Quote:
Originally Posted by OregonBuckeye
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He usually has a lot of good points. I don't like all the complaining he does in that column about teams like Illinois being ranked too low and teams like Virginia Tech being ranked too high, saying that some teams are getting by on reputation while good (chic) teams are getting the shaft. This is just one example out of a few in that column. I'm not gonna go over all of them, but he makes a similar complaint several times in that column - hopefully just being nitpicky and trying to fill space rather than actually being serious.
In my opinion, returning players and the program's reputation are about all you really have to go on when it comes to preseason rankings.
Illinois doesn't have the rep and they aren't bringing back their two best players from last year. There's plenty to be optimistic about, but it is mostly potential that has not yet been realized.
10-win seasons since 1999:
1
8-win seasons since 1999:
3
With a resume like that you have to earn your way into the top fifteen this season, and doing so may earn you a top fifteen for next preseason to go along with it.
Virginia Tech on the other hand has the rep, if not the returning players.
10-win seasons since 1999:
7
8-win seasons since 1999:
9
I was even kind to Illinois in setting the 1999 season as the starting point for this comparison, as that was the first of Ron Turner's good years at Illinois. That was also the start of the Michael Vick era at VT, but you can go back into the early 1990s and add to that tally of good seasons for Tech without seeing anything of significance out of Illinois. You can even add in Zook's tenure at Florida (two 8-win seasons) to get a more "complete" Illinois+Zook track record and VT still smokes them. The point of this is, players come and go at Virginia Tech and they fall in and out of NC contention, but their track record shows that you can pretty much mark them down IN PEN for an 8 or 9 win season every year with a strong possibility of double-digit wins and a conference title. In my book that's deserving of a top-15 preseason ranking this year and every year until they show on the field that they won't be performing at that level.