The top five teams of college football have all played a game. Here are my thoughts of what I expect this season.
Alabama - Another season opener, another ranked opponent destroyed. The Tide is hard enough to beat without a good QB. They unveiled Bryce Young. All he did was throw for 344 yards and 4 TDs. After putting a somewhat lackluster defense on the field last year, the defense looked back to being at a typical dominant Alabama level. The Tide doesn't just win season openers against good teams, they spank them. The biggest mistake the Miami Hurricanes made was scheduling this game to begin with. In college football you never say one team has zero chance, but before the game started, I calculated Miami's chance of winning at 0.00001%. The Hurricanes had to think that having a national TV audience would give them good exposure and help recruiting. Not so much when you are down 41-3 and the TV audience is laughing at you. The Tide is ready to roll... again.
Clemson - The Tigers were favored by 3.5 points. The defense mostly did its part. The Georgia offense couldn't get much going in the first half other than getting into position to miss a field goal from point blank range. Clemson QB D. J. Uiagalelei mostly played a game of duck, duck, goose without the goose. It was drop back to pass and duck. If not sacked, duck again. One of the few times Uiagalelei was not ducking, he threw an interception to the Bulldogs who ran it back for a pick six. If that had not happened, this game might still be going on with a 3-3 score. The Tigers offensive line was destroyed, especially number 71 at left tackle. I won't mention his name so as to not embarrass his mama and daddy. The one team Clemson did not want to lose to was Georgia. Clemson is a proud football school, but other than Alabama, the only other team that has historically dominated them is Georgia, and Clemson hates that. The all time series record now stands in favor of Georgia 43 wins, 18 losses and 4 ties. Even if you go back to 1960 when the Tigers became known as a good football school, the series stands at 23-8-2. The Bulldogs just have the Tigers number. You might think this loss would kill any chance Clemson has of making the college football playoff, but I don't think so. The ACC is jampacked with cupcakes. There is not one team that should be able to stay within 14 points of Clemson, so don't be surprised if the Tigers make the playoff. However, if Saturday night is any indication, they are not much of a threat to win it.
Georgia - The defense was unbelievable as they held Clemson to 2 yards rushing. How does that happen in major college football? If you subtract sack yards from the rushing total and the opponent doesn't even try to establish a running game, it can be done as we saw. The Bulldogs offense was not very good. Give them some credit for being able to run for decent yards in the 4th quarter to salt the game away, but it still wasn't very good. The Bulldogs catch a break by not having to play Alabama or Texas A&M in the regular season, but they do have a stretch of Auburn, Kentucky and Florida. I'm not sure if they make it through the regular season undefeated. If the defense can continue to resemble the 1985 Chicago Bears defense, they can. If that happens, Georgia could lose the SEC Championship game and still make the playoff. By the way, the 1985 Bears defense is the best the NFL has ever seen, and don't even try to argue otherwise!
Ohio State - The Buckeyes looked very beatable for most of three quarters as the Golden Gophers moved the ball rather well, but the Buckeyes' freshman QB got it going big time late in the game. It was one big play after another. As far as their chance of making the playoff is concerned, I'll give them an incomplete. I'd like to see if the offense is inconsistent or if they can get stronger and stronger as the season goes on. If stronger and stronger, they just might make it.
Oklahoma - The Sooners were the pick of a lot of folks to win the championship. Mel Kiper picked them recently on ESPN radio, and he's not the only one by any stretch. Their defense was said to be greatly improved. They survived Tulane by a score of 40-35. This is Tulane people! Had Hurricane Ida not sent this game from being played in New Orleans as scheduled originally and blown it up to Norman, Oklahoma, then what would have happened?! Oklahoma is very lucky to have survived. I'll go on the record as predicting the Sooners will not win all of their games, but they are still alive for the playoff... barely.
May God always be your number 1 draft pick!
Draftman Rick