Do they still control the Tide?
The five biggest stories that the CBR staff will be watching this week:
1. Alabama, Texas A&M squaring off for SEC supremacy?
The college football season is only a couple weeks old, but the game of the year has already arrived. The eyes of the college football world will turn to College Station Saturday afternoon for a hotly anticipated showdown between the Crimson Tide and the only team to beat Alabama a year ago, Texas A&M.
You’re going to hear every potential angle in this matchup broken down ad nauseam this week. CBR suggests that you focus on just one: How good is the Alabama offensive line?
2. Texas-sized turmoil
Manny Diaz didn’t adjust enough for Mack Brown’s liking in the Longhorns’ horrendous performance against BYU, which was enough to cost the defensive coordinator his job a mere two weeks into the season. (Mack might soon know the feeling.)
Apparently, the answer to UT’s defensive woes is an out-of-work coach last seen turning the Michigan D into a national laughingstock. On the plus side, he has been keeping up with things on the Longhorn Network.
3. Scrutiny in Stillwater
From the sounds of it, the Oklahoma State public relations department will be working overtime this week, as word has leaked that Sports Illustrated plans to drop an a-bomb of an investigative piece on the Cowboys football program this week. Early indications suggest that while the allegations against the program may be jaw-dropping, they also will fall outside the NCAA’s typical statute of limitations.
If the bulk of these incidents supposedly occurred from 2000 to 2007, who got pissed off enough to talk about this now? That part would make me awfully nervous if I were connected to OSU during that period. (I'm looking at you, Les Miles…)
4. Belldozer rides again
Trevor Knight winning the starting quarterback gig at Oklahoma during preseason drills caught everyone by surprise. However, it appears as though Blake Bell may have reclaimed the job after helping OU shut the door on a West Virginia upset bid over the weekend.
Bell may be the starter this week against Tulsa, but he still has yet to really prove that he can be more than a specialist as a QB. With a tough stretch of Notre Dame, TCU and Texas coming up, Bob Stoops needs to figure out what he’s doing at the position – and do it quickly.
5. USC hopes to rebound
The Trojans submitted an awful offensive performance in a 10-7 loss to Washington State. The good news for Lane Kiffin’s team is that it won’t take a great night on O to beat Boston College. The bad news is that it will likely take a better showing than what Southern Cal gave against Wazzu, and it remains to be seen if the Trojans have it in them.
