Clay Travis' Starting 11: Aggieland Never Disappoints, Bama Controls SEC West, Louisville Might Be CFP Team
My family and I had an awesome time in Aggieland on Saturday. We met so many great Texas A&M and Alabama fans all day long, thanks to all who said hello. But I have to tell y'all, my son insisted on wearing his Julio Jones Alabama jersey throwback and at this point I really have failed in life, I can't get him to give up being a Tide fan. We spent the day surrounded by awesome A&M fans hosting us for the game and I had to tell him several times to stop cheering so loudly for Alabama.
But before we dive into game analysis below, let me say a couple of things: I can't believe how much A&M grows every time I visit. I first went to A&M for the inaugural season in the SEC, the LSU game, which turned out to be the last game A&M lost that year before Johnny Manziel got white hot and the Aggies caught fire. I came back a couple of years later to be the featured speaker at a 12th man foundation event and I was here two years ago for the big win over Alabama. Every time I come back to Aggieland I am absolutely stunned by the amount of growth.
Between 2012 and today, Aggieland looks like a completely different place.
And I'm not kidding when I say this, the top of the line founder suites at Kyle Field are the nicest college football suites I have ever seen in any stadium in the country. Heck, they're nicer than the suites I've seen in any professional stadiums.
On our flight back home, my wife, who had never been to Texas A&M before said, in what I think is one of the best summations of Aggieland I've heard, "They still like being men here."
And I hadn't thought of it that way, but it's so true.
In a world where it feels like men are always apologizing for being men, A&M still feels like a place proud to produce men of character. And it turns out that's a great place for women to be too, because women are some of the most desperate people on the planet for men to act like men.
It was also great to see SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who hit Alabama-A&M and Oklahoma-Texas, which becomes an SEC rivalry game next year.
Okay, on to the football.
1. Alabama controls the SEC West, still.
I thought that Texas A&M would win a low-scoring, ugly defensive struggle and take control of the SEC West on Saturday. Instead, Alabama did.
And they did it because the Aggie game plan, which I think was exactly right, was this: don't let Alabama run the football and make Jalen Milroe beat you. And that's exactly what Milroe did. A&M won the turnover battle, held Alabama to 25 yards rushing and the Tide had 14 penalties. If I'd told you those stats before the game, how many of you would have bet on the Tide to win? Almost none of you, including me, I would have lost an embarrassing amount of money if you'd told me those stats before the game. Yet Milroe made play after play when it counted, especially on third down on the two drives where Alabama turned a 17-10 deficit into a 24-17 lead.
One particular play that A&M probably wishes it could have back. Right after the great interception of a driving Alabama team, the Aggies had the ball and a seven point lead, it was midway through the third quarter and it felt like Texas A&M was ready to drive and take a two score lead. Then, boom, an interception on a forced pass and the Tide would tie the game on the short field.
From there Alabama never looked back.
And now it looks like Alabama will be back in Atlanta. With wins over Ole Miss and Texas A&M and LSU coming to Tuscaloosa, if the Tide beats LSU it would take two SEC losses from Alabama -- and either Ole Miss or A&M running the table -- for the Tide not to be in Atlanta.
And where are those two losses going to come from?
Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU all come to Tuscaloosa in the next three Tide games. Then Alabama closes with SEC games at Kentucky and at Auburn.
LSU is unlikely to run the table with the defense they have and Tennessee hasn't proven they can play well on the road. Meanwhile Arkansas, Kentucky and Auburn won't have much, if any, success against this Tide defense.
If Alabama beats LSU, which I think the Tide will, then the SEC West is over.
Texas A&M yesterday had a chance to end the Alabama dynasty and, potentially, knock the Tide out of the top 25. Instead Alabama won and now looks likely to be in Atlanta with a chance to win the SEC and make the college football playoff, yet again.
Now, to be fair, I don't think this Alabama team is that good relative to past Tide standards. And I suspect even most Alabama fans agree with me. But in a down year in the SEC, Alabama looks to still be the best team in the SEC West and they found a way to win a huge game in a rabid environment.
As for A&M, the road game Saturday against Tennessee is huge for both teams. But for the Aggies in particular, games at Ole Miss and at LSU still loom too. Lose at Tennessee and 7-5 becomes possible.
What would that mean for Jimbo? Oil is approaching $100 a barrel, are the Aggies really not going to be willing to cut Jimbo if they think better options are available?
