Alabama Football: Scrimmage season over, who can challenge the Tide

Alabama football has played eight games and won eight in what could be called a scrimmage season. What teams can challenge the Crimson Tide?

No disrespect is intended toward any team Alabama football has defeated in 2018. Still, a fair assessment is the Alabama Crimson Tide has faced only two good football teams, Texas A&M and Missouri. Only the Aggies are ranked, currently at No. 16 in the AP Poll, after a 5-2 record.

The others, including a team with a winning record (Ole Miss) and a team who beat Auburn (Tennessee), are not quality teams. The deserved acclaim for the Crimson Tide, now a unanimous No. 1 in the AP Poll, comes from eight games against outmatched teams.

The LSU challenge on Nov. 3 is generally expected to be different. The Bengal Tigers are now ranked as the No. 4 team in the nation. LSU has an impressive win over Georgia and another Top 25 win over Miami that has grown less impressive as the season unfolds. It also has a loss to Florida, who though ranked No. 9, is not yet elite.

How good is LSU? Certainly good, probably very good – the jury is out on great. Which is not to suggest LSU has no chance against the Tide. Against a tough foe, even Alabama football can make enough mistakes to cause an upset.

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The problem is assessing the best teams is too much driven by presumption. Everyone believed Ohio State was a very good team, a solid Playoff contender. Then the Buckeyes lost by four touchdowns to a Purdue team that could not beat Missouri or Eastern Michigan. Who else is being overvalued in the Playoff hunt?

A good hunch would be Notre Dame. The Irish are undefeated with a win over Michigan, but two of the seven wins were by only five points. Beating Pitt (3-4) and Vandy (3-5) by less than a touchdown makes the Irish resume shaky.

Assuming LSU can’t conjure an upset in Tiger Stadium, who has a legit chance to derail the Tide? Not Mississippi State and after the practice game for Tide backups against The Citadel, not Auburn. Yes, Auburn can win an occasional fluke game when it shouldn’t, but this season’s Tigers are not within three (or more) touchdowns of the Tide.

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Making another assumption, that leaves Georgia in the SEC Championship game. Followed by two Playoff teams that may be contenders or pretenders. Georgia is good but the Bulldogs have only played two good teams. One of them, LSU, beat them.

Looking for the biggest threat to another Alabama football national championship, it’s Clemson. The Tigers were a different team with Kelly Bryant at QB when TAMU held them to a two-point win. Yes, Clemson struggled against an average Syracuse team before winning 27-23. But, that game was the first college start for Trevor Lawrence.

The true freshman phenom has improved considerably since then. He will continue to improve every week. As our own Kevin Mudd wrote a few weeks ago, Dabo made the QB change in preparation for a future shootout with the Crimson Tide.

Clemson demolished a good North Carolina State team last Saturday, 41-7. The Clemson defense is tough enough to argue it could cause the Tide real problems. Looking at a team as a real threat to another Alabama football national championship? That team is Clemson.

Next. Studs and Duds from victory over UT. dark

Anyone chomping at the bit to argue we are getting ahead of ourselves is right. Our excuse is this a bye week. And for those not worried about Clemson, remember Hunter Renfrow is back for what must be at least his seventh season.

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