re: Alabama Football Stuff (injury updates, quotes, etc.) - October 20th

Posted on 10/20/15 at 2:02 am to TideSaint

Posted by TideSaint

Hill Country

Member since Sep 2008

75905 posts

Posted on 10/20/15 at 2:02 am to TideSaint

quote:
Week 7 of the season was billed as Separation Saturday by some, and that didn’t turn out to be hyperbole when Sunday morning rolled around across the country.

The script in many conference races was flipped, several surprising upsets happened, and a number of closer-than-expected games turned out to be laughers. And let us not forget that one team only needed 10 seconds left in order to capture a victory.

Keep all that in mind as we enter a Week 8 slate that doesn’t have all that many enticing matchups but still presents the opportunity for some teams to get back in the College Football Playoff race or fall out for good.

Buckle up, folks: The season is on the downslope and it’s rolling along quite quickly.

Now on to the bowl projections. A hearty disclaimer that these are projecting out the rest of the season and as such are not completely reflective of the state of college football at the moment.

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quote:
After that "Separation Saturday," we saw a pretty big shake-up among the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six teams. The biggest change involves a conference being shut out of the final four that would have one part of the country up in arms and likely delight the rest. Yes, the SEC is out of the playoff. It is entirely possible the league’s champion has two losses by the end of the year, and while that may not completely eliminate the SEC from the playoff, it does present an uphill battle. Alabama looks again to be the top dog but it remains in the realm of possibilities that the Tide would have just a single Top 10 win (at Texas A&M) and only one other Top 20 victory (LSU) by the end of the year depending on how things shake out. A loss to Ole Miss isn’t looking too hot either. While the team has flashed at times, there are still quite a few holes on both sides of the ball (and special teams) to not be quite sold on Alabama.

They have us playing TCU in the Sugar Bowl.

The four teams in their CFP projections are Baylor, Ohio State, Stanford and Clemson.

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Posted by TideSaint

Hill Country

Member since Sep 2008

75905 posts

Posted on 10/20/15 at 4:42 am to TideSaint

Free Bleacher Report Content

quote:
Alabama

National Championship Odds: 15-2

There's a good chance college football fans will look back at Alabama's Week 3 loss to Ole Miss in the same fashion as Stanford's defeat to Northwestern—odd results for complete title contenders.

Alabama took a huge step forward in the SEC West race Saturday by knocking off Texas A&M by a score of 41-23 in College Station, and the Tide's national championship odds improved as a result.

Offensively, bruising running back Derrick Henry continues his touchdown-scoring ways, and quarterback Jake Coker seems more settled in the quarterback position thanks to some breakout players out wide. Nick Saban's team is one of the best in the nation up front, and a much-improved secondary is coming off a performance in which it scored three pick-sixes on the uptempo Aggies.

"The loss to Ole Miss hurts, but Alabama has been here before," Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee wrote. "They're hitting their stride at the right time, seem to have solved its pressing issues and has a showdown with LSU looming early next month."

Barring some surprises in the next couple of weeks, Alabama will be favored in that home matchup against LSU. All the Crimson Tide need is for Ole Miss to drop another conference game—which looks like a good bet at this point—and they'll be back on the inside track for a championship run.