By TexasFootball.com staff
In what universe is a win over the preseason national No. 1 — on the road — not good enough for the top spot in the DCTF Power Poll? This wacky one we live in, apparently.
Tech saddled Bob Stoops' Oklahoma squad with just its third home loss in his head coaching tenure Saturday night in a wild, high-scoring affair that left viewers breathless. But it still couldn't garner a single top-spot vote in the weekly Power Poll, primarily because of its home loss to A&M earlier in the year. Our staff actually split things down the middle — half were swayed by A&M's now-sterling win in Lubbock about two weeks ago, and half stuck with Houston's untarnished 7-0 mark. Either way, Tech made a major leap up from No. 7 to No. 3 — and though it probably needs a little help to get much higher, it's still a marked difference from the downward spiral Tommy Tuberville's injury-ravaged Red Raiders looked stuck in just 72 hours ago.
A&M and Houston both took care of business against inferior foes, though both looked a little sluggish at times, almost bored with the level of competition. A&M obviously won't have to worry about that much longer (Missouri, @OU, @KSU), but UH still has a ways to go before it hits a worthy opponent. TCU, in at No. 5, also won with a heavy hand against lowly New Mexico.
Baylor sits at No. 4, but with a trip to Stillwater looming, the Bears are either going to jump way up or fall a few spots — the high-scoring, highly-ranked Pokes don't really offer any other alternatives. Texas, idle this week, looks poised for a jump from No. 6 with Kansas on the horizon, but SMU is the real riddle — just days after it looked like June Jones' Ponies were set to win 10 or 11 games, they faltered badly against Southern Miss in what is surely Pernua's worst showing of the year. Relegation to seventh is the penalty.
UTEP, winners over Colorado State, rises to eighth, while Rice drops after a loss to Tulsa. UNT, which has now won three games, sticks at tenth, but barely — and keep an eye on the boys in Denton, because bowl-eligibility actually isn't as wild as you may think.
DCTF's 2011 Texas College Power Poll — Week 8
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous week |
| 1 | Texas A&M Aggies (5-2/3-1) | Points: 38 (2) | 2 |
| Adam Hochfelder: The Aggies sleptwalk through the first quarter, but the running game roared to life and dominated Iowa State. A&M is 3-0 since it definitively declared it was taking its football and heading east. | |||
| 2 | Houston Cougars (7-0/3-0) | Points: 36 (2) | 1 |
| Greg Tepper: They get my top vote until they lose, and with Case Keenum breaking records every time he steps on the field, that might not be for a while. | |||
| 3 | Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-2/2-2) | Points: 32 | 7 |
| Brad Hilliard: The sound you heard when OU’s late field goal attempt doinked off the upright in Norman on Saturday was the formal dissolution of “Team Leach” in Lubbock. | |||
| 4 | Baylor Bears (4-2/1-2) | Points: 26 | 5 |
| Travis Stewart: A year ago, Baylor rode a three-game winning streak into Stillwater and got thrashed. It turned into a three-game losing streak and exposed the exciting Bears as a middle-of-the-pack team. If this BU group is really different than before, it needs to at least play the Pokes close, if not win outright. | |||
| 5 | TCU Horned Frogs (4-2/2-0) | Points: 25 | 6 |
| Adam Hochfelder: I try to not to fall into the trap of criticizing teams for playing bad teams; the players can only play who is on the schedule. The Frogs played the worst team in FBS play in New Mexico and they responded how good teams should respond — they absolutely demolished the Lobos, 69-0, in a game that wasn't even that close. | |||
| 6 | Texas Longhorns (4-2/1-2) | Points: 22 | 4 |
| Greg Tepper: All told, Longhorns fans should be pretty pleased with where their team is right now. Take care of business against a bad Kansas team, and bowl eligibility is a near certainty. | |||
| 7 | SMU Mustangs (5-2/3-1) | Points: 17 | 3 |
| Travis Stewart: What a huge disappointment against Southern Miss (L: 27-3). The Ponies still only need one very attainable win to be bowl-eligible again, but Hilltop fans were singing songs of a 10-plus win season. SMU, for all its talent, still has a nasty habit of no-showing from time to time. | |||
| 8 | UTEP Miners (4-3/2-2) | Points: 10 | t-8 |
| Greg Tepper: Could UTEP make a bowl? It’ll likely come down to winning both at Rice and at home against East Carolina. And that would be a victory in and of itself. | |||
| 9 | Rice Owls (2-5/1-3) | Points: 7 | t-8 |
| Travis Stewart: Rice has now lost to Texas, Baylor, Southern Miss, Marshall and Tulsa. All of those groups are good to very good with the exception of Marshall — but it turns out that one bad loss could be really bad. The road to four wins in just five games is almost impossible. | |||
| 10 | North Texas Mean Green (3-5/2-2) | Points: 6 | 10 |
| Brad Hilliard: It’s nice to see signs of football life in Denton. McCarney and the Mean Green will be challenging for Sun Belt titles in 2-3 years. | |||
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 (inactive this week)
