Pat Dye: Alabama’s playing Auburn Saturday, but I don’t think that will affect the game in Atlanta.  Auburn’s in the same category as Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina. If Auburn is going to beat Alabama they’d have to help them a lot and Alabama hasn’t been helping anybody.  They don’t get many penalties and they do what they’re supposed to do to be a great football team.  I still think Alabama’s the best and they’re going to play to find out.

Who should be No. 1? Alabama or Florida?

Vince Dooley: You can argue strongly for both of those teams.  The thing FSU has been doing is scoring but I don’t think they’re going to score a lot against Florida.  They’ve given up a lot so I don’t think it’s going to be much of a test.  Trying to pick who is one and who is two, the only thing I think is the difference is that Tebow is still there and as long as he’s there I’m going to pick Florida.  The other kid (McElroy) is a little inconsistent.  That might be the difference.

Do you expect an upset this weekend?

Don James: I don’t think there’s any question who we think are the best but we have to remember these are all big rivalry games.  We’ve seen over the years what can happen in big rival games.  I’d take Florida, Alabama, and Texas to win but Florida State, Auburn, and Texas A&M are going to come in there flying.

Why has Texas dropped in your eyes?

Gene Stallings: I’ve watched them on the television and it seems that they’ve abandoned the running game.  I don’t know what they’re going to do against a good football team.  Unless their running game picks up I don’t think they have much chance to win it all.

The featured roundtable discussion offered a variety of views about No. 4 TCU and their argument to be included in the BCS Championship Game.

LaVell Edwards: I believe TCU is going to come out of this on the short end.  It’s a shame they won’t get a shot at it because clearly they’re the best team I’ve ever seen around here.  They are legitimate in my mind.  We kind of lock into Florida, Alabama and Texas all year long and that’s the way it’s been.   I definitely think TCU could beat Alabama, Florida or Texas, no question in my mind they can.

George Welsh: I saw TCU play Virginia and I was very impressed.  I really like TCU.  I don’t know what they have going for them but they have a lot.  They have a great pass rush; they do a great job on defense.  Now the quarterback who was off to a slow start against Virginia is obviously playing a lot better.  I like TCU also.

John Cooper: I saw Texas play last year.  I went out and watched the Fiesta Bowl.  I like Texas and we all like Mack Brown but Gene Stallings’ right- Texas is one-dimensional.  If McCoy has a bad day, Texas is going to get beat.  Their biggest win all year was over Oklahoma State.  I don’t know about you guys but I watched Oklahoma State last weekend and I was not impressed.

We talk about TCU but TCU went to Clemson and beat a pretty good Clemson team, went to BYU and won that game pretty easily over a pretty good BYU team, they beat Utah who is 9-2.  I would give TCU a slight edge over Texas.  We don’t even need to talk any more about Alabama and Florida.  Those two teams are going to play each other and the winner of that game is going to play for the national championship.  We need to be talking about Texas and TCU and see who should play the winner of that SEC game.  I think if TCU went against Texas right now they would beat them.

Gene Stallings: I’m not sure that Texas will beat Texas A&M.

Pat Dye: Looking at those four football teams, if they all played the best they could play, Alabama’s the only one TCU couldn’t beat.  I just think physically they would beat them.  I think Florida’s got some problems and y’all say Texas has some but I don’t see any problems in Tuscaloosa.

Terry Donahue: I saw TCU two weeks ago play in person.  I’ve seen Alabama twice (in person).  TCU has the best defensive football team I’ve seen all year except for Alabama.  I just thought they were so fast at every position.  They have eight receivers they throw into a game and it’s hard to tell one from another.  I voted them ahead of Texas in the poll because if you consider every facet of the game I believe they could beat Texas or at least deserve a shot at beating Texas.  So I voted them ahead of Texas.

RC Slocum: I have some of the feelings that everyone else has but I think Texas is a good defensive team and an explosive offensive team.  What happens is that we talk about the Boises who beat the people they have to beat and Texas does that too.  I don’t know if we’ve seen Texas’ best game.  They came back in the second half and beat Oklahoma.  They ran the ball some then.  I have the same concern Gene has, you’d like for them to be more balanced.  That’s what they do.  They make so many big plays in the passing game.  They’ll run it in there every once and a while.  I’d be more concerned about their kicking game than anything else.

