USC Sports Media Poll: Week 6 College Football Top 25
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The SEC's top two programs both went down on Saturday.
No. 1 Alabama was unable to run the ball against South Carolina while the Ol' Ball Coach got a great three-touchdown performance from Stephen Garcia as the Gamecocks rolled to a 35-21 win.
Meanwhile, Florida, who ranked 16th in our poll last week, fell 33-29 to LSU.
Everyone else in last week's top eight took care of business with Nebraska making the biggest statement, blowing out a quality Kansas State squad.
But there were a couple of stumbles, including Arizona's loss to Oregon State and Miami's beatdown at the hands of Florida State. Denard "Shoelace" Robinson also had the first stumble of his young career. Michigan State held him to just 86 yards rushing.
Another week means another evaluation of the top teams in the USC Sports Media College Football Top 25 poll.
This week our poll represents five different USC campus media outlets and two successful USC-focused blogs.
The voters (in alphabetical order): Whitney Blaine from USC's television-multimedia news operation ATVN, Dave Dulberg representing USC's student run radio station KXSC, Joey Kaufman of the SB Nation blog Conquest Chronicles, Kenny Legan from the student newspaper Daily Trojan, Alejandro Madrid of the Fansided blog Reign of Troy, Tommy Morris from the sports debate television show Platforum on Trojan Vision and Shotgun Spratling from Neon Tommy.
Note: The "high" and "low" columns represent the highest and lowest individual ranking each team received this week.
| Rank | Team | High | Low | W-L | Comment |
| 1 (3) | Ohio St. Buckeyes | 1 | 3 | 6-0 | Terrelle Pryor passed for 334 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions as Ohio State leaped over Oregon into the top spot. The Buckeyes have their first true conference battle this week when they travel to Wisconsin. (Spratling) |
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| 2 (2) | Oregon Ducks | 1 | 3 | 6-0 | Against Washington State, Nate Costa filled in admirably (151 yards, TD) for an injured Darron Thomas. Oregon's defense has allowed just 14 second half points this season. (Spratling) |
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| 3 (4) | Boise St. Broncos | 2 | 4 | 5-0 | It’s easy to discount the Broncos due to their schedule and conference affiliation, but back-to-back weeks of 59 and 57 points is awfully hard to overlook. For good measure, BSU allowed a combined 14 points in those contests. (Kaufman) |
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| 4 (5) | TCU Horned Frogs | 2 | 6 | 6-0 | Andy Dalton is the active leader for wins amongst FBS quarterbacks. TCU's first back-to-back shutouts since 1955 gave him his 34th and 35th career victories. (Spratling) |
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| 5 (8) | Nebraska Huskers | 4 | 6 | 5-0 | Is that Tommie Frazier? Eric Crouch? No, it's Taylor Martinez, and he could be the best Nebraska quarterback of all-time when all is said and done. (Morris) |
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| 6 (6) | Auburn Tigers | 5 | 8 | 6-0 | Randall Cobb (4 TD: 1 passing, 2 rushing, 1 receiving) and Kentucky gave Auburn all it could handle, but Cam Newton's 408 total yards and four rushing touchdowns gave the Tigers what they needed to survive. (Morris) |
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| 7 (7) | Oklahoma Sooners | 5 | 9 | 5-0 | The Sooners need to shore up a mediocre defense before traveling to Missouri next week and inevitably facing rival OK State to close out the regular season in a game that could decide the Big 12 South. (Spratling) |
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| 8 (1) | Alabama Crimson Tide | 5 | 12 | 5-1 | Even though Greg McElroy threw for 315 yards, Alabama proved vulnerable when they couldn't run the ball (36 rushing yards total). The dynamic duo of Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram combined for just 64 total yards. (Spratling) |
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| 9 (19) | South Carolina Gamecocks | 8 | 12 | 4-1 | The Cocks handed Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy his first loss as a starter since the eighth grade. Uncharacteristically solid play by Stephen Garcia and a swarming defense fueled the first upset of a No. 1 team in school history. (Madrid) |
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| 10 (13) | LSU Tigers | 8 | 13 | 6-0 | Saturday was another nail biter for the Tigers. Les Miles faked a field goal, got the luckiest bounce ever and eventually scored the game-winning touchdown with six seconds remaining, giving Urban Meyer back-to-back losses for just the second time since arriving at Florida. (Blaine) |
