The 2018 College Football season has been pulverized by Tua Tagovailoa, and the Crimson Tide defense. This is the 11th week in a row that the Tide have been ranked #1 in the AP Polls, and are just coming off a 29-0 slaughter of #4 LSU. Their defense has had 6 games this season where they only allow 2 touchdowns or less, and its covered in NFL prospects. As if Nick Saban needed anymore help getting to the national championship, Tua has emerged has not just the best quarterback in the nation but the best quarterback the SEC has seen since Cam Newton was tearing up the field back in 2011.

Throwing for 2,361 yards, an impressive 68% completion percentage, and a marvelous 30/2 touchdown to turnover ratio (Through 9 games), Tagovailoa looks to become the first Crimson Tide quarterback to ever win the Heisman trophy. In 2018, the Crimson Tide has averaged over 565 yard of total offense a game at nearly 8.5 yards a play, and are beating their opponents by an average of nearly 5 touchdowns. This team not only is the most efficient offense in the nation according to FPI, but also the 2nd most defense only behind Clemson. It’s been annihilation throughout the SEC this year, and it looks like it will most likely continue all the way to the CFB Championship game. Many have lost hope in a fun, entertaining College Football Playoff, but I am here to shine light on the season and find the kinks in Bama’s Crimson armour.

An Overrated Hype Train???

I stated the stats earlier on Tua’s 2018-19 season, but I personally have a few things I would like to point out. I would also like to point out that this is Alabama, a team that has always been regarded as a team that is a quarterback away from becoming a major problem, and here it is. That means it is still the Bama organization that lines up NFL caliber prospects all over the field, and makes 5 star recruits sit on the bench. A team that has so much depth it has players like Josh Jacobs, a 5 star running back coming out of high school as 3rd on the depth chart. Same with Ben Davis, the #1 recruit coming out of Alabama in 2015,who has yet to record any stats for the Crimson Tide in 2018. These guys aren’t even good enough yet to be the players who are surrounding Tua, those guys are even more lethal. The receiving core of Jerry Jeudy, Devonta Smith, and Henry Ruggs III is the best group Bama has had since 2014, and could still be argued as better than that group.

Nick Saban has produced a first rounder at literally every position except, quarterback. I believe Tua could become the first for Saban, but he must take great strides from this season to the next. Currently though, my BIGGEST pet peeve about his game is his tendency to almost choose a single route, and stare it down till there is an opening. Sometimes, there isn’t even an opening to begin with and he will still try and force that route. From what I have watched, defenses haven’t been able to really make him pay for it due to great route work, but is something that could easily come back to bite him. Personally, I don’t believe he can get away with this habit for too much longer before defenses pick it apart, but Tua has proved me wrong before.

The Big 12’s Own Tagovailoa

I am born and raised in Dallas, Texas and actually grew up in the same 6A division as the prospect I am going to dig into this segment. A few miles down the highway, down in Allen, Texas, Kyler Murray played football for the Allen Eagles where he went on to become one of the best Texas high school quarterbacks of all time. Murray lead that team to a 42-0 record as a starter and 3 straight state championships, something never done before in the great state of Texas. In those games he managed over 10,000 passing yards, 117 touchdowns and just 22 interceptions. As if that wasn’t hard enough to contain, the boy has wheels. He rushed his way for 4,000 more yards, 69 touchdowns, and a #1 overall dual threat quarterback ranking by ESPN. As you might expect, he was a 5 star recruit on multiple networks, and was also drafted in the MLB draft coming out of high school but opted to play college ball at Texas A&M. In his few games he played as an Aggies, Murray was nothing special and failed to live up to the hype left by Manziel. K1, as he is called by friends and teammates, found a new home in Norman, Oklahoma with the Oklahoma Sooners football team. Before he would even get to step back onto the college football field, Murray was drafted once again to the MLB, this time 9th overall to the Oakland A’s. Talk about a wild college life.

Kyler Murray is the only guy I believe has the stats, and team to ransack the Heisman from Tagovailoa. The former 5 star QB has racked up 2,680 passing yards and 31 touchdowns to 5 interceptions on a 71% completion percentage. Murray also is the most efficient passer in all of college football with the highest PER in the NCAA, 216.6, even higher than Tua’s amazing 215.2. Last year’s Heisman winner, and former Sooner himself, had a PER of 198.9 during his final season at Oklahoma. Oh, and he runs. A lot, in fact he is the 2nd leading rusher on the team with 574 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. Even though he isn’t even leading his team in rushing yards, he is still in the top 10 (6th) in rushing yards within the entire Big 12. It isn’t just Kyler Murray that makes the Sooners something amazing to watch on saturdays, and has defensive coordinators begging for mercy.  

The Best Defense Is An Unstoppable Offense

George Washington once wrote “…make them believe, that offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence.” and I would believe Lincoln Riley has a similar motto. Let me introduce you to the 2nd most efficient offense in the college football land, the Oklahoma Sooners. Lead by Heisman candidate Kyler Murray, this offense is averaging 563 yards of offense and 9 yards a play. This offense has blown past a majority of its schedule, and is out-scoring its opponents by over 3 touchdowns a game (21.2 pts). If you take out their only loss, a 48-45 game to UT, that number increases all the way to almost 25 points a game (24.8). Many of the games have even been over at halftime as they have managed to outscore their opponents by 117 points in the first half (243-126).

