My, what a difference a week makes. A week ago, I was writing about how it appeared BYU was untouchable in this poll. This week, East Carolina has come close to dethroning BYU from the top spot on our poll.
2014 Underdogs Poll, week 5: East Carolina close to dethroning BYU
BYU has been untouchable for weeks, but after yet another impressive performance over a power-conference foe, ECU is encroaching on the Cougars’ spot.
| RANK | TEAM | POINTS | PREVIOUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BYU (11) | 249 | 1 |
| 2 | ECU (5) | 239 | 2 |
| 3 | Marshall (1) | 216 | 3 |
| 4 | Cincinnati | 199 | 4 |
| 5 | Boise State | 191 | 6 |
| 6 | NIU | 143 | 5 |
| 7 | Nevada | 104 | 10 |
| 8 | Navy | 97 | 7 |
| 9 | UCF | 80 | 9 |
| 10 | Colorado State | 74 | 15 |
| 11 | UTSA | 61 | 14 |
| 12 | Memphis | 59 | 24 |
| 13 | Old Dominion | 51 | 26 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 47 | 27 |
| 15 | Temple | 36 | 23 |
| Dropped Out: Louisiana Tech, Utah State, San Diego State, Bowling Green | Others Receiving Votes: UTEP (33), Houston (26), San Diego State (22), Louisiana-Monroe (17), Arkansas State (17), Georgia Southern (13), Air Force (11), Utah state (10), Bowling Green (10), Middle Tennessee (7), Toledo (6), WMU (3), North Texas (2), Texas State (2), Louisiana Tech (1) | |||
The Cougars looked solid against a much-improved Virginia team, but it wasn’t enough to keep them safe as the runaway favorites for the top spot.
ECU has been shooting up the polls in recent weeks, and having hung 70 on North Carolina on Saturday (one week removed from knocking off a ranked Virginia Tech squad), it's hard to fault anyone for giving the Pirates top billing. Shane Carden has looked downright masterful in his picking apart of power-conference defenses. Here's a stat for ya: Carden scored six times on UNC's defense. That's as many touchdowns as UNC starting quarterback Marquise Williams has scored all of this season.
Elsewhere, NIU and Navy both fell just one spot after losing, though one loss (Navy’s, by one score to Rutgers) was far more respectable than the other (NIU’s, by many scores to Arkansas). Cincinnati looked exposed against a Miami (Ohio) team that hasn’t won any of its past 20 contests, proving we may still need to see more of the Bearcats to get a true sense of how good they are.
Then there’s the curious case of Craig Bohl’s Cowboys. Wyoming checks in on our poll for the first time this season, at No. 14. Wyoming hasn’t won pretty (the combined margin of victory in its three wins is just 10 points), but the team is winning. They even hung with Oregon through the first quarter a week ago. Bohl still has a lot of work to do in Laramie, but he’s got the Cowboys off to a fantastic start.
The Underdogs Poll is a weekly ranking of college football's top non-power FBS teams. Voters from SB Nation sites Bull Run, Down The Drive, Hustle Belt, Miner Rush, Mountain West Connection, The UConn Blog, Underdog Dynasty, Vanquish The Foe, and Voodoo Five.
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