With week 2 of the college football season all wrapped up, there are some truths that are becoming harder to ignore, so let’s go over them.
The Georgia Bulldogs are the best football team in the country.
While there are other teams who can upset Georgia, namely the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Ohio State Buckeyes, after these 2 weeks it is hard to ignore just how dominant Georgia has been already. And while no one expected their game with Samford to be close, it was at least expected that the Oregon Ducks would create some matchup problems for Georgia. It seems though, that the complete opposite happened when they routed Oregon 49-3. This past Saturday was not near as difficult for Georgia as they proved once again that their defense is one of, if not the absolute best in college football. It is hard to imagine any team having much offensive success against this defense since they have given up a whopping 3 points on the entire season. No matter what your competition level is, that is impressive and should have other teams in the SEC thankful that they have not had to play Georgia yet.
One of the biggest stories from the first 2 weeks has also been the play of quarterback Stetson Bennett, who many thought of as just a game manager even after their national championship win this past January. Stetson quickly showed that those game manager accusations were completely wrong after posting a great stat line in week 1 and another solid stat line at week 2 at 300 yards and 1 touchdown. The question with Stetson Bennett should no longer be is he good enough to win games and now should be is he good enough to win the Heisman trophy come December.
Bryce Young is incredible, but the Alabama Crimson Tide have a lot to work on.
Bryce Young is the best quarterback in college football. The way he can keep his composure in a hostile environment like Austin, Texas, and lead his team on yet another game winning drive is beyond impressive. Without him the Alabama Crimson Tide would not have come out of Texas with a win and even though he did not have the most jaw-dropping stat line, he made every single play that he needed to so that his team could have a chance to win the game. Including the wild, side armed, touchdown pass that he threw, to take the lead late in the game, and again when he narrowly avoided the sack and ran down the sideline to get his team in field goal position on their final drive.
But with all the good there is some bad news for the Alabama Crimson Tide, and that is they have some holes in their game as of right now. The most glaring issue uncovered in Saturday’s win over the Texas Longhorns is all the penalties the Tide committed. The 15 penalties that the Alabama Crimson Tide committed is the most in the Nick Saban era and while this is expected from the freshman, it was the defensive superstar, Will Anderson, who was responsible for the most individual penalties. While he will no doubt fix this problem it is still a major concern for the Crimson Tide, and I would not want to be at that practice this week. Alabama’s offensive line also seems to be an area of concern as Texas easily got pressure on Bryce Young all game long.
Some college football blue bloods are not looking so good.
Even though the usual college football playoff suspects like Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State are still top dogs, the other college football blue bloods are having horrible starts to their college football seasons. Texas A&M, who was expected to be right in the mix for the college football playoffs, are now going to be playing catch up for the rest of the season after losing a shocker to Appalachian State at home. Now Texas A&M must take on the Miami hurricanes this upcoming Saturday and losing this game would take them out of the playoff picture fully.
While the Clemson Tigers have not lost yet, they too have not been impressive so far this season. Through the first 2 weeks Clemson’s offense has shown little to no improvement from how disappointing it was last year. Not to mention, the Clemson quarterback, D.J. Uiagalelei, was supposed to have improved from the offseason and it looks more likely each week that he could be replaced by highly regarded prospect Cade Klubnik, who drove down the field with ease in his only drive week 1 against Georgia Tech.
Two teams that have been historically great in college football are having similar problems as well, this being the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Neither one of these teams can get anything going on offense in either of their first few games. Both teams have yet to get in the win column this season and both teams have lost to teams that they were supposed to beat by double digits. In Nebraska’s case, they are now looking for a new solution as they have officially fire Scott Frost. With it only being Marcus Freeman’s first season at Notre Dame, he is unlikely to get fired, but if Freeman’s Notre Dame team continues to struggle the way they have through the first 2 weeks of this season, then he is unlikely to be there for many more years.
Too much of a good thing is not a good thing, unless its upsets.
For the college football fan who loves a good underdog story this season been perfect for you. Highly ranked teams have been dropping like flies through the first two weeks and it has led to some of the most exciting college football that I have seen in a long time. One of the best elements of college football is the uncertainty of everything and with all the upsets that have happened already, we may be going into one of the most upset prone seasons in recent memory.
