ATHENS, Ga. — The first Harris Poll, the one poll supposedly immune to preseason bias, will be released today and help shape the initial BCS standings in a few weeks.

Alabama, 41-30 winner over Georgia on Saturday, should be No. 1. Find a better resume in college football.

The Harris Poll, though previous years indicate otherwise, shouldn’t care that Oklahoma has been ranked No. 2 most of the season. The other polls shouldn’t matter to the Harris voters.

Alabama played a top-10 team at a neutral site, the Clemson Tigers, and beat them into the “others receiving votes” category. The Crimson Tide went on the road and absolutely walloped Arkansas, which won’t be mistaken for the 1985 Chicago Bears, but it’s still an SEC road win.

And then the Tide left home again, this time venturing to No. 3 Georgia and a raucous crowd in black, and slammed the Bulldogs so badly I was looking for Jim Donnan on the sideline. The score was 31-0 at halftime, eerily reminiscent of the 1999 Georgia-Auburn wipeout, when the Bulldogs made Ben Leard look like Ben Roethlisberger.

Except there was no Donnan, or goofy defensive schemes, or an average Georgia football team. This was a wild blackout atmosphere featuring one of the most highly regarded quarterbacks, one of the nation’s best running backs, one of the nation’s best teams. Georgia fans, after watching Southern Cal and Florida lose this week, were excitedly talking national championship possibilities.

And Alabama simply, methodically, easily silenced the crowd and shocked the Bulldogs. They did not rely on uniform gimmicks. They did not benefit from many big plays. They simply did what they’ve done all year: Crush the other team’s spirit from the very start and go home with a win.

Alabama fans, after a long wait, you have yourselves a legitimate national championship contender. Just don’t tell coach Nick Saban, who was a bit grumpy during his postgame news conference because the Tide briefly gave Georgia some hope in the fourth quarter.

Asked if he was interested in being the No. 1 team, Saban responded, “Not really.”

“That’s not the kind of things we’re thinking about, and it shouldn’t be the kind of things our players are thinking about,” he said. “I know I ruined you guys’ parade because that’s what you want to write about and talk about, but as a coach, I’m not interested in it.”

I’ll write about it anyway. Look at the offense. Left tackle Andre Smith and center Antoine Caldwell are two of the SEC’s best linemen. With Mark Ingram, Glen Coffee, Roy Upchurch and Terry Grant, the Tide will never tire at running back. Freshman receiver Julio Jones is only starting to unveil his abilities. Senior quarterback John Parker Wilson completed his first seven passes Saturday night and suddenly seems immune to critical mistakes.

Look at the defense. No one has blocked Alabama’s defensive front yet. Rolando McClain is one of the SEC’s best linebackers and freshman Don’ta Hightower will be one soon. The secondary continues to force turnovers.

Look at the schedule. Next is Kentucky, undefeated but untested. Then, Ole Miss at home and a trip to Tennessee, which has problems at quarterback that don’t appear fixable this year. After playing Arkansas State at home, Alabama could easily be 9-0 heading to LSU on Nov. 8.

Yikes. I can almost feel Saban’s glare from up here in the Georgia press box. Saban did not want to talk about where his team stands heading into the Kentucky game.

“After five games in the season? We’ll see when we get a full body of work in,” he said. “Can we finish games, which we didn’t do tonight? Can we finish the season? And can we play with consistency with a whole lot of really good football teams out there in our league we have to play?”

On a night when we seemed to have a definitive answer — yes, Alabama is really good — Saban just wanted to ask questions. And I’ll ask one if Alabama isn’t ranked either first or second (it’s not like Oklahoma would be a bad top pick) today in the Harris Poll.

Why not?

Comments