Welcome to the Defector College Football Watch Guide, where Israel Daramola and Ray Ratto will tell you which of the weekend’s college football games are worth giving a crap about.
Ray: Does Alabama (9) still hate Kalen DeBoer? Has enough time passed since the opening weekend loss to a Florida State (34) team that has since lost its last four, including a weekend loss at Stanford (101)? The answers are, respectively, yes and no—yes, they still hate him, and no, the Earth has not exploded so there is still not enough time for him to be cured of what the fan base believes ails him. Still, for those of us not pot-committed to the return of Nick Saban, the Tide have been mighty impressive since that loss. Their past four wins have been over ranked conference rivals Georgia (10), Vanderbilt (15), Missouri (8) and Tennessee (18), which is what the gerbils in the football committee call “a good strength of schedule index.” Never mind that Tennessee rallied in the second half after giving up a 99-yard pick-six to Zabien Brown on the final play of the first. Wins are wins when so few teams can claim a clean sheet at this point in the year. So yes, they still hate Kalen DeBoer, but they are less likely to toss a lit M-80 in his mailbox in the middle of the night. And as long as he keeps winning, he won’t be Billy Napier. Napier, freshly divorced from Florida (38), was the eighth guy in seven full weeks to suddenly have his weekends free (Jay Norvell of Colorado State (108) became the ninth hours later), which is more than just an epidemic—it’s a tradition! Speaking of which, Notre Dame (6) is back in action too after Stooge-slapping USC (16), in case you were worried about their December plans, and by “worried” we of course mean “not worried at all.” In other words, all the fretters and fussers about the new college football are about to be reminded that by new, we of course mean old.
