Simpson, Williams help No. 10 Alabama shrug off slow start and beat South Florida 17-3
Associated PressThe AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! “I know you’re going to ask about the quarterbacks, but we’re going to evaluate on how they played today and evaluate Jalen Milroe on how he played,” Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said. We were a little flat in the beginning, but after the rain delay I thought we competed better.” Alabama hurt itself early, with Kool-Aid McKinstry’s losing a fumble on a first-quarter punt return to set up John Cannon’s 44-yard field goal for USF and Jeremiah Alexander’s holding penalty that wiped out what would have been Terrion Arnold’s 100-yard return for a TD on the ensuing kickoff. “So, there are no moral victories, there are no valiant efforts, there are no anything, We played winning football on defense, we played well enough to win that football game.” THE TAKEAWAY It wasn’t pretty, but Alabama accomplished the expected in extending its impressive streak of not losing consecutive regular season games since 2008. Struggling on the road against a team that had dropped 11 in a row before beating FCS foe Florida A&M the previous week likely won’t help the Crimson Tide much in the next poll.