As hard as it is to believe, the college football season is already passing the halfway mark and the air is starting to cool off. Now that we have a sample size to react to, College Football Gametime reacted to the three storylines that they are most intrigued by after six games are in the books.
Chris Mahler from Saturday Down South was filling in for Randy McMichael on Saturday morning and he was up first with his reactions:
1 - There were three teams immediately pegged as the best teams in college football - Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia. Chris believes that not all of those teams will make the College Football Playoff when it is all said and done.
2 - Chris rightfully believes that the SEC is the best conference in college football, but he took it a step further. He believes that there are five teams that are among the top 10 teams. Georgia and Alabama are the givens, but he sees Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Mississippi State as the others as foundationally-sound programs that are built to be top programs.
3 - The Texas Longhorns are the Gary Danielson of college football. Who knows what they did to upset everyone, but for whatever reason we are where we are. Texas is a strong program and, while not a complete program, they are a budding powerhouse under Steve Sarkisian.
Jon Chuckery was next for his reactions from the season so far:
1 - The non-traditional powers have taken large strides this season. Kansas, Syracuse, Illinois, Duke, and UCLA have all had tremendous seasons and the storylines have been fantastic for college football.
2 - On the flip side, there has been an incredible return of traditional powers back into the fold of college football. Texas, Tennessee, and USC are historic programs that have been infamously out of contention for over a decade, but the sport is better when these teams are relevant, or at least interesting.
3 - The Group of Five has been disappointing for him this year. For the first time since 2016, there isn't a team outside of the Power Five that is trying to kick the door down. Over the past few seasons, Central Florida and Cincinnati were clamoring for their shot, last season the Bearcats got it, this year it's notably quiet on that front.
Chris Goforth finished with his comments on what he's seen in college football over the first half of the season:
1 - He loves seeing the fresh blood in the AP Poll. Illinois and Kansas each snapped a decade-long streak of playing unranked football while James Madison cracked the top 25 for the first time in program history (five games into their FBS career, no less). On the other hand, he loves the programs that have seemingly come back from the dead.
2 - The Ohio State Buckeyes are the class of college football. They have been an improved defense, but that offense is as good as it possibly gets. The Buckeyes have multiple NFL skill players in Marvin Harrison Jr, TreyVeyon Henderson, Miyan Williams, Emeka Egbuka, and Jaxson Smith-Njigba - who hasn't even been playing yet due to injury - plus the proverbial Heisman Trophy front-runner in CJ Stroud.
3 - The Clemson Tigers are playing very good football, but nobody has seemed to notice. Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei has seemingly turned a corner for them and he is the ultimate difference-maker for them. With a rushing attack that is good enough and a defense that could rival any of the elite groups in college football, the Clemson Tigers could be set up for success in 2022.