Let's get ahead of ourselves

Because it's never too early to look too far down the road.

Setting aside the SEC for a moment, here's who might be in the mix for the BCS championship game:

* Southern Cal -- Setting up nicely for a home-field title shot.

* Texas -- Won't be putting their faith in tiebreakers any time soon. And the road just got a lot easier with Oklahoma's troubles.

* Ohio State, Notre Dame -- Both have make-or-break games with Southern Cal.

* BYU, Boise State -- One, maybe both, could go undefeated and find there's still no room in the top two.

* Miami -- Not off one game, but off the first four -- FSU, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma. Sweep those and they're looking at top 5. 

What we learned -- Week 1

So the SEC went 11-1 last weekend (thanks to UGA for blowing the perfect game). Not bad, especially when the ACC went 0-2 against the Colonial Athletic Association.

Here's a few thoughts on where some of our teams stand after Week 1. We'll add some updates as people awaken and clear their hangovers after the three-day weekend. Feel free to pimp your team in the comments.

UPDATE: We here at SEC Expats welcome a new correspondent, Bonnie Kunkel, a Florida fan -- because, you know, Florida doesn't get nearly enough attention. Here's her bio:

Name: Bonnie Kunkel
Allegiance: Florida
All-time favorite player: Tim Tebow, of course (although I am old enough to have seen the immortal Emmitt Smith play)
Possibly disturbing fact: As soon as the new Gator logo came out, I got a tattoo of it... but it's backward.

Bonnie Kunkel: Florida 62, Charleston Southern 3 - First of all, how did CSU score three points? I think overall we played pretty well. Brandon James is getting into a groove (finally). I loved the 85 yard kickoff return for a TD. It was the first kickoff returned for a TD in 10 years for the Gators. James promised that UF would break the drought this season... and he delivered in game number one. Nice job, Brandon.

I was also impressed with receivers Aaron Hernandez and Riley Cooper... although neither seems ready to replace Percy Harvin.

Backup QB John Brantley took a lot of snaps. He's not as exciting to watch as Tebow but what an arm on this kid! And, his daddy was a Gator QB too... gotta love that.

Finally, let the witch hunt begin: who are the two people who voted Alabama #1 in this week's poll?

DOUBLE SECRET UPDATE: Ole Miss 45, Memphis 14 -- Snead and Co. finally caught fire in the 4th quarter against a decent Memphis team. Now the Rebels catch a break: a bye week to rest up from the flu symptoms that have hit a dozen players so far.

Tommy Tomlinson: Oklahoma St. 24, UGA 10 -- Um, yeah, when you lose two of the top 12 picks in the NFL draft, maybe you won't be as good the next year. I had high hopes for Charlotte's Joe Cox -- secretly, I was dreaming of a Tee Martin scenario -- but he didn't show much Saturday. His one major downside was supposed to be the lack of a strong arm, but it seemed to me that he threw a lot of passes TOO hard -- could be he was trying to prove everyone wrong, could just be a lack of touch. It didn't help that his receivers dropped several not-great-but-catchable balls.

The defense actually wasn't bad, it just got killed on field position -- three of OKSt's four scoring drives were 32 yards or less.

Oh, and one of our best offensive linemen is out for the season again.

Peter St. Onge: Auburn 37, Louisiana Tech 13 - We threw the ball downfield. We ran the ball inside and out. We did what an SEC offense is supposed to do with a WAC defense - wear it down with our quickness and bigness. Plus, our new offense coordinator said he really didn't unveil much of his new offense. We're a little giddy about all this.

But: Our defense gave up a few sustained drives before switching to man-to-man coverage and shutting La. Tech down. Our unheralded freshman safety got the season's first interception, which seems kind of promising but also reinforces the fact that we're thin enough to have an unheralded freshman starting at safety. We might have to be a team that tries to outscore teams this year. That's not very comforting, but it's a lot more fun to watch.

Michael Gordon: Alabama 34, Va Tech 24 -- Though Greg McElroy got hit too often, Alabama's offensive line did show signs that there is life after Andre Smith.

That when all the dials were turned to a classic Va. Tech win (an offense making the most of its opportunities and a defense fighting for every foot), Alabama seized the day in the fourth quarter by attacking on both sides of the ball. McElroy was key. His eyes cleared in the second half and he started finding receivers all over the field.

