Underdog Poll Ballot Week 2

1 -- BYU

2 -- Marshall

3 -- Navy

4 -- UTSA

5 -- UCF

6 -- Boise State

7 -- East Carolina

8 -- San Diego State

9 -- Nevada

10 -- Memphis

11 -- UTEP

12 -- Central Michigan

13 -- Colorado State

14 -- UAB

15 -- NIU

It might say 1-2, but the gap between BYU and Marshall is very big and growing. Going into Austin and beating up on the Longhorns in DKR doesn't mean what it did 5 years ago. But the fact that Charlie Strong and Co. had a year to get ready for the game that everyone had circled and they weren't ready. Flying Taysom Hill and the Cougars still ran all over Bevo is making me believe that these Cougars are legit. They have one more really tough stretch of games before their schedule opens up for a nice, comfortable landing. Check out this stretch starting on October 3rd; vs. Utah State, at UCF, vs Nevada and at Boise State. If they get through that they are cruising.

Marshall is Marshall, which is to say that they scored a whole lot of points while playing no one in particular. In slots three through eight, and I guess 10 and 11 too, you have teams that are pretty hard to separate. They are all really good football teams that had chances to spring massive upsets against P5 teams but they couldn't finish the job. Of that group I think Navy, UCF and Boise State have the most staying power.

Central Michigan is probably not the best team in the MAC, but they have looked the best in the smaller sample size watching them. I still like Colorado State and I refuse to be judged for it. 15 is way too low for NIU, but they struggled way too much with a Northwestern team that is really, really bad.