Higher Pre-season ranking with Proven QB?

[Zee]

I know not to put a whole lot of stock into what pre-season polls say, but if anything, it is a good indication of how good people outside of our program think we are. My question is this... If we had a proven QB (say for instance Smelley did well all of last year and this spring), would we be a consensus top 25 team? I see us everywhere from the low 20's to low 30's, but mostly around 30. I think we are better than that. We are certainly more talented than some teams ahead of us. I also realize we finished terribly last year and that undoubtedly has much to do with it.( that being said, I have no worries about our D this year, I think we're going to be tough to pass on as usual, but our run D will be much improved) But I think our weak spots this year are our O-line and QB, and I myself would have a hard time ranking this team high without a proven field commander. What say you?

[GamecockDieHard]

Since QB and the OL are our obvious weaknesses, there's no doubt we'd be ranked higher if they were stronger. I don't know if we would justify top 25 after the way we quit in the last five games. The only way to get that nightmare out of my mind would be to beat NC State by about 40 and be throwing for the end zone on the last play.

[dokkengamecock]

Does it really matter. We were a Top 10 team last year and didn't make a bowl game.

[Zappa]

Since QB and the OL are our obvious weaknesses, there's no doubt we'd be ranked higher if they were stronger. I don't know if we would justify top 25 after the way we quit in the last five games. The only way to get that nightmare out of my mind would be to beat NC State by about 40 and be throwing for the end zone on the last play.

I think we were out coached.The team didn't quit.