With tons of SEC action every Saturday, there are always going to be plenty of highlights. Of course, there are also those plays that are better off forgotten. Here at Saturday Down South, we don’t forget. Let’s run down the worst of the week that was.
3. Aarion Penton’s Amari Cooper comments
“He’s a good player and everybody know it. It’s not like he can’t be stopped,” Penton said of Cooper to the Montgomery Advertiser after Missouri’s loss in the SEC Championship.
Nothing special? Bringing in a title-game record 12 catches is nothing special, apparently, nor is setting the SEC’s single-season receptions record. Maybe Cooper didn’t break the game open like he did against Auburn, but the attention Missouri paid him opened things up for the rest of Alabama’s receiving corps.
What will Penton say if and when Cooper is announced as a Heisman finalist on Monday?
2. Alabama’s secondary
Jimmie Hunt put up a career-high 169 yards on the Crimson Tide. Nearly all of them (142 of the 169) came on three broken plays, when Maty Mauk was flushed from the pocket and had to heave it downfield on the run.
This marks the second straight week the Crimson Tide were beaten deep repeatedly, although the title game wasn’t near as bad as the Iron Bowl. Kirby Smart and Nick Saban need to find a way to stop the leaks before the Sugar Bowl, though.
1. Shane Ray
Missouri’s best player on either side of the ball earned himself a trip to the locker room with this late targeting hit on Blake Sims. After the game, Ray told reporters he didn’t think it was a late hit and that he didn’t even hit Sims that hard (perhaps he didn’t notice how far he sent Sims flying), blaming the referees for his ejection.
Ray doesn’t have any kind of track record as a dirty player, so it’s easy to believe that there was no malicious intent. In 2014, though, a defensive player — especially one as good as Ray — should know better when it comes to hitting the quarterback.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
