Alabama On Top, And Watch Out For Notre Dame
Three facts emerged from the opening weekend of the 2018 college football season.
1.) Alabama is the dominant, team to beat this year.
2.) The Pac-12 Conference is – by far – the weakest of the Power 5 conferences.
3.) Notre Dame just might be a team to “sneak” into the College Football Playoffs.
Now I’ll beak down each of these three points.
Alabama Looks Dominant In Every Phase Of The Game
The Crimson Tide not only decimated Louisville 51-14 but coaches and fans of just about every school in the land. It was not just Tua Tagovailoa but the special teams, the defense, the receivers. The Tide is loaded but also explosive and looks like it might be the best team of the Nick Saban era.
The Pac 12 Is In Trouble (Again)
If Washington is the best team the Pac-12 can field, then the conference is in trouble. Again. The Huskies looked mediocre at best against Auburn (and so did Auburn, by the way) and at times incompetent (and so did Auburn, by the way. Surely no one who saw this game – and managed to stay awake for most of it – could think either of these teams belong in the Top 20).
Chris Petersen proved himself to be a quality coach by making halftime adjustments, but if this team rolls through the Pac-12 then it will really demonstrate how bad the conference is this year.
Oregon State managed to put up 31 on Ohio State but gave up 77 and was never competitive.
Arizona – with its supposedly give-him-the-Heisman quarterback – looked inept offensively in losing to BYU. Zonies are already asking what I did several months ago – why did Arizona hire Kevin Summlin, who can’t win when Johnny Manziel isn’t his quarterback?
UCLA somehow lost to Cincinnati. So much for Chip Kelly’s debut.The Bruins are next at Oklahoma, by the way.
Stanford got a bit of a scare against San Diego State and USC was outplayed and out-coached against UNLV until the Rebs ran out of steam in the fourth quarter.
Notre Dame Might Be A College Playoff Contender
Granted, it may be difficult to really judge based on Michigan’s offensive inabilities – that Manziel-style QB Shea Patterson doesn’t work on a more structured offense – but the Irish may be fighting their way into the College Football Playoff. I say that because, even tho I picked them to win in the Pigskin Prognosticator, it took no luck of the Irish to do it. They simply whipped the Wolverines. And the schedule has some names – Stanford, Virginia Tech, Florida State – but no scary teams.
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