While waiting inside the interview room at the Rose Bowl late Saturday night, myself and a couple other writers tried to make sense of the many unexpected results around the country that day. One person put it best: “How do we know who’s good and who’s bad?” Three weeks in, I can’t say that we do. Not only have several preseason darlings (Auburn, Arizona State) failed to pan out, but even teams we wrote off after Week 1 (Stanford) have already risen from the ashes, while some teams we gushed over (you know … Ohio State?) now have questions. “Without any preseason games, these first few games are really hard,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald told FOX Sports on Sunday. “I would not try to pass any judgment on anyone until they’ve played three or four conference games.” Clearly coaches are much more patient than sportswriters. I will now promptly ignore that advice and pinpoint the few things I feel absolutely certain about so far this season. The SEC championship will not be decided in the state of Alabama. Each of the past seven years, the late-November Iron Bowl held SEC and/or national championship implications for one or both teams. That streak now stands in serious jeopardy. While coaches poll voters inexplicably kept Auburn in their rankings Sunday, the Tigers would need to magically fix their interception-spewing quarterback, subpar rushing attack and porous defense to remain a contender for anything north of the Independence Bowl. …
Continue Reading: Forward Pass: Ohio State Buckeyes might be too talented for their own good
