Kirk Herbstreit is way more concerned with Alabama compared to Texas going into Week 2 of the college football season. Texas lost 14-7 to Ohio State on the road while Alabama was blasted 31-17 at Florida State.

Herbstreit claimed Texas has way more pieces to get it together fast and be a playoff team and title contender. Not to mention the fact he believes in QB Arch Manning.

As far as Alabama, they looked “lethargic,” according to Herbstreit. The pressure is on in Tuscaloosa.

“Texas by far. I mean Texas is a playoff team,” Herbstreit said on SportsCenter. “Texas, if you look at them, they held Ohio State to 200 yards of offense. Their defense is as good as anybody in the country. Arch Manning just has to settle in and become the quarterback that I think we all know is capable of being, the pieces they have around them are sensational. So there’s no question. I think that’s as much about how confident I am in Texas, and I think from Alabama. You know, I don’t want to overreact to what we saw last week … the thing that stood out to me is just, I think, using the word lethargic. 

“I mean Florida State deserves all the credit for how good they looked. But I think when you walked away watching that game, it was just like, wow, Alabama. What’s going on here? Lack of effort, not really playing as hard, especially opening week. So, they have the physical bodies to be a very talented team, but that’s all you have to go by, the 60 minutes of football they played in Tallahassee, there’s just not a lot of hope at this point. We’ll see what they can do. But between those two teams, Texas … would definitely be the team I’m more confident in.”

Alabama in deep trouble?

How uneasy is Alabama right now? Former coach Nick Saban called on current coach Kalen DeBoer to protect the players from the outside noise.

“Was it anxiety? Was it expectations? One thing about coaching at Alabama, (fans) expect you to win every game. There’s a high expectation and the standard is really, really high for what you’re supposed to accomplish and what you’re supposed to do,” Saban told Pat McAfee McAfee on Friday. “(But) you need to protect your players from that, and give them a different way to compete in the game so they’re not looking at the scoreboard, they’re not worried about the outcome and stay focused on the things they need to do to compete in the game for 60 minutes and play one play at a time, so they’re not worried about (the rest).

“Because that’s all they hear everywhere they go, on social media. … (that) they’re expected to win. So you can’t let that creep in and (create) that anxiety about being outcome-oriented affect their performance.”