Whew!!!...that was a close one/ You mess with the frog, you get the horns

What a day of college football this past Saturday's slate provided. But a common theme that loomed over the country was the performances in potential let down games.

Alabama narrowly escaped against Tennesse, Florida went into a hostile environment and survived Mississippi State, Texas crushed seemingly tough Missouri and Iowa hung on to beat Michigan State on the road.

This week just provided more fuel to the discussion of who the nation’s top team is. I think by now we can narrow the discussion down to those four aforementioned teams, but beyond that I have no idea.

I have argued that Alabama is the most complete team there is in college football, but after the combination of this week and last week’s games, I am not so sure.
The Tide’s offense is speculative, despite the fact that Mark Ingram is the nation’s best player in my opinion.

The defense is great, but as we saw yesterday if you can’t score then you still have a tough time winning not matter who the opponent is.

Florida is about as tough as a bulldog on steroids, but I don’t think they have the athletes they have had in the past and their offensive style isn’t infallible because they have not shown they have big play capabilities.

I know that the Urban Meyer spread is not built to have that big play capability, but I think you need that in order to beat a team like Alabama (I don’t see Tim Tebow running over Terrence Cody any time soon.)

Iowa is still that unknown “litte guy.”

The Hawkeyes have posted somewhat impressive wins, but I still do not believe that team could even tie the cleats of a Florida or Alabama if they were to play in the national championship game.

Which is why I am so surprised to see them in the CompughterRatings.com rankings’ top spot this week.

I wonder how it is possible because they do not have an impressive out-of-conference win and they haven’t played Ohio State yet.

I will still say the win at Penn State is very impressive, so I am interested to see what this team is all about because if nothing else, they are a compelling story.
That is the kind of thing you make a movie about if the Hawkeyes figure out a way to get themselves into the national championship.

Texas is still the wildcard.

To me they still have no impressive win. They beat Oklahoma in an ugly game in which Sam Bradford or Jermaine Grisham did not play.

Saturday they pounded unranked Missouri on the road. I don’t see this as an eye-popping win although it is a good one.

At the same time Texas finds themselves in the perfect situation.

They have played the toughest part of their schedule, with the exception of the game at Oklahoma State. And if the run the table, which they probably will, they will be placed into the title game because they are Texas.

The other major subject from Saturday was TCU’s impressive victory at BYU, where to me they solidified themselves as the best non-BCS team in the country.

Sorry to Boise State fans, but if those two played right now I am taking the Horned Frogs comfortably.

TCU plays exceptional defense and have big-play athletes on offense.

Boise State is cute, as always, with their gadget plays and a ‘run around you not through you’ mentality, but TCU is the real deal because of their defense.

Not to mention the Mountain West is unequivocally the best non-BCS conference well over the WAC or any other that you want throw at me.

TCU, Utah and BYU are better than a lot of BCS teams and all three have the talent to be BCS busters this season.

I hope TCU runs the table, even though they still have to play Utah, because I think they could be a very compelling team in a BCS game.