A nasty, physical Crimson Tide is starting to get national attention again
Rejoice, for this the day that we Gump. Alabama has a pretty big game this Saturday. Not sure if you’ve heard yet. We’ll discuss it a bit later this week in depth. For now, let’s wrap up Saturday’s defenestration of the No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Really good story here from USA Today, as Skiver gets to the heart of CFB’s problem: a disconnect between those blessed few hours when games are on, and the other six days of the week. College football’s soul is dying:
College football is experiencing a surreal disconnect this season, between constant discourse about the Protect College Sports Act to a 24-team playoff, and seemingly endless discussion about where some of the top players in the country might end up next year, never mind where they are now.
Yet, when games are on, things feel normal.
Contests between top programs are competitive. Stadium atmospheres are as raucous as they’ve ever been. Rivalries have stakes, and the game still has the disorganized, messy charm that has enamored so many college fans over the more polished (and corporate) NFL product.
So what’s happening? Why does it seem like college football is a shell of itself? And why are fans still turning out in droves, despite harbingers of doom regularly trumpeting the end-times of the sport?
Good diagnosis, but I think his genesis is flawed.
People aren’t turned off by a market imbalance of suddenly-wealthy college-age kids, they’re turned off by a power imbalance, by a constant stream of pro washouts and 25 year old losers beating down the doors at the state courthouse. They’re turned off by uncertainty, by the inability to curb any abuses or enforce any rules. They’re turned off by myopic coaches willing to dynamite a 150-year-old sport for their own short-term gain.
They’re turned off by athletic directors and conference commissioners with no skin in the game that treat college athletics as a side business removed from the larger university and community. They’re turned off by those very same people ignoring fans’ wishes. They are turned off by corporatization and the nickel-and-diming and the price creep.
They are turned off by cynical attorneys and agents and hangers-on all looking for bite of the apple, exploiting young adults who very often lack financial sophistication. They’re turned off by college teams purchasing titles. They’re turned off by a Congress who has refused to act on this since 2017, and now face the 11th hour when the infrastructure, the love of the sport is starting to crumble.
If you need evidence of that, besides the anecdotal, CFB viewership is down 11% this year (though it is up in the SEC), and that’s not solely due to the matchups; that’s people tuning out.
The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. And that should scare the bejesus out of every AD and commissioner who thinks infinite playoff expansion is possible, that fan opinions don’t matter, that television contracts are a money printing hack. They’re not. And once you lose those viewers, you lose the successive generation. Many are not coming back, and many will never arrive at all.
And that is solely because of an abused legal system and greed. You’re killing the Golden Goose.
Brent unearthed this one, and it won’t surprise you, but ‘Bama doesn’t get all the calls. The SEC office in Bammerham ain’t calling up the stripes and saying to take it easy on the Tide
I swear, one of Nick Saban’s super powers was telling Bears Boys and the Good Ole’ Boy network that ran Alabama athletics for half a century to get stuffed. His notorious antipathy to glad-handing was why Texas lost out on the Goat…and I bet they regret the Dynasty That Could Have Been. After Nick declined Texas’ overtures in 2013, and all of the meddling boosters, Alabama would add three more national titles to its trophy case, and the Horns have yet to get back to that mountain — have never even advanced to the Playoff or BCS final, for that matter. Or, hell, if you want the more extreme case for booster meddling, look at Auburn.
Excuse me if I’m a bit thick, but isn’t this exactly what drove Martin Luther to nail his 95 Theses to the church doors at Wittenberg, created an irreparable schism in the Church, and kicked off a few hundred bloody years of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation? Literally selling prayers?
I’m not God, despite hearing His name joyously evoked in hundreds of bedrooms across four continents the past few decades, but if I were, I’d leave these petitioners on read: No way am I taking a purchased prayer seriously.
Damn, LSU. That’s scuzzy even for you.
This is on IG, so I can’t embed it here, but I am beginning to see why Dylan Stewart crashed out: He was a marked man from the first snap until he was kicked out of the game.
You have to see it. LOL.
Oh, yeah, the ACC is absolutely living on borrowed time.
So, when the SEC inevitably expands, who we takin’?
The Polls are out, and ‘Bama jumps ahead of Indiana in the AP all the way to No. 6, while the Coach’s poll still has the Tide sitting at 7th. And TBH, the Coach’s poll is an absolute mess.
See how many dumb things you can spot in the rankings: 4-1 Florida being behind 4-1 Mizzou immediately jumps out at me.
Alabama’s defensive youngsters showed out on Saturday:
The Alabama defense, aside from a few drives, was outstanding during Alabama’s 56-23 win on the road at Mississippi State. The unit racked up five sacks, nine tackles-for-loss, five quarterback hurries, two interceptions & two forced fumbles.
