Clay Travis's Starting 11: Bama Dominates, Georgia Struggles Edition

Let me start off here, we had an amazing time in Wisconsin yesterday.

The way I would describe Madison to someone who has never been before is there are two prominent emotions on display: kindness and drunkenness. Everywhere you looked were people consuming unbelievable amounts of alcohol and simultaneously being incredibly kind. Trust me, those two emotions don't always overlap, especially when your team plays poorly and loses big as we saw happen on Saturday. 

But Wisconsin fans were absolutely fantastic, I love them.

Our tour guide for the day was Matt Joki, who played football for Wisconsin in the 1980's, and knows everyone in Madison. He and his family were with our family all day, and they are the best possible hosts.

I mean how many other guys have their own barstool at Wando's?!  

We watched the game from the terrace with his family, we jumped around at the start of the 4th quarter, which was super cool, and just genuinely had a phenomenal day.

The weather was perfect, and the campus looked spectacular, which is why they bring the recruits all up for the games in September. Because I'm told the super cold sets in by November and the lake, which looked incredible, starts to whip the wind off of it, and you feel like you're going to die walking around outside on campus.  

One of my goals going forward is to see a game at as many college football venues as possible. I've seen games at every SEC venue except Oklahoma, most of the Big Ten, much of the ACC, and quite a few of the spots in the Big 12 too.

But I want to keep traveling for games, I honestly think nothing compares to a college football Saturday and my goal is to have seen all the 50 or so biggest venues over the next decade.  

1. Alabama whipped Wisconsin

Yes, Wisconsin didn't play well, turning the ball over a couple of times deep in their territory and their quarterback got knocked out early, but I want to focus on what I thought was the most important part of the game. With less than a minute to play in the half, Wisconsin lined up for a field goal that would make it 14-6 at the half.

MADISON, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 14: Ryan Williams #2 and Germie Bernard #5 of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate after a touchdown catch by Germie Bernard in the second quarter against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium on September 14, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

Make that kick and even with a less than perfect performance, the Badgers could feel like they had taken the contest into the second half and had a real shot at making a game of it.

But Wisconsin missed the kick and Alabama took possession up 14-3.

The Tide was scheduled to get the ball to start the second half and Alabama, to that point, had withstood the energy of the crowd and taken control of the game. I expected that with only 27 seconds left in the half Bama would take a knee or run one of those delayed handoff draws, a low risk play, to see if they busted it for a big gain and decided to go for a field goal. Instead, boom, Alabama went aggressive, hitting two massive pass plays -- 47 yards to Ryan Williams and 26 yards to Germie Bernard -- and the game was over.

Even after hitting the first big pass play, I thought Alabama might settle for a long field goal and feel like they'd stolen a possession on the Badgers.

But they went for the absolute kill with another deep passing play, a dime from Jalen Milroe to end the game.

My 14-year-old, who remains an Alabama fan despite my best efforts to the contrary, told me at halftime Nick Saban would have taken a knee. I think he's right. Kalen DeBoer's playcalling there won Alabama the game, and it was a substantial departure from how Saban would have likely called the game.

On the first drive of the second half, the Tide scored again and it was 28-3.

The game was over and most in the crowd were just waiting for "Jump Around."

I know some Alabama fans are nervous about Milroe's passing, but he was incredibly accurate on Saturday, stretching the field with both his arm and his legs, en route to five touchdowns. The Tide offense looked totally different than it did for much of the day last week against South Florida.

MADISON, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 14: LT Overton #22 of the Alabama Crimson Tide reacts after a turnover in the second quarter against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium on September 14, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

With Alabama's big win over Wisconsin and Texas's big win over Michigan, this now means two SEC schools have gone into two of the most difficult venues in Big Ten country -- I know, I know, it's September not late November, so the weather wasn't impactful -- and dominated by a combined score of 73-22.  

But does any Big Ten fan really want to argue that cold weather would be worth more than 51 points to the margins of these games?

Because that's what you'd have to argue to suggest Alabama and Texas wouldn't dominate Wisconsin and Michigan in the cold too.

2. Happy birthday to my 14-year-old son Lincoln

We made the family trip to Madison -- our oldest who is soon to be 17 had high school obligations so stayed behind -- and Lincoln said for his birthday from me that in addition to getting his first phone -- 14 is the age our boys get a phone for the first time, which I have been told for years makes me a dinosaur because EVERY OTHER KID ALREADY HAS A PHONE, DAD! -- he wanted me to talk about how awesome Ryan WIlliams is.

