Top 5 round-up: Stallings high on Tide

The top 5 of the Scripps Legends Poll was identical to last week’s poll after a weekend of blowout victories.

Gene Stallings ranked his former team, Alabama, as the No. 1 team and gave us his rationale for the rest of his top 5 as well on Monday’s teleconference.

Stallings: Well, my first one is Alabama. I just think they’re in sort of a class by themselves really. They can run the football, they play extremely good defense. When they blitz they bring those linebackers and really put pressure on the quarterback. Their quarterback is throwing the safe pass most of the time. He hasn’t got a whole lot of experience and he’s throwing the 5-to-6 yard passes and let them run even though – he threw one pretty good pass last week – covered pretty well and the receiver caught them. If I were going to pick a weakness, they don’t have a very good punter. They’ve got an excellent punt return game and wide receivers can catch the ball and two or three running backs that are just really good. The offensive line is probably as good as anybody’s in the country. And the strength of their team, really, is defense.

Moderator: What makes Alabama better than LSU?

Stallings: LSU, I picked second. I think if Alabama played LSU today, I think Alabama would win the game. LSU has got the (quarterback) Jefferson back. He’s just coming off suspension. He hasn’t played much. Lee has been playing most of it and they just sort of stick to what they do best and that’s running the ball.

Moderator: Did it surprise you the way Oklahoma blew out Texas?

Stallings: Oklahoma had a great game against Texas. I was really sort of embarrassed the way Texas played. That’s about as poor a Texas team that I’ve seen in a long time. I thought Oklahoma’s quarterback, especially, is just a super football player and offensively they can throw the ball, I think, against anybody. Their running game is not as good, but their passing game is.

Moderator: What do you think of your other top 5 teams?

Stallings: Wisconsin, we’ve all seen Wisconsin and I think Oklahoma State offensively, you know, scoring 70 points personally I think is ridiculous to score that many points on somebody, but they’re very explosive. They’ve got outstanding wide receivers. And I just think they’re getting better and better.

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