This is not going to be an argument for Alabama being really good, or even an argument for the Crimson Tide being able to run the table from here and make the College Football Playoff.
This is a simpler argument: Alabama may be flawed, but the Tide are earning their way back into the conversation.
They lost to Texas on Sept. 9 and struggled in the rain against South Florida a week later, but the Tide have since put together three solid SEC wins in a row. The latest, 26-20 at Texas A&M, sets Alabama up for a strong second half of the regular season with games against Tennessee, LSU and Kentucky still to come.
The running game still isn't good enough. Counting sacks, Alabama had 26 carries for just 23 yards, the program's second-lowest total in a single game since 2009. The defense gave up three receptions of at least 30 yards and has allowed 11 such plays this season, one of the most in the Power Five and nearly as many as the Tide gave up in all of 2022 (15), 2021 (19) and 2019 (12).
But the offense has found something in quarterback Jalen Milroe, who was benched for the South Florida win but has since put a clamp on the starting job with a series of strong-or-better starts. Against the Aggies, Milroe threw for a career-high 321 yards and tied a career best with three touchdowns, matching his total in last year's win against A&M. Jermaine Burton was his top target with nine catches for 197 yards and two scores.
The wins haven't been pretty. But Alabama is getting it done in SEC play and in the playoff hunt — which may not have been something many people expected just under a month ago.
The Tide, Oklahoma and Texas top this week's winners and losers in college football:
Oklahoma overcame some sloppy play on special teams and drew an outstanding game from veteran quarterback Dillon Gabriel to score a 34-30 win against Texas, dealing the Longhorns their first loss and providing some mammoth validation for the way Brent Venables has constructed this team in his second season. Maybe we should've focused on the way the Sooners looked in September rather than focusing on an easy stretch of games to open the season. Gabriel had the best game of his Power Five career with 285 passing yards, another 113 rushing yards and two scores, while OU intercepted Quinn Ewers twice and won the battle up front, outgaining the Longhorns 201-156 on the ground. After hearing this said of Texas for weeks, it's the Sooners' turn to puff their chest and say: We're back.
After trailing by double digits in two close calls against South Carolina and Auburn to open SEC play, top-ranked Georgia stopped messing around and kicked in the front door against Kentucky. The Bulldogs scored 34 points in the first half and cruised to a 51-13 win that answers some of the questions around this team's quest for a third national championship in a row. Like this one: Does Georgia have another gear? Yeah, absolutely. Carson Beck had 389 yards on 11.1 yards per attempt and four touchdowns, Brock Bowers continued his Heisman Trophy campaign with a team-high 132 receiving yards and the defense held Kentucky to 183 yards.
There are some serious deficiencies on defense. One week after giving up more than 700 yards in a loss to Mississippi, the Tigers allowed 39 points and 527 yards against Missouri and trailed by four points with three minutes left. This defense has already cost LSU any real shot at the playoff and could spell a four- or five-loss finish. Good thing for quarterback Jayden Daniels, who had 258 yards passing, another 130 rushing and three scores to lead the Tigers to a 49-39 win. You shudder to think about what a loss would've meant to Brian Kelly's already evaporating goodwill with the Tigers' fan base.
The Bruins rebounded very nicely from a 14-7 loss at Utah two weeks ago by beating previously unbeaten Washington State 25-17 behind another outstanding performance from one of the best defenses in the FBS. With Ball State transfer Carson Steele going for 140 rushing yards and freshman quarterback Dante Moore continuing to flash his development with 290 passing yards and several splash throws, UCLA forced four turnovers and held Cam Ward and the Cougars to a season-low 216 yards. The Bruins' lack of eye-opening flash on offense stands in contrast to the unbeaten teams atop the Pac-12 but this defense gives them a real shot at knocking off Southern California and others in the second half.
