Alabama Football: CFB Contenders, Pretenders and Too Soon to Call

CFB ‘Pretender’ Teams

• Auburn Tigers – Gus Malzahn’s team is not good, but good, mercurial results may follow. They are not good enough offensively or defensively to contend for a championship, not even a conference championship. While playing Georgia, one fan suggested Chad Morris was just drawing plays up in the dirt. There is no dirt on the sidelines of Sanford Stadium but if Morris could have done it, Gus Malzahn would have quickly rubbed them out with his feet. Another OC controversy looms in Auburn.
• UCF Golden Knights – Pretending is at the core of the UCF culture but no team losing to Tulsa can be considered a Contender. There is no road back for UCF in 2020.
• Oklahoma Sooners – A 1-2 team with a ‘defense is optional’ coach in a ‘defense is optional’ league. Why does anyone ever take them seriously?
• Texas Longhorns – The Longhorns are playing for the respectability they lost long ago.
• Mississippi State Bulldogs – Beat the defending National Champion and next, lose to the SEC’s worst team over the last three seasons. Nothing could be more Mike Leach. A Starkville roller coaster ride will follow, but MSU contending for the SEC West was foolishness.
• Kentucky Wildcats – The 2020 season was supposed to cement the credibility of Mark Stoop’s Wildcats. Two losses to two mediocre teams end that discussion.
• South Carolina Gamecocks – It is hard to suggest a program stuck in limbo was ever a contender. Maybe finishing fourth in the SEC East might have been a plausible goal. Will Muschamp will likely be the first SEC coach fired this season.