State of every SEC fan base at the end of the regular season
After a long few months (especially if you’re an Arkansas fan), the 2019 regular season has finally come to an end. The only thing we have left to decide is what seed LSU will be in the Playoff and if Georgia will actually run its real offense Saturday instead of whatever it has been running the previous 14 weeks.
So with the regular season done and bowl games around the corner, let’s take a look around the SEC and see how each fan base is feeling.
Alabama
Well, the season didn’t end the way quite the way you were hoping for. But on the bright side, every time the national media says the Bama dynasty is coming to an end, Nick Saban always finds a way to make them eat their words very quickly. And hey, if you only make the Playoff 5 out of every 6 years, you can live with that.
Arkansas
No one in the SEC is happier to see their season end than Arkansas fans. Now they just need to make sure the coaching search doesn’t go the way the regular season did. And if that means hiring Lane Kiffin, then so be it.
Auburn
Oh, you know, another year, another ranked Auburn team beating Nick Saban at Jordan-Hare. It’s just clockwork at this point. And now that we know Gus and Bo Nix are here to stay, you might as well just sit back and enjoy the ride … until about October of next year when you’ll be desperately hoping the Arkansas job opens back up so Gus can take it.
Florida
Well that was fun. After a full decade of Gators fans pounding their head against the wall, they got to watch the 2019 version of their team win 10 games and crush their biggest rival. Everything is great. Just please don’t ask about what happened in their other biggest rivalry game.
Georgia
No team on the verge of the Playoff has ever been more unhappy with their team than what Georgia fans are currently. But the good news is that all can change with a victory Saturday. Although the bad news is they’ll probably need a couple of people to transfer in between now and the start of the first half so they can field a whole receiving corps.
Kentucky
This Kentucky season was the equivalent of a car losing control, skidding down the road, almost tipping over, and then just barely hanging on and straightening out. UK fans get to go to a bowl, they get to keep their coach, and they got to crush Louisville. What more could you ask?
LSU
Nothing can stop LSU, right, especially not Texas A&M as Jimbo Fisher, unfortunately, found out last week. All that’s standing in the way now is Georgia. And let’s be honest, LSU could decide not to even show up and they’ll be riding pretty into the Playoff, anyway. So just enjoy it while you can Tigers fans, because as you are well aware, the good times don’t always last long.
Mississippi State
A lot of things can be forgiven if you can just win the Egg Bowl. It’s a mantra that Joe Moorhead found out last week. In about a month he went from almost being forced to jump ship to Rutgers, to now being the longest-tenured SEC coach in the entire state of Mississippi.
Missouri
Mizzou hopped on the coaching carousel early last week and are in hot pursuit of someone who is anyone but Barry Odom. Sure, Mizzou might not pull in the sexy hire that Ole Miss and FSU are trying to get, but they just need someone to get them back to the basics of the Mizzou football we all know and love: quietly winning 9-10 games, ruining Florida’s season, and somehow inexplicably making it to the SEC Championship Game.
Ole Miss
Poor, poor, Ole Miss. Every pee joke in the world has already been made, but it’s just a shame that Matt Luke had to suffer the consequence and see his time as head coach get flushed. No pun intended. Now the Rebs are on full coaching search mode and their savior could be just around the corner. Or at least he would be if he didn’t just sign an extension to stay at Washington State.
South Carolina
Gamecocks fans have spent the week sadly looking out their window at all the fans having a great time on the coaching carousel. Maybe next year guys, if you’re lucky. In the meantime, there should be a ton of exciting bow games to watch on TV.
Texas A&M
Sure, that game against LSU didn’t go too well. But just remember, this year doesn’t count. It was just a warm-up year for next season. And of course last year didn’t count either, because that was just setting the groundwork for this season. But before anyone gets too down on the program, it’s important to remember the glory days when Jimbo was first hired and how amazing that was before he, you know, actually coached any games.
Tennessee
The Vols finally got the monkey off their back and defeated Vanderbilt. That might not sound like a big deal, but when you started the way the Vols did this year, it feels pretty good. Now, no matter what happens in the bowl game, the Vols can carry a ton of momentum into the offseason and hopefully can enter 2020 ready to compete with the big boys in the East. And if they’re lucky, maybe even Georgia State.