This is the only backfield I believe that could rival the Crimson Tide’s depth at running back, especially if Rodney Anderson was included in the conversation. Trey Sermon has been one of the best running backs in the Big-12 and former 4 star, Kennedy Brooks, has flashed big play ability all year long. Trey Sermon is ranked in the Top 4 in rushing attempts, yards, yards per attempt and touchdowns within the Big-12, and looks like one of the next great OU running backs. Kennedy Brooks has spelled Sermon with 42 carries for 475 yards, which is an insane 11.5 yards a rush, and 6 rushing touchdowns. On top of all those great stats, Kyler Murray is one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in the nation, rushing for 574 yards and 7 touchdowns. That put Murray at 6th in the Big 12 in rushing yards, giving the Sooners two of the top 6 rushers in the Big 12. If you add all that together, you get the 5th best rushing offense within Power 5 schools.

Marquise Brown maybe a 1st round receiver in this upcoming draft, but I don’t believe he is even the best receiver on Oklahoma’s football team. That would belong to CeeDee Lamb, a 6’2 190 Lb receiver from Richmond, Texas. Lamb has 38 catches on the season and two of those he took of 80+ yard touchdowns. Adding into that duo is one of Kyler Murray’s old high school teammates from back in Allen, Texas, Lee Morris. The Sooners also have a young 5 star tight end in Grant Calcaterra that has been sitting behind now NFL tight end, Mark Andrews. Lincoln RIley and the Oklahoma football staff all around has done an amazing job at recruit top athletes, thus providing Kyler Murray with one of the most dynamic arsenal of weapons in college football.

College Football’s Southern Showdown

So lets say these two really do get the chance to battle it out in the College Football Playoff, how exactly would they match up? First off, in basically all scenarios that Oklahoma sneaks into the Playoffs, the Sooners would be the 4th seed and Alabama stays at the 1st overall seed. That alone will most likely give Alabama a slight edge for home field, as it will be played in Florida. One of the biggest matchups, literally and figuratively, will be Oklahoma’s physical and experienced offensive line, verses Alabama’s star studded defensive line. Oklahoma has 3 NFL Prospects along that offensive line, and most of the linemen have already been to the playoff vs Georgia last year. For the past few seasons the Sooners have had an elite offensive line, and would be without a doubt, the toughest task the Bama front 7 would face all season.

One of the biggest knocks on Nick Saban’s G.O.A.T. status is his lack to hold down a mobile quarterback. We have seen it from Cam Newton, to Johnny Manziel to Deshaun Watson, to even someone like Nick Marshall who currently plays cornerback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. That’s right, the starting cornerback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders threw for over 600 yards and 5 touchdowns and rushed for another 150 yards and a touchdown, on Nick Saban’s defense. Kyler Murray currently is averaging nearly 368 yards from scrimmage a game, and 64 of those are on the ground (after sacks). Kyler Murray is the closest thing I have seen to Johnny Manziel, and I think he can cause similar issues to the Crimson Tide defense.

One of my favorite battles will not just be the Sooners wide outs versus Alabama’s secondary, but also how they compare to Bama’s own wide receivers. CeeDee Lamb is one of the best receiver in the nation, and he is only a true sophomore. Same with Jerry Jeudy.  Marquise Brown has been clocked running a 4.33 for the Sooners, and somehow looks even faster on the field. Henry Ruggs III set the state record for the 7A 100m dash at 10.58, and runs a 4.3 on the field. Alabama has finally learned how to use the tight end position, as their second leading receiver is Irv Smith Jr. Oklahoma has the number two tight end in the class of 2016, Grant Calcaterra, and have 6 different receivers averaging over 15 yards a reception.

The most consistent thing about Alabama is always their elite play at the defense end, and their ability to grab turnovers and defensive touchdowns. Play by play, there is only a small difference with Oklahoma’s 5.4 yards per play, and the Tides 4.6 yards per play. If you look at the Strength of Schedule rankings you would see that Oklahoma  slightly ranks higher at 21st overall compared to Alabama’s 27th, which could help defend that slight edge as well. The spot that separates the two is the fact that Bama has a +2.0 turnover margin, and OU is close to even with +0.8. I believe if the Sooners can find a way to have a clean game, and be smart with the football, they will be able to keep pace with this Crimson Tide team.

So, we have 49 points per game with the Sooners, facing the 48.6 points per game that Alabama averages. There is easily 5 NFL running backs, if including Rodney Anderson, between both of these back fields. You have two of the best college quarterbacks, not just of this season, but statistically of all time, and you pair them each with a platoon of weapons across the field.  You have a David vs Goliath match up on the defensive sides of the ball, yet Oklahoma still has the offensive line and fire power to test this elite group. At the very least, this is a game that will be talked about for years if the Sooners can manage to nab the 4th seed. If Kyler Murray can put the pressure on this defense, and keep a clean game in all 4 quarters, this could be one of the biggest upsets in college football history.