Texas Moves Up in Unimpressive Fashion

Texas secured its biggest win of the season yesterday, and yet it feels like the Longhorns have even less credibility now than they did a week ago.

UT gutted out a victory over a gritty Oklahoma team. With the Sooners' star quarterback, Sam Bradford, in street clothes eight plays into the game, however, it would seem that Texas should have rolled its bitter rival. The Longhorn D certainly lived up to billing, but what was once a vaunted offense really struggled to move the ball. Colt McCoy may have taken himself out of consideration for the Heisman Trophy, throwing for just 127 yards and a touchdown while turning it over three times.

Texas deserves props for a hard-fought win in the biggest rivalry game in college football, which is why they've moved up to fifth in this week's power poll. As of now, though, this does not look like a championship-caliber team.

*With two more undefeated teams–Kansas and South Florida–falling this week, the time has come to put more time into figuring out how to evaluate one-loss teams. For now, USC's road wins against Ohio State, Notre Dame and California look pretty strong, although the loss to Washington appears even more damaging now with the Huskies running their record to 3-4 this weekend.

In contrast, Oregon has a good loss, but few impressive wins. Miami's body of work is hurt by the whooping it recevied from Virginia Tech a few weeks back.

Blatant Homerism Power Poll: Week Seven

1. Alabama
2. Iowa
3. Florida
4. Cincinnati
5. Texas
6. TCU
7. Boise State
8. USC
9. Oregon
10. Miami