Happy holidays and Merry Christmas, y’all!

Thank you to everyone for reading and continuing to support Saturday Down South this year. It means a lot and we very much appreciate each and every one of you.

The 2022 season may be coming to an end, but 2023 is going to be a big year in college sports. We can’t wait to experience it all alongside you!

Now, without further ado, here are your questions for this week’s SDS Mailbag:

Michael:

What’s the best college football musical tradition?

There are so many to choose from, and that’s part of what makes college football so great and so much better than the NFL.

From Virginia Tech running out to “Enter Sandman” to “Jump Around” at Wisconsin to “Sandstorm” at South Carolina, there are some intense musical traditions, some older (like Rocky Top and Rammer Jammer) and some new-school stuff like the 3 mentioned earlier.

I’ll go with my current top 2, though. First, I love the song “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, so listening to Michigan fans sing that after the third quarter is always entertaining to me.

My absolute favorite is Florida’s new tradition of singing “I Won’t Back Down” in honor of Tom Petty after the third quarter. It’s such a cool tribute and such a great song, particularly heading into the fourth quarter of a college football game.

If and when the Gators get back to contending for SEC East titles, it should be even more intense, and I can’t wait to see that.

Oh, and let the LSU band play “Neck”!

John:

Is Billy Napier really already on the hot seat at Florida? Which coaches will be on the hottest seats entering 2023?

I don’t want to rule anything out in the SEC, where things change at a rapid pace. Heck, Bryan Harsin was almost forced out after Year 1 at Auburn and didn’t make it through Year 2 with the Tigers.

While I don’t think Napier will be on the hot seat in 2023, he will need to show some progress with the program. Another 6-7 record won’t be acceptable and will have him firmly on the hot seat entering 2024.

Outside of Napier, the obvious answer for hottest seat in the SEC is Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. It’s quite possible he wouldn’t have survived this coaching carousel season if not for his massive buyout.

It would have cost the Aggies north of $85 million to fire him after this past season. After the 2023 season, his buyout drops to just a shade under $77 million. Still, another sub-.500 season will have Texas A&M boosters considering writing that massive check.

We’ll see if the historic 2022 recruiting class can start impacting winning in College Station this coming fall.

Will:

How many wins will Deion Sanders have in his first year at Colorado?

Expectations will have to be tempered for the Buffaloes in 2023, as they face a very tough test in Week 1. They’ll head to Fort Worth to take on a TCU program that made the College Football Playoff this year.

Then they host Nebraska and Colorado State the next 2 weeks. That’s certainly no joke of a nonconference schedule.

As far as Pac-12 play is concerned, the dates haven’t been determined, but the Buffaloes host USC and have road games at Oregon, UCLA and Utah. Those are 4 incredibly difficult games.

Even a 7-5 record would be a monumental task for Coach Prime in 2023. For a school that finished 1-11 in 2022, though, even getting to 5-7 would be a great first season for the new coach.

That’s my prediction, a 5-7 record for Colorado in 2023.

@Dobbe8:

What is the best Christmas movie?

There are so many good ones to choose from! Depending on whether or not you consider “Die Hard” a Christmas movie, that’s a good one. There are also the classic animated movies like “Rudolph” and “Frosty the Snowman” that are all-time greats.

I also really like “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart.

But there are 2 that stick out to me – 1 which many people in my generation will likely agree with and 1 that may only be a tradition in my family.

The first one is, of course, “Elf.” I love Will Ferrell movies and “Elf” is an all-time great Christmas film. The other is another animated movie – “A Garfield Christmas.” I know it’s not going to get much love, but that’s one that we’ve watched in my family for about 3 decades now.

Enjoy your holiday weekend, y’all!

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at Adam.Spencer@XLMedia.com.