The Bottom Line: Week 4 NCAA Football

Here are some of my thoughts following week 4 of the NCAA college football season.

Alabama Crimson Tide: Game 1 of the 3 game gauntlet is done and the Crimson Tide are still undefeated. That was an absolute horrid first half by the Tide. But they came back out in the second half and gave the ball to their dynamic backfield and the Razorbacks had no answer for Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. Ingram and Richardson ran through and past the Hogs’ defense en route to 411 total yards  and 3 TDs. Ingram and Richardson are arguably the two best running backs in all of college football and they are on the same team: a scary thought for all opposing defenses. After giving up 17 points and over 280 passing yards in the first half, the young Alabama defense stepped up in the 2nd half and allowed only 3 pts and less than 100 passing yards while picking off 2 of Ryan Mallet’s passes. The Crimson Tide played good old smash mouth football to escape Fayetteville with a 24-20 victory over #10 Arkansas. Next up #7 Florida (beat Kentucky) in week 5 followed by #19 South Carolina (who lost to #17 Auburn) in week 6. The Bottom Line: If Alabama beats Florida next week, they could run the table and enter their 2nd straight National Championship game.

Richardson (left) and Ingram (right) are running the Crimson Tide to another National Championship game. Picture courtesy of ESPN.

Boise State Broncos: I hate to say it (not really), but I was NOT impressed by the Broncos against now unranked Oregon State. The Beavers seemed to be in the game the entire second half. Up 24-10 at the half,  Boise St. failed to put their foot on the Beavers’ neck and make it a blowout. While Moore and Pettis were impressive in the first half, they failed to make a huge impact in the 2nd half and the Boise St. team seemed to go on cruise control in the second half. They need to get that killer instinct and beat opposition to a pulp if they want to get into the National Championship game. The Bottom Line: Boise State is over-ranked, I would like to see them  play a schedule like Alabama’s and finish 8-4 at best.

Texas Longhorns: The Longhorns were absolutely manhandled by the Bruins in Texas.  The Bruins were able to exploit the Longhorns weaknesses (lack of running game especially) and they just ran away with this game. After the Longhorns grabbed a 3-0 lead, the Bruins scored the next 20 points and even led 27-6 until late in the 4th quarter. Following this embarrassing loss at home, the Longhorns dropped pretty far down the rankings to 21. And with a game against #8 Oklahoma and against #6 Nebraska on Oct 16th the Longhorns have a lot to work on to get back on track. If the Longhorns play another game like this I expect them drop completely out of the top 25. The Bottom Line: Texas is definitely in trouble, Mack Brown should stop worrying about Vince Young’s case for the 2005 Heisman and worry more about his current team floundering.

He can't be too happy with the way things are going right now. Picture courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.