[ColoradoTree]

Wilner's comment that the 'cats had no downfield passing game is a classic in why early-season polls are so useless. Did they have no downfield passing game because of Ertz and their wideouts, or because of the DBs' lockdown defense? Obviously I think the former but if you've got a strong position on the issue you're doing it wrong.

This is a great point, though I'd expect Wilner to reevaluate things if KSU's passing attack turns out to be dynamic against other opponents or if our secondary similarly shuts down other strong downfield passing games.  In past years, he's been pretty open about reevaluating past results as the season wears on.  For example, the loss to Northwestern kept getting better and better in his eyes as last season wore on.  If KSU proves to be a top-tier Big 12 team, we'll get plenty of credit for it.  But for now, I don't think a B- is unfair, especially after that second half. 

The polltracker site is always interesting.  This guy from Omaha, for example, does not seem impressed with Stanford:  http://collegepolltracker.com/football/p...6/week-2.  He had us unranked in the preseason poll, and puts us at #24 after Week 1, 11 spots lower than the next-lowest pollster (Wilner, who has us at 13).  He loves Washington, though, and has them 5th.  We're ranked behind five different 0-1 teams, including UCLA.  Curious.  (He's not just a Stanford hater, to be clear. He had Stanford ranked 4th before the Oregon loss last year.) 

[ColoradoTree]

Wilner's comment that the 'cats had no downfield passing game is a classic in why early-season polls are so useless. Did they have no downfield passing game because of Ertz and their wideouts, or because of the DBs' lockdown defense? Obviously I think the former but if you've got a strong position on the issue you're doing it wrong.

This is a great point, though I'd expect Wilner to reevaluate things if KSU's passing attack turns out to be dynamic against other opponents or if our secondary similarly shuts down other strong downfield passing games.  In past years, he's been pretty open about reevaluating past results as the season wears on.  For example, the loss to Northwestern kept getting better and better in his eyes as last season wore on.  If KSU proves to be a top-tier Big 12 team, we'll get plenty of credit for it.  But for now, I don't think a B- is unfair, especially after that second half. 

The polltracker site is always interesting.  This guy from Omaha, for example, does not seem impressed with Stanford:  http://collegepolltracker.com/football/p...6/week-2.  He had us unranked in the preseason poll, and puts us at #24 after Week 1, 11 spots lower than the next-lowest pollster (Wilner, who has us at 13).  He loves Washington, though, and has them 5th.  We're ranked behind five different 0-1 teams, including UCLA.  Curious.  (He's not just a Stanford hater, to be clear. He had Stanford ranked 4th before the Oregon loss last year.)