UGA, Others Cluster at the Top of College Football
ATHENS - What we have now is a very serious cluster of teams for four precious spots.
The national drumbeat of Alabama and Clemson fighting for the national title again seems to have regressed to the background for good. Nearly losing to North Carolina will do that. The Tigers slipped a spot in the coach’s poll on Sunday, but the real issue for the Tigers and everyone else how difficult the top of college football looks right now.
For the first time in a while there appears to be a slew of schools - several of which are coming from the SEC - that can win it all. Alabama cruised pas Ole Miss. Georgia is the only team in the country with a win over a top ten team. LSU looks vastly improved on offense, and has a win at Texas. Meanwhile, Auburn raised its paw Saturday night with a 56-23 win over State. The Gators are still undefeated - even if they’ve been largely unimpressive in doing so.
Ohio State looked like a machine Saturday night. The Buckeyes have had a fabulous start to the 2019 season. Oklahoma beat the breaks off Texas Tech. Wisconsin struggled, but handled Northwestern.
The clear path to Clemson-Bama in the national title game has never looked so muddled. Bama will have to beat not fewer than three top ten teams to win the SEC. LSU has looked as ready for the Tide as they have in years. Auburn has proven it can catch fire - but we will need to monitor the Tigers as the season progresses. Auburn still has to play Florida, LSU, Georgia and Alabama the rest of the way.
And for all of Dabo Swinney’s “Ain't no reason to panic. We are going to be alright.” Clemson fans should be on the lookout for their panic button. This isn’t the same team that won the national title a year ago. This appears much more like the 2017 team that was trucked by Alabama and lost to 4-8 Syracuse.
All of the top teams can holes punched in them.
LSU is giving up far, far too many points (have allowed 38 to the only power-five schools they’ve faced) Alabama isn’t too far behind the Tigers, and it appears running on the Tide isn’t as hard as it used to be (allowing 134 a game on the ground). Georgia’s vertical passing game hasn’t become a weapon yet; and punting in Athens has become a full-blown adventure.
Oklahoma and Ohio State are running up and down the field, but the best team those two have defeated (combined) is likely Cincinnati.
And then there’s Auburn and the Gators. Both have goofed around with bad teams (Miami, Kentucky and Tulane), but one of the two will be 6-0 and knocking on the door of getting serious discussion of winning it all. The loser will hardly be out of it.
But neither seems to be in the same class as LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia, Clemson or Alabama. At least not yet. The good news is that over the next few weeks the SEC will have a slew of games that will filter out the pretenders from the pack.
Auburn-Florida; then LSU-Gators a week later; Auburn-LSU is on Oct 26; Cocktail party on Nov. 2; LSU-Bama on Nov. 9; UGA at Auburn on Nov. 16; A&M at UGA on Nov. 23; and Bama-Auburn to end the year.
Perhaps with the exception of Nov. 23, there is an earthquake game each week in the SEC. One question those in other conferences might wonder and worry about is if the SEC is going to suck all of the oxygen out of the room… it’s a good question.