Goal Line Stand: Tide's victory stunning

If you’re looking for one telling indicator about how tough things are at Clemson these days, consider the plight of poor Bobby Hutchinson. The senior has one year of eligibility remaining along the offensive line but “retired” from football during the offseason to become a student coach. After watching Alabama’s defensive front overrun the Tiger O-line, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden let Hutchinson know his services would indeed be required on the field.

Hutchinson’s plight notwithstanding, the Tigers’ 34-10 debacle Saturday exposed the team as physically overmatched and made Alabama look like one of the Bear Bryant defense-and-ground-game threshers from the 1970s. The truth is that neither team’s performance was truly indicative of how the season will go. The Crimson Tide will not be playing for the BCS title, and Clemson will not be sinking to the depths of the ACC.

Still, last Saturday’s win by ‘Bama was absolutely stunning. It wasn’t that Alabama won; this is a talented, well-coached team. The way the Tide slapped the Tigers around was the jaw-dropper. When the numbers were finally tallied, Clemson had zero rushing yards. This despite the heralded “Thunder and Lightning” backfield of C.J. Spiller and James Davis. But don’t blame them. Clemson’s offensive line was so manhandled by 6-foot-5, 385-pound nose tackle Terrence Cody and his pals that Spiller and Davis couldn’t have made a dent if they were carrying chainsaws. The rushing “total” was the team’s worst since 1947. Meanwhile, the Tide piled up 239 yards on the ground, with tailbacks Glen Coffee and true freshman Mark Ingram accounting for 90 and 96 respectively.

The telling moment in the game came in the fourth quarter, when Alabama took over the ball on its own 12 yard line, leading 31-10, with 12:33 left. Clemson was, for the most part, road kill at that point, but the Tigers still had a shot. A quick stop, a fast score and who knew what might happen? Instead, the Tide chewed up 8:54 with a 14-play march that included 11 running plays. It ended with a 26-yard Leigh Tiffin field goal, but the points didn’t matter. Given the opportunity to put Clemson away, Alabama did. That was something the Crimson Tide couldn’t handle last year. Even in two of its biggest wins, like the thriller against Arkansas and the white-knuckler in the bowl over Colorado, ‘Bama coughed up big advantages along the way. Not so against Clemson.

With road games remaining against Georgia, Tennessee and LSU, along with the season-ender against Auburn, Alabama’s path to a strong bowl game, much less the SEC title tilt, is still rocky and filled with opportunities for trouble. But Saturday’s win showed how far this team has come from the embarrassment of last year’s loss to Louisiana-Monroe. The progress is welcome, but with so much youth on the team (only nine scholarship seniors) it’s unreasonable to expect Alabama to be a national contender.

At the same time, it’s wrong to dismiss Tommy Bowden and Clemson as overrated pretenders. They were the victims of expectations from those who forget that a strong offensive line is rather important in college football circles. And by asking a line with plenty of question marks to square off against a defense coordinated by Kevin Steele, a master of multiple fronts and other positional intrigue, is almost unfair, especially in an atmosphere like the rollicking Georgia Dome, which sounded like the inside of a Nine Inch Nails amplifier. Clemson will rebound. It might even win 11 straight games, thanks to the ACC’s relative lack of strength. There is still plenty of talent on that team, and it will show through in the coming weeks.

That won’t necessarily make it easier on Bowden, who has been criticized throughout his nine-year tenure for collapsing against tough opposition and failing to put the team in contention. This loss will give his critics — and those of an administration that bestowed upon him a four-year offseason extension — plenty of fuel that will only run out if Clemson wins the ACC title and plays in a BCS bowl game. The good news: it is quite possible to overcome an early loss to reach the Big One, and Bowden was quite adamant about that during his conference call Sunday. The question is whether Clemson’s players can regain some of the confidence they had before the blowout loss.

One more thing: This game is another great reason why pre-season polls are such a joke and a detriment to the college game. Clemson began the season ranked ninth, while Alabama was 24th. That makes sense. Since the polls aren’t going to change their procedures, we have to live with such foolishness. The question for Clemson and Alabama is how they’ll handle the fallout of this opening-week shocker. One wants the fun to continue, while the other is in need of a drastic change.

GAME OF THE WEEK
Miami at Florida, Saturday, Sept. 6, 8 p.m.

Blowing out Charleston Southern is one thing; handling the Gators in the Swamp is quite another. Robert Marve is scheduled to return to the QB spot for Miami after a one-game suspension, but he’ll have a tough job ahead of him. The Gators looked solid in their season-opening rout of Hawaii, and though Tim Tebow wasn’t overwhelming, Florida has too much speed and depth for the ‘Canes, who will fight valiantly but ultimately run out of bullets.
Florida 30, Miami 17

BUMPS AND RUNS

After watching his team surrender 52 points and 549 yards to Missouri, I wonder if Illinois coach Ron Zook regrets getting rid of former defensive coordinator Vince Okruch.

Throw Washington quarterback Jake Locker into a steamer trunk, cover it in chains and throw it to the bottom of Puget Sound, and he’ll find his way out. Oregon skunked the Huskies last Saturday, but Locker is a star in the making.

California proved once again that although it may be a little young, it still has some great athletes. The key to the Bears’ season will be whether the team falls apart when times get tough, as it did last year.

Everybody expected Michigan’s offense to sputter, since there is no QB on the roster capable of running Rich Rodriguez’s spread attack, but the Wolverine defense appeared slow and unable to cover or tackle in space in the loss to Utah. The U-M D was supposed to be the strong point on the team this year. Uh-oh.

Everybody loved Pitt’s prospects this year, but they conveniently forgot that beyond the win over West Virginia last year (most of which Mountaineer QB Pat White missed) the Panthers have not enjoyed much success against established teams. Last Saturday’s loss to Bowling Green was a crusher, and Pitt had better snap out of it quickly, because Buffalo visits this Saturday, and the Bulls are fresh off a rout of UTEP and return 10 offensive starters from last year.

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