Vanderbilt
Do we really have to do this again next year?
Unhappy? Not the ones I know. I imagine about 125 schools would love to be in UGA’s position.
A lot of people get confused with fans being unhappy and fans being critical. I for one and super happy with this team, even the rough stretches that were hard to watch. I can be critical of the team being too heavy on the defensive side and wishing there was a little more offense to back the defense up. But at the same time I’m extremely excited about this season and the position UGA is in again where they are competing for a spot in the playoff for the 3rd year in a row.
If you think mike leach was ole miss savior, you know nothing about ole miss or sec west football. I’m not saying leach couldn’t be competitive in the sec but he is a absolute ill fit at ole miss!
Yeah I’ve been saying that about this site all year. They haven’t watched Ole Miss in like 3 months.
Who would?
FSU is NOT our “biggest” rival. They are probably the most “hated” rival …but UGA is, was and always will be our biggest rival. And it’s not even close. It was a good year but not a great one. Great years happen when you beat both.
Agreed…hence not unhappy and another great year on this side of the Saint Mary river…for the third straight year!
Hopefully it stops there @humper. Some say Yankees/Red Sox is the biggest rivalry in sports …or Duke/Carolina or Giants/Cowboys… or whatever. Try and do it once a year, on the same weekend, at neutral site for 125 years. A win is far more euphoric… and a loss is a pain you carry for 364 days, until the next one. The other so called rivalries outside of CFB don’t understand those levels of emotions. BUT …at least I don’t have to smell that stench anymore from that douchey school out west for another year.
When you can’t decide WHO your rival is, it’s not one of the best. Iron Bowl’s the best in sports!
No one said it was bigger than Bama/Barn. Doesn’t mean it’s not one of the biggest.
NO
It certainly is as big as the iron bowl imho…if I had to choose between a Natty with a loss to GatorbaitorU in the same season vs a win and coming up short…. again….I’d take the Florida state championship crown anytime! Can a WarBuzzardU or TrunksnorterU fan say that? I think not!
I honestly wish Georgia-Florida was played on the last week of the season. It would make for a much more interesting final week that Tech.
Iron Bowl is a bigger deal. I don’t think people from Alabama are right in the head in the first place. Poisoning trees and such is a little much for a football rivalry. I’d take a win over FSU than a win over UGA in a given year but I’ll take a loss to either if I can have a natty
Depends on who you ask. If you grew up watching in the nineties like I did, it’s FSU. UGA was an annual beat down to look forward to. FSU was very competitive games against two ranked teams. I guess the script is flipped now, FSU games are boring and I’m okay with them staying that way. The UGA games since Mullen have been exciting games between two ranked teams. Hopefully we take the next one.
In my lifetime, FSU is the biggest rival to me.
Blasphemy
Eh, I grew up watching in the 80’s when it was an annual beat down the other way…it was still our biggest rivalry as it was in the 90’s and 2000’s. It is only a recent thing that it is competetive…typically it has been punctuated by long periods of one team blowing out the other one.
Agreed. I for one love the recent relevancy of GatorbaitorU in the series. Makes for an interesting and epic November by the river! #Stormthefield #timeoutflorida
I agree that it’s UGAs biggest rival. Who else would it be? Tech?! UF has a knack for being a few team’s most hated opponent. It’s just arguably not UFs biggest rivalry. If you’re in your thirties or younger, it’s FSU. Currently it’s UGA. At times, it’s been Tenn.
Yeah he is idiot. Won’t even show a face. Houston Barber? Nobody is gonna follow you trash clown.
I liked his take on Texas A&M.
I’m left thinking what if UK had went with Bowden at QB to begin the season
He’d probably have near about 2,000 rushing yards lol
“Gamecocks fans have spent the week sadly looking out their window at all the fans having a great time on the coaching carousel”
Now that’s funny
I believe the writer was right on with Kentucky.
It’s not so much who you beat, just as long as we beat someone.
Right, DumDums?
Laughing hysterically, Missouri is 7 wins and 1 loss against O Miss all time and the one game they lost to them was decided by 10 points….. So no Missouri fans do not have lower expectations than OMiss after this hire.