And for Tennessee's Josh Heupel, who still has games at Alabama, at Kentucky and at Missouri, not to mention Georgia, the A&M game looms large too. If the Vols win, 9-3 is still a decent possibility. Lose and 7-5 becomes a potential outcome for the Vols too.
Next week in Knoxville is still massive for both A&M and Tennessee.
2. Oklahoma and Texas look likely for a Big 12 title game rematch in the final year for both schools in the Big 12.
And what a win for Brent Venables and Oklahoma.
Last year Oklahoma lost this game 49-0 and there were calls for Venables to be fired in a wildly disappointing 6-7 season.
This year Oklahoma is 6-0 and while there are still some landmines on this schedule, it's hard to see how the Sooners don't end up in the Big 12 title game with a chance to punch a playoff ticket in year two for Venables.
That's an incredible turnaround just in time for life in the SEC.
And can we pause for a moment and talk about how ridiculous a 16 team SEC is going to be next year with both Oklahoma and Texas's programs surging just as they enter the conference?
I really think 9-3 is going to turn into an incredible season in the newly expanded SEC and I think 9-3 will often get teams into the 12 team playoff. At least it should.
But before that happens a Big 12 title game rematch for both teams feels likely.
3. Georgia crushed Kentucky, letting it be known the Bulldogs are still the class of the SEC.
You knew that at some point Georgia was going to put a whipping on somebody.
And it just happened to be the Kentucky Wildcats.
I was totally wrong on this game, I thought it would be a low scoring defensive struggle. Instead Carson Beck completely took over, hitting for almost 400 yards passing and four touchdowns. Where did this performance come from? I think this is an outgrowth of how Georgia finished at Auburn. Kirby Smart essentially told Beck to win it last week in the second half -- it didn't hurt that he had Brock Bowers to throw to -- but Georgia didn't just hang 51 on Kentucky, they outgained the Wildcats 608 yards to 183, averaging 8.3 yards per play in the process.
Brock Bowers had seven catches for 132 yards.
At what point do we legitimately start talking about Bowers as a Heisman candidate? I think we should already be there, personally.
As for Georgia, no way this team is losing two SEC games. And based on what I've seen in the SEC East, there's no other team that is going to lose less than two. That means the Bulldogs, even with a potentially challenging November game at Tennessee, are going to win the SEC East and probably play Alabama there.
4. Miami notched one of the most indefensible losses in college football history.
This is how the game ended if you didn't see it.
All you had to do was take a knee on third down!
Georgia Tech had no timeouts left.
This is coaching malpractice. Heck, if your high school coach did this, you'd want to fire him. No kid playing Madden would even make this mistake.
Worse, it's the second time this has happened to Mario Cristobal. He lost a game against Stanford in the same circumstances.
Look, no coach is perfect, but if you'd already lost a game this way before, how in the world could you ever do it again?! I know we live in a hyperbole driven world, but this is such sideline incompetence I don't think it's unfair to ask how you can let the head coach continue to make these late game decisions. And how does every other coach on Miami's staff let this happen?
You have headsets for a reason.
No one thought to say the team should just take a knee instead of running a play?
Having said that, even after this stupidity, Georgia Tech had to drive the length of the field in two plays to get the winning touchdown.
As dumb as the decision not to kneel was, I think giving up two passes for a 75 yard scoring drive may be even worse. Georgia Tech has no timeouts left. Make one tackle on the field of play and the game ends. How do you let this scoring drive happen? Hell, how do you let any receiver behind you at all? We're not talking about a crazy hail mary tip drill, Miami legit let a wide receiver get wide open behind them on the final play of the game when all that you can't do is give up a touchdown.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this feels like the kind of loss that a coach doesn't recover from with his fan base or with his boosters.
5. The Pac 12 is rapidly dwindling its undefeated ranks.
UCLA beat Washington State to drop the Pac 12 to three undefeated teams: Oregon, Washington and USC.
This weekend Oregon plays at Washington in what will likely be one of the best games of the year. USC, which survived a triple overtime home game against Arizona, is going to probably lose multiple games before the season is over.
So will any Pac 12 team finish undefeated?
That feels unlikely.
Will any Pac 12 team finish with one loss?
Let's put it this way, what would be the most Pac 12 way imaginable to finish the final Pac 12 season? With a two or more loss Pac 12 title game underdog upsetting a one loss team, right?
Look out, Pac 12, even with all the talented teams this year you may finish the conference like it spent much of the past twenty years, without a team in the playoff.
