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Now that the bowl season is over and all that’s left is the Jan. 11 national title game between Alabama and Clemson, here’s one thing that was overrated and one that was underrated this season:
OVERRATED: FLORIDA’S DEFENSE
Maybe we should have seen this coming and it shouldn’t be as big a surprise as it seems. But Florida’s defense carried this team all year long and Michigan just shredded it for 60 minutes in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.
The Gators provided the only embarrassment to the entire SEC during the whole bowl season. Of course, one game still remains – the big one. Alabama still has a game left and could bring the grand prize back to the SEC when it faces Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz.
The Florida defense was manhandled by Michigan in the Wolverines’ 41-7 shellacking. The Gators defense gave up 503 yards and allowed Michigan to possess the ball for 38 minutes and 38 seconds. The Wolverines scored touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half and added a field goal on the fourth.
The Gators’ defense wasn’t real good through the first two quarters either. It was practically non-existent over the final two.
And that’s rather puzzling, given the Gators rolled to a 10-1 record, limiting five SEC teams along the way to just one touchdown or less. It held No. 3 Ole Miss to 10 points. Georgia and Missouri, while neither a scoring juggernaut but still good teams, managed just three points each. Vanderbilt managed only seven points, and Kentucky only got nine.
The chink in the armor first became apparent when Florida State scored 27 on the Gators in a 27-2 victory. Alabama put up 29 points in the SEC Championship Game in the Tide’s 29-15 win.
So when Michigan continued the downward spiral with its 41-point explosion, maybe it shouldn’t have been that big of a surprise at all.
Surprise? Maybe not. Disappointing? Absolutely.
UNDERRATED: THE RESOLVE OF THE SEC WEST
The SEC West, long regarded as the strongest division in college football, had a lot to prove in this bowl season. The end of an era, some were calling it after the SEC West went a woeful 2-5 in bowl games last season.
Note to those fine folks: We’re back!
SEC West teams returned with a vengeance in 2015, winning six of its seven bowl games. And they won them all convincingly too, all by three touchdowns or more. Most impressive was Alabama’s thorough 38-0 thrashing of Michigan State in the playoff semifinals.
It was LSU that got things rolling, winning 56-27 over Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl. Auburn followed with a 31-10 pounding of Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl and the dominoes began to fall. Mississippi State dumped North Carolina State 51-28 in the Belk Bowl.
Ole Miss, 48-20 winners over Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl, and Arkansas’ 45-23 victory over Kansas State completed the dominance, returning the SEC West to its rightful place atop the college football world.
Only Texas A&M, playing with its third-string quarterback following not two transfers at the position, kept it from being a clean sweep to this point. The Aggies put up a good fight before losing 27-21 to Louisville in the Music City Bowl.
Overall, however, it was an impressive showing and it restored order for the group as a whole. That’s the kind of results we’ve come to expect from the best division in college football.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
