Leonard Fournette streak broken; Alabama’s Derrick Henry SEC Offensive Player

So far, there’s no obviously dominant team anywhere in college football. Ramsey and his strong arm were put in the game. “Quarterback play, everything”, Richt said.

This is what happens when you spend two weeks where everyone questions everything you do, and you find yourself staring at a win-or-walk game and suddenly everything comes into focus.

Welcome to life in the SEC.

Alabama’s offense wasn’t the only part of its game that was clicking.

Stave was intercepted twice by Desmond King and lost two fumbles, including midway through the fourth quarter on Iowas 1.

No more Cam or Manziel.

Josh Doctson broke the TCU record for receiving TDs with a pair of scores and the Horned Frogs (5-0, 2-0 Big 12) won their 13th straight game, second nationally to defending champion Ohio State, which took a 17-game streak into its game at Indiana. Alabama holds a 37-25-4 edge in the rivalry, which goes back to 1895. No knock on Michigan, but I didn’t think HC Jim Harbaugh would turn this program around this quickly.

From Johnny Football to Jacob the Follower.

Coker sucked in the defense with play action and launched a 45-yard touchdown to Calvin Ridley, hitting the freshman receiver right in stride down the middle of the field. But it was just one game – as Saban was quick to note afterward.

Which teams are hot and which teams are cold in the SEC this week.

“This is what it’s all about”, head coach Dabo Swinney said after the game. He has been so successful, has won so much in this meatgrinder conference, that everyone is copying what he’s doing.

The heavy rain that drenched much of north Georgia over the weekend didn’t only affect the play of the two teams on the field.

But in true Saban form, there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“To me, they’re the staple of what college football is, not just the SEC”, Bielema said.

It didn’t make any difference. Previous year the Florida State transfer failed to win the Tide’s starting job and instead watched Blake Sims lead the roster to the playoff. He also threw an nearly ideal deep ball to Ridley for a touchdown, causing Tide fans to rejoice everywhere. Having surrendered 40-plus three times since last November, the once-imposing defense looked vulnerable.

“No”, Coker said. “I just threw it where I’m told to throw it”.

Alabama’s defense showed up as well, creating three turnovers off interceptions and holding Georgia’s QB Greyson Lambert to a dismal 2.0 QBR. He completed almost 70% of his passes and gained just shy of 200 yards through the air.

“We didn’t capitalize. I take responsibility for that”, Lambert said.

Think Cam Newton or Johnny Manziel were concerned about communication and Xs and Os? Tennessee lost to lowly Arkansas this week in another late loss game.

Special teams were a delight in this one as Adam Griffith made all of his kicks, Cyrus Jones had a couple of nice punt returns, and Fitzpatrick had the aforementioned blocked punt. Both Ole Miss and Notre Dame fall out of the Top 10 with their road losses. They bounced and woofed, and the teams had to be separated – angering Saban, because he was concerned his team might be too emotional to execute, as he’d thought they were in the earlier loss. From Kentucky’s end, you had a hangover from the Missouri victory, quotes all last week about backups playing (assuming and suggesting a rout, even if that wasn’t the intention) and the distractions of a pending bye week and the team’s leading rusher missing practice last week and the game for what looked very much like a suspension (even if it wasn’t called that).

The score after 30 minutes then: Alabama 31, Georgia 0. Welcome to the SEC, everyone.

“It really doesn’t matter what you think”, Saban said Monday.