After two losses in a row to Oregon and Southern California, Colorado hit a 43-yard field goal with 12 seconds left to beat Arizona State 27-24. To say this was not a Top 25 performance would be an understatement. But consider the alternative: a loss to one of the weakest teams in the Pac-12 would've dumped the Buffaloes to 3-3 heading into a short week against another bottom feeder, Stanford, before running the gauntlet against multiple ranked teams later in October and November. In other words, this might be the win that ends up getting CU to bowl eligibility.
The room for error built from that win against Alabama has been evaporated with the second half of the regular season to come, not to mention the high likelihood of a rematch against Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. In addition to raising concerns about the state of affairs on both sides of the ball — offensively, the Longhorns turned the ball over three times and had three drives sputter in the red zone — this loss does make you wonder: Given this loss and how Alabama has looked beatable almost every week of this season, what do we really make of Texas?
All they had to was take a knee. One knee. One time. Ballgame. That's it. Just take a knee! It's easy! Instead, the Hurricanes continued to run the ball at Georgia Tech when up 20-17 with under 30 seconds left, and you just know what happened next: Donald Chaney Jr. was stripped and fumbled, Tech recovered the loose ball and then scored a touchdown with two seconds left to win 23-20. There are brutal losses and then there’s this one, which has to rank at the bottom of all the ugly, painful and avoidable losses that have defined the past 20 years of Miami football. This is the kind of loss that should never, ever happen, and the stink will always linger on coach Mario Cristobal.
Louisville 33, Notre Dame 20, and that's with a garbage-time touchdown with the Cardinals already up 20 points. This is the sort of loss that really will put second-year coach Marcus Freeman under the microscope. After losing to Ohio State on a last-second score with just 10 defenders on the field and needing a 95-yard drive with little time left to win at Duke, the Fighting Irish were bullied by a Louisville team that continues to exceed expectations under new coach Jeff Brohm. The Irish had just 44 yards on 28 carries; the Cardinals had 185 on 4.8 yards per carry. Error-free through six games, Sam Hartman tossed three interceptions, while the offense turned the ball over four times overall. This loss extinguishes Notre Dame's playoff hopes and, with Southern California and Clemson still to come, sets up the likelihood of another four-loss finish. If so, what changes, if any, will follow this offseason?
Please help solve this logic. Texas A&M trailed Alabama 26-17 with 2:11 left, facing fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line. You might think the thought process is simple: go for it. Instead, Jimbo Fisher decided to kick the field goal, cutting the score to 26-20. OK, fine — you need a touchdown and a field goal either way, so sure. But then the Aggies attempted an onside kick, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The odds of recovering an onside kick are about 24%, according to a study of attempts from 2014-20, so the deck is already stacked. And even if your defense gets a stop, you have to travel another 25 or so yards to score that touchdown than if you had kicked it deep. Right? Anyway, the Aggies lost by six.
Once upon a time, UCF led Baylor 35-7 with 3:20 left in the third quarter. Since that point seven days ago, the Knights have been outscored 80-22 and come to a very disheartening realization: Life in the Power Five is not going to be easy. Unlike a week ago, Central Florida was never competitive in a 51-22 loss to Jalon Daniels-less Kansas, which instead leaned on a running game that went for 399 yards and five touchdowns on 7.8 yards per carry.
Syracuse is an ACC pretender. The Orange have now dropped two in a row to open conference play, losing 31-14 to Clemson last weekend and going down 27-0 at halftime in Saturday's demoralizing 40-7 loss at North Carolina. This bellyflop into the ACC season shouldn't come as too much of a surprise given Syracuse's recent history — just two bowl bids since 2014 — and the fact that this year's 4-0 start came against the murderer's row of Colgate, Western Michigan, Purdue and Army.
Connecticut beat Rice 38-31 to escape from the small but undistinguished group of winless FBS teams. That leaves just two: Nevada and Sam Houston State, both 0-5. At least the Bearkats have an excuse as one of the new members of the FBS transitioning up from the Championship Subdivision. But Nevada is two years removed from making the fourth of four bowl appearances in a row under current Colorado State coach Jay Norvell. His replacement, Ken Wilson, is 2-15 overall.
