Alabama 42, Florida 21

The Tide trounced  Florida. Blake Sims and Amari Cooper were all world, and it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon. Everything was clicking. Blake was 22-of-33 for 445 yards and four TDs. Amari caught 10 passes for 201 yards and three TDs. Not only is Amari right in the thick of the Heisman race, Blake could be right there as well. He’s got to be in the top 5 or six too. I’d put Amari neck and neck with Marcus Mariota right now. I’d actually put Amari ahead of Mariota at this point. Amari now has 43 receptions for 665 yards (15.2 average) for five TDs. That over the shoulder catch he pulled in for a 79 yard score was a beauty. Blake’s 87-yard TD pass to Kenyon Drake was exceptionally good too. Blake hit Kenyon right in stride and Kenyon did the rest with a house call. Blake’s pass to Amari was thrown right in stride as well. It was a tougher catch, but Amari made it look like a backyard football catch as Blake called it in his post game. Amari made heralded cornerback Vernon Hargreaves look like a third stringer. He just took him to school. Hargreaves seemed to be hurt about every series, too. He’s overrated to me. The best guy in the Florida secondary is Keanu Neal, one of their safeties. He’s a good player. He stripped DeAndrew White and took it to the house to put the Gators ahead briefly in the first quarter, 14-7. But the Tide came roaring right back with the Sims to Cooper 79-yard connection for the tying score. Blake just did about everything right. I know S is hard on his critiques of  Blake and he did made a couple of miscues with his fumble in the third quarter and his interception, but S has got to be pleased with his senior, who has worked his backside off with offensive coordinatorLane Kiffin to be an elite quarterback in the SEC. I’ll tell you who else deserves a lot of credit: Lane Kiffin. Lane has Blake clicking on all cylinders right now. He’s dialing up excellent plays and has turned Blake into a highly confident and elite SEC quarterback. Both Kiffin and Blake have done their part. Lane has coached him up and Blake has put in the hours in the film room and the practice field. It’s a combination that looks championship-like. I know S is not happy about the fumble and the int, but he’s got to be pleased with what Lane and Blake are doing, without a doubt. The defense was solid after a somewhat slower start. Landon Collins and Jabriel Washington both had interceptions. Kirby Smart and S have to be pleased about that. I thought the defensive line did a better job of rushing the quarterback, and Reggie Ragland and Trey DePriest had excellent games. Ragland finished with eight tackles and Trey had seven. Landon and Trey are the leaders. They really stepped up on Saturday. Landon Collins is an All-American looking player this year. He’s the guy who can lead the defense, along with Trey, into playing championship caliber football.

Next up is Ole Miss @ Oxford. No TV or time has been announced yet  for the game. Should come out later this week, maybe this afternoon or tomorrow. I expect it to be the 2:30 PM CT CBS game. Should be an epic. Blake and Lane will be tested by a pretty darn good defense, and the Alabama defense will be tested by Bo Wallace, who looks like he may have become a solid SEC starting quarterback, though I still say the jury is still out on Wallace. But he has a talented offensive group around him. Hugh Freeze is doing an excellent job in Oxford. Should be quite a test for the Tide.

Another group that is playing as well as anybody in the country is the Bama offensive line. Really like this group led by center Ryan Kelly and right tackle Austin Shepherd. True freshman Cam Robinson, one of the top five-stars in the country in recruiting last year, has been outstanding. Like what Arie Kouandijo is doing at left guard and Leon Brown @ right guard. Excellent group. Kelly is 6’5″, 296, and the smallest of the group. Shepherd is 6’5″, 320, Robinson is 6’6″, 323 (wow!), Kouandijo is 6’5″, 315 and Brown is 6’6″, 320. That’s massive, and they are tough, physical players. The running game is getting it going. Derrick Henry ran for 111 yards and a seven, and T.J. (18-59) and Kenyon did well. Kenyon had a fumble, as did DeAndrew White and Blake. Kenyon’s and DeAndrew’s were just good strips by the Gator defenders. You get some fumbles with Kenyon, but she also get some massively explosive plays. Just needs to get that ball security down.

So the Tide is now No.3 in the polls right behind the fortunate FSU at No.1 and Oregon, which survived a tough contest with Washington State, 38-31, @ No.2. If you watched Florida State on Saturday Night vs. Clemson, you saw how incredibly fortunate they were to win. They beat Clemson 23-17 without Jameis. Sean Mcguire filled in for Winston and did a commendable job. He was 21-of-39 for 305 yards with a huge game tying 74 yard TD pass late in the game to Rashad Greene which tied the game with 6:04 left in the game. But with just over two minutes left in regulation, McGuire was intercepted by Clemson linebacker Jadar Johnson who returned it to the FSU 26. But sure enough, Clemson running back C.J. Davidson  fumbled it right back to FSU and FSU took it to overtime where they won it with a game winning touchdown after Clemson couldn’t make a first down on fourth and one on their possession at the FSU 11. The Clemson kicker was terrible. Missed a couple of easy kicks which Taylor Swift might have made. Clemson had it inside the FSU five twice and didn’t get any points. So FSU survived Clemson and move on with Jameis back at quarterback.

