1st Weekend Lesson: The Tide Keeps On Rising

   Prior to the season's first kickoff, Alabama was an afterthought in the discussion of potential SEC champions. Maybe, the thinking went, but not likely.

   Before September is out, the Crimson Tide have been the most impressive SEC team, pounding Clemson by 34 points, Arkansas by 35 and Georgia in a less-closer-than-it-looks 11.

   Nick Saban stunned the Dawgs by assigning underappreciated quarterback John Parker Wilson to use the pass to set up the run, a reversal of the Tide's usual approach. On the second play, Bama came out in a five-receiver set, which surely had Georgia coaches futilely scrambling through their game plan for a solution.

   Georgia's multiple momentum advantages -- all-black uniforms, ESPN "GameDay" presence, chance to return to No. 1 -- collapsed in a heap early. Halftime: 31-0. You could have turned out the lights then. But with all the Dawg fans dressed in black, they could not have found their way out of the stadium.

   Any explanation for what happened to UGA?

   Good for AP poll voters to award Bama a No. 2 ranking, thanks to the top spot on 21 of 65 ballots. Curses to the USA Today voters who lifted the Tide only to No. 4, with a lone first-place ballot. Me, I would not hesitate placing the Tide No. 1.

   Anybody wanna talk me out of it?