Snap Judgments: Alabama Chomps Gators; Oregon Takes New Reign

For nine months, Florida has waited.

They've had Oct. 2 circled on their calendar.

They were focused, ready, salivating to wipe the memory of the 2009 SEC Championship game from the slate.

Well, mission accomplished. They did indeed rid themselves of that memory, only to replace it with one just as bad, probably worse.

I work at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings and I contemplated going to bed at halftime, no wait, I was going to hit the sack the second that Marquis Maze found Michael Williams for a touchdown strike that made the score 24-0.

Good night, thanks for playing, Mr. Meyer, your retirement gifts are at the door.

Seriously? This was the best the Gators could muster? This was supposed to be WWIII in the Florabama battle for supremacy.

Instead, the Tide have turned the SEC into a one-team league. In fact, it seems the only team left for the challenge might be Alabama's cross-state rival, Auburn.

Florida actually had 12 more yards than Alabama with 283 to 271. Ingram only rushed for 47 yards and McElroy only threw for 84, but guess what, they didn't have to do any more. They got more work in the spring game.

Alabama took control, put it out of reach and then went into cruise control for the final 30 minutes.

But what about Alabama's weak link, that inexperienced Tide D? Well, it seems that with each passing challenge they take a step closer to evening up with the Bama offense.

They aren't there yet, but they were pretty good against Florida. They manhandled them at the line of scrimmage and created turnovers in the secondary.

Alabama really just needs to stay focused, and Florida needs to find focus. It's a long season in the SEC and things could change, but it is hard to see it right now.

Speaking of conference separation, Oregon did the same.

Move over USC, there is a new, definitive king in the PAC 10 and they have a fierce...quack?

Yes, those Ducks seem to have turned a corner.

Stanford is the upstart and they showed they are on their way, jumping out to a 21-3 lead in one of college football's toughest environments, but sadly, they just aren't there yet.

Oregon outscored Stanford 49-10 after the first quarter and in my opinion deserve to be ranked No. 2 right behind Alabama at this point.

They are dynamic on offense and did enough on D to get it done, forcing three Cardinal turnovers. Yes, they gave up 518 yards, but they gave up zero second-half points.

With USC falling to Washington, it's hard to see the Trojans challenging the Ducks on Oct. 30.

Mark down Nov. 26 on your calendar. That's when the Arizona Wildcats come to town and could decide the PAC 10 winner. With all that being said, I would put Oregon ahead of Ohio State at this point.

The Buckeyes nearly Tressel-balled themselves to death.

Look, I have much respect for Jim Tressel. What he's done at Ohio State is something that many programs envy. A consistent winner that challenges for conference and national crowns.

What I don't get and I am sure many Buckeye fans would agree is why does he continue to bottle up Terrelle Pryor at times?

Some might say he saw his prize pupil get banged up a bit and didn't want that to get worse.

OK, fair enough, but still, there were plenty of crucial third-down plays in the second half where OSU got ultra conservative, really just allowing Illinois to hang around.

These are the times when you want Pryor to shine.

These are the times when you trust the best player on the field to make plays and build even more confidence.

Instead, Ohio State was handing the ball off to their lackluster running game.

Speaking of that run game, Ohio State could not control the line of scrimmage against Illinois.

The fighting Zookers really played tough up front and it concerns me that if Ohio State wants to compete for a BCS title that they aren't able to impose their will when they want to.

It especially concerns me with games at Wisconsin and Iowa.

Another thing that concerns me is the sanity of Colorado fans. If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was 1990 all over again.

Congratulations, you beat a 1-3 Georgia, which in my mind, doesn't justify storming the field.

Moving on to another SEC team.

LSU.

Oh, LSU, how did you manage to escape with a win.

Honestly, I finally feel that Les Miles' idiocy is finally starting to become too big for the talent of his team to overcome, except, sadly, it wasn't too big to overcome the lack of math skills on the Tennessee sideline.

What should have been a win for UT to hang their hat on became a mental error that destroyed the clock management gaffe by the Mad Hatter and company at the end of the game.

All I can say is that, at least the Vol players knew how to take a proper shower after the game, but you can't really wash away a loss like that.

If you can convince me that LSU should still be ranked No. 10 with that QB play and moronic coaching, I'd love to hear it. We all would.

Congrats to Michigan State for a big home win over Wisconsin. You have to tip your hat to the Spartans.

They were able to focus amidst all the distractions with the health of head coach Mark Dantonio and get a statement win against the Badgers.

Sparty is emerging as a Big 10 contender, but even with Ohio State's mediocre performance at Illinois, I still haven't seen anyone in the league quite at their level.

Finally...

I would like to thank the Texas Longhorns for participating in the top 25. They look certain to drop out along with Penn State after their losses to Oklahoma and Iowa, respectively.

Sometimes the preseason polls get it wrong, severely wrong, like Texas was a top 5 team wrong.

It's not quite 2000 Alabama wrong (preseason #3 that finished 3-8, hey, I can take shots at my alma mater), but very wrong.