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College Football

The Throwback: The (War) Eagle gets clipped

Corey Long

By Corey Long

Published:

Trademarked that name, too!

SEC EAST BITES BACK

The traditional powers of the SEC East (and the division in general) have been the target of a lot of insults … and they are well-deserved. But we have to give props where we can since this week the top of the division – Florida, Georgia and Tennessee – stood strong in the face of many doubters.

Florida put itself one step closer to the SEC East title with a 20-7 win over South Carolina. Jim McElwain made two wise moves this week – he benched Luke Del Rio because of injury (and ineffective play), and he decided to start Austin Appleby instead of burning the redshirts of one or both of his true freshmen, Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask. Appleby probably should have been starting all along. He’s a better passer than Del Rio and gives the Gators the best chance to move the ball.

Florida still lacks quality depth at receiver, but Appleby was efficient (17-of-21, 201 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT), and it opened things up for the Gators’ running game. Jordan Scarlett rushed for 134 yards, and the Gators averaged almost 5 yards per carry. Expect Appleby to go the rest of the way for Florida as he clearly gives the Gators their only legitimate chance to beat LSU or Florida State. If the Gators can beat LSU next Saturday, they will win the SEC East.

Tennessee ended Kentucky’s enjoyable mid-season surge with a 49-36 victory that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. The Volunteers racked up 376 rushing yards and had 100-yard games from Josh Dobbs and Alvin Kamara (and why couldn’t Jalen Hurd fit into this offense again?).

The victory puts Tennessee on the doorstep of the SEC East title as it just needs wins against Missouri and Vanderbilt to go with an LSU win over Florida for that to happen. The win also likely saved Butch Jones’ job assuming the Vols win their final two games and finish 9-3. Tennessee’s area of concern has to be a defense that gave up over 600 yards (including 443 rushing!). Sure, Tennessee relaxed on defense after going up 49-22, but 600 yards is still 600 yards.

Georgia is out of the SEC East title race, but the Bulldogs became bowl-eligible and earned a win against a top 10 team in the same shot with a 13-7 upset of Auburn. Fans of either team will say this game was a display of great defense, but realists will admit it was a horrific offensive performance. The Bulldogs contained Sean White for the second consecutive year, holding the Auburn quarterback to 6-of-20 for 27 yards.

The Tigers’ vaunted rushing attack was ordinary without Kamryn Pettway busting through defensive fronts. Meanwhile, Kirby Smart’s commitment to playing true freshmen on offense has started to reward him late in the season. Jacob Eason has been up and down, but the experience he gained this year should pay off next season. He’s also built good chemistry with fellow freshmen Riley Ridley and Isaac Nauta, giving the Bulldogs’ passing game much hope for the future.

SEAN WHITE GAMBLES, AND AUBURN LOSES

Auburn quarterback Sean White put up his worst game of the season Saturday in a 13-7 loss to Georgia. Unfortunately for White, his worst performance came at the worst possible time.

The Tigers came into the game ranked ninth in the nation, and had they pulled off the road win, Auburn would likely be in the top 5 and playing for an SEC West title and a Playoff spot.

After the game, White disclosed he had re-injured his shoulder and kept the information from his coaches. Was he being honest or taking one for the coaching staff that was going to be criticized for playing an injured QB? Who knows? Let’s take White at his word that he “hid” his injury from the coaches. That’s a pretty immature mistake from a leader. One of the reasons White has been elevated to the position that he has is because he put the team ahead of himself.

Of course, he wanted to play and lead Auburn to victory. You think Pettway didn’t want to play Saturday? Of course he did, but he couldn’t. White couldn’t play either, but he made the decision that he could OR the coaching staff didn’t know how badly he was hurt.

The blame can go either way. But the bottom line is, Auburn’s championship hopes are done.

LSU COACHING PLANS SHOULD INCLUDE ORGERON, RILEY

Ed Orgeron will likely have the interim tag removed from his title before LSU’s bowl game. If he doesn’t, he should because he has kept this program together during the toughest five-week schedule I can remember.

LSU is 4-1 under Orgeron after a dominating 38-10 road win against Arkansas to return the Golden Boot to Baton Rouge. The Tigers win snaps a two-game losing streak to the Razorbacks. How important was this win? Well, Les Miles’ serious troubles at LSU started with a 31-14 loss to Arkansas last season in Death Valley. It was the first sign that Miles’ struggles were no longer limited to teams coached by Nick Saban.

But Orgeron didn’t allow LSU to deal with an Alabama hangover and instead, they went on the road for the first time since Sept. 24 and smacked around a team that it has struggled to play well against.

Orgeron is the best thing for the LSU program right now. The team responds to him. The fan base and boosters love him. He’s open to their ideas, and I believe he can get LSU’s recruiting back to where it was a few years ago.

But I think LSU needs to have a contingency plan in place long term – a young, offensive-minded coach that can learn the unique culture of LSU under Orgeron while rebuilding and rebranding the offense in his mold.

My choice would be Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. At 33 years old, Riley is poised to be one of the hottest coaching prospects in the nation soon. LSU should pounce on him this offseason and make him the head-coach-in-waiting and the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the nation. Guarantee him the head coaching job within 3-4 years, giving him ample time to learn LSU recruiting from Orgeron and build relationships with the coaches throughout the parishes.

Riley would have the opportunity to change the LSU offense and rebuild the Tigers’ roster offensively without the full plate of pressures as head coach. Orgeron would continue to be the leader of the program for the next couple of years and give LSU much-needed stability from one transition to the next. By 2019 or 2020, Riley would take over the head coaching job and Orgeron, who will be nearly 60 by then, can take on another role in the program, whether he would be director of operations or head of player personnel. It would have to be some kind of significant role that keeps his hands in the program while also allowing him the opportunity to represent LSU football off the field as well.

I presented this idea to my friend, an LSU fan who said, “Corey, I love it … but these are the same people that fired and re-hired Les Miles within a week only to fire him again eight months later. I doubt they have the people smart enough to execute this.”

Point taken.

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Corey Long

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

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