A Few Major Takeaways from the First Half of the College Football Season

We're witnessing a whole different brand of Alabama football

Nick Saban's retirement sent shockwaves through college football, but most of us knew it wasn't going to doom Alabama. Between their name, recruiting, and an elite coach replacing him in Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide were always expected to be just fine. But it was Saban's no-nonsense, take every snap seriously, and put an emphasis on every facet of the game mentality that played into his greatness. His teams were almost always incredible defensively, great running the football, and never took any moment or any team lightly. Shootouts weren't common, and neither were major letdowns. An opponent like, say, Vanderbilt, would never be looked over, even coming off a big win. If you go through all the games Saban lost at Alabama, and there aren't many, it was almost always at the hands of a really good team that played a really good game. It was always stunning to see the Tide fall, but rarely was the opponent as stunning as the sheer fact they had lost a game. Less than halfway through Kalen DeBoer's first season at the helm, they've already fell victim to exactly that. Alabama was understandably riding high after their incredible win over Georgia that launched them to No. 1 in the country, all while knowing they had a big one on the road against Tennessee just two weeks away. It's easy to forget the Vanderbilt game sandwiched in there, a team Saban never once lost to and a consistent bottom-feeder in the SEC. Now there's a reason it took a really talented team playing a really good game to ever take down 'Bama during Saban's reign, and it's already fair to doubt whether DeBoer can instill that same mentality after a loss that never would've flown under Saban. And it's a new type of football the Tide are playing too, one that's going to land them in a lot of shootouts and a lot of close games. This defense is, to put it lightly, uncharacteristically bad. They were just brutal down the stretch against Georgia, letting the 'Dawgs come back from a 28-0 deficit with relative ease, and the unit was even worse this week against Vanderbilt allowing 40 points. The talent just hasn't shown itself. These last six quarters defensively have been flat-out awful, and so many of the little things that were rarely a problem under Saban are allowing these teams to exploit these holes and keep them on the field. Their incredible offense will keep them relevant, but this feels a lot like a Big 12 powerhouse like, say, Oklahoma in the 2010s more than these Alabama teams we've seen for the last 15 or so years. A letdown spot like this to a team like Vandy, who lost to Georgia State three weeks prior, just didn't happen under Saban, and neither did a defense this weak. Alabama will always have the talent to compete and Kalen DeBoer is still by all means an exception coach - but a team headed for a lot of shootouts and lacking the killer focus we're used to probably means a different, and probably lesser brand of Alabama football we should begin to get accustomed to.

It might be a while before Michigan is back

2023 was the perfect storm for the Wolverines, as the stars aligned for the nation's most complete roster, arguably the best coach in the country, and a very favorable regular season schedule in a perfect 15-0 campaign that ended in confetti. And while we knew they were losing a ton this offseason, including their legendary head coach, Michigan fans can't be too pleased with how their title defense under Sherrone Moore has played out thus far. The coaching has been, to say the least, uninspiring. This last week against Washington was the biggest example yet, and it culminated in a brutal second loss in a game they led entering the 4th quarter. Michigan stood around the entire offseason with no urgency to fix any of their glaring QB issues, and it's gone far worse than they could've imagined through the first six games of the season. Davis Warren was unplayable, Alex Orji couldn't complete a pass, and Jack Tuttle, who is finally healthy halfway through his seventh year, is serviceable on a very good day. Discounting the final drive with the game out of reach, Tuttle dropped back to pass four times in the fourth quarter. The results? Incompletion, incompletion, fumble, interception. It's bleak, and there's no half-decent explanation for what this program was doing all offseason knowing full well J.J McCarthy was gone yet failing to capitalize on the new age transfer portal that could've landed them any number of quarterbacks. Once Mullings, Loveland, and Edwards are out of the picture, God knows how this offense will look, even if Jadyn Davis is eventually ready. And the defense, despite possessing two potential top-10 picks in Will Johnson and Mason Graham, looks largely hopeless. The holes in the passing game continue to be exposed, and Wink Martindale's ultra-aggressive defensive schemes aren't doing that any favors. The communication of the unit as a whole is non-existent. This team built itself up on developing its players all across the Harbaugh era, but almost everyone on this team that wasn't a key player a year ago has looked like a liability in 2024. And the coaching staff isn't doing much to help that. Michigan almost handed away games against USC and Minnesota, looked completely overmatched against Texas, and lost a game they could've won against Washington. They rank sixth-worst in the country in 4th quarter scoring allowed. And as more high-end talent washes away after this season, which is almost certainly a washed year, things might get even uglier in Ann Arbor.

Colorado is....good?

After last year's disaster and an underwhelming two-game start to 2024, there really wasn't much reason to believe in this Colorado team doing much of anything this season. Sure, the top-shelf talent is there between Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, but the defense, o-line, and very possibly coaching all seemed like far too much to overcome. Even a bowl game seemed like a stretch. But after a nice win on the road at Colorado State, a miracle hit Boulder on a last-second Hail Mary touchdown to force overtime against Baylor, a game they'd squeak out in OT to bring them to a 3rd win that already matches their total last season. But sure, even that improbable win probably wasn't all too convincing, but they went down south and pounded an undefeated UCF team 48-21, with their defense putting together perhaps its best performance of the Deion Sanders era and the offense doing its thing in a convincing road win. They allowed just seven points in the second half. All of a sudden this is a 4-1 team with a much-improved defense that is finding ways to win. In a Big 12 with only one undefeated team and the Buffaloes' only loss out-of-conference, there's reason to take Colorado seriously. And given their over/under win total of 5.5, this is a massive surprise. The talk would always surround them even if they struggled again, and I'm not sure any of us were prepared for a world where they're actually competing. There's still plenty of tests to go, a big one coming Saturday night at home against Kansas State, but they're a win away from entering the top-25, a ranking that would come straight from performance and not hype. Colorado fighting for the playoff late this season would undoubtedly be one of the best stories of the year.

The Big Ten coast-to-coast trips matter even more than we thought

Of all the opposing arguments to realignments across college football, one of the more sensible complaints regarded the proximity between some of these schools now representing the same conference and the hassle and negative impact it would be to get from one to another. Conferences were always region-centric, and now we've got teams like Penn State taking 6-hour flights to USC on a weekly basis. Sure, it's not the end of the world, and it was never going to solely take down realignment, but it was certainly going to be interesting to see the toll it took on the traveling teams on game-day. The flights from the midwest, home of most Big Ten teams, to the west coast is no cakewalk either, and the results of teams traveling to and from the west have been telling to say the least. So far this season, through 5-6 games, teams traveling to and from the west coast are 1-8. That includes Michigan's loss to Washington last week, USC's losses to Michigan and Minnesota, and Washington's loss to Rutgers. This narrative has a major week ahead with Ohio State playing at Oregon and Penn State at USC, but the truth is in the numbers thus far. And as the weather gets colder and teams get more and more beat up, these west coast teams facing early kick-offs in the midwest could continue to wreak havoc. How much will this even the playing field as more talented teams make these treks throughout the conference? Will the teams get more acquainted with the travel over the years? Does kickoff time matter in these games? We've seen these big trips play a significant role so far early in this new era of Big Ten play, and it'll be fascinating to measure how it continues to impact the conference going forward.