Inside the AP Poll: Reconsidering a resurgent Alabama after its win over Georgia

We're still sifting through the wreckage of a Week 5 that saw three top-five teams lose to lower-ranked teams while a handful of other Top 25 teams eked out wins in games that were far too close for comfort.

There's a lot to try to make sense of, and it feels like each week my fellow AP voters and I are trying to figure out the correct pecking order in the SEC ... and it's like throwing darts at the wall. Obviously, it'll be easier to evaluate these SEC squads once more of them play each other, but right now it looks like this is a deep conference without a clear frontrunner. Meanwhile, the Big Ten's best teams look very good, but there's not nearly the same kind of depth beyond the league's top tier.

My ballot matched up pretty well with the actual AP poll. Most teams were ranked with 2-3 spots of each other, and the only team I included that didn't make the poll was 4-0 Maryland. I was tempted to reward Virginia for its win over Florida State but opted to keep the Terps in my Top 25 (for a second straight week) and re-add Arizona State after yet another wild win. BYU was a team I had not ranked a week ago, but the win over Colorado coupled with the body of work pushed the Cougars across that line (and up to No. 22).

The biggest difference between my ballot and the final AP poll is how we treated Alabama. My fellow voters clearly did not give the Crimson Tide nearly the credit I did after their 24-21 win at then-No. 5 Georgia.

It's not just the win over Georgia, though. I slotted Alabama in at No. 13 a week ago because the Tide have been playing very well since their season-opening loss to Florida State. Georgia coach Kirby Smart said last week that Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson was the hottest quarterback in the country, and I agreed. That was before he put on a clinic in the first half against Georgia, with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown to pick apart Georgia's defense to the tune of nearly 200 passing yards in the first half alone.

Coming out of Saturday's game, I know that a lot of people want to talk about Georgia's failings. We could talk about how Smart is 99-8 against teams not named Alabama since the start of the 2017 season (Smart's second in Athens). During the same span, Smart's Georgia teams are 1-7 vs. the Crimson Tide. It was a Nick Saban problem for awhile; it seemed essentially impossible for any of Saban's former assistants to beat him. But now it's also simply an Alabama problem, now that Kalen DeBoer is 2-for-2 against Georgia in his first two years with the Tide. DeBoer has had trouble with unranked teams that Alabama is supposed to beat ... but he's been terrific against Georgia. And his Alabama offenses have exposed significant issues in the Georgia defense both years.

Ultimately, I am giving Alabama credit for its growth since Week 1 coupled with a win over the team ranked fifth in the nation a week ago. I understand that some of my peers feel more weighed down by the Tide's loss to Florida State (which looked worse after the Seminoles fell at Virginia on Friday). I'm sure there are some voters who are relying strictly on head-to-head results and, therefore, are ranking Florida State ahead of Alabama ahead of Georgia. If a voter is voting that way, then you're capped by how good you think the Seminoles are and how much they should be dinged for the loss to the Cavaliers. It's complicated!

But I do hope my peers start to separate the Alabama we watched on national television on Labor Day weekend from the Alabama we see now, which boasts one of the best passing attacks in the nation and is clearly capable of hanging with (and beating) the best teams in the SEC.

A couple of stray thoughts/observations:

• I finally dropped Texas a few spots. The Longhorns were idle this week and had played well in their last outing (against Sam Houston), but I've been meaning to recalibrate where I felt that team deserved to be. There's only so much credit I can give them for a close loss to Texas.
• My peers essentially swapped Ole Miss and LSU after the Rebs beat the Tigers. I just don't understand why they didn't do the same for Alabama and Georgia, too!
• I know Arkansas is unranked (and needed to fire its head coach on Sunday), but I'm surprised Notre Dame didn't get more of a boost after a 43-point win over an SEC opponent on the road on a day that saw a few upsets and a lot of close calls.