Auburn  20, Kansas State 14

Not sure what happened to the Tigers’ offense Thursday night. Nick Marshall played a pretty good game, but really didn’t get much help. Duke Williams dropped a sure touchdown pass and there were other drops. Nick was a little inaccurate at times, too. Kansas State played the Tigers tough though. That offensive line for K State is big and they handled the AU defensive front all night. Not sure why the AU d line isn’t better. There is great size and athletic ability on that front four, but they can’t seem to get a good pass rush. Defensive line coach Rodney Garner needs to figure some things out to get better pass rush from his front. The defense kind of  got the job done, but the first interception by Jonathan Jones was a drop by Kansas wide receiver Tyler Lockett in the end zone that would have been seven for K State. The second int by Trovon Reed was beautiful. Nice diving play by Trovon. So overall, the Tigers really need to get better on offense and need to shore up their defense. Surprised at their performance Thursday night. Kansas State had something to do with it, and on the road at K-State is not easy. So there is a lot to get better at for the Tigers as they prepare for Louisiana Tech this weekend @ 3 PM on the SEC Network. They need to really improve this Saturday because LSU, which lost a wild one to State Saturday Night (how does Les lose these games every year?), comes to Auburn on Saturday, Oct. 4. Just thinking about which game, Alabama-Ole Miss or Auburn-LSU will be the 2:30 PM CT, CBS game. Should be an interesting decision. One of those games will be the CBS and the other will be the ESPN game at 6 PM CT or so. Should be an epic Saturday on Oct.4th.

Mississippi State was awesome Saturday Night in Death Valley. Wow, they pulled it off beating the Bengal Tigers, 34-29. They look for real, though LSU did come back and had a 50 yard Hail Mary in the end zone as time expired to try and steal one from State. But State intercepted it and upset the Bayou Bengals. Dak Prescott was 15-of-24 for 268 and two TDs, including a beautiful 74 yarder to Jameon Lewis, in which Dak escaped the pressure, rolled to his left and lofted it 10 yards to Lewis, who caught it at around his own 35, and took it the distance to put State up 31-10, which gave State a commanding lead. Dak also ran for 105 yards and one TD. What a player. I still wonder sometimes about Dak’s consistent accuracy throwing the ball, but overall, he’s quite a quarterback. Running back Josh Robinson ran for 197 yards on 16 carries and one TD. And the State defense was pretty dominating until LSU made their frantic comeback at the end behind freshman quarterback Brandon Harris. I knew coming into the season that while LSU was talented, they lost a lot to the NFL,  their quarterback was inexperienced (Anthony Jennings),  and their skilled players, for the most part, were inexperienced. But after the Wisconsin game and a couple of easy home victories, I thought that maybe this team is so talented it can overcome its youth and inexperience. But an experienced, talented team with a high caliber SEC quarterback handled them. Les Miles should still have won this game. He has really good talent and LSU was 43-3 in night games under Miles at Tiger Stadium before Saturday night. Every year, he always seems to lose a game or two he is expected to win. Very surprising, but an awesome victory for head coach Dan Mullen, who finally got the monkey off his back with a huge win over a top 10 team, and Dak Prescott and the team. State hadn’t beaten LSU since 1999, so a  huge one for the Bulldogs.

South Carolina pretty much handled Vandy, 48-34. Their offense looked pretty good, but their defense is questionable at best. Georgia is still very much in this SEC East race, and I guess you can’t count out Florida totally, though Florida doesn’t look too swift to me. Missouri took a real step back with their upset loss to Indiana @ home. They travel to Columbia, S.C. this week to take on the Gamecocks (7 PM ET/6 PM CT, ESPN). South Carolina still has to go to Auburn and go to Florida. They have to play Kentucky and Tennessee @ home and UT upset the Gamecocks last year. And Kentucky, which is much improved, has given the Gamecocks fits over the past five years. But the schedule is now more doable with Auburn not as strong at this point as anticipated. The Dawgs have to go to Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas–which might be the toughest of the three– and they have Florida in Jacksonville, the usual Cocktail game, and Tennessee, Vandy and Auburn at home. So their schedule, like SC’s, is tough, but doable. A two loss team could very well win the East this year.

As for the West, it’s incredibly good. It could be tougher than one of the divisions in the NFL. Alabama, A&M, Ole Miss and State look like the best teams right now, with Auburn looking to get back in that elite group and Arkansas making a statement after thrashing Texas Tech  in Lubbock , Texas (49-28), and then routing Northern Illinois, 52-14 @ home over the weekend. Northern Illinois was 3-0 coming into the game and had beaten Northwestern at Northwestern, 23-14. So that’s a legitimate victory and Texas Tech is a juggernaut on offense, but was unable to stop that stellar running game of the Hogs.  The Hogs’ running game is terrific with Alex Collins, who has run for 490 yards on 65 carries (7.5 average) and five TDs, and Jonathan Williams, who has run for 391 yards on 48 carries (8.1), and seven TDs. These two guys are hosses and their quarterback, Brandon Allen, is starting to play well. The Hogs host A&M this Saturday in what could be a very interesting game. It’s the 2:30 PM CT game on CBS.

Awesome  stuff going on in college football right now both in the SEC, where the West could be better than ever, and nationally. Will have previews and predictions of games on Thursday and anything else that comes up in the meantime, will keep you posted.