USA Today Coaches Poll Ballots Released: Coaches Liked Alabama, One Coach Had Oklahoma State Ranked 5th
By Ty Duffy
Coaches Who Voted Oklahoma State (No. 2): David Baliff (Rice), Tim Beckman (Toledo, former OSU DC), Bret Bielema (Wisc), Art Briles (Bay), Dave Christensen (Wyoming), Sonny Dykes (LaTech), John Embree (Colorado), Larry Fedora (So. Miss), Al Golden (Miami), Mark Hudspeth (LL), Bronco Mendenhall (BYU), Jeff Quinn (Buffalo), Paul Rhoades (ISU), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Jeff Tedford (Cal), Tommy Tuberville (TT) and Ron Zook (Unemployed).
Coaches Who Did Not Vote Oklahoma State in Top Three: Troy Calhoun (Air Force) had Oklahoma State ranked 5th behind Alabama, Stanford and Arkansas. Five coaches – David Cutcliffe (Duke), Doug Marone (Cuse), Gary Pinkel (Mizzou), NICK SABAN (Alabama), David Shaw Stanford – had OSU ranked fourth.
Outliers
* Mark Richt ranked Oregon eighth, behind his SEC brethren Arkansas and South Carolina.
* No one pulled a Craig James on Boise State, though Todd Berry (La-Monroe) had them 13th and three SEC coaches – James Franklin, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier – had them ranked 11th.
* Art Briles is not a Wisconsin fan. He ranked the Badgers 16th. Only one other voter had them below 10th. He had Michigan, who missed the title game, ranked five places ahead of them.
* Les Miles is still a Michigan man at heart. He ranked his alma-mater 8th. Here’s how he ranked teams that could have knocked them out of the top 14: Kansas State (17), Baylor (19) and TCU (21).
* Clemson beat Virginia Tech by three scores, twice. Coaches weren’t that impressed. Larry Fedora had VaTech 9th and Clemson 22. Pete Lemb had VaTech 9th and Clemson 19th. Kyle Whittingham had VaTech 12th and Clemson 22nd.
[Photo via Getty]