Alabama-Virginia Tech Showed Tide Ready to Roll

Well, the college football season is finally upon us, and we had an excellent week one.  Many surprising games, but the one that had to be considered the biggest surprise was the Alabama-Virginia Tech game, which was held in Atlanta, GA.

Now, before I even get started I want to point out a few great games I watched:

Notre Dame vs. Nevada

Ohio State vs. Navy

Georgia vs. OK State

Those were all great games that came down to the better team, in my opinion, winning.

Now, back to the headline game of week one, Alabama vs. Virginia Tech.  This had to have been the best game of week one, with good reason.

Both teams played extremely great and competitive.  Clearly, the outcome was no surprise, though.  In a nationwide poll, Alabama was favored 78% to 22%, everyone on College Gameday picked Alabama, and Virginia Tech's star running back was out with an injury.

Let's start this article off right.

Alabama, though the favored team, wasn't buying any of the favoritism.  Nick Saban never does.  Everyone knew the Hokies had a chance  to win, and they did.  Both teams fought hard the whole 60 minutes.

Two BCS schools from 2008 were going head-to-head in the first week of the season.  Already contention for the BCS Championship could be lost.

Let's talk about Alabama first.  They lost their starting quarterback, running back, and two star offensive linemen.  So, clearly, their offense was going to be tested. 

It all came down to Greg McElroy's (QB) leadership on offense.  He threw for 230 yards on the night.  He handled the role great, but it was the running back Mark Ingram who made a bang coming into the season.  He had 150 yards and a touchdown in that game.  Another guy who made a big impact on the Tide's running game was Roy Upchurch.  He had 90 yards in only 7 carries.  He had a touchdown as well. 

Julio Jones was my surprise of the night.  He was heavily covered all night.  He only caught four passes for only 46 yards.  Darius Hanks was unknown by many before coming into this game.  He had three receptions for 55 yards, but boy, were they momentum-building catches.

Alabama's defense shut down Tyrod Taylor's running attack.  They allowed him -26 yards rushing for the night.  Taylor had 91 passing yards, and completed only 9 of 20 pass attempts.

The Hokies could only get 64 rushing yards overall against the Tide's defense, and the Tide went on to get the win 34-24.

A ten-point win against the number seven team in the nation to start the season is a huge momentum builder.  If Alabama can keep it up, we'll be seeing them in the Georgia Dome again on Dec. 5, 2009, in the SEC Championship.  Maybe this year, they can beat the Gators and go on to, maybe, the national title game.

For the Hokies, they'll need to pick up the pace if they want to have any chance at the National Championship, or even a BCS Bowl bid.

Roll Tide!