The question of rankings

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Fellow blogger Martin Henderson asked the question. I’ll try to answer it.

Should Long Beach Poly be treated like Michigan, or at least, mini-Michigan, and be bounced from The Times’ top 10?

Well, I’m still trying to decide that myself now, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

I do know that, last night, Long Beach Poly looked decidedly average, and not particularly impressive.

The Jackrabbits, ranked second in the Southland by The Times and in the state by Cal-HiSports.com and rated No. 11 nationally by USA Today and No. 12 by Rivals.com going into the game, fell, 20-7, to a Birmingham team that was using a back-up quarterback, that was coming off a loss in its season-opener, and that Long Beach Poly had beaten, 48-8, last season.

Birmingham, ranked No. 18 by The Times, did have its star running back, Milton Knox, who scored on two one-yard runs. But he finished with what will probably be his lowest rushing total of the season, gaining 85 yards in 20 carries. He will do better, probably as soon as next week.

The rest of the Patriots weren’t overwhelming, either. They just did a nice job of hanging onto the ball and managing the clock and the game, and were active and alert on defense.

This was all in stark contrast to the Jackrabbits, who had beaten Cleveland (Ohio) Glenville in the elite Burger King/Kirk Herbstreit Classic in Ohio in their season opener.

‘Give Birmingham credit. They played their butts off,’ Poly Coach Raul Lara said. ‘It hurts big-time. It’s very disappointing because I believe I have a very good group here, and they didn’t showcase themselves tonight.’

It was just one game, but what the Jackrabbits showed is that they will have plenty of work to do.

‘We’ll have to take this and go back and re-group,’ Lara said.

- Lauren Peterson