Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Morning Six Pack: January 9, 2013

Happy Hump Day! Get started early (so you last longer) with these six college football stories from around the country.

Freshman Duo Can Keep Run of Alabama Backs Going

If BCS championship game star Eddie Lacy declares for the NFL draft, Alabama fans needn't worry about any drop-off in the running game next season.

AJ McCarron Jokes that Brent Musburger will “Have to Step Back”

I don’t know what it says about us that AJ McCarron’s gorgeous girlfriend was a bigger winner Monday night than McCarron or any of his Alabama teammates, but McCarron isn’t about to start complaining that he’s receiving more admiration for his ability to land Miss Alabama Katherine Webb than his ability to win BCS Championships.

Josh Boyce opts for NFL over another go with TCU

Somewhat surprisingly, just five wide receivers from the FBS level have officially declared their intentions for the draft after a year in which 11 did the early leap.  Now, though, that number’s reached a half-dozen.

Hugh Freeze is Testing the Limits of Our Nation’s Postal Service

Hugh Freeze has been noted as a bit of a voracious recruiter by the media and is peers.  Such is the approach one must take when trying to rebuild something from the ground, or more accurately, Houston Nutt’s basement of failure, up.

Aaron Murray decided to stay after loss to Tide

Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray announced Sunday night via Twitter that he would be returning for his senior season, but he reached his decision much earlier.

Quotable:

Frustrating for most of America, weary to its very bones of SEC dominance, the likeliest barrier to a Crimson Tide three-peat will be the SEC itself. The real best-case scenario for the rest of the country is an SEC with both power and parity at the top, so much so that the league knocks itself out of BCS contention. Before you say "that couldn't happen," remember that there was only one result - Baylor's win against Kansas State - that stopped the BCS matchup from being Notre Dame against Kansas State. The Fighting Irish would probably be BCS champions today had that happened, although they would be no closer to being the actual best team in college football. Their fairly apparent weaknesses would have gone unexposed.

Could it happen next year? Sure it could. In addition to Alabama, the rest of this year's six SEC power teams all feel good about next year. (LSU, following a mass early exodus to the pros and a hostile schedule, might be the only exception.) Texas A&M hosts Alabama in September, an early game that will be notable for BCS ramifications, Johnny Football, sweltering heat and, probably, a record-setting number of screen shots of quarterbacks' girlfriends. South Carolina and Georgia will be a similar early showdown in the East, with both teams liking their chances. Whoever emerges from the 2013 SEC race will be the BCS favorite, but that assumes that the league doesn't cannibalize itself.

Outside the SEC, familiar names will be vying for another shot. Take these five. Oregon and Stanford should battle for Pac-12 supremacy (USC will fade further due to sanctions) and would present the stylistic challenge to the SEC that America longs to see. Ohio State went undefeated this year and returns Braxton Miller and possibly even Urban Meyer, although instant retirement is never out of the picture for him. Louisville has a great quarterback returning in Teddy Bridgewater, a lot of talent around him and (if the Big East ever settles on its membership), a real chance to go unbeaten (strength of schedule would require a lot of help for the Cardinals). In the Big 12, someone will emerge - possibly even Texas, as shaky as the Longhorns were in 2012. If Clemson wins an intriguing opener against Georgia, throw Dabo Swinney's Tigers in the mix as well.

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