I am back after a one week layoff…

First…

Alabama cemented themselves as the best team in the country. I personally thought they did that with a convincing win against Virginia Tech in week 1. They have since won at Ole Miss and now at home against South Carolina. Their defense is solid, allowing under 10 points in four of their seven wins. They only have two road games left, the Iron Bowl at the end of the season being the only challenge. Winning against Tennessee and LSU in their next two games all best assures they will be 11-0 at that time. We are on our way to Florida vs. Alabama in a great SEC championship game.

And 10…

  1. Notre Dame made a valiant effort to come back against USC (who almost choked away a 4th quarter 3 score lead) but I think they had some bad clock management that cost them at least 1 play at the end of the game. As much as it pains me to say it, Clausen is likely the front runner for the Heisman at this point.
  2. Iowa won a tough one at Camp Randall and is now alone in 1st in the Big 10. Their showdown at Ohio St. in November suddenly looks huge. Iowa is hopefully going to get more respect after this week and should be in the top 10.
  3. Texas/OU lived up to the hype this year. Oklahoma sure can play even without Sam Bradford. Texas’ offense looks very suspect right now. They don’t look like the #2 team in the country and I guarantee they don’t go undefeated.
  4. Speaking of Bradford, he got re-injured himself on the 2nd drive of the game. He had all the makings of the #1 pick next April. I still think there is zero percent chance he returns next year but he will need to show he is healthy to still go number one.
  5. Florida, like Texas, definitely looks vulnerable. Arkansas shut them down and if they had anything resembling a competent offense they would have beat the Gators. Florida should still cruise but the SEC championship is setting up to be epic.
  6. Add Virginia Tech and Ohio St. to the list of top 10 teams who are mediocre. Ohio St. got rolled at Purdue (inexcusable) and VaTech loses to a solid Georgia Tech team in Atlanta. Both surely will fall out of the top 10, and Ohio St. could fall out of the top 15.
  7. Boise St. was #5 last week in one poll and #6 in another. They barely escaped a loss at Tulsa. I think Cincinnati and USC could both leapfrog them this week. I would rank Cinci ahead of them for sure.
  8. Speaking of Cincinnati, they won a tough one against undefeated South Florida on the road. They should be in the top 5 (behind Bama, Florida,  and Texas). They also only have two road games left (Syracuse and Pitt) but it all comes down to whether Tony Pike is healthy. They could easily run the table though.
  9. Undefeated watch…7 teams remain. TCU should get challenged at BYU this week. Cincinnati and Iowa stand the best chance of going undefeated from BCS conferences. The SEC champ could be in that mix as well.
  10. Not a great week coming up. The aforementioned TCU vs. BYU game might be the best because it will show us if TCU is for real. It’s unlikely to be televised though. Alabama vs. Tennessee could be ugly but I guess you never know. Iowa could get challenged on the road at night vs. Michigan St. And Texas goes primetime against Missouri where they could really use a blowout.