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| 11 (11) | Utah Utes | 7 | 14 | 5-0 | Pac-10 teams may want to thank the Utes for waiting until 2011 to join the conference. The Utes are third nationally in scoring offense with 49.0 points per game. They put up 31 points in the second quarter against Iowa State. That's impressive no matter who the opponent is. (Kaufman & Morris) |
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| 12 (18) | Michigan St. Spartans | 9 | 14 | 6-0 | Michigan State is 6-0 for the first time since 1999 because the Spartans' defense stopped phenom Denard Robinson. It held the nation's leading rusher to 86 yards, less than half his season average, and forced him to throw three interceptions. (Blaine) |
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| 13 (9) | Arkansas Razorbacks | 11 | 14 | 4-1 | Ryan Mallett threw for 300+ yards for the fifth consecutive game, but Arkansas was never able to pull away from Texas A&M -- an ominous sign for a team that didn't have a quality win coming into the weekend. (Spratling) |
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| 14 (12) | Stanford Cardinal | 10 | 16 | 5-1 | Andrew Luck again proved he can do a little bit of everything. He amassed over 300 yards, led his team on the game-winning drive and also delivered one of the biggest hits by a QB you will see. But Stanford's defense still needs improvement after giving up 498 total yards to USC and 626 to Oregon. (Spratling) |
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| 15 (14) | Iowa Hawkeyes | 15 | 20 | 4-1 | After a week off, the Hawkeyes will head to the Big House where they'll have the opportunity to try to contain Denard Robinson. (Spratling) |
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| 16 (20) | Nevada Wolfpack | 15 | 19 | 6-0 | The team with the most explosive offense in the WAC is not the Broncos of the Smurf Turf but the Wolfpack of Nevada. Dual threat quarterback Colin Kaepernick and NFL-ready running back Vai Taua lead an offense that continues to dominate teams, winning by an average of 25 points per game. (Dulberg) |
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| 17 (23) | Florida St. Seminoles | 15 | NR | 5-1 | The Seminoles are quietly making a bid for ACC supremecy. They blew out Miami and their only loss came against a good Oklahoma squad on the road. (Legan) |
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| 18 (21) | Wisconsin Badgers | 16 | 19 | 5-1 | The Badgers may be 5-1, and recent winners of the Paul Bunyan Ax, but considering they’re winless against Top 25 teams this year, it’s hard to feel particularly confident as they host Ohio State Saturday. (Kaufman) |
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| 19 (10) | Arizona Wildcats | 18 | 23 | 4-1 | 'Zona's loss to Oregon State proves the Pac-10 is really deep. It also shows the conference will just beat each other up every week ensuring there will only be one team in the Top 10 at the end of the year. (Legan) |
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| 20 (22) | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | 18 | 24 | 5-0 | Losing to Louisiana-Lafayette at halftime, the Cowboys scored 37 points in the second half. They've now scored 50+ three times this season but are giving up almost 30 points per game. (Spratling) |
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| 21(NR) | Oregon St. Beavers | 21 | NR | 3-2 | The Pac-10 better not forget about OSU just because they have a pair of non-conference losses. They have the talent to play in the Rose Bowl, though someone will have to fill the void left by James Rodgers' season-ending injury. (Morris) |
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| 22 (NR) | Missouri Tigers | 21 | NR | 5-0 | Saturday's shutout of Colorado moved Mizzou to 5-0. The last two times they started 5-0, they won the Big 12 North. (Spratling) |
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| 23 (25) | Air Force Falcons | 20 | NR | 5-1 | Air Force came into the weekend leading the nation in rushing, but it was three touchdown passes that helped propel them past Colorado State. (Spratling) |
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| 24 (16) | Florida Gators | 16 | 25 | 4-2 | The Gators' quarterback is playing with four cracked ribs and a sprained thumb while their leading rusher missed Saturday's game with a sprained foot. Florida and its ego is beat up after LSU's late-game trickeration. (Spratling) |
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| 25 (24) | West Virginia Mountaineers | 23 | NR | 4-1 | The Mountaineers will get their first opportunity to establish their ACC superiority Thursday night when they take on South Florida. (Spratling) |
Others receiving votes: Michigan, North Carolina State
Dropped Out: Miami Hurricanes (LW: 14), Michigan Wolverines (LW: 17)
To reach reporter Shotgun Spratling, click here, or follow him on Twitter @BlueWorkhorse.
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