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probably watches too much ESPN

The final poll was not far from that with four of the top 8. 

• LSU (15-0)
• Clemson (14-1)
• Ohio State (13-1)
• Georgia (12-2)
• Oregon (12-2)
• Florida (11-2)
• Oklahoma (12-2)
• Alabama (11-2)

ELA's top 6 was
UGA
UF
A&M
LSU
Bama
Clemson

Shoot, that ain't too bad at all. Granted, A&M did exactly what it's schedule indicated, but most rankings have at least one called shot.

Also, not enough faith in the STARZ next to Fields' name (or in Day, which at the time made more sense)

as did Burrow

#16 LSU Tigers

#5 in SEC

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that off the top of my head, this is the farthest I’ve dropped a defending national champion.  Granted, I can’t recall any team graduating six senior starters, including the record setting, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback; NINE early NFL Draft entrants; and the passing game coordinator who changed the trajectory of the program and perhaps saved Coach O’s job.  Of the 15 players to make Phil Steele’s All-SEC team, the only one who could have left, who didn’t, was safety Ja’Marr Chase.  Fortunately for the Tigers, one of the two who couldn’t was receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who won the Biletnikoff Award as a sophomore, leading the nation in receiving yards and touchdowns, setting the SEC record in the later.  He cemented his status as the nation’s best receiver with 221 yards in the National Championship.  Without the Joes Burrow or Brady, it’s tough to imagine his stock being as high in the 2021 Draft as it would have been were he eligible for the 2020.  How close he comes is largely out of his hands.  Instead of trying to repeat the success he had in finding a diamond in the rough in 29 year old Joe Brady, Orgeron hired 56 year old Scott Linehan, who has spent the last decade as an NFL offensive coordinator, most recently with Dallas, and hasn’t coached in college since 2001 at Louisville.  As for replacing their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, Myles Brennan looks to get the first crack.  He was the #2 last year, and was highly rated coming out of high school.  His offer list never matched his ratings, because he weighs under 200 pounds, and can’t move.  The arm looks plenty fine, it’s everything else that’s an issue.  There’s not a necessarily viable option to push Brennan as the athletic redshirt freshman Peter Parrish, and the strong armed true freshman Max Johnson, with a hell of a name to boot, will fight for the #2 job.  Either one could wind up being the starter, but not out of the gate.  There is no one obvious answer to replace Clyde Edwards-Helaire at running back, but, per usual, LSU has no shortage of talented options in the backfield.  There may be a heavy timeshare back there, rather than one feature back.  Right tackle Austin Deculus is the lone returning starter on the offensive line.  Maybe by LSU’s lofty standards, the Tiger’s defense was not the greatest of recent vintage, but considering how much more was put on their plate with the pace of the offense, it was better than it got credit for, and still ranked top 30 nationally in ypp allowed, #20 in defensive SP+.  DBU certainly lived up to the billing, and should continue to be the strength of the defense, led by Derek Stingley Jr., who might be the best freshman cornerback in college football history.  His Consensus All-American selection put him in the rare company of Herschel Walker, Adrian Peterson and Rondale Moore, but as far as I can tell, he’s the first true freshman consensus All-American on the defensive side of the ball, ever.  The issue is in front of that secondary there are question marks everywhere, starting at linebacker where all three starters left early for the NFL.  Damone Clark saw plenty of action in the rotation last year, but the other two spots are up for grabs.  Dave Aranda left to take the head coaching job at Baylor, so the job of figuring out that front seven falls on Bo Pelini, who returns to the job that got him the Nebraska head coaching job back in 2007.

	KEY PLAYERS
WR	Ja'Marr Chase, Junior
WR	Terrace Marshall Jr., Junior
T	Austin Deculus, Senior
	.
LB	Damone Clark, Junior
CB	Derek Stingley, Jr., Sophomore
S	JaCoby Stevens, Senior

ELA Top 15 Demographics

4 SEC: 2 East/2 West
5 Big Ten: 3 East/2 West
2 Big 12
2 Pac 12: 1 North/1 South
1 ACC: 1 Atlantic/0 Coastal
1 AAC: 0 East/1 West

By State
2 Teams: Alabama and Oklahoma
1 Team: California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, S Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Minnesota and Wisconsin remain unscathed.