I just wonder in a match up with Florida or Alabama… all three of those teams are good defensive teams but how many can make the big explosive plays on offense and I would say Texas.  Alabama’s better at running the football and I appreciate that.  Florida is better at running the ball.  But if you ask which of those three offenses is the most explosive I’m going to say Texas is.  All three are comparable defensive teams.

Everything you hear about TCU is good and deservedly so.  That coach has done a great job.  They’re a speed defensive team that would give anybody problems.  I think that would be a good match up.  I would still take Texas in that match up maybe just for psychological reasons.  They played Texas a year ago and they played Texas for a half.  TCU was TCU and Texas was Texas.  If those two played today, I’d pick Texas.

I think they’re so good at what they’re doing that they’re choosing to throw the ball.  They’re promoting McCoy for the Heisman.  They had trouble in the Oklahoma game and they came out in the second half and gashed Oklahoma running the ball.  I thought it was the difference in the ball game.  I know Mack, way down deep, likes to throw the ball.  They do it by design and man, they do it in such a hurry.  My son’s up in Green Bay coaching and we’ve got guys who coached in the pros.  Coaches there talk a lot about explosive plays.  You can’t line up against those good NFL defensive teams and grind the ball down the field over and over and score enough points to win the game.  You have to make explosive plays.  That’s what prompts my question of which team out of Alabama, Florida and Texas can make explosive plays.

From what I’ve seen, I would take Texas first, Florida second and Alabama third in making explosive plays.  If you ask me who can grind the ball out I would put Texas third.  You get in those games and anybody’s going to have a hard time with those three defenses moving the ball.  It comes down to who can get the big chunks and I think Texas has the ability to do that more than the other two.  TCU is explosive too, they do a good job throwing the ball and they run the ball.  It would be a good match up.

Fisher DeBerry: Having played TCU for many, many years and knowing their background, they can play with anybody — I guarantee you defensively.  The reason I haven’t voted them higher than I have is because I don’t think their offense is that good.  The quarterback has played well the last three or four weeks and it would be a heck of a match up to see TCU play Texas just like it will be to see Alabama play Florida.

Kirk Herbstreit: I’m just intrigued listening to this.  I think the one thing that’s changed with the BCS from 1998 to now is non-automatic qualifier — the perception of the Utah, Boise State, TCU or whoever it happens to be.  I remember in ‘98,’99, 2000 you would never even imagine having this discussion about TCU.  I think the success of Boise and Utah and others of not just getting to a BCS bowl game but what they’ve done when they’ve gotten there, Utah beating Alabama last year in the Sugar Bowl, I think proves that these teams can play one game with these teams.

One coach was talking about the schedule and doesn’t TCU outpersonnel teams they play? I personally feel that the MWC is one of the most underrated conferences in the country because they have a TV program with Versus and nobody sees these teams.  For TCU to go to Virginia, to go to Clemson, to go to Air Force, to go to BYU, and go to Wyoming and beat these teams the way they have…I think that’s a more impressive resume that what Texas has gone through.

Texas hasn’t played anybody outside of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.  They’ve played nobody all year.  It doesn’t mean they aren’t a great team.  We just won’t know how good they are until they play Nebraska for the Big 12 championship and the national championship to play the winner of the Florida-Alabama game.  We can speculate but we really don’t know how good Texas is.

Barnhart: Obviously they are a great defensive team but what are Florida’s offensive issues?

Vince Dooley: Obviously they are not as good as last year and the QB has taken on the role. And we have said all along ‘how long until he gets hurt?’ He keeps pounding the ball and they still win. They then use the fast guys to try and run by people once they wear them down pounding the ball. I think it will be interesting to see them play Alabama, but as long as Tebow is there they will compete and win.

Pat Dye: I really don’t think they are quite as good as Alabama on defense. Miss St. moved the ball against Florida and couldn’t at all versus Florida. Alabama, if they get to where they can do what they did Saturday stretching the field with the deep pass on top of the unstoppable run game is hard to beat. But I don’t think Florida can beat them.

Barnhart: Talk to me about Alabama’s Defense.