Also Missouri has won 135 more football games than Florida State and nobody reading this will live long enough to see Florida State make a significant change in that gap. Florida State will probably never win a division of SEC and Missouri did that twice in their first 4 years in the conference. Go worship the has been cheating, criminal quarterbacking, S-nholes on another site.
FSU has more National Championships than Mizzou has division championships. Go sell your nonsense elsewhere.
Georgia fans are very happy. Despite losing it’s best 5 receivers from last year, and losing this years best to injury, the Dawg’s are one of the 4 best teams in the country. Most would say that is very impressive..
Heck, if Ga had a gimme conference championship game like the B1G and the ACC, Ga would already be “In”.
But, we would rather be right where we are, in the SEC – playing for the SEC Championship, where it just means more…
We just wish our team was coming in without so many injuries and missing starters. GOOOOODAWGS!
Now, now, we don’t want to upset Dabo at ‘lil ole Clemson.
Dawg fans arent unhappy. Anxious would be more accurate.
Good way to put it. Reminds me of UF 2009. There was enormous expectations on a team that was winning, but not winning well.
And again this DA doesn’t know the alphabet
To me for UGA, Florida is the team we most want to beat. Tech is the team we least want to lose to. Theres a difference. Wins over Fla are more fun. Losses to Tech are more painful.
Auburn is a fight among brothers. Win or lose youre drinking a beer with them after game
Good assessment. Florida is a real rival, but you respect them. Sucks to get beat by Tech because other than like 1992 or whenever it was Tech got half of a championship maybe, you always feel like you should beat them. And the only game they sell out at home is vs us because UGA fans buy up the tickets. Love beating Florida…just hate Tech.
“They haven’t watched Ole Miss in like 3 months.”
Can you blame them?
Dawg fans (most of you anyway). You should be happy and well deserved. Seems a lot of perennially unsuccessful teams fans try to spread their misery to others. Count me as a UF fan that would have loved another TD or two at the cocktail party to switch places with you but still pretty happy. If I’m you, I look at everyone else with the weekend off and would be pretty happy too. Good luck in Atlanta tomorrow.
We’re just spoiled at this point. Once the season ends we’ll look back and be like “holy cow, that was a good football team”.
I’m happy with the football team and where it’s at but I’m getting a little tired of having championship rosters and nothing to show for it.
Bama fans are not as comfortable as you would pretend. Competition is tougher than ever.
No kidding! They lost to Auburn 2 out the last 3 seasons and about to have a mass exodus of talent from their offense, but all is well in Bamaland. I’m starting to think this site more about comedy than football.
Out of touch garbage again. Bama is sitting at home watching other people play what they live for and UGA is the unhappy fanbase. Good analysis…keep riding that broke down Bama bandwagon. Dawg nation will watch their team play in another big game with a chance to win their 2nd sec title in 3 years.
A&M deserves whatever kind of ribbing you want to deal out after that LSU loss. All in all, though, things are looking up. Sitting right now with our second consecutive top-five recruiting class – the first time that’s happened in school history – is a break from the past. We need deeper talent to compete with the best. Luckily, we seem to be correcting that deficiency.
Mississippi, Missouri & Arkansas ? Looking for a “savior” ? It seems like the worst Head Coaching Position that is open in the SEC is at Arky…that program seems to be a worse dumpster-fire than Tennessee was after losing to Ga. State. The status at Mississippi, at least to me…seems like the best SEC job available, but get Rich Rod out of Oxford. That Head Coaching Position is “doable’ with a good Head Coach and staff. Plus it’s the very best atmosphere the I’ve ever seen in the SEC…from a fan’s viewpoint. Hotty toddy ! But for Mizzou & Arky..lots of luck in finding “the answer”.
If Georgia had FL’s receivers/TE they would have a chance.
Or if gatorbaitoru had Leghumpers Coaches, oLine and defense…oh yeah, and our kicker, our redcoat band and our cheerleaders, they would have had a chance also…lol. Thanks for the vote of confidence
@gotcha….we have a chance now but we would be favored.
How about “wtf was that”
I’m just hoping this season was a blessing in disguise and we hire Chad Morris as OC seeing that he wouldn’t have been available any other time pay him whatever he wants and give him full control of the offense…. If that happens this season was worth the pain