What We Learned… NCAA College Football Week 11

Alabama Are The Best Team In America: On this, there should be absolutely no dispute.

The Tide were challenged at home midway through their annual slug-fest against Louisiana State and they stood up to it in impressive fashion, pouring on the offense to turn what had been a close game into a rout in Tuscaloosa. Early in the season, the Tide weren’t exactly razor-sharp on offense – witness their rather scrappy season-opening win against Virginia Tech – but they certainly are now. Just ask Les Miles and Louisiana State, who were outscored 21-3 in the second, and held to -16 yards rushing.

Right now, the Tide has going what every offensive coordinator wants: a perfect balance between the ground game and QB AJ McCarron’s aerial attack. The run game is freeing up McCarron, who’s looking as good as he ever has.  On the ground, it’s insane to think that much-heralded RB TJ Yeldon, who starred tonight, might not even be the best back in the Tide rotation. That honour might now go to Kenyan Drake, who has come on strongly in the last few weeks and will likely compete for the starting job during the spring and summer.

It must be nice for Nick Saban, looking at so much competition at key positions both offensively and defensively. One position that’s not up for grabs is quarterback, where McCarron is solidly directing a lethal set of skilled-position players down the path to another BCS National Championship appearance. 

Other than their road trip to visit Gus Malzahn’s resurgent Auburn Tigers for the annual Iron Bowl match-up in a few weeks’ time, I’m not sure that anyone, including their opponent in the SEC Championship Game (Georgia or Missouri, most likely) can challenge Alabama the way they’re playing now.

It baffles me that McCarron – who said the team was “hungry” because they’d been doubted by a lot of people coming into this game – undefeated and making big plays when necessary (see the Texas A&M game, as well as his performance against LSU), isn't being spoken about more as a Heisman favourite. 

Whether it’s because the ‘Bama offense is so balanced or because McCarron just goes about his game with incredible amounts of poise and little in the way of hoopla and fanfare, I don’t know. But, in a perfect world, McCarron, whose leadership in Tuscaloosa is an underrated part of his game, should be right amongst it. A few more games like tonight, and he’ll be there.

FSU’s Defense Might Be As Good As It’s Offense: It didn’t take another extraordinary Jameis Winston performance for the Seminoles to keep on keeping on in the ACC. Instead, it was the FSU defense who starred in the 59-3 demolition of Wake Forest, forcing seven turnovers (6 interceptions and a fumble recovery) on the way. It was men against boys out there.

Likely the favourite for the Heisman Trophy after Oregon QB Marcus Mariota was subpar on Thursday night in the Ducks loss to Stanford, Winston was comparatively quiet, but I doubt that’ll upset him any. He still managed two touchdowns and is on a winning team. The Heisman voters will certainly look at this game and note that the Seminoles won again, and that Winston didn’t do anything to disadvantage his team. With a defense playing as well as FSU’s was on Saturday, it didn’t seem like any offensive mistake would hinder them.

Teams everywhere should be concerned about Florida State. Jimbo Fisher, like Nick Saban, must be loving his team’s progression through the season. They’re hitting their collective stride at exactly the right moment – November is when Championship dreams start to come true – and they’ve been toughened by big wins in big games, and should be – are, in my opinion – the second-best football team in the nation. The BCS rankings should reflect same when released tomorrow. 

If everything stays it’s current course, Florida State should get a shot at Alabama in the Vizio BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl in early January. Of course, if Novembers of recent years have told us anything, it’s that a few shockers will happen along the way. All the same, ‘Bama and the ‘Noles playing for it it…wouldn’t that be nice?

Linebackers Can Play Offense, Too: The best touchdown of the weekend was UCLA’s Myles Jack, who ran 66 yards in the fourth quarter to extend the Bruins lead over Arizona in Tucson. 

It wasn’t the fastest or flashiest run of the day, but it was, by far, the most extraordinary. Why? Because Jack is a linebacker, and had only been included in the offense this week. It didn’t seem to matter. He looked like a running back on that touchdown jaunt, rumbling down the sideline. 

As if that wasn’t enough, Jack was a defensive presence, too, recording a forced fumble during UCLA’s win. There’s nothing better in college football than a two-way player. That was fun to watch!

Baylor Passed It’s First Test With Flying Colours: Yeah, yeah, you all thought that Baylor’s high-octane performances so far this season were primarily because of the easy schedule they had. You thought their defense wouldn’t be able to stand up against good opposition. You thought their offense wouldn’t be able to, either. Go on, admit it!

Well, the Bears proved a lot of people very wrong on Thursday night as they laid the lumber to Oklahoma in Waco, recording a resounding – and somewhat surprising – 41-14 victory for their first ever 8-0 start. The win seems to give them the inside run at the Big XII championship game, subject to an interesting stretch run against improving teams, including a remarkably-resurgent Texas.

