CFB: The Top 5

After five weeks of the college football season, five teams have emerged as legit national title contenders. Some win with offense (West Virgina) some win with defense (Florida) and some win with both (Alabama, South Carolina). One team combines a little bit of all of the above plus enough speed to field an Olympic relay team (Oregon) and perhaps the nations best looking cheerleaders. Here's the fab five.

1. Alabama- Size, speed, execution and depth. The perfect recipe to win a title. The Crimson Tide have them all. On most Saturday's Nick Saban has as much talent standing on the sideline as most teams have on the field. The SEC is the most competitive conference in the country, yet Alabama has found little competition through five games. And judging by the way things are shaking up in the SEC West, there ticket to Atlanta for the SEC championship game is already punched. I would be shocked if they weren't playing in Miami after that.

2. Oregon- Speed, talent, speed, high powered explosive offense, speed, solid defense, speed and extremely attractive cheerleaders can get you by. And for the Ducks they do more than just get by. Their defense is better than most give credit and they do a lot of different things schematically to keep offenses off balance. Offensively the Ducks will spread you out, push the tempo at a border line unfair pace, keep you guessing at all times and then explode with big plays on the ground and threw the air. And there's enough scenery in Eugene to keep everybody tuned in. It was 12:00 a.m. on the east coast in the third quarter of a blowout and yet I couldn't dare close my eyes while the camera crew panned the crowd or the sideline to get a glimpse of the Oregon 10's. Barring a let down game, they could end the SEC title streak.

3. South Carolina- The old ball coach is still got it. He has turned Conner Shaw into a shinning star and has the nations best running back in Marcus Lattimore. Their offense can grind you down and now they can throw it over you too. The defense plays at another level. There is NFL talent all along the defensive front and the secondary doesn't make many mistakes. The 'Cocks have a tough road, but getting through it will leave no doubts about this teams abilities.

4. West Virgina- Offensively there as good as its gets. Geno Smith is the Heisman front runner with his flawless performance through five games and has put up ridiculous numbers that would be difficult to do against air much less opposing defenses. But speaking of defense, the Mountaineer's don't have much of one. Their game plan seems to be to play just enough plays on defense to give the offense a breather, give up a score, watch offense score, repeat. As good as that offense has been, they have to find some defense if they want to win a championship.

5. Florida- Is there a bigger surprise in college football right now? The Gator's have been somewhat quietly putting them selves in contention for the national title race. They have gotten better and better each week on offense and defensively are second to none. Will Muschamp has his boys believing they can beat anybody and he may be right. They have a stretch of tough games up coming but so far the tougher the opponent, the tougher the Gator's play. Their game against South Carolina should determine the SEC East.

Just Missing The Cut
Kansas St.- The Wildcats are right there but they have to keep winning and hope for some help. QB Collin Klein is in the Heisman race and should give K-State a chance in every game.
Notre Dame- Yes the Irish almost crack my top five. Almost. And if it wasn't for those extremely hideous helmets they wore, then who knows. They are playing great defense and the offense has its moments. A tough strech coming up will show what this Irish team is made of. But win or lose, Lou Holts will still say they could win a national title next season as always