The front seven was impressive with freshman linebacker Xavier Griffin, the highest-ranked signee in the Crimson Tide’s 2026 recruiting class, tallying nine tackles, one tackle-for-loss and his first collegiate sack. Defensive lineman Terrance Green had a 0.5 sack and a tackle-for-loss in the first half, while defensive lineman Fatutoa Henry and HUSKY Red Morgan combined for a sack in the third quarter as well. Defensive lineman Jah-Marien Latham had a 0.5 sack, too.
Sophomore defensive lineman London Simmons recorded 1.5 sacks as well. The Mississippi-native tied his season total during the freshman season, while also forcing a fumble (and recovery) along with 1.5 tackles-for-loss on Saturday afternoon in Starkville (Miss.). It was a homecoming for the Jackson (Miss.) native, too
X was further honored as the AP True Freshman of the Week on the defensive side of the ball, as well.
Bravo, gents. Bravo.
It only took ESPN almost half a season, but they finally got there: This Alabama team is decent, and that Keelon Russell kid ain’t half bad:
Mississippi State entered Saturday undefeated and ranked No. 16, matching its highest AP ranking of the past decade as quarterback Kamario Taylor played like a Heisman Trophy candidate. With Alabama headed to Starkville on Saturday, the stage was set for the Bulldogs to show they were ready for primetime.
Not only did Alabama look like, well, how Alabama is supposed to look, but its own young quarterback, Keelon Russell, displaced Taylor as the breakout quarterback to watch.
Russell threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns, and added another score on the ground as Alabama rolled 56-23. The Tide have scored at least 45 points in five straight games for the first time since 2022 and are the only FBS team to reach 45 in every game this season.
Thanks for joining the 2026 season, fellas!
One person who didn’t miss the bus — indeed, was on the train early — is Landon Tengwall. I don’t know how much more excited he could have been without a violence boner peeking out from under that laptop.
He’s literally giggling pronouncing that “Joyless Murder Ball is back!”
Klemm is him!
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. After bitching for two years the Manuel-led CFP wasn’t taking into account the difficulty of varying leagues, the Committee acted, and now includes a new SOS metric that does precisely that. And after a two-week hellish grind that saw the Conference left with just three undefeated teams, the SEC’s case — and the CFP’s decision — had been amply proven,
But, no, that also shouldn’t count according to CBS. Genuinely the stupidest thing I’ve read in a minute:
The SEC is the best conference in the country, but that argument should only go so far when the College Football Playoff begins its deliberations next month.
Florida demolishes Ole Miss. Missouri bludgeons Florida. LSU drills Clemson. LSU loses to Ole Miss. It’s one thing for the middle and top teams in the league to battle back and forth in one-possession games, but watching the hottest team in the conference flounder on the road in a blowout one week after shining against a top-10 team seven days earlier should not feed the metric machines with overly positive data for the SEC.
Florida, Ole Miss and Missouri are at the center of that storm.
Fresh off an emotional win against their former coach at LSU, the Ole Miss Rebels were shellacked on the road by 24 points at Florida on Sept. 26. Many, including yours truly, overreacted and slotted the undefeated Gators inside the top five following their fourth straight 50-point performance and win. Then Florida laid an egg – do Gators lay eggs? – in a 45-17 loss Saturday at Missouri, a team that was barely hanging on at the bottom of the top 25 following a loss at Mississippi State the week prior.
Does any of this actually hold water, or are we simply witnessing the fallout of that legendary “gauntlet” conference leaders love to talk about — the very grind they cautioned would intensify once the nine-game league slate arrived? And does that really mean we should hand SEC teams a mulligan after a blowout loss?
Maybe it’s just a blip, and the nail-biting games will return in the SEC. Or maybe there are only three elite teams in the conference – Alabama, Georgia and Texas – and everyone else is overrated. Either way, brace yourselves for an endless barrage of mental gymnastics and aggressive lobbying from league brass when the College Football Playoff Selection Committee meets in November.
It was Brad Marcello. The long-time Auburn beat writer can’t help but be salty at the success of others, and concepts such as “Conference wins” are likely alien at this point.
But even he had to admit how impressive Alabama has been:
Alabama might be the best team in the country. A win against Georgia, the first SEC team to win its first five games by 24-plus points since 2019 Alabama, solidifies it.
In Saturday’s Three Star recap, I forgot to include the post-game presser with Coach DeBoer. Tardy though I be, it is now presented for your viewing pleasure below:
He’s smiling now, but he was chewing ass, even with Alabama up by 36. Emphasizing physicality. Singing the gospel of running the ball.
And now it’s official: He’s an Alabama coach. He’s our coach.
Finally, your moment of levity.
That’s all for the moment. We may be back later with an early Giving Away Money — Tuesday games start this week, and there are a dozen between tomorrow and Friday night. I’ve not looked at the data yet though. In any event, we’ll also probably have the Blogpoll for you. See you then.
For now, thanks for dropping by, and take care.
Roll Tide
“Joyless Murderball is Back!”
Up there with Phoebe Cates emerging from the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a formative moment for every Gen Xer.
I’ll be in my bunk.