Instead I told him, he could write something for the Starting 11. Here is my Bama fan son's take on Ryan Williams: "He is like Devonta Smith already because when he gets the ball in his hands, he is electric. And the fact that he should be doing his high school homework on Saturday's instead of catching touchdowns is insane. He's only 17, there's no stopping him, dad. Roll Tide!"

Sidenote: I can't tell you how much fun sharing college football is with your kids when they actually get old enough to be huge fans too.

We were back home in time for the night games and as the Georgia-Kentucky game ended my fourth grader had late night rigged up games on his iPad and Nintendo Switch -- Northern Iowa-Nebraska and BYU-Wyoming -- so we could watch those games too.

I don't even know how to find games like this on those devices.

But something interesting, at least to me as someone who works in media, my kids have no idea what channels carry games. And they have no idea what channel the games are on either.  

Absolutely none.

Meanwhile I still know all the legacy channel numbers of my youth in Nashville. ABC is 2, NBC is 4, CBS is 5, Fox is 17, ESPN is 11, TBS is 23, TNT is 35. But I've realized these channel numbers for me are like old phone numbers. I remember all the ones I knew when I was a kid, but I couldn't tell you what anyone's phone number is now and I couldn't tell you any of the HD channels either.

Why does that matter?

Sports TV branding has no impact on my kids and I suspect that's true for most kids out there.

They just want to watch the games, they don't care how they are distributed at all or who carries them.  

They pick up the Comcast remote and say what game they want to watch, who airs it has zero impact to them, a streaming company, a legacy broadcast network, cable, it's all a wash. And if the voice remote doesn't work, they struggle to find games on traditional cable TV. But give them an iPad or a laptop and they can find a "free" version of the game streaming in less than a minute.  

The other day my wife shared the 4th grader's sheet he filled out about his favorite things for the start of the school year. One of the questions the teacher asked of all the kids was "Favorite TV show."

When I was in fourth grade, I would have had a ton of favorite TV shows. We had Kirk Cameron on Clay & Buck on Friday and I still can't believe that Mike Seaver from "Growing Pains," knows my name!

Yet on the line for "Favorite TV show," my fourth grader left it blank. My kids don't watch TV shows, they watch YouTube clips and sports. That's it. As a result, my fourth grader doesn't have a favorite TV show.  

I don't know how unique their viewing habits are -- clearly the Travis house way overindexes for sports, football in particular -- but I do find it fascinating how much different they are from me and my own dad's viewing patterns.

When I left home for college in 1997, I watched sports the same way as my dad. And I've continued to do so for pretty much my entire life.  

But when my boys leave for college in a few years, they will be watching in a very different manner than we all did growing up.      

3. Georgia survived Kentucky

Last week I talked about the importance of survive and advance games -- winning even though your team doesn't look great -- in the 12-team playoff era.

Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois in one of those games, but Penn State and Alabama both got sloppy wins last week.

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - SEPTEMBER 14: Trevor Etienne #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs runs the ball as Zion Childress #11 of the Kentucky Wildcats trails during the first half at Kroger Field on September 14, 2024 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Well, Georgia got a sloppy win last night.

Is Georgia as anemic offensively as they looked last night? We will find out in Tuscaloosa in two weeks. (I'll be there for Fox's Big Noon. With my Bama fan son, of course.)

But I do think it's important to remember that this same Georgia team smoked Clemson a couple of weeks ago. And this same Kentucky team got demolished by South Carolina last weekend.

So the answer is probably somewhere in the middle for both teams, Kentucky was at their worst last week and their best this week, Georgia was at their worst this week and their best, at least for the second half, against Clemson.

Okay, with that in mind, what in the world was Mark Stoops thinking at the end of this game? Down 13-12 and facing a 4th and 8 at the Georgia 47 with 3:03 to play in the game, Stoops punts, gambling he can use his timeouts, get a stop, and get the ball back with a chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

Okay, let's pause it right here at the time he has a decision to make.

I immediately questioned this decision on Twitter, most of you agreed with me, but some disagreed.

Now I'm not a math guy, but this doesn't seem like a difficult coaching choice to me. If you get the first down, you're in field goal territory, and you can run the clock down to potentially try a game-winning kick, forcing Georgia to use its own timeouts, that's the best case scenario and it's not a crazy one. I'm not sure of how many long range studies there are in college football, but NFL teams convert 4th and 8 at a 40% clip. Let's presume the numbers are at least directionally similar in college football, that would mean you have a one in three chance or better of converting here.  

