All in all it was yet another great weekend of college football. Lots of news and storylines out there today, so here's a quick roundup of things of interest:
After watching the Tide dismantle his Mean Green, North Texas head coach Todd Dodge is fully convinced of the Tide's abilities. In the post-game he said we were, "as good as advertised," and furthermore said that we had "all the ingredients" needed to win a national championship. If nothing else, we made a believer out of him on Saturday.
Julio Jones dressed out for the game yesterday against North Texas, and Coach Saban said something to the effect of that he might play if we needed him, but obviously it never came to that. The smart money is on Julio playing had we been facing an SEC opponent, but even so Coach Saban has already said that Julio should be good to go next week against the Hogs. The news, however, wasn't necessarily so promising on Roy Upchurch. Saban said he was probably 80-85 percent right now, but did say that if he kept responding that he might play this weekend.
Demetrius Goode went down after his 14-yard run with an injury to his right knee and did not return. Coach Saban, however, later said it was just a hyper-extended knee and that he thought he should be okay. Goode tore an ACL two years ago in Fall camp, but this injury doesn't look anywhere near as serious.
Lost in the domination of the Mean Green was that Greg McElroy took a very hard shot on the opening play of the game. He hurt his left jaw during the impact, and was favoring it a tad bit afterward. I noticed him with ice on it at one point, and while the medical staff is telling him to keep ice on it the next few days it's nothing serious.
Alabama didn't get any sacks against North Texas, but Coach Saban couldn't have cared less about that fact.
Click here to watch highlights from the North Texas game, and click here to watch Coach Saban's postgame interview.
After USC's upset to Washington, Alabama moved up to third in both major polls, trailing only Florida and Texas. And in the AP poll, 'Bama received three first place votes.
Moving on to the Hogs, Arkansas starting middle linebacker Jerry Franklin was ejected from the Georgia game last night after bumping two UGA players and an official. Under a new rule passed this past year, whenever a player is ejected from a game due to a flagrant personal foul, the team's conference must conduct an automatic video review for possible additional sanctions to be added in the next game. Obviously I don't expect Franklin will miss any time in the Alabama game because of it, but it is nevertheless something to keep in mind.
Speaking of the Hogs, for those of you that like to bet or like me who just like the betting lines for their predictive power, Alabama opened as a 14.5 point favorite over Arkansas..
If nothing else, at least Arkansas has struggled in Tuscaloosa as of late. In the past five trips to Bryant-Denny, the Hogs are only 1-4.