Whenever someone wants to point out the stupidity of polls they point to Team X losing to Team Y who lost to Team Z, but because of when they were beaten and if Team Z was unranked or below the other teams beforehand, you end up with rankings that make it seem as if X is better than Y who is better than Z despite the head-to-heads. The problem of course is that these are rankings — opinions of how the teams stack up overall. These are not simple standings of Wins and Losses.

The poll is inherently flawed. But then with over 100 football teams, a simple standings would also be flawed. Some people knocked Iowa out of their polls for losing to Iowa State. Some really dinged Louisville after the first week for not blowing out Kentucky. I didn’t because those were annual rivalry games. With rivalry games, I generally throw out the score and just consider the outcome because there’s a lot more emotion and other factors in play.

So what am I saying? I’m saying don’t take a flawed approach too seriously, no matter who the pollsters are.

The full blogpoll is here.

Games I saw all or part of this weekend: TCU-Utah, Pitt Nebraska, FSU-BC, Tenn-Florida, SDSU-OSU, Oregon St-Louisville, MSU-ND, EMU-Mich, Vandy-Ole Miss, WVU-Md, Cal-Ill.

1. Southern Cal — Cruising along
2. Texas — Ditto
3. Florida — Yes, they will lose at some point, but they are very good
4. Louisville — Looks like they worked out some kinks
5. Louisiana State — DNP
6. Tennessee — Tough, hard loss, half-assed coaching
7. Ohio State — Half-speed
8. Virginia Tech — Cruising against Bobcat power
9. Miami (Florida) — Very good road win
10. Georgia — Cruising
11. Purdue — Surprised me by winning
12. Iowa — Angry, took it out on a directional school
13. Florida State — Showing that BC can change conferences, but can’t change history
14. Notre Dame — Heh
15. Michigan — Another directional Michigan, another blowout
16. Cal — They just keep winning
17. Michigan State — Just because they beat ND, doesn’t mean I’ll rank them higher
18. Georgia Tech — Playing much better defense than I thought
19. Arizona State — Very good rebound
20. Iowa State — DNP
21. Texas Tech — Karma should bite them hard in the ass for this non-con
22. Vanderbilt — Deserved, and they should enjoy it while it lasts
23. Auburn — Back to beating on patsies
24. Toledo — Beat up on Temple, almost counts as a DNP
25. West Virginia — Two pretty good road wins earns them this (grudgingly)

New to the poll: Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Auburn and WVU.

Out of the poll: Oklahoma, Clemson, Fresno State, BC.

No one theme for the day. Just lots of talk about the team and players trying to improve.

This piece about the defense is fairly upbeat, but is also honest about some deficiencies on defense.

“We’re playing better on defense but I’ll call it success when the team wins,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We had a chance at a lot more sacks. We haven’t forced many turnovers. We can play a lot, lot better. We haven’t even come close to scratching the surface of playing the run like I envision us playing and I know we can play.

“When we start holding people to 50 yards rushing then I’ll feel better.”

Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads added: “We have not effectively played the run game, in my opinion, all season. So we still have a lot of room for improvement. It is about finishing plays, guys getting off blocks and wrapping up and doing the things you have to do in order to finish plays. It’s about winning.”

Simply put, the defense hasn’t really put much pressure on opposing offenses. Pitt has had only 5 sacks in 3 games, though on the bright side it is an upward trend of 0, 1 and 4. Still, it hasn’t seemed like much and the amount of pressure put on the offense — to cause mistakes like fumbles — hasn’t happened.

The sacks can be more attributed to the better coverage of receivers, especially when you consider Pitt has not done a very good job against the run — which goes to the defense up front. Teams are averaging a little better than 4 yards per carry.

I’ll agree with Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads about not being that concerned with an uptick in pass interference penalties.

Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads is not alarmed that his safeties and corners have drawn some penalties. Against Nebraska, Revis was flagged for a questionable pass interference call. “I want the kids to be aggressive,” Rhoads said. “You’ll never see me berate a kid because he tried to make an aggressive, physical play.”

“Questionable?” That was kind on an underthrown pass that Revis had position. But I digress. Some increased pass interference penalties have to be expected, though, if the secondary is going to play tighter coverage. I’d rather see a couple extra penalties than watching the secondary play 8-12 yards off the receiver.

Looks like Josh Cummings knee is more problematic than thought. He’s now questionable for the game. Conor Lee and David Abdul have been doing all the kicking in practice.

Roommates and Freshmen LaRod Stephens-Howling and Tommie Campbell haven’t settled the argument over which one is faster.

Meanwhile, concerning YSU…

The Penguins are getting ready and are expecting their toughest game. There, of course, has to be a Pitt angle.

YSU assistant coach Jerry Olsavsky, the Penguins linebackers coach, played at Pitt and then for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League.

“I’ve spent half my life in Pittsburgh,” Olsavsky said. “It’s my home away from home. I know so many people there.

“It’s a great opportunity for us and our kids know that we can do down there and put on a pretty good show,” he added.

YSU has blown through their allotment of 3,000 tickets. Not that others will be hard to find.