But here's the deal, even if you go for it and don't get the first down, you still have to get a stop and have your timeouts to use.

It's the exact same scenario at play whether Georgia takes possession near midfield or down on their side of the field.  

The absolute worst case scenario is nearly what ended up happening, you punt and don't get the ball back. (Kentucky got the ball back, but with nine seconds remaining and no timeouts, effectively the game was over then.)

And guess what happened, by the way, on the second play after the punt? Georgia hit a big pass play. Do you know where the Bulldogs ended up then? The Georgia 49! Almost exactly where they would have been if Kentucky had gone for it and not gotten the first down!

Coaching decisions like this just blow my mind and I'd be furious if I were a Wildcat fan.

Kentucky played a whale of a game, the team is 1-1, you've got the number one team on the ropes for what would be one of the biggest wins in Kentucky football history, and you give the ball back to Carson Beck, who may be one of the top quarterbacks drafted in 2025, to a team and a coach that has won 40+ regular season games in a row?

I just don't get it.

In the words of the immortal Rick Flair: "To be the man, you've got to beat the man!"

You can't rely on a champion self destructing and beating himself, you have to beat him.

I still can't believe, even as I sit here writing this on a Sunday morning, that Kentucky punted.

4. Arch Manning came in for an injured Quinn Ewers and absolutely dominated

What was his stat line?

How about 9-12 passing for 223 yards and also this ridiculous scramble where we see that Arch has wheels Peyton and Eli could only dream of.  

Looks like legendary quarterback Archie Manning's scrambling ability skipped a generation, Longhorn fans have to be over the moon about their program. They've got a national title contender with Quinn Ewers, and then they have Arch Manning waiting in the wings?

Goodness.

5. Has social media prepared for a world where Tennessee is one of the best football teams in the country?

Vol Twitter is out here strutting around like it's 1998 all over again in the wake of Tennessee's 71-0 win over Kent State. It was 65-0 at the half and I've never seen a more complete beatdown in my life in an FBS football game.

I've been writing online since 2004. During that time, Tennessee has been to two SEC title games: 2004 and 2007. And Tennessee has ascended to number one overall in the college football playoff rankings in 2022.

But 2021's rise was accompanied by a feeling of euphoric glee by Tennessee fans, Vol faithful didn't expect to be where we were at all. So there wasn't a high degree of cockiness or crowing on social media.

But this team has the potential to be the best Tennessee football team since I started writing about sports online twenty years ago.

Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma will be the second test for this team -- neutral site against N.C. State was supposed to be the first -- but while Nico and the offense is getting all the hype, this defense hasn't allowed a touchdown in the past four games.

And speaking of Nico.

Watch this throw, it's an effortless nearly sixty yards in the air.

And watch where the receiver is when Nico lets this ball go.

He's a freak.

Up next? The second test -- how will the Vols play in Norman at night? Vegas is sold on the Vols, Tennessee has opened as a 7.5 point road favorite. The preseason line was Oklahoma -5.5.

If Tennessee wins this game, look out, it's gonna be like 1998 all over again, Vol fans are going to be insufferable. In conjunction with the college world series title, Battered Vol Syndrome may be headed, like covid, to the dustbin of viral sickness history.

But first would need to come an Oklahoma win.

By the way, it occurs to me that some of you reading this right now were barely even born when my two books on SEC football were published: "Dixieland Delight" back in 2007 and "On Rocky Top" back in 2009.

If you love college football and haven't read those books, what are you doing with your life?

I don't need the money, I just think they are fun reads for college football fans.

DIXIELAND DELIGHT: Travis, Clay: 0000061431249: Amazon.com: Books

6. Billy Napier is done at Florida and Florida State is a dumpster fire

In a game only a masochist could love, Florida travels to Mississippi State next weekend where two 1-2 teams will fight to avoid the title of worst in the SEC.

If Napier's team loses, I really think Florida might fire him on Sunday. It's year three, the Gators are awful and not getting better. A third straight losing season is coming. When you know what must be done, why wait?

As for Texas A&M, this was a solid road win for the Aggies. There's no such thing as a bad SEC road win. I know I'm officially getting old when college football quarterbacks had high school classes with my sons, but that's the case with Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed, who was fantastic as a redshirt freshman getting the start in the Swamp. I'm told he's a great kid, by my kid, and Aggie fans have to love what they saw from him.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 14: Head coach Billy Napier of the Florida Gators looks on before the start of a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 14, 2024 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

As for Florida State, it happened.

Again.

