranked) two weeks ago lingers, along with the question everyone seems to be thinking: Can the Bears play any defense at all? Texas A&M may have two losses, but both should have been wins against top 15 programs — and the Aggies may have the best win of the trio of contenders in Texas Tech.
The vote point differentials between the top three teams reflects our lack of uniform opinion; the four-point margin between the three is difficult to hit in our AP-style system. The next four teams aren't any easier to decipher; SMU, which can only trumpet an overtime win against TCU on this year's ledger of impressive victories, slots in at fourth, still riding the wave of momentum from last week's win over its cross-town rival.
Texas, last week's top team, takes a precipitous tumble after a one-sided shellacking against Oklahoma — a game that looked worse from the field (some of us were on the sidelines) than it did on TV. The saving grace? That OU team is one of, if not the, best teams in the country. It's tough to think that any of our ten Texas teams could saddle the Sooners with an upset loss. Tech, which started last week at No. 2, fell four spots after its home loss to A&M.
TCU, despite its win over San Diego State, is stuck at seventh — largely because its already lost to two in-state teams, which limits its ability to crawl up the ladder. Rice, which throttled a bad Memphis team Saturday, hangs around at eighth, while North Texas jumps to ninth after a notable conference win up in Denton. UTEP, idle last week, slides to tenth.
DCTF's 2011 Texas College Power Poll — Week 6
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous week |
| 1 | Baylor Bears (4-1/1-1) | Points: 47 (2) | 5 |
| Tom Sullivan: The Baylor offense rolls on, but please, just for once, could you hold a team under 20 points and make your top ranking legit? Otherwise, the Bears will be off this spot within a week. | |||
| 2 | Houston Cougars (6-0/2-0) | Points: 45 (2) | 3 |
| Brad Hilliard: We knew the Coog offense was capable of scoring 56 against a team like East Carolina, but the defense keeping the Pirates out of the endzone was a surprise. | |||
| 3 | Texas A&M Aggies (3-2/1-1) | Points: 43 (1) | 4 |
| Travis Stewart: Wondering who the lone No. 1 vote was for Texas A&M? It's me. The Aggies have lost two games in the waning seconds to top 15 teams, they've comfortably beaten an SMU team that's proven to be fairly good, and they just won at one of the most hostile environments those players will ever step foot in. Would you favor the Aggies over UH on a neutral field? I would. Remember: UH barely bested a team that an OU'ed UT group — now in fifth place — throttled (UCLA). | |||
| 4 | SMU Mustangs (4-1/2-0) | Points: 32 | 6 |
| Brad Hilliard: They’ve had a week to savor the win over TCU — now the Mustangs must turn their attention toward challenging for the C-USA title. | |||
| 5 | Texas Longhorns (4-1/1-1) | Points: 29 | 1 |
| Tom Sullivan: Even the most optimistic fan of the ‘Horns had to leave Red River a little concerned. Concern might change to reality this Saturday against the Pokes. | |||
| 6 | Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-1/1-1) | Points: 26 | 2 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Way too many field goal attempts for the Red Raiders. A few key drops and one blocked field goal cost them a much-desired win over the Aggies for perhaps the last time … ever? | |||
| 7 | TCU Horned Frogs (4-2/2-0) | Points: 23 | 7 |
| Greg Tepper: What’s the deal, TCU? You lose to Baylor and SMU, and then win comfortably in two of your hardest road conference games? You confuse me, TCU. But as long as the defense plays like it did against San Diego State instead of how it played against Baylor, the Frogs will be fine. | |||
| 8 | Rice Owls (2-3/1-1) | Points: 15 | 8 |
| Travis Stewart: The offense last week isn't what caught my eye — it was the defense. C-USA teams score in bunches, but the ones that play defense are the ones that end up with a trophy. Happens almost every single time. | |||
| 9 | North Texas Mean Green (2-4/1-1) | Points: 9 | 10 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Nice win over Florida Atlantic for UNT. That's a second win for Dan McCarney and a third-straight impressive home performance. Maybe the new field has a little something ... | |||
| 10 | UTEP Miners (2-3/0-2) | Points: 6 | 9 |
| Greg Tepper: After a week off, there’s no excuse for the Miners not to go to New Orleans and beat a bad Tulane team. But if they do lose to the Green Wave, I wonder if Mike Price’s seat starts to get a little toasty. | |||
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
> Tom Sullivan is an account executive for DCTF
