Other potential names: Annihilation at Atlantic Station; Coronation at College Park; Punking at Peidmont Heights

BAMA WINS AGAIN

Alabama’s main goal on defense is to take away what its opposition does best. What LSU does best is run Leonard Fournette. I didn’t think Alabama could totally shut down a healthy Fournette again regardless of how good it was.

I was wrong.

The Tide decided to load the box and dare LSU to throw downfield passes with Danny Etling. LSU refused to take the bait, and Alabama refused to respect any threat of a pass. Fournette, who rushed for nearly 5,000 yards (roughly) on 12 carries (estimated) against Ole Miss two weeks ago, was held to 35 yards on 17 carries.

In the past two games Fournette had 36 carries for 66 yards against Alabama. That’s 1.8 yards per carry. Roll Tide Roll.

CAN THE SEC EAST RECOVER?

The discussion of whether a fifth-place SEC West team could win the SEC East was all but answered Saturday when Arkansas cold-cocked Florida, 31-10, ending the Gators’ chances at any sort of relevancy this season.

Most of us have already read the SB Nation story on the metrics of how bad the SEC East is, and the numbers are horrifying. The SEC West has won the conference seven years in a row and are 22-3 against the East in the past two seasons.

Even Jim McElwain had to admit what we already knew.

How did it get this bad, though? The SEC East has some built-in advantages, most notably teams that reside in the talent-rich states of Florida, Georgia and to a lesser extent, South Carolina, where much of the conference gets a good portion of their recruits from.

The conference has lost some very good coaches. Urban Meyer left Florida after the 2010 season. James Franklin left Vanderbilt after the 2013 season. Mark Richt, Gary Pinkel and Steve Spurrier all left during or after the 2015 season. That’s a lot of wins and three national championships gone to other programs or retirement. Left in the wake are programs in transition and rebuilds. The SEC West has been a model of coaching stability in comparison.

LSU will either remove the interim tag from Ed Orgeron or hire a new head coach after the season, but the only coach in recent memory that left the SEC West to find success elsewhere is Bobby Petrino, and his departure wasn’t because of on-field failures.

So when the SEC East recovers, it will be behind the recruiting and coaching talents of McElwain, Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp and whoever replaces Butch Jones at Tennessee (it’s going to happen Vols fans, you know it).

There might not be a Nick Saban in that bunch, but there are at least a couple of his former assistants, so let’s give them a chance.

KENTUCKY FAILS AT WINNING TIME

Whether you’re a fan of the NBA or not, if you haven’t seen the ESPN 30 for 30 on Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, I suggest you do because it was highly entertaining.

The documentary was basically about how Miller, one of the great clutch shooters in NBA history, stepped up his game at “winning time,” especially against the New York Knicks.

Kentucky had its winning time moment this past week against Georgia. A win would have put the Wildcats in a first-place tie with Florida for the SEC East (yeah, yeah) and improved their chances of winning the division with a game left against Tennessee.

The Wildcats, trailing by a field goal, had a 1st-and-goal at the Bulldogs’ 9-yard line with 4:04 remaining. Benny Snell Jr. had taken seven carries on the first nine plays of the drive, and Georgia smartly decided to load the box to bare down at the goal line.

Kentucky hadn’t asked quarterback Stephen Johnson to do a ton this game, but he did complete a 25-yarder to Dorian Baker on a third down earlier in the drive. With Georgia playing their safeties up, this was the time to go for some play-action or a run-pass option with Johnson with instructions to throw it away if it isn’t there.

Instead, the Wildcats went to Snell twice and gained a total of two yards. Facing a 3rd-and-goal at the 7, the percentages of Johnson completing a pass were down considerably, and the play misfired. Kentucky took a game-tying field goal, and Georgia predictably won with a field goal at the buzzer.

When they had the chance to do something special, Kentucky football failed to grab the brass ring.

WILL TENNESSEE TURF BUTCH JONES?

Kentucky and Florida losing had to be music to Butch Jones’ ears. His Vols are still very much in the hunt for the SEC East and a second beatdown from Alabama.

Tennessee’s mission is simple: Beat Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt and hope Florida loses to South Carolina or LSU, and they are in.

Lose any one of those next three games and Butch would likely be out. Who would Tennessee look to replace him? Hard to say, but I have a belief they would go all in on a guy that sounds like “Dom Sherman”.

TO BURN A REDSHIRT

Florida and Ole Miss have some questions to answer this week. Do they burn redshirts on true freshmen quarterbacks or wait?

Ole Miss ran into this problem when Chad Kelly suffered a season-ending injury in the Rebels’ 37-27 win against Georgia Southern. Five-star prospect Shea Patterson has been the understudy this year waiting to take his place at the top of the depth chart next year.

The Rebels are 4-5 with games against Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State remaining. Ole Miss needs two wins to be bowl-eligible and is so bad on defense it would need someone behind center that could put points on the board.

Florida is 7-2 and still has a chance to win the SEC East and earn a beating from Alabama itself. Luke Del Rio isn’t injured, but he isn’t very good either.

(UPDATE: He’s “injured” *wink wink* *nudge nudge* His timetable is the same as Drew Barker’s).

So Florida can either go with Del Rio one-half wonder Austin Appleby or remove the protective covers off of Feleipe Franks or Kyle Trask. Right now, it looks like McElwain will go with Appleby.

And he’s right. Florida isn’t playing for a championship, and Franks looked lost in the spring game. Trask looked a lot better but is a high-school backup QB ready for a South Carolina, LSU and FSU to end the season? Probably not. No need to waste those guys now.

Ole Miss is more complicated. I felt like Patterson should have been playing at certain points this season anyway to prepare for next season. There were plenty of opportunities for Patterson to get good in-game reps since he’s the future. The coaching staff decided to go another route.

John has a point, but I believe Patterson is going to play at Ole Miss for the next three seasons either way. He doesn’t have Jameis Winston-type talent in my opinion, and he seems to be a kid with a good head on his shoulders, so he’d see the benefits of staying through his redshirt junior season if needed.

If it’s really important for Ole Miss to go to a bowl, any bowl, I would play him. If they just want the 2016 season to end as soon as possible, they should keep the redshirt on him at this point. Either way, I think they have made this decision a lot harder than it should have been.