6. Michigan has won every game by 24 or more points and is dominant halfway through the season unlike almost any team we have seen before.
Here are Michigan's margin of victories in their six wins: 27, 28, 25, 24, 38, and 42.
I know, I know, the quality of competition hasn't been great, but Michigan just won back to back road Big Ten games by a combined total of 97-17. As hard as it is to win on the road in a power conference, that's impressive no matter who the opponents are.
Michigan has also outscored opponents this year by a 224-40 margin. So far their opponents have scored: 3, 7, 6, 7, 7, and 10. Only one team has gotten double digits all year!
And the next three games are Indiana, at Michigan State, and Purdue. So the beat down stats are going to get even worse and you can chalk up 9-0 for that November 11th game at Penn State.
I continue to believe there's a decent chance we end up with Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all 11-1 with a three way Big Ten East tie at the top, but for now, as you'll see below, we have a new Outkick top team -- the Michigan Wolverines.
7. Louisville is the biggest surprise of the college football season so far.
The Cardinals dominated Notre Dame last night, thanks, in part, to very questionable fourth-down decisions made by Marcus Freeman. Why go for it on 4th and 11 from your own 35 when you're only down 11 midway through the 4th quarter and essentially end the game there?
The loss eliminates the Fighting Irish from any playoff discussion, but does it put Louisville into the fringes of the playoff discussion? Crazily, maybe. Especially if the Cardinals can get past Pittsburgh next week on the road.
Because the Louisville schedule isn't that tough from here on out, honestly.
Here's that schedule: at Pitt, Duke, Virginia Tech, Virginia, at Miami, and then Kentucky.
So four of the final six are at home and at Pitt and at Miami are definitely winnable games.
Either way an 11-1 Louisville team would probably be in the ACC title game. (Right now North Carolina, FSU, and Louisville are all undefeated and none of them play each other in the regular season.)
As for Notre Dame, year two of Marcus Freeman is likely to end up around 9-3. I think the Fighting Irish will bounce back and beat USC next weekend, I really do, and then lose at Clemson. But you could also flip these games. The positive for Notre Dame is that the Irish are recruiting at an elite level and a 12 team playoff offers them ample opportunity to make an expanded playoff on a somewhat regular basis, the negative is this was a true beatdown and the Irish were fortunate last week against Duke too. Was the schedule just too packed with big games in a row?
Maybe.
But this is the first game all year where a Notre Dame fan could legitimately be nervous about the direction of the program.
8. LSU and USC both survived, but their defenses are too bad to make them legit contenders for conference titles or playoff berths.
These LSU and USC offenses are fantastic.
But second year coaches Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley both have messes on the defensive side of the ball that are going to keep them from being able to compete for conference championships or playoff berths.
I think USC will lose two or three games this year -- right now I'd bet on the Trojans finishing 9-3 -- and I think LSU will lose the Alabama game and probably finish 9-3 too.
But my goodness, can you imagine the howling from Louisiana if Brian Kelly had lost at Mizzou, as it looked like his team might for much of Saturday?
And by the way, Mizzou, that was a brutal interception to allow LSU to cover. Brady Cook hadn't thrown a pick in like 400 passes and then he throws two on Saturday, including an awful back breaking pick six for the LSU cover? Unkind, very unkind.
9. The Mel Tucker story is a complete and total sports media failure.
Here's my analysis of the case.
If you haven't watched it, please do.
Mel Tucker isn't a saint, but he's being railroaded by a woman, Brend Tracy, whose own text messages make it quite clear was just interested in Tucker's money.
10. My National OutKick Top Ten
Reminder: I grade teams entirely based on what we have seen on the field so far, not just on what we expected to see before the season started. And with that in mind, we've got a new number one Outkick team.
This isn't an indictment of Florida State, you just can't ignore Michigan's dominance so far this season.
1. Michigan
2. Florida State
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma
5. Penn State
6. Ohio State
7. Oregon
8. Washington
9. Louisville
10. Texas
11. SEC power rankings 1-14
I think the top three and bottom three are pretty clear here, but the middle 4-11 is a big jumble.
But before that, one final pic from Aggieland, we met Buc-ees founder Beaver Aplin, who is an A&M grad.
1. Georgia
2. Alabama
3. Ole Miss
4. LSU
5. Missouri
6. Texas A&M
7. Tennessee
8. Kentucky
9. Florida
10. South Carolina
11. Auburn
12. Mississippi State
13. Arkansas
14. Vanderbilt