The Tide got it done yesterday to stay perfect, but it was way too close for my taste — though a win is a win. I’ve got nothing but respect for Ryan Mallett now, and hope very very much that the Arkansas QB elects to go pro early; that guy is crazy good, but I expect that the Hogs will go back to being a fair-to-middlin’ SEC squad without him.
Update: Polls are just plain weird. Alabama garners more first-place votes as a result of the quality road win yesterday, but Arkansas — the former #10 team who played 4 quarters of solid football only to lose a squeaker against the number one team in the country — drops to #15. That’s just bizarre. Shouldn’t you EXPECT #10 to lose to #1?
The bigger question is why is TCU still outranking Arkansas? They got their asses handed to them by SMU for the majority of the game (I was there; I saw SMU dominate for most of the first half). It was only when the unranked SMU ran out of gas late in the 3rd quarter that TCU started running up the score. In SMU’s defense, TCU was obligated to keep in its first string the entire game, especially when it looked like SMU might actually rally.
Unfortunately for Texas, they’re probably the only ranked team that actually got what they deserved for their loss to UCLA. And aren’t they still in the top 25? Arkansas got Ned Beatty-ed.