One has to admit — taking a look around at the state of Texas this week isn't showing much more than it did before the season openers.
The only change this week? Houston, which leapfrogs Texas A&M despite a strong Aggie performance. Other than that, everything else is par for the course. So what could shake things up this week?
Well, we can pencil in wins for TCU (Tennessee Tech), Texas (Wyoming), A&M (Louisiana Tech), Tech (New Mexico) and Baylor (Buffalo). All will be at least two-touchdown favorites. Were any to slip up against such average competition, they would drop substantially in the rankings. But the two games with the most clout? Houston against UTEP — which, as we all remember, ended in a wild shootout victory for the Miners a year ago —and UNT hosting Rice. If the Mean Green win, it wouldn't accomplish anything more than a flip-flop of the Nos. 9 and 10 spots. But considering UNT has been mired in the basement since a season-opening win a year ago, that's pretty big news. And were UTEP to upset Houston, it would surely drop the Coogs out of the top five.
The battle for the top spot is probably decided for the time being, as TCU has considerably easier sledding in the immediate future. Texas has to travel to Tech in two weeks to face an always-rough TTU crowd. TCU doesn't have a comparable game until early November, when it sees Utah.
DCTF 2010 Texas College Football Week 2 Power Poll
| # | School | Points (1st-place votes) | Previous |
| 1 | TCU Horned Frogs | Points: 39 (3) | 1 |
| Adam Hochfelder: A great opening win. Andy Dalton simply needs to avoid bad decisions, throwing like he did twice, and keeping make great ones, like he did running, and I think TCU runs the table. | |||
| 2 | Texas Longhorns | Points: 35 (1) | 2 |
| Brad Hilliard: The win against Rice wasn’t pretty, but since when has Texas ever cared about impressing anyone with its non-conference schedule? | |||
| 3 | Houston Cougars | Points: 30 | 4 |
| Travis Stewart: We really didn't learn anything about Houston last weekend, but we sure will get a scouting report after this one. I know Donald Buckram's health is in flux, but UTEP can score like crazy. If UH moves to 2-0, 12-0 could be down the road. | |||
| 4 | Texas A&M Aggies | Points: 29 | 3 |
| Adam Hochfelder: About as good a debut for the revamped Aggie Defense as possible. While there is only one Wrecking Crew, and those days are long gone, this squad has the making of its own nickname. | |||
| 5 | Texas Tech Red Raiders | Points: 27 | 5 |
| Brad Hilliard: Red Raider fans might’ve been disappointed in beating SMU by only a touchdown, but they should realize SMU’s got a much-improved team this year. | |||
| 6 | SMU Mustangs | Points: 20 | 6 |
| Dennis Hall: Looks like the Mustangs are really going to miss RB Shawnbrey McNeal and WR Emmanuel Sanders this year. | |||
| 7 | Baylor Bears | Points: 16 | 7 |
| Travis Stewart: Robert Griffin's return showed that he still has the lateral movement and speed that made him a star two short years ago. He's also added a little weight to his upper body. Now he just needs to put the finishing touches on that passing game and he'll be a rich man's Terrelle Pryor. | |||
| 8 | UTEP Miners | Points: 11 | 8 |
| Dennis Hall: The Miners better hope that RB Donald Buckram's knee gets better quickly. The season depends on it. | |||
| 9 | Rice Owls | Points: 9 | 9 |
| Adam Hochfelder: Decent showing vs. Texas. Sam McGuffie needs to learn to avoid reversing his field. That might work in an intra-squad game, but Texas has defensive linemen with DB speed! | |||
| 10 | North Texas Mean Green | Points: 4 | 10 |
| Travis Stewart: Isn't it funny that all of us, to a man, agreed that UNT played well against Clemson ... yet we still unanimously put it in the basement? If the Mean Green beat Rice this weekend, that gets it to the ninth spot. Sounds like a small victory, but progress is progress for this hard-luck group. | |||
ABOUT THE PANEL:
> Adam Hochfelder is the Executive Director of DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Dennis Hall is a managing editor with DCTF
> Travis Stewart is a managing editor with DCTF
> Brad Hilliard is the operations coordinator for DCTF and several other IMG College properties
> Tom Sullivan is an account executive for DCTF
> Rick Epstein is an account executive for DCTF (inactive this week)
