After the first half of this season, all you can say is, ‘Give us more of the same’

What we know about the second half of the college football season is that it can’t possibly match the first in terms of sheer drama. For seven weeks, the sport has delivered an intoxicant powerful enough to make us want more.

Maybe it’s just me. I have covered six games in those seven weeks, and five were decided in the final 30 seconds or overtime. Maybe I’ve seen too much Alabama. Drama usually is the last thing Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide provides, unless you are captivated by games decided by 35 points. Not this season, in which three of the Tide’s games have been decided in the last 10 seconds.

But I don’t think it’s just my good luck. Alabama is hardly alone in the category of top teams that refuse to separate themselves. No. 3 Tennessee defeated Alabama on the last play of the game Saturday, and also has a double-overtime victory at Pitt and a victory over Florida that hinged upon a goal-line interception on the final play.

No. 5 Clemson gave No. 13 Wake Forest its only loss in double-overtime. Utah, which lost at Florida by throwing an interception in the end zone in the final seconds, beat previously unbeaten USC on Saturday night by going for two with 48 seconds left. No. 8 TCU won Saturday in double-overtime. No. 14 Syracuse beat Purdue with a touchdown with 7 seconds remaining, and the following week beat Virginia with a field goal with 1:14 to play.

Even No. 1 Georgia has overcome a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter against Missouri.

The second half of the season starts with No. 14 Syracuse at No. 5 Clemson, No. 9 UCLA at No. 10 Oregon, No. 16 Kansas State at No. 8 TCU and No. 24 Mississippi State at No. 6 Alabama on Saturday. Down the road, we get Tennessee at Georgia (November 5), Alabama at No. 7 Ole Miss (November 12), No. 12 USC at UCLA (November 19), No. 4 Michigan at No. 2 Ohio State (November 26), and plenty more.

Looking for a reason why games are closer is a fool’s errand. Better still to face the second half of the season and, in the words of Lane Kiffin, college football’s advice columnist, get your popcorn ready.

But there are a few things about this season that are different from the norm.

There are the sixth-year seniors, children of the pandemic, who dot rosters of a lot of college football’s nouveau riche. Teams that recruit five stars don’t have a lot of fifth- and sixth-year talent. Those guys already are in the NFL. But take a look at No. 18 Illinois, which, at 6-1, is trying to save the reputation of the beleaguered Big Ten West. Sixth-year safety Kendall Smith leads the Big Ten with four picks. Tight end Michael Marchese (seven catches 98 yards, two touchdowns) and tackle Alex Palczewski – two more sixth-year guys – have been mainstays on offense.

There are the players given new life via the transfer portal, like Illini quarterback Tommy DeVito; like Adrian Martinez, who threw an interception every 35 attempts in four seasons at Nebraska and has yet to throw one this season (138 attempts) for No. 17 Kansas State; and like Bo Nix, who endured three tumultuous seasons at Auburn only to blossom at Oregon.

The portal has made for quick fixes. The pandemic has made for veteran talent. Throw in a veteran like UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who has started 41 games (and counting) in five seasons for the Bruins.

No. 25 Tulane has blended portal talent and pandemic-aided experience as well as anyone. The Green Wave’s top receivers include transfers Lawrence Keys (Notre Dame) and Dea Dea McDougle (Maryland) and fifth-year tight end Tyrick James. He has started 38 games, seven fewer than sixth-year left tackle Joey Claybrook. In case you didn’t catch the meaning of that lineup, let me repeat: No. 25 Tulane.

The Green Wave is one of 10 teams in this week’s midseason poll that AP voters deemed unworthy of the preseason poll. That may be a reflection on the voters. More likely, it’s a reflection of the uncertainties of college football after the pandemic and before the guardrails are constructed for the portal.

Before we commit the first half of the season to the scrapbook, a few awards:

+ Most dominant team: Ohio State has won five of six games by at least four touchdowns. The Buckeyes also have played one team that currently has a winning record – Toledo (5-2). That’s why I can’t pull the trigger for the Buckeyes as the best team.

+ Best team: Georgia’s season-opening 49-3 win over Oregon looks better every week as the Ducks continued to climb upward. That makes up for the Dawgs’ stumble at Missouri.

+ Best player: Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr.

+ Heisman favorite: Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud.

+ My half-Heisman ballot: 1. QB Bryce Young, Alabama; 2. Stroud; 3. QB Hendon Hooker, Tennessee.

+ Best game: Tennessee 52, Alabama 49.

+ Best coach: Josh Heupel, Tennessee, in a measurement over Lance Leipold, Kansas.

+ Most entertaining conference: Big 12, in a measurement over the Sun Belt.

+ Best resurrection: 1. Kansas; 2. QB D.J. Uiagalalei, Clemson; 3. Coach Dino Babers, Syracuse.

+ Best freshman: QB Drake Maye, North Carolina.

+ Whatever Happened To? 1. Oklahoma; 2. Texas A&M; 3. Notre Dame.