Honestly, it feels like just yesterday that I was at the Peach Bowl watching Ohio State’s kick sail left as the clock struck midnight on the Buckeyes’ season, as well as the Year 2022.

OK, I lied. That doesn’t feel like yesterday. Imagine if days felt 365 times longer than they were. Hard pass.

The year 2023 came and went, and to no one’s surprise, there was no shortage of memorable moments. Duh. It’s the SEC. Titles were won and dreams were shattered.

Here are the 10 best moments from 2023:

Just missed the cut …

Arkansas track and field swept the NCAA men’s and women’s indoor track titles, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since 2016. Speaking of the Hogs, Bobby Petrino’s return to the SEC was glorious, and fittingly, Petrino was hired by 2 SEC programs in 2023. Bless the college football gods for that. Mizzou’s 10-2 regular season on the gridiron deserved to be celebrated, especially after dopes like me projected the Tigers to go 6-6.

On that note … here are the moments (or really the stories) that made the cut in 2023:

10. Mississippi State honors the late Mike Leach in Tampa

The second day of 2023 was a special one for Mississippi State. Weeks after Leach died, the Bulldogs were tasked with putting the pieces together and playing in the ReliaQuest Bowl. In the only stadium with an actual pirate ship, “The Pirate” was honored by his team with special helmets, flags and above all else, a comeback victory against Illinois. Granted, scoring 1 offensive touchdown wasn’t the best way to honor Leach, but a heavy-hearted Mississippi State squad rallied after an emotional few weeks.

9. Brandon Miller becomes a household name

Part of that was because of his rise as one of the best players in college basketball, and part of that was because of his alleged role in a capital murder case that involved teammate Darius Miles. Investigators said Miller brought the gun that was used to kill 23-year-old Jamea Harris.

Miller was the best player on the No. 1 team in the country — a place it hadn’t been in 20 years — at the time that Nate Oats made the controversial comments about him not being suspended because, Oats said, Miller was just “in the wrong spot at the wrong time.”

Miller became a polarizing subject in the sports world as he led the Tide to an SEC Championship and a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Had Miller been able to lead Alabama past San Diego State in the Sweet 16, the story would’ve taken on an even greater scope.

8. Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews make history by going 1-2 in the MLB Draft

No set of teammates — high school or college — had ever gone 1-2 in the MLB Draft. That is, until LSU’s dynamic duo accomplished that feat in 2023. You could argue that Skenes had the best season ever for a college pitcher. Not only did he break LSU’s single-season strikeouts record en route to the National Pitcher of the Year Award, but he was also named the Most Outstanding Player of the College World Series for the national champs. Skenes, a transfer from Air Force, became the first player since Rick Monday in 1965 to win the College World Series and go No. 1 overall in the same year.

Skenes and Crews were so dominant that they earned multiple spots on this list (more on that in a bit).

7. 4th-and-31

A play that’ll live in Iron Bowl lore, it was. No, it wasn’t quite Kick-6, and sure, Jalen Milroe probably doesn’t complete that all-or-nothing pass to Isaiah Bond if Auburn simply rushes 4 instead of 2, but let’s not dismiss the connection it took to make that play happen. “Gravedigger” is not a Hail Mary. Bond kept himself alive and Milroe threw with such precision that top Auburn corner DJ James was out of position just because of 1 step.

Yep. That could very well be at the start of the Alabama championship DVD.

6. Texas A&M fires Jimbo Fisher with a historic $77 million buyout

I never thought we’d see the day in which a program agreed to pay someone $30 million not to work. After all, Gus Malzahn received the biggest buyout ever for a fired head coach at $21.5 million. The fact that Fisher’s buyout ended up being more than 3.5 times that is still mind-boggling. Fisher won 45 games during his 6 seasons at Texas A&M, and by the time those annual $7 million checks finally stop rolling in, he’ll have made around $117.5 million. That’s about $2.6 million per win.

Even for the SEC, Fisher’s staggering figures will stand the test of time. Perhaps it’ll serve as a cautionary tale that ultimately burst the buyout bubble … here’s hoping.

5. Alabama ends Georgia’s 3-peat bid in the SEC Championship

Sorry, Georgia fans. When you win an SEC record 29 consecutive games, that first loss in 2 years hits a bit differently. Alabama rolled into Atlanta, and just as it has in each of the past 15 years in the Georgia Dome/Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it walked out victorious. Jalen Milroe’s maturation was on full display, and the prolific Georgia offense was held in check. Nick Saban improved to 5-1 against Kirby Smart, and most important, the Tide kept national championship hopes alive by dethroning the 2-time defending champs.

4. Jayden Daniels wins the Heisman Trophy

For the 4th time in the past 5 years, an SEC player won college football’s top individual honor. For the 2nd time in the past 5 years, it was an LSU quarterback. Who could’ve predicted that back in 2018? And shoot, who could’ve predicted at the start of 2023 that Jayden Daniels would actually be worthy of side-by-side comparisons to Joe Burrow?

It was a wild year for Daniels, who followed the 2016 Lamar Jackson/2007 Tim Tebow path of putting up ridiculous numbers as dual-threat quarterbacks for a 3-loss team. Daniels deserved a better defense, but in a way, it allowed him to stay in games and keep making big-time plays. If he had thanked the LSU defense at his Heisman ceremony, I would’ve nodded along.

3. LSU takes over Omaha with Jell-O shots and dingers

Which feat was more impressive — beating Florida 18-4 in Game 3 to clinch the College World Series or having a fanbase consume 68,888 Jell-O shots in 1 establishment over 2 weeks? I’m leaning toward the latter (Florida was in second place there, as well, with 4,136 Jell-O shots at Rocco’s). What we saw from the aforementioned Skenes, Crews and Tommy “Tanks” White was also the stuff of legend. The Tigers won 3 consecutive elimination games, which culminated with a walk-off blast from White to clinch a spot in the College World Series.

How many Jell-O shots did that swing add to LSU’s 2-week total? A lot. It still probably paled in comparison to taking down rival Florida to clinch the program’s 7th NCAA title.

2. Angel Reese leads LSU past Caitlin Clark for a national championship

In a game that smashed the previous ratings record with an average of 9.9 million viewers across ABC/ESPN2 platforms, LSU-Iowa was a monumental day for the history of women’s basketball, and not just because the Tigers won their first national championship in just the second season of the Kim Mulkey era. We had superstars, inconsistent officiating, trash talk, high-level play, etc. Reese’s “can’t see me” celebration trolling Clark was met with controversy. The Reese-Clark battle became the talk of the sports world. It helped that both stars were set to return to college for another season.

Will we get a sequel in 2024? Here’s hoping.

1. 65-7

I know, I know. The game was a snooze fest. But it’s a credit to Georgia that a national championship game in a 4-team Playoff era was that lopsided. The feat is why this is worthy of being No. 1. Kirby Smart led Georgia to its first national championship in 41 years, lost 15 players to the NFL Draft and then repeated with a perfect season with the most lopsided bowl result ever. No big deal.

It’s not supposed to be as easy as Georgia made it look. Like, having starters eating chicken wings on the sideline at the start of the 4th quarter of a national championship isn’t normal. Even though there were moments like Mizzou and Ohio State in which the Dawgs were forced to play 60 minutes, let’s not ignore the fact that the Dawgs will forever hold the distinction as the lone team to repeat in the 4-team Playoff era.

The Dawgs’ 3-peat bid came up short, but it’s quite the flex to drop a “65-7” reference whenever someone mentions anything from the 2023 season.