It’s not Alabama-LSU week yet, but it feels like it.

The beauty of having both teams on bye this week is that once both Alabama and LSU had their Week 8 victories in hand, they could immediately move on to the massive top-four showdown in Baton Rouge.

But late in the Mississippi State-LSU game, that mind-set changed when Devin White got called with the targeting penalty heard ’round the world. The All-American linebacker was not only penalized and ejected but, of course, suspended for the first half of the next game. Rather, he was suspended for the first half of the Alabama game.

In case you somehow missed it, here it was:

Believe it or not, not every LSU fan agreed with the call. Stunning, I know.

That resulted in plenty of #ItMightMeanTooMuch moments the last week. From the tens of thousands of dollars raised for #FreeDevinWhite billboards near the SEC offices in Birmingham to political consultant/LSU professor James Carville claiming he trusted the Saudi government more than the SEC offices, it has been a wild bye week in Baton Rouge. All of those are great examples of SEC culture at its finest, no doubt.

But I felt like the most SEC way to air out some #FreeDevinWhite grievances was in the Lord’s house. That’s right.

Take it away, preacher man!

https://twitter.com/MattMoscona/status/1054063374697406469

I’m sure that if LSU fans had to tithe for every time the words “targeting” or “Devin White” were used in a sermon in Louisiana on Sunday, they would’ve been cleaned out. That is, assuming they didn’t spend all of their money on #FreeDevinWhite billboards already.

Let’s be honest. Whether they did those things or not, LSU fans are still going broke paying for tickets to that Alabama game. The cheapest ticket on Stubhub right now is a cool $230.

You know what I’d pay big bucks to see? When White does enter the game in the second half, he should definitely ride in on one of his SEVEN horses. I heard good things about his latest edition, Daisy Mae. As long as she’s up for it, I’m pretty sure the roof would blow off Tiger Stadium if she made an appearance.

That would be the ultimate way to #FreeDevinWhite.

‘Old ladies’ meet Bear Bryant’s great-grandson

To explain this next one, I’ve got to start with a shameless plug.

I wrote a story this week about how Bear Bryant’s great-grandson (Paul Tyson) is set to face Tua Tagovailoa’s younger brother (Taulia Tagovailoa) on ESPN2 this Friday night. Both of them are blue-chip quarterback recruits, and both are committed to Alabama. That means one of them could replace someone who could be the best quarterback in Alabama history in 2020. It’s made-for-TV stuff. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do so and make me feel better.

In doing my reporting for that story, I talked to people like Trent Dilfer, who had them both at Elite 11 over the summer. I also talked to Tyson’s Hewitt-Trussville coach, Josh Floyd.

Floyd recalled a couple of instances of things people did when they found out whom Tyson was related to. Keep in mind that while he shares a first name with his great-grandfather, they obviously don’t share a last name.

So last year, Hewitt-Trussville held its preseason scrimmage and Floyd saw a couple of, as he put it, “old ladies” who were on hand for the game. Floyd said they definitely weren’t locals and that they had driven up with one focus in mind — meet Bear Bryant’s great-grandson. After all, sharing DNA with Bear Bryant in the state of Alabama is like sharing DNA with God.

The “old ladies” brought a picture of themselves with Bear Bryant that they had Tyson autograph. And naturally, he took a picture with them.

The irony in this is that the women actually met Bear Bryant while Tyson was about 17 years too young for that. Floyd said that he never really hears Tyson bring up his famous great-grandpa, and that he’s only aware of it when people tell him about it.

I imagine by now, Tyson is plenty familiar with random people coming up to him and telling him about how incredible his great-grandpa was. That’s only going to continue when he enrolls at Alabama, and it’ll spike to absurd new levels if he wins the starting job in a few years.

Floyd said Tyson has plenty of stories of those odd interactions with strangers. On one occasion, Floyd said, someone found out who Tyson was and kissed him on the head.

“It’s crazy, man,” Floyd said. “This state’s different, ya know what I mean?”

Truer words have never been said.