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College Football

The Throwback: The Chomp is here!

Corey Long

By Corey Long

Published:

We have ourselves a game.

GATORS PROVE TO BE GREATER

There’s so much to digest on both sides of Florida’s 16-10 win against LSU on Saturday. The win gave Florida its second SEC East title in as many seasons and improved its outside shot at a playoff berth. The loss eliminated LSU from New Year’s Six bowl contention and likely put the Tigers administration on the path of finding a new head coach.

— This is a “program restoration” win for Florida: The Gators needed to win this game for reasons greater than playing in Atlanta in two weeks. The big wins for Florida have been few and far between since the end of the 2009 season. A road win against FSU in 2012 and last year’s thrashing of Ole Miss at The Swamp have been the program’s two brightest moments this decade.

The idea that Florida, a program with three national championships and eight SEC championships in the past 25 years, would be afraid to compete is laughable. But the realities are the program hasn’t been as good as it was and hasn’t really challenged itself to get back to the level it was under Urban Meyer. The Gators are injured and not very good on offense, but the program still has character and pride. That was on display Saturday, and I expect it will be on display in the next two weeks and in the 2017 opener against Michigan.

— Jim McElwain REALLY needed this: Hard to believe that McElwain was getting the treatment he was from some Gator fans after the Arkansas game, but people were questioning his ability to lead the program. This is ignoring the fact he’s been doing the best he can with this team through some smoke and mirrors (with help from an easy schedule and a weak SEC East). He’s had to deal with things that were out of his control, like Will Grier’s suspension and subsequent departure.

He still needs a quarterback and the offensive recruiting HAS to improve, but the guy is a damn good coach and he’s getting the most out of a team that easily could have packed it in when they got whipped by Arkansas two weeks ago. A win against Florida State could put the Gators in a darkhorse spot to play their way into a Playoff spot and get Gator Nation fully behind their second-year coach.

— LSU can now move forward with a coaching search: I’ve been a huge advocate for Ed Orgeron because I genuinely like the guy, and I think he wanted nothing more than to be the one to carry LSU back to national prominence. He was fighting an uphill battle to erase the lack of imagination that became a staple of Les Miles’ tenure in the final years, but Saturday showed why Tiger fans are frustrated and why the program needs a full cleanse.

Four times inside the 10-yard line and they get 3 points. The final drive was perfect with a solid mix of running and passing until LSU got in the red zone. Then, the conservative, unimaginative play calling began, and the team became more focused on trying to score and manage the clock than just trying to score. So Orgeron will finish his tenure Thursday against Texas A&M and with the bowl game if he chooses.

I hope he does because he should enjoy these final days as the leader of the program he’s always loved. And if the coaching carousel shakes the right way, I could see him at Houston or maybe South Florida next year. If he wants to stay at LSU, I’m positive he would be retained as a defensive line coach.

(Reports already have LSU ready to put the full-court press on Jimbo Fisher).

— Florida-Alabama is the best game the SEC has to offer: I certainly think Tennessee would have put up a better fight on a second try than the 49-10 result it suffered at the hands of Alabama a month ago, but right now Florida is a better team. They are much better on defense, and Austin Appleby gives them a serviceable presence at quarterback. The Gators grew up in the second half on Saturday with the 98-yard touchdown pass from Appleby to Tyrie Cleveland and the tough running from Jordan Scarlett in the fourth quarter. Florida will have a tough time scoring points on Alabama, but defensively it will be the toughest team the Tide has faced this season. And that’s all the conference could hope for.

FROM POTENTIAL EMBARRASSMENT TO BOWL-ELIGIBILITY

Early in the second quarter, Kentucky trailed FCS opponent Austin Peay 13-0.

The Wildcats eventually rallied to win 49-13 and get that ever-important sixth victory that makes the Wildcats bowl-eligible for the first time since 2010.

This was an important victory for Kentucky for that reason, but this would have been a historic collapse for the Wildcats had they not turned things around.

Austin Peay isn’t just an FCS opponent but a historically bad one. The 0-11 Governors are currently rated 458 in college football, according to the Laz Index, the sixth-worst FCS team in his rankings. Austin Peay is rated lower than the majority of Division II schools and a large handful of Division III and NAIA programs. Its defense ranks around 500th in the nation.

Disaster averted.

RIVALRY GAMES WITH MEANING

Technically, all rivalry games have meaning, but there are a couple that don’t look very important on paper but have some potentially interesting ramifications behind them.

The Egg Bowl: Mississippi State, sitting at 4-7, is playing for pride. Ole Miss would like to get to a bowl so Shea Patterson gets an extra 15 days of reps and another game in his aborted redshirt freshman season. Neither one of the head coaches, Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze respectively, appear to be in any sort of job trouble, but both men would like to end 2016 on the right note and gain momentum for a turnaround in 2017.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt: Hmmm, I guess this game doesn’t have a cutesy little name, but it does have a lot of importance to the two programs. Vanderbilt, fresh off a 38-17 win against Ole Miss, can become bowl-eligible with a win – a huge accomplishment for Derek Mason’s rebuild effort. Tennessee are out of the SEC East race, but a win Saturday would give the program a shot at its first 10-win season since 2007.

A loss would at least open the door to more questions about Butch Jones and whether he’s the guy that can lead Tennessee back to prominence. Would it make a move? I doubt it, but never underestimate an angry Vol fan, who are already a little snarly about accepting their rings for “2016 Life Champions.”

https://twitter.com/TomFornelli/status/800764706327695360

Corey Long

Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.

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