I went with Va Tech and Memphis for a few reasons:
you can make a case, obviously, for the tradition of bringing back Tulane and Georgia Tech. And in some ways, Clemson and FSU are natural fits, at least in CFB. But I wanted to look at this across every dimension.
Besides, there is simply no easy road trip to Tallahassee. Absolutely terrible. And it’s a shitty city and an ugly setting. Blacksburg is GD gorgeous, and though an hour of the drive is very rustic, it is one of the prettiest in America.
Having lived in Talla-assee for a couple of years I can attest to this, it’s a sh*thole. The Doak vibes like a SEC stadium but that’s about it.
I think VT should be the first and most obvious choice. After that, I went with UVA because I like keeping them as a pair. But I could see where VT keeps UVA as a permanent ACC rival like the others. If not UVA then Memphis is a good choice. Or, Tulane just to f*** with LSU and their grip on LA. UNC’s not an awful choice, but I think that UNC, WF, Duke, and NCSt. should remain together. GT is also acceptable; they’d raise the conference’s GPA for sure, though they’re not exactly a threat in football.
F*** Clemson, FSU, and Miami. No thank you.
Agree on VT as the most obvious choice. In terms of “fit,” then VT, FSU, and Clemson are probably the closest.
I went with Va Tech, because they fit us the best.
My second pick was Tulane, because history, and it would piss off LSU, and it would give us occasional road trips to New Orleans that aren’t befouled by night games in Deaf Falley.
I have always found it odd that the SEC didn’t have a footprint in NC or VA (though there’s probably a case to be made that Virginia is no longer part of the south), so I went with VA Tech & NC (though NC state would be my pick as Raleigh feels right over Chapel Hill). As a native Floridian I would be interested in FSU joining as well since the reason Bobby avoided the SEC so long was an easier path to the big-time, but now they need the prestige and TV money, and would add an extra bit of flare to the FSU/UF rivalry.
Depends on which part of Virginia. I would say anything south of Richmond is still very southern. Richmond is kind of a mixed bag itself. And everything north and in the outlining suburbs is 100% Washington DC.
And Norfolk obviously is not southern. Like most military installations, it’s a melting pot.
My employer is headquartered in Richmond so I stay in the know somewhat; that the last mayoral election had something like 7 candidates and not a single one with a ‘R’ next to their name is pretty telling about the city now. I suspect the Blacksburg area would still wear the ‘southern hospitality’ mantle well though.
It’s majority black — of course there aren’t republicans. LOL. But so are Memphis, BHM, Jackson etc. Doesn’t change their “southernness.”
“It’s majority black — of course there aren’t republicans.” — same applies to majority white cities as well. Madison, Lincoln, Boise, Spokane, Seattle etc etc…
“that the last mayoral election had something like 7 candidates and not a single one with a ‘R’ next to their name is pretty telling about the city” — that’s basically every city though. The divide is not North vs South, it’s Urban vs Rural. Can’t really think of a major city with a republican mayor. Maybe a couple in Texas or Oklahoma…
I didn’t realize you were from Raleigh, by the way. I was born and lived the first 10 years or so in western North Carolina
I’m actually from Jacksonville Florida, but do have family in Cherokee; western NC is indeed ‘God’s country’ as many are proud of saying there.
I am a hillcritter begrudgingly exiled to cities
Same, pick up both NC and VA with UNC and VT. Also, since I live in NC, that gives me 2 reasonably close road games for Bama. I think FSU adds nothing to the SEC. Miami has some value, but limited and really not the fit for the SEC like VT. I’d choose NCSU over UNC for football, but having either UNC or Duke would be a better basketball conference and UNC is generally a solid baseball school.
I thought this comment was the moment of levity
First time watching the Landon Tengwall breakdown and I’ll have to monitor if it lasts longer than 4 hrs.
Those TEs and that O-Line NASTY!!!
And I went with Clemson and Miami. Clemson — because they just feel like an SEC team. And Miami because it’s a big city and that program probably has more name cache than most of the others on that list. When the SEC added Mizzou, I was pretty meh about it (I understand TV markets and everything) because I felt that WVU would’ve been a much better fit. Even though Virginia is probably not a part of the south anymore, West Virginia most definitely is! Also, Virginia is 2 states in one — NoVa and RoVa (Northern Virginia and Rest of Virginia).
He had no videos (or at least no traction) about 2-3 months ago, and since then has EXPLODED amongst us in the know. The dude isn’t going to be solo on YT for very long. His analysis is sooooo damn good.
He also has a giant mancrush on Alabama, which helps.
Klemmgasmm
Jax and I were just talking about that.
As for VA, yeah, you can even divide it into four parts: the old charming gentlemanly Virginia, Richmond / Loudon / the North, Norfolk and the coast, and that sliver of Southern Appalachia, where I have family and where Blacksburg is at.
In a perfect world, I’d rather just consolidate the rest of Southern Appalachia, and snag Clemson and Va. Tech.