The G5 is down to its final team.

Updated: Top 15

#15 Memphis Tigers

#1 in American

The fact that the decision to leave Memphis to become the head coach at Florida State was a tough one, is not something any of us could have predicted even a couple years ago.  Memphis isn’t just better than Florida State this year, they are substantially better.  The Tigers had their best season in school history last year, winning their second conference title in the past 48 years, their first solo title since winning the Missouri Valley in 1969.  They got the Group of Five New Years Six auto-bid, to play in the Cotton Bowl, the first major bowl game in program history.  While they lost to Penn State, they did prove that this offense can work against anyone, they just need to get the defense up to speed.  While Ryan Silverfield can’t prove himself worth until at least 2021, he can certainly prove he’s not the guy for the job if he can’t keep this machine rolling in 2020.  Silverfield has 20 years of coaching experience...but is just 39.  He opted to take an assistant job, rather than play, while in college at Division III Hampden-Sydney.  He spent seven years in the NFL as an offensive line coach with the Vikings and Lions, but his only head coaching experience was one season, in 2004, at a Georgia high school.  Maintaining, if not raising, the standard, has been the Memphis standard for a while now.  2010 to 2011 was the last time Memphis had a drop in SP+.  That’s two years longer than the next longest streak ever.  The one sure thing is a QB/RB/WR combo that rivals any Power Five school, and I honestly might slot in at #2 behind only Clemson.  Brady White threw for over 4,000 yards, fourth most nationally, while being efficient.  There were four quarterbacks in the nation he threw for at least 3,500 yards, while maintaining a passer rating of at least 165; Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Trevor Lawrence, and Brady White.  He gets his top receiver back, in Damonte Coxie, whose 1,276 receiving yards led the conference, but they do have to find some complimentary pieces, with the loss of the next two leading receivers (including Mr. Everything Antonio Gibson, who was the best returner in the conference, averaged 11.2 ypc on 33 rushes, and 735 receiving yards), and all-conference tight end (and first team All-American name) Joey Magnifico.  The graduation of running back Patrick Taylor is not that big of a deal, thanks to the emergence of Kenneth Gainwell, who had over 2,100 offensive yards, split between 1,459 rushing yards on over 6 ypc, and 51 receptions.  Memphis’ defense, against conference foes, looked plenty fine, a top 40 SP+ defense, behind only UCF in conference play in ypp.  But they were too reliant on athleticism, and being able to out-talent most AAC teams.  Against Penn State, their lack of size up front (on both sides) was obvious, with the Nittany Lions outgaining Memphis 7.5-1.9 per rush attempt.  O’Bryan Goodson best personifies that, as an all-conference performer, who got absolutely abused by Penn State’s line, who loved the opportunity to play against a 280 pound nose tackle.  Joseph Dorceus is the one impact player in the front seven, with the ability to play both on the line, and with his hand off the ground.  The linebackers might be a problem, but the secondary, which allowed just 7.0 ypa and 57.5% opponents completion percentage, both second best in the AAC, should be even better, with only one graduation out of the two deep.  Memphis’ Power Five non-conference game is Purdue, which should be a solid test of whether they can muscle up with that class of athlete, without having to go all the way to Penn State’s level.

	KEY PLAYERS
QB	Brady White, Senior
RB	Kenneth Gainwell, Sophomore
WR	Damonte Coxie, Senior
	.
DE	Joseph Dorceus, Senior
DT	O'Bryan Goodson, Senior
CB	T.J. Carter, Senior

I agree as well. Everything came together perfectly for Orgeron last year, and this time around, minus Burrow and a host of NFL talent, I wouldn't at all be surprised to see LSU as average as 7-5, losing to Texas in week 2 followed by a 1-3 finish leading up to the bowls. Yes, there's still so much talent, but don't forget how inconsistent LSU played in 2017 & 2018 games where they didn't have talent advantage. Lots of penalties and mental mistakes, not to avoid mentioning an offense that stalled out more often than not.

7-5 would be quite a slip considering how things have gone with old Ed.

Their roster still has five five-stars and 30 four-stars, with three more five-stars and 13-14 more four-stars coming in, plus an All-American grad transfer LB from NDSU. Losing the coordinators is a thing, but they'll at least have some pieces.