The Seminoles lost for a third straight time as a favorite this time to Mike Norvell's former team, Memphis. Florida at Florida State is shaping up as the saddest rivalry game in the history of these schools.

And how bad could things get for Florida State?

California is 3-0 and coming to town this week. Then it's at SMU, Clemson, at Duke, at Miami, North Carolina, and at Notre Dame.

FSU is 0-3 and their next seven opponents are a combined 17-3 right now.

0-10, 1-9, or 2-8 aren't out of the equation at all.   

7. Toledo beats Mississippi State!

UNLV beats Kansas!

Washington State (I know this non power conference win praise stings) beats Washington!

Memphis beats Florida State!

Georgia State beats Vandy!

I'm going to try and devote a part of the Starting 11 each week to shouting out non power conference teams who got wins over power conference teams.

Figuring out who the 12th team in the playoff is going to be lots of fun going forward.

8. LSU, goodness, what's going on with LSU?

Down 17-0 to South Carolina, I turned to a buddy and asked what percentage of LSU fans would be willing to fire Brian Kelly at that exact moment.

I'm betting it was 80% at that moment.

And even this morning I'm betting it's still a majority.

From the moment Brian Kelly showed up at an LSU basketball game and pretended to have a Southern accent, this has felt like an incredibly awkward fit. Yes, LSU survived and advanced to avoid what would have been a devastating loss to its playoff chances, but South Carolina ran the ball down LSU's throat all day long. That's ominous going forward.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - SEPTEMBER 14: Kyren Lacy #2 of the LSU Tigers leaps up to make a catch during the fourth quarter of the game at Williams-Brice Stadium on September 14, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by LSU Athletics/University Images via Getty Images)

Fortunately for LSU, they've got UCLA and South Alabama over the next two weeks. They should win both to be sitting at 4-1 with Ole Miss coming to town off a bye week.

Even with the struggles, the schedule sets up as nicely for the Tigers as an SEC schedule can: Ole Miss, Oklahoma, and Alabama all come to Death Valley, the toughest road game is at Texas A&M.

Based on the schedule and the talent, this should be a playoff team.

But I just don't see it happening because something isn't working on both sides of the ball, but especially on the defense.

9. I got destroyed in gambling this weekend.

3-12 overall.

Things were so bad I was worried one of my three wins -- Tennessee -49 -- was going to get taken off the board due to a running clock in the second half.

I believe this is the second worst gambling week in the history of the picks.

If this keeps up, I'm going to have to fire myself and let my 14 year old make the picks.

But just know I'm back in the laboratory right now.

10. The Outkick Top Ten and my Outkick Playoff 12

We have two different rankings here, my overall top ten of the best teams in college football based ON THE ACTUAL RESULTS WE HAVE SEEN ON THE FIELD and my playoff projections, also based on the actual results we have seen on the field, but including my projections for who will win each conference and get the automatic bids.

Does that make sense?

Of course.

But just wait until these two different polls go viral on social media and people are accusing me of being the Kamala Harris of college football polls, just saying the exact opposite thing at the same time.

So we start with the Outkick Top Ten.

A reminder, I value road/neutral wins early in the season at the highest possible level, so if your team hasn't beaten anyone good on the road or in a neutral site through the first three weeks of the season, I probably don't have them ranked super high. (My exception is Ohio State because the Buckeyes have been so dominant.)  

1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Tennessee
4. Ole Miss
5. Ohio State
6. Miami
7. Georgia
8. USC
9. Missouri
10. Northern Illinois

My College Football Playoff 12

These are conference title winner projections, who would all receive byes, and the rest of the top 12 as I would seed them if the season were ending today.

1. Texas (SEC champion)
2. Ohio State (Big Ten champion)
3. Miami (ACC champion)
4. Utah (Big 12 champion)
5. Alabama
6. Tennessee
7. Ole Miss
8. Georgia
9. USC
10. Penn State
11. Missouri
12. Memphis

11. SEC power rankings 1-16

As always, I rank entirely based on the on field performance. After just three weeks of the season, half of the SEC teams have already lost a game.

And with either Tennessee or Oklahoma going down on Saturday and either Alabama or Georgia going down on the 28th, the ranks of the unbeaten in the SEC are going to shrink in a hurry.

But here is my current top 16:

1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Tennessee
4. Ole Miss
5. Georgia
6. Missouri
7. Oklahoma
8. LSU
9. South Carolina
10. Texas A&M
11. Arkansas
12. Vanderbilt
13. Auburn
14. Kentucky
15. Florida
16. Mississippi State