Gene Stallings: You never see a receiver wide open. They pressure you and blitz you, but they still have the coverage so they can really hurt people. They have a kicker who can kick it just about anywhere and the best punt returner on top of a Heisman candidate at running back. I worry about the quarterback with his lack of experience. Our ‘92 team stayed healthy but this year they have only lost a few.

Dye: Maybe Florida can put pressure on McElroy, but Alabama will be tough to beat if they can get the play action working and throw the deep ball. And Alabama only got two penalties Saturday. I think it will be a great game, but I think Alabama will win.

• Stallings’ late son Johnny said his favorite all-time coach at Alabama was Nick Saban – before he even coached a game.
• Saban says he doesn’t have time to look at every team in the country and evaluate for his poll.
• Saban says winning starts with defense.
• Stallings says it’s a pleasure to watch Saban’s Alabama team. He’s most impressed by Alabama’s aggressiveness.

So why, when they turned in their ballots Sunday, did 14 of 17 Legends Poll voters rank the 7-1 Ducks ahead of the 8-0 Broncos?

Click on the image below to read the full story in SN Today

	Legends Poll
November 2, 2009 – Week 9

What makes Alabama’s defense so good?

Stallings: Alabama’s got it all defensively, there’s no question about that.  The thing about their secondary is they can all play man to man, they’re not afraid to blitz, they can really put pressure on the offense.

What about their offense?

Stallings: Offensively they’re struggling a bit, their quarterback hasn’t played a whole lot.  But they’ve got excellent running backs, we’ve said that all along.  Ingram really performed.  Every time he ran the ball it went for 6, 8, 10 yards.  They finally quit throwing the football and gave it to him and he ran for 200+ yards.  They have some more running backs behind him.  They’ve got excellent wide receivers, Jones hadn’t caught a lot of passes but he’s good.  And the quarterback, if he just doesn’t turn the ball over, I think they’re an excellent team.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Stallings: They’ve got a good field goal kicker.  He doesn’t miss hardly anything from 35 yards in, he might struggle a little bit from 50 yards but he’s very accurate.  Punt coverage is good, kickoff return is good.  I ranked them the number one team myself.  I don’t see anyone beating them.

How would they fare against Florida and Texas?

Stallings: I think if they played Florida today they’d beat Florida.  If they played Texas today they’d beat Texas.  I ranked them number one.

What are your thoughts on Alabama?

Dye: First of all Alabama’s not going to be too far behind anybody. Because no one’s going to score many points against them.  I mean if you’re talking about them getting behind by two or three touchdowns, that’s a lot for anybody to overcome, but not many are going to score many points against Alabama.  The Patriots maybe or New Orleans but nobody in college football.  Just like Gene said, they can rush the passer, they play the run.  How many points did South Carolina score on Saturday? 6? How about Ole Miss the week before? 3? You know, they’ve been scoring enough points to win.  So, if you don’t get too far behind, you can catch up running the football.

What do they do best offensively?

Dye: Alabama appears to me to be a football team that can just take control of a football game and just impose their will and make you do what they want to do.  Saturday they struggled throwing the football so they just lined up and ran it up and down the field.  That kid (Ingram) set a record and Alabama’s been running the football a long time.  He set a record for the school, 240 or 250 yards or something and the ones behind him don’t look much different.

What could they improve upon?

Dye: The only thing that I think is average is their offensive line. Probably maybe a little above average.  And they might be a little average at quarterback.  He’s not a Bradford or McCoy but he doesn’t have to be.  All he’s got to be is a good manager.  They’re going to dominate the football game defensively and the offensive line is going to get better as the defense gets tired just like on Saturday.  So at the end of a football game they just take control of it.  They already have control of it defensively and they’ll take control of it offensively because they’re playing against tired defensive folks.  Those running backs, they rest them enough during the course of the game, now that kid got tired Saturday, but they rest them enough to have fresh legs at the end of the game and it makes all the difference.

• Stallings says TCU is underrated and playing pretty well.
• Stallings expects Tebow to be ready to play against LSU.
• Stallings says the coach is going to do what’s best for the player.
• Stallings never went against what the doctors told him. He may have fussed at them, however.

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