It