With the college football season underway and conference action set to pick up in the coming weeks, teams are finding their footing and solidifying their places in the college football landscape.
Sports co-editor Ethan Diamond and contributor Cooper Newmark debate which team looks best positioned to appear in the national title game through the first few weeks.
Texas
By Ethan Diamond
The Longhorns have been trying to get over the hump and win a national championship for years, and this season may be the one where they make that a reality.
Potential future number-one draft pick Arch Manning is taking the step Texas hoped he would this season, with help from Auburn transfer wide receiver Cam Coleman. He’s paired with a fellow potential top-five selection in pass rusher Colin Simmons, who is coming off a five-sack performance.
The Longhorns have been battle-tested, rallying back from a 20-point deficit against then-top-ranked Ohio State, while surviving a harsh environment at Tennessee last week. October brings two tough challenges in Ole Miss and Florida, but both have to travel to Austin.
Texas is looking for its first national title since Vince Young led them to an upset win over USC in 2005, and with the way they are playing, they are poised to finish atop college football in January.
Georgia
By Cooper Newmark
The Georgia Bulldogs have looked like the best team in college football through three games. Naturally, they’re the team most poised to hoist the national championship trophy this January.
Over the past five years, Georgia has constantly been a true contender. Always getting into the playoffs. Always achieving success.
What happened last year was not that. They seemed perfectly poised to strike, but they sputtered and lost to Ole Miss.
Maybe it was a fluke – or maybe it was exactly the wake-up call the team needed.
This year, the Bulldogs have launched out to a 4-0 record. They’ve done so in dominant fashion, averaging 55 points per game. Admittedly, the competition hasn’t been great. Still, the Bulldogs have faced an Arkansas team with something to prove and an Oklahoma team ranked in the top 25 at the start of the year.
Georgia has what it takes to go far, since they are the second-ranked team in the country, behind only a Texas team that has time and time again proven it doesn’t have what it takes to win the big one.
