Sports Librarian College Football Preseason Top 25 Top 25 for 2010

1. Ohio State
The good: Nine starters are back on offense, one of them being Terrelle Pryor.
The bad: Penn State at home and Iowa on the road in back-to-back weeks
The ugly: Only two starters return to defense

2. Oregon
The good: Masoli and James are back to lead a high-powered offense
The bad: Defense has given up more than 34 points per game in last five
The Ugly – Schedule has them @Tenn, @USC, @Cal, @Oregon State

3.Texas
The Good – Curtis Brown, Aaron Williams and Chykie Brown in high school
The bad: Quarterback Garrett Gilbert hasn’t gotten a college start yet.
The ugly: With Jordan Shipley out, there’s nothing safe at receiver

4.Alabama
The good: Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson are back as running backs
The Bad: Offense is one dimensional as Greg McElroy plays it safe
The ugly: The defense took a hit when Kareem Jackson and Rolando McClain left early

5. State of Pennsylvania
The good: Overbearing defense stifled LSU in the bowl game; RB Evan Royster is back
The bad: The weak Big Ten might have had something to do with PSU’s record last year.
The ugly – @Alabama, @Iowa, @Ohio State; It’s three ats against the top 10 opponents

6.Nebraska
The good: Did you see the Cornhuskers defense destroy Arizona in their bowl game?
The bad – Ndamukong Suh was left without eligibility
The ugly: Nebraska’s offense; Texas exposed the Huskers’ offense, but it was bad all year

7.North Carolina
The good: Three first-round picks starting on defense; many starters go back on offense
The bad: A lot of starters came back with pretty bad offense.
The ugly: difficult schedule, little explosiveness on offense

8 TCUs
The Good: TCU has earned respect as a powerhouse to go up against in college football
The bad: TCU lost to Boise State when it really could have put a stamp on the season
The ugly: The schedule is again too weak, even if they go undefeated.

9.Iowa
The Good – Ricky Stanzi and Adrian Clayborn will return this year
The Bad: The line doesn’t have holes, a weak Big Ten (outside of PSU and OSU) won’t help with the schedule
The ugly – A lot had to go right for the Hawkeyes to end up where they did last year

10. Boise State
The Good – Boise State went undefeated and beat a capable TCU, also has most of the starters coming back
The Bad: An early season game with Virginia Tech
The ugly: The conference they play in will never get Boise State’s respect.

11.Georgia
The good: Georgia looked good at season’s end, AJ Green and two young running backs return
The bad: Mark Richt has recruited too well to be as bad as he was last year.
The Ugly – Has to replace the starting qb, as well as half of the defense.

12.USC
The Good – Matt Barkley is back in qb; USC has a bunch of 5-star recruits to help the case
The bad – Pete Carroll left town
The ugly: The NCAA may be about to punish the Trojans harshly

13. USL
The good: The defense will once again be the best of the line.
The bad: Offense shut down against all the good defenses, and even some of the bad defenses
The Ugly – Only nine starters combined returned; tough game against North Carolina early

14.Virginia Tech
The good – Ryan Williams might be the best running back in the nation; Tyrod Taylor is solid
The bad: The game against Boise State is a no-win situation for the Hokies.
The ugly – They need to be able to generate more offense to get back into the national title picture

15.Miami Florida
The Good: Hurricanes are doing great these days; jacory harris is their best qb in some time
The Bad: RB Cooper is likely to be out for the season with a leg injury
The ugly: With @Ohio State, @Pitt and @Georgia Tech games it’s hard to see anything better than a 3 loss season

16.Oklahoma
The Good – The Sooners play in a weak Big 12 right now
The bad: Landry Jones didn’t look very good last year most of the time
The Ugly – OL have seen too many injuries and transfers; they’ll be the weak link this year again

17. State of Oregon
The good – The Rodgers brothers are back in rb and wr
The bad: Quarterback Sean Canfield has gone to the NFL
The ugly: With a new qb and not many other threats outside of the Rodgers duo, the offense could suffer

18.Stanford
The good: Andrew Luck could be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL draft
The bad: Toby Gerhart won’t be back to pummel opposing defenses this year.
The ugly: They don’t have enough speed on defense, so they just give up too many points in most games.

19.Florida
The good: The Gators recruit well and have Demps, Rainey and Moody from rb back this year.
The bad: DE Carlos Dunlap, CB Joe Haden and FS Major Wright jumped to the NFL
The Ugly – Tim Tebow is gone and the replacement hasn’t seen much action at all

20.Arkansas
The Good – Ryan Mallet will be in the Heisman race
The Bad – The Razorbacks have the worst pass defense in the conference
The ugly: The schedule has too many teams that are simply better than Arkansas

21.Georgia Tech
The good: Paul Johnson never graduates, so the offense will still be strong
The bad: The departure of Demaryius Thomas early eliminates the only deep threat the Yellow Jackets had.
The ugly: Jonathan Dwyer was the guy who really clicked on offense.

22.Utah
The good: The Utes proved they weren’t a one-hit-wonder
The bad: Pittsburgh early on is a tough challenge
The Ugly – TCU the only really good team they played with absolutely made the Utes work

23. State of Florida
The Good – The Seminoles always draft speed and athletes; QB Ponder is a Heisman candidate
The bad: The Noles haven’t been very good for a while, so the shine has faded.
The ugly: Bobby Bowden is gone; The state of Florida was nothing before Bowden

24.West Virginia
The good: Noel Devine is back and he’s going to rack up a lot of yards and touchdowns this year.
The Bad – 2-3 away from home last year; LSU, UCONN and Pitt on tour this year
The ugly: There is no Pat White (not even a Jarret Brown) in qb to congratulate the great running back.

25.Houston
The good – Case Keenum, Tyrone Carrier, Charles Sims, Patrick Edwards, James Cleveland on offense
The Bad – The Cougars seem to have a disappointing game or two every year (UTEP, Air Force)
The ugly: The league’s worst run defense (112 nationally) isn’t getting any better this year.

I didn’t make it
Pitt – Dion Lewis and not much else
Texas A&M – Jerrod Johnson and not much else
Auburn – Razzle dazzle can only take you so far
California – Tedford will find a way to make a good team