Early Season Storylines in College Football
By Drew Wilburn
Sep 14, 2013; Austin, TX, USA; Mississippi Rebels linebacker Mike Marry (38) reacts after a fumble recovery against the Texas Longhorns during the second half at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Ole Miss beat Texas 44-23. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports
Well, we are four weeks into the 2013 college football season, and we have learned quite a bit up to this point about several teams. Some teams have been pleasant surprises while others have been major disappointments. To begin, let’s revisit a few predictions that I made on some of the teams from the SEC.
One team from the SEC that has been a pleasant surprise this year is Ole Miss. As can be seen be seen in my preseason SEC predictions, I had Ole Miss going 5-7 on the season and just missing a bowl game. Four weeks into the season I will readily admit that I was wrong about them. Honestly, I was beginning to feel that I was wrong about them after their first game against Vanderbilt. Ole Miss is currently ranked 21st in the country, and I won’t be surprised if they continue to climb in the rankings. To go a step further, I think they will upset Texas A&M, who I wasn’t high on to begin with, in a few weeks. I am interested to see if the Rebels will keep the momentum going.
Other than Ole Miss playing much better than expected, there are no other great surprises in the SEC. There are a few mild surprises, however. The first one that can be seen is that the East is a bit weaker than was expected. Georgia and South Carolina are still the top two teams in the East, but they have both shown more signs of weakness than expected so far.
Georgia lost on the road against a very good Clemson team, and the Bulldogs were tied in the third quarter against North Texas. I haven’t seen every Georgia game, but they have not looked as dominant as expected in the preseason. Particularly, the Georgia offensive line has had some problems in pass protection. To their credit, the Dawgs did win against South Carolina, but again, both of these teams have looked weaker than expected.
South Carolina has shown some signs of weakness, as well. South Carolina’s defensive line has often looked gassed, and South Carolina lost to a weak Georgia team. South Carolina has had solid wins against Vanderbilt and North Carolina, but they have shown flaws in those games. Don’t get me wrong. Georgia and South Carolina are both good teams, but neither of them appear to be the national title contenders they were thought to be in the preseason. It appears that the winner of the SEC will come from the West.
Speaking of the West, I would like to point out that I thought LSU was underrated by the national media coming into the season, and in fact, I may have had undersold them. So far they have proven to be much more explosive on offense than anyone would have imagined, and they appear to pose the greatest threat to Alabama’s chance at three straight national championships. Needless to say, both teams should have November 9th circled on their calendars.
While our focus has been on the SEC, there are a few other teams around the country to make a brief mention of, as well. A couple of notable teams, Texas and USC have been disappointing to start the season, and their coaches are now on the hot seat. It has been said by some that Texas is the Tennessee of five years ago in the sense of having an iconic coach who has fallen off of their standards over the last few seasons with the team. Granted, we do not know if Mack Brown will be fired, but if he is, then his story has several similarities with that of Phillip Fulmer’s final years in Knoxville. Perhaps less surprisingly, USC is struggling under the guidance of Lane Kiffin, who never seemed like he could handle the spotlight of the job at Southern Cal. If USC continues to struggle, I would not be surprised to see him canned, as well.
Finally, we will quickly look at a few teams outside of the SEC who have emerged as national title contenders. These teams are Oregon, Stanford, and Clemson. It is worth mentioning that two of these teams are from the Pac-12, and that the Pac-12 has asserted themselves as one of the top two conferences in college football, along with the SEC.
Oregon has played some teams from other major FBS conferences and completely blown them out of the water. It’s like they are playing a video game out there. Interestingly, many of their best players may not be strong candidates for awards when the postseason comes because Oregon has had the luxury of pulling several of their starters from the game in the third quarter. The Ducks are truly a team to be reckoned with, shiny uniforms and all. Stanford is a team that has not had as much buzz about them this year, but they have been playing solid football throughout the beginning of the season, and they have established themselves as a perennial top 5-10 team.
Clemson is the other team that appears capable of competing for a national title, and they can certainly play themselves into the title game if they keep up their strong play. They have the opportunity to make a compelling case to play in the national title game if they can knock off South Carolina at the end of the season. The Tigers are led by senior Tajh Boyd, their Heisman Candidate at quarterback. He is a strong dual threat quarterback who has some outstanding targets to throw to.
These storylines and teams will be interesting to keep an eye on as the season progresses. One dramatic game can change the landscape of these stories. This season is certainly one worth watching.