Say what you want about recruiting rankings, Alabama's talent is deepening. Last year against Clemson, Alabama played almost a dozen true freshmen from its top-ranked class. Against the Hokies, and again with a top-ranked group of recruits, they played two or three. The caliber of UA players has gotten that much better in that short of time.

R. Trentham Roberts: Mississippi State 45, Jackson State 7 -- Beatdown of SWAC team doesn't exactly light up the night sky with insight. Team gets RB Anthony Dixon back for the first of this season's two separate months-from-hell -- Auburn (improved), Vandy (bowl team), LSU (bowl team), Georgia Tech (bowl team). Even 1 and 3 from that might be too much to expect.

But here's what I really learned while sitting in class listening to the president tell me that I probably won't become the reality-TV star I had always dreamed of being:

That this year's BCS title game will be presented by Citi. That Citi. The Citi of billions in bailouts and bonuses. The Citi that is now 36 PERCENT OWNED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The Citi that has managed to provide each and every one of you with a stake -- a very real stake -- in the national championship game.

So what's a responsible shareholder to do?
Simple.
Watch your toxic assets at work.
Cheer for your team.
Stand up for America.

Cliff Mehrtens: I learned that staying up till 1:30 a.m. to watch LSU give up about 450 yards made me cranky most of Sunday.

Then again, after traveling 2,500 miles and spotting Washington a 7-0 lead, the Tigers offense made waves. Jordan Jefferson is a mobile quarterback with a good arm, and Terrence Toliver (6-foot-5) had three catches of more than 25 yards. Two were for touchdowns.

LSU gave Washington a throw-away touchdown on the final play, so the outcome was never in doubt.

But LSU's defense concerned me. Too much arm tackling. Too many third-down conversions by Washington. Too sloppy, in a nutshell.

On to Vanderbilt.
-----

Welcome, Tennessee fans

Though we still lack an official correspondent, we've added a UT link on the blog roll and invite all Rocky Toppers to our little scrum. We do this for three reasons:

1. Just to be hospitable.
2. To recognize the powerhouse program that was and no doubt will be again.
3. To keep the Georgia-Alabama-Auburn contingent from dominating the online proceedings. (Say the acronym with me -- GAA!!)

So, again, welcome aboard. Best of luck against UCLA. And here's our pledge to you: We'll never say anything about Lane Kiffin that he wouldn't say about somebody else.

-- R. Trentham Roberts

The Monday morning after . . . for the sad ACC

To sum up the weekend performance of the ACC, we turn to the insights of longtime football analysts Steely Dan:

William & Mary won't do.

Not when they're supposed to be the cupcake, the mimosa, the first oyster of the late afternoon gliding down your throat.

Note to the conference: No cupcakes for you.

Somehow, the controlled setting designed to make a wounded band of schools feel better about themselves inflicted more damage. Virginia loses to W&M; Duke to Richmond; N.C. State to South Carolina; Maryland to Cal; Va Tech to Bama.

North Carolina did handle the Fighting Burrcuts (GOOD JOB, TAR HEELS!). But in no way shape or fashion can anyone ponder the wreckage of the conference's showing and not wince.

Some of these losses were expected. Too many of them were not. It will be interesting to see how and when ACC Commissioner John Swofford and his band of merry button-down shirts will announce that their conference is right on schedule in its inexorable climb to the gridiron elite.

Caulton Tudor of the N&O has a differing take. The ACC, he writes, shouldn't stick a toe outside of its own ranks to start a season for the forseeable future. That way, at least some of its teams are guaranteed not to lose.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/college-football/story/931956.html

Let's be fair here. Nobody wins them all. In its years wandering in the wilderness, Alabama, my school, lost to more hyphenated colleges from across the South than I can Google in an hour.

But it's clear that Picking the Right Patsy, as much as that blocking and tackling stuff, is yet another football art the ACC is taking a while to learn.

Here's the scarier part. As Steely Dan put it, They've got a name for the winners of the world, I want a name when I lose. Maybe the ACC already has one. Maybe it's the tray of cupcakes everyone else can't wait to play.
-- Michael Gordon

How's that for motivation?

"When you see Brandon go out there with bullet holes in his arm and leg, it's a lot easier to push yourself."

-- Alabama QB Greg McElroy, talking about defensive end Brandon Deaderick, shot earlier in the week during a robbery attempt. Deaderick dressed for the Virginia Tech game and got in a for a few plays.

