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College Football

The Throwback: There’s Alabama…and then the rest of you

Corey Long

By Corey Long

Published:

It has to happen, might as well accept it.

RIVALRY WEAK

The SEC East’s struggles continued (1-3 vs. ACC … thank you Kentucky!) and over all Rivalry Week was a big bust.

  • The gap in the Iron Bowl is widening by the minute. It seems like decades since we had “The Camback” and the “Kick Six”, now we just have the “Tide Romp” on constant loop. What happened to Auburn’s offense? They put up over 600 yards and 44 points against Alabama two years ago, now the Tigers can’t score a touchdown. Auburn didn’t play particularly bad or anything, they were just overmatched. And Alabama isn’t slowing down for the rest of the conference any time soon. While the SEC clearly took a step back in 2016, Alabama continues to move forward.
  • Florida just needs pieces on offense. Jordan Scarlett is a quality back who would be very good if the Gators had a quarterback who could make plays. Antonio Callaway is a decent receiver and Tyrie Cleveland has a lot of potential but is very inconsistent. Brandon Powell’s game has fallen off. The Gators need more. They need a lot more. Another legitimate all-purpose running back and another outside receiver will be a start and make the future with Feleipe Franks or Kyle Trask or Jake Allen (2017 commit) much brighter.
  • That’s two out of three and three of the last five in Athens for Georgia Tech over Georgia. Another rough loss for the Bulldogs, blowing a 27-14 lead in the final quarter, but it’s a younger team and Jacob Eason will learn how to close out these close games next year. Georgia had a take a step back with a new coach and true freshman quarterback but short-term losses could turn into long-term gains.
  • Thankfully Ole Miss was put out of its misery with a humiliating 55-20 loss in the Egg Bowl. Defensive coordinator Dave Wommack will retire, thus forcing Hugh Freeze to make some long overdue changes on the defensive staff. Blowout losses to Vanderbilt and Mississippi State will do nothing for Shea Patterson’s confidence going into next year.
  • I’m certainly buying into Kentucky’s Mark Stoops as the SEC Coach of the Year. Can’t give it to Saban every year and Stoops made the necessary change at quarterback to recover from a slow start and turn the Wildcats’ season around. SEC wins over ranked opponents out of conference were few and far between this season, but Kentucky got one of them.
  • I’ll save Butch Jones for another topic but let me just say that winning the 2016 Life Championship isn’t going to be enough for the Volunteers’ fan base.

COACHING CHANGES MAY BE FEW

LSU made all the news in the past week as they were spurned by Jimbo Fisher for the second year in a row and played by Tom Herman so the former Houston coach could get the job he really wanted at Texas.

The Tigers didn’t make the sexiest move by retaining Ed Orgeron, but I think they made the right move. Orgeron is a different coach and a different person than he was 15 years ago when he struggled at Ole Miss. I think he understands how to get the best performance out of players. He has implemented a lot of what he learned from Pete Carroll at USC (hopefully he also learned what NOT to do) and he’s going to try to match Carroll’s success at LSU.

He still needs an offensive coordinator who can change the offensive identity at LSU. Reports are the program will go hard after Lane Kiffin. I believe they should aggressively pursue Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. He is a young coach with a great mind and LSU could offer him a significant raise from the $500,000 he is making with the Sooners.

As for the rest of the conference I don’t expect much movement unless Tennessee decides they have had enough of Butch Jones (more on him in a bit).

Texas A&M is getting impatient with Kevin Sumlin and the losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State were tough to explain outside of losing Trevor Knight for a couple of weeks to injury. Still, if you’re going to replace Sumlin you better have a major upgrade in mind.

Derek Mason saved his job and rewarded Vanderbilt’s loyalty to him with a 45-34 win over Tennessee that got the Commodores bowl eligible and allowed him to claim ownership of the state.

Bret Bielema is safe at Arkansas but not for long if losses like the one Friday at Missouri become the norm. At the least he’s going to have to look at making changes to get a better performance out of a defense that ranked 76th nationally.

NOW FOR BUTCH

Release the hounds!

Chris Fowler throwing down the shade:

More life championships than wins vs. SEC West opposition:

https://twitter.com/CruzWill95/status/802749475869507585

Oh it gets nasty in Knoxville. Real nasty.

Sometimes you have to let a greater voice calm your frustrations:

https://twitter.com/THESethHughes/status/803306206563471360

Drastic times call for drastic measures?

Where do we start with Butch? Tennessee was a fun team to watch this season. They rallied for a great home win against Florida (back when that sort of thing was a big deal) and the Hail Mary pass to beat Georgia made you think the Volunteers were headed toward a dream season.

The loss to Texas A&M was frustrating. but they fought until the end and just when you thought the Vols were dead they would rise to fight some more. The loss to Alabama just happens. They were being held together by ointment and duct tape. Not a good way to compete against the conference’s 400-pound gorilla.

But then Tennessee lost to South Carolina, Jalen Hurd quit the team and a double-digit loss to Vanderbilt put the icing on the cake.

Sadly, Volunteers faithful. it appears you are stuck with Jones for now and heading to another secondary bowl somewhere in Florida. But Tennessee’s window to jump ahead of the rest of the struggling division is closing. Florida and Georgia won’t stay down forever and even when the Gators are down they can at least win the division.

Tennessee could replace Jones now but where do you go? Larry Fedora? Justin Fuente? Can they convince Chip Kelly to leave the pros? Would Mike MacIntyre be interested? Would they secretly try to reach out to some candidates under Jones’ nose? I certainly wouldn’t put it past some of the more disgruntled boosters to try that.

Right now there’s a lot of uncertainty around the Tennessee program, and history tells us it’s hard to win with everyone looking over their shoulders.

END OF SEASON AWARDS

Offensive Player of the Year: Jalen Hurts, QB, Alabama – I think his Heisman worthiness is overstated but he’s clearly been the best offensive player in the conference and he gave a new dimension to an Alabama offense that was already tough to stop.

Defensive Player of the Year: Jonathan Allen, DL, Alabama – Allen’s Heisman worthiness has been quite understated in my opinion and I have no doubt that a Bednarik Trophy is waiting for him in a few weeks.

Coach of the Year: Mark Stoops, Kentucky – The Wildcats started 0-2 and were left for dead but won five out of their final seven, defeated a top-15 non-conference opponent on the road to end the season and will be playing in their first bowl game in six years.

Special Teams Player of the Year: Christian Kirk, Texas A&M – Led the nation in punt returns for touchdowns and averaged 22.5 yards per punt return and 28.8 on kickoff returns (although he only had six kickoff returns).

Freshman of the Year: Hurts.

Jacobs Blocking Trophy: Dan Skipper, Arkansas – The 6-foot-10 Skipper has been SEC offensive lineman of the week twice this season.

Corey Long

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

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