but people need to see the truth behind Utah. they’re a good, solid team, but they don’t deserve to be #1. everyone’s all hyped up on Utah because they beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl but if you really payed attention to the Sugar Bowl, you would see that Bama was playing with 3 backup offensive linemen (1 starting all american lineman was lost 3 days before and another lineman was lost during the game. hard to develop chemistry and continuity when the line is being shuffled like that, let alone pass blocking and opening holes in the run game). i don’t know any team in the nation that can overcome that kind of loss in personnel and still beat a quality team like Utah. and that kind of loss is more devastating to a team like Bama because their O-line is basically the foundation of the team and the offense (an offense that is predicated heavily on the run). you might say that Bama’s O-line isn’t the one that gave up 21 points to Utah in the 1st quarter. that may be true, but offense and defense feed off each other. when the offense is going 3 and out, the defense doesn’t have time to rest and adjust. you can see that once Bama’s O-line started to get it together a little bit, and the defense had time to adjust, Bama won quarters two thru four 17-10. it wasn’t a blowout by any means.

also, all of Utah’s tough games were at home this year. they didn’t have ONE true/tough road game. unless you count the game at Michigan a true/tough road game. their three biggest wins before the Sugar Bowl were Oregon St (after a big win over SUC), TCU (if it wasn’t for 2 missed field goals by TCU, Utah would have lost that game), and BYU (who was overrated anyway). all three games were at home. i would have to say even TCU is a better team than Utah.

Utah’s a good team and they had a great season. but let’s not get carried away. either Florida or SUC (as i much as i hate to admit it) would beat Utah on a neutral field. handily. Bama at full strength would have beat Utah as well. by double digits at the LEAST.