First Blood

Only three SEC teams qualified last week for the Gundy Award -- yeah, the I'm a Man! guy -- for playing man-sized games on opening weekend: South Carolina, UGA and Alabama.

Florida, Tennessee and Auburn can pound their chests after pummeling opponents half their size. Just what the sports world needed to start the season: another three Tim Tebow touchdowns against a criminally overmatched opponent. Oklahoma, who lost to the Gators in last year's title game, showed far more guts, and from the standpoint of a BCS pragmatist busted on the river card. So be it. Here's to Bob Stoops for risking something to gain something bigger. Oklahoma will be better for this in the games ahead.

South Carolina's opened in Raleigh against N.C. State, the trendy pick as the ACC's hottest team. Yet the Carolina defense made the ACC's best quarterback look like he was headed to a key Division II matchup and made the wrong turn on the Raleigh beltway. The gap in athleticism had Russell Wilson consistently being run down by lineman twice his size. The Gamecock defenders never stopped attacking, never giving Wilson, nor the Wolfpack crowd, a second breath.

Yet as good as South Carolina's defense performed, Steve Spurrier's offense again plodded yard by boring yard. Thus, the Myth of The Visor hangs by one less thread. The Ol' Genius hasn't had a winning quarterback since Danny Wuerffel. And at Carolina, he has neither recruited nor taught anyone to consistently make winning plays in the SEC. Consider this indictment: Goofball Granny Clampett accomplished far more with Phil Petty than Spurrier has with anyone since. And here's what sticks in my craw: He never takes responsibility. He calls out players. He calls out assistants. He acts like he's on Mt. Olympus looking down on the humdrum of the program he's supposed to be building. After the State game, he said he would take a larger role in the offense -- another clear jab at his staff. Maybe that's why he doesn't get the best QB prospects, and the turnover among his assistants is so high. Who wants to play for a coach who seems bored except when he can blame someone else?

Mark Richt can't win. He won big -- but not quite big enough -- when he had perhaps the SEC's best talent. Now, he has to show he can win without it. For the first time in years, Georgia looks like it's running low on high test. Joe Cox wasn't bad but wasn't good either. The offensive line, less than mediocre in 2008, is a year older and up one rung to mediocre. The end result: Georgia made one of the Big 12's worst defenses look Steel Curtain tough. Tough year looming for the Bulldogs. Luckily they get South Carolina at home this week, but they may get Cox killed. This year may define Richt in ways we never expected. It has been a long fall in a short time from last year's No. 1 ranking.

Alabama? Virginia Tech is scarily intense. But at the end of the game, they were being pushed out of the Georgia Dome. Mark my word: Greg McElroy will be a star. In his first start as the Crimson Tide quarterback, he improved throughout the game, and made throws and reads that were beyond the grasp of his predecessor, John Parker Wilson.

When the game was on the line, the Tide's offensive line, still a question mark, mauled the ACC's best defensive front. Receivers like Hanks and Maze finally made plays in the game that they've been making in practice. The defense played fast and hard, though Alabama lineman Rolando Blackman showed less control at the end of the first half than Mark Sanford.

All in all, Nick Saban got the perfect result -- a win, but with enough mistakes that he will have no trouble keeping his players' attention through the next two weeks of cupcakes.

Granted, it's only one game, and call me biased -- I am biased -- but this team appears on the cusp of something special. Michael Gordon

Hometown headlines

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: FAST-BREAK FUN

Athens Banner-Herald: DOGS' OFFENSE CORRALLED

Baton Rouge Advocate:  JUST ENOUGH

Columbia State (from Friday): OPENING STATEMENT

Starkville Daily News: THE NEW ERA STARTS OFF RIGHT

Gainesville Sun: ROMP IN THE SWAMP

Knoxville News Sentinel: ROCKY TOP REVIVAL

Lexington Herald-Leader: START THE SHOW

The Tennessean: VANDERBILT ROLLS TO SHUTOUT VICTORY

Opelika-Auburn News: HAPPY BEGINNING

Oxford Eagle: TBA

Tuscaloosa News: FINISHING STRONG

  Meanwhile, Oklahoma State fans are already savoring the magnitude of the victory with special-edition T-shirts (available at http://oklahomastatemerchandise.blogspot.com/).