Utah and Alabama Observations.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Just got a call from DeBiceps. Here's a summarize of what he told me. He made a lot of great points.

Nick Saban has had the athletes at Alabama and LSU to run his program, which is "we are going to play defense and then run the ball and eat the clock". They are NOT built for a 21 point comeback, against ANY team. You can play that style of football in the Big Ten against Wisconsin. You can NOT do it against a team who runs a faster attack, like Utah. Alabama cannot spread it out and score points quickly. They simply are not built for that kind of football. Although this Utah team is no longer running the Urban Meyer spread, this is Urban Meyer's grandson. Alabama plays Big Ten football, and once again a Big Ten philosophy cannot compete in a game like this against a team like this. This stuff works when you are set to battle an Iowa or a Penn State. Which is fine, it does work and will win you games versus teams like that, and it works great, but not versus this kind of team. What happened is not at all surprising.

Where did Nick Saban get his head coaching start? Michigan State. As far as I am concerned, this is another embarrassment for the Big Ten.

[The Ancient Enemy]

I wanna add again how great of a job Kyle Whittingham is doing at Utah. The hardest thing to do as a coach is sustain. Being the guy who followed the guy. Utah has gotten better every year under Whittingham, and seeing BCS programs pass him over for other coaches (or pass Petersen at Boise) is simply comical. Unreal job this season.

[deliverance]

Saban's team was able to hang with Florida, but they aren't a team that throws almost every play. Utah came out and just kept throwing the ball. Alabama's defense looked shocked. Any time you have quality athletes at all the RB/WR/TE positions; you will be able to throw the ball all day. Just ask PSU and Alabama. TAE is right that these two teams are behind on the new game in College Football. It's all about the spread now and I don't see it changing in the near future. If you look at the two teams in the National Championship, they both can put 60 points on the board. Oklahoma can just as easily give up 40. Florida is a lot better on defense than Oklahoma, but they have not faced an offense like Oklahoma, yet. I will be curious to see how many points they give up. I am going to guess at least 30, but Florida should put up 50. Overall, I think we are going to see passing take over College Football until defenses find a way to stop the spread and that's not going to be easy.

[ham55]

The only way you're stopping the spread any time soon is if the NCAA and NFL shrink the width of the field. That's the only way it's gonna go out of existence.