We’re all still in shock over the miraculous weekend of college football that propelled Alabama back into the national championship picture. The SEC East picture cleared up while the West will be decided, one way or the other next weekend. Here’s what we learned about Alabama and the rest of the SEC after this crazy Saturday.
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Alabama still has to win. This was one of the most miraculous weekends this Tide fan has ever seen. Literally every single thing that Alabama needed to happen for the Tide to get a shot at the BCS title did happen. But getting a shot isn’t the same as winning the title, and nobody knows that right now better than Auburn. A strong showing in a loss – or heaven forbid, a fluky, insanely lucky win – and they deny Alabama that shot. As much as it ever was, the Iron Bowl is Auburn’s entire season, and they will play their guts out Saturday.
All the exulting by the fans over this crazy weekend is expected. But seeing Alabama’s players celebrating is troubling. Sure they’re human, but if they don’t put this weekend past them now and focus on Auburn, all these dominoes will have fallen for nothing.
Houston Nutt has his resume ready. After LSU showed some late-game mercy to the hapless Rebels, Nutt implored Les Miles to beat his old employers, Arkansas. Could Houston be angling for a job as the Bayou Bengal’s quarterbacks coach? Will Jordan Jefferson run the Wild Cajun next season? Nah…
Urban Meyer is not on Will Muschamp’s Christmas card list. Watching Florida’s utter collapse has Gator fans questioning the hiring of their intense head coach. Muschamp is doing his best to transition Florida to a hard-nosed SEC team with the thin PAC-12 talent Urban Meyer left him. Meanwhile, Meyer is making his most recent miraculous health recovery, just in time to ride in on a white horse to save Ohio State.
Muschamp was gracious when asked about Meyer’s triumphant return, but his postgame comments seemed to drip with sarcasm: “I just — with his deteriorating health there and his family, as important as that is to him, I wouldn’t think he would. But, again, that’s just my opinion.”
Arkansas beats Georgia for Most Improved. After getting crushed by Alabama and exposed as a team that doesn’t play defense, the Razorbacks buckled down and pummeled everyone else on their schedule. Sure, in many cases they were beating teams that had already been steamrolled by either LSU or Alabama, but they’ve won their way into the national championship argument.
Georgia, meanwhile, has had a similar resurrection after starting the season 0-2. Mark Richt has climbed off the hot seat and back into the SEC Championship game. The SEC East has increasingly become the second tier in the conference, however, and its division champ is merely the team that win lose the conference title every year. If most improved team in the SEC got a trophy, we’d give the nod to the Hawgs, not the Dawgs.
Tennessee is still Tennessee and Vandy is still Vandy. Derek Shula Dooley would be winless in the SEC this season if not for some home cooking against the Commodores. But Vanderbilt may have finally found themselves an SEC coach. He had Vandy playing lights out, and even dropped the MF bomb on Volunteer fans after the loss. Welcome to the conference, Vanderbilt.