Back to Thursday night: in the first half, it was Baylor’s defense that kept it’s offense in the game. QB Bryce Petty (three touchdown passes and two touchdown runs) and co started slowly, but when they caught fire midway through the second quarter, boy, did they catch fire! It was business as usual after that, Petty making big plays to his fleet of talented wide receivers and RB Shock Linwood running for 182 yards, shredding the Oklahoma defense, which gave up 459 total yards.

I don’t believe the Bears, even undefeated, will get to the National Championship Game. In terms of undefeated teams, Ohio State has more claim to an appearance – the Buckeyes Big Ten conference schedule is slightly better than that of the Bears Big XII slate – than Baylor, but the Bears should get a BCS berth. Imagine the fireworks we’d all bear witness to if it ends up where Baylor and Oregon get on a football field together. That’d be something to see!

Florida Have Issues: Like, a thousand of them. 

The Gators are under .500 for the first time since 1992, and with their 4-5 record and a run home that features South Carolina, Georgia Southern and Florida State, there’s no guarantee of a winning season, and even if there is special dispensation to become Bowl eligible from the NCAA (See UCLA a few years ago), there’s no guarantee that anyone will want to invite the Gators.

Their 34-17 loss at the hands of Vanderbilt was embarrassing. No, not because it’s Vanderbilt, but because Florida looked all at sea, coughing up the football four times whilst outgaining the Commodores 344-183. You could triple the amount of yardage rolled up on an opposition player, but it won’t matter if you cannot protect the football. A big win for Vanderbilt, who’ve beaten historical SEC powerhouses Georgia and Florida in the same season for the first time ever. Talk about a strange season in the south: we’ve had offensive slugfests, traditional power programs struggling and also-rans emerging as powers. And it’s only November!

For Florida, the loss will surely direct the glare of national media attention to Will Muschamp, the head coach poached from Texas (where he had been coach-in-waiting to Mack Brown) with so much fanfare. Now, in his third season, the Gators aren’t making progress of any sort. If anything, they’re regressing. I can’t imagine boosters and school administrators – used to incredible and sustained success – are happy about this. I’m not sure that Muschamp keeps his job past this season. Not without the most dramatic of dramatic turnarounds. Three straight wins to end the year would be a good start. But a tough ask, too, considering their run home.

It’s incredible to think that Florida won a National Championship five years ago, played in a Sugar Bowl eleven months ago…and lost to Vanderbilt this week. For Gator fans, those high-flying days in Gainesville must seem like they happened in a different lifetime. There’s a good chance that Muschamp won’t make it to the end of the calendar year…but the big question is, what sort of coach is the school going to recruit to take over?

USC Special Teams Are Exceptional: It was the third phase of the game that proved to be Cal’s undoing in Berkeley on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Bears, who are having a tough season under Sonny Dykes’ Bear Raid offense, were behind the eight-ball almost from the beginning, when USC’s Nelson Agholor returned a punt 75 yards off the back of Cal’s first offensive possession of the game. But the flying wide receiver wasn’t done, taking back a second punt for six, this time from 93 yards away. Josh Shaw got into the fun, returning a blocked punt for 14 yards and a score. Those three special teams returns tie an NCAA record, in case you were wondering.

The Trojans continued their mid-season resurgence, laying a 62-28 shellacking on the Golden Bears thanks to special teams and RB Javorious ‘Buck’ Allen, whose impressive season out of the Trojan backfield continues, running for 134 yards on just six carries, and running all over Cal’s defenders. He scored on runs of 43 and 79 yards and took a screen pass from QB Cody Kessler 57 yards to the house.

Quietly, USC are getting better. Today was an impressive offensive performance, especially by Kessler, who’s looked much better under Clay Helton’s play-calling than he ever did under Lane Kiffin’s. They’ve now won four of five under interim coach Ed Orgeron – the only blemish being the offensively-challenged game at Notre Dame – and have a big test next week, returning home to welcome Stanford.

Perseverance Pays Off: Just ask Pitt QB Tom Savage what perseverance is all about. It’s been a long road for the much-ballyhooed quarterback phenom who arrived at Rutgers in a blaze of publicity before the 2009 season as the highest-profile recruit in the school’s long history.

I was at Rutgers the night they brought him in as a prospective recruit when the Scarlet Knights beat North Carolina in the rain by some ridiculous margin.  The friend who'd gotten me onto the field pointed him out and told me that Savage would be the biggest signing ever for Rutgers. And he was. It didn't work out at Rutgers, so he transferred to Arizona, transferred again when Rich Rod came in.

Now, Savage is in his final season now as a fifth year senior at Pitt. That was the biggest win of his career. Good luck to a good guy. He's worked hard for it, travelling an unusual path to where he is now. And, you know, I always love a guy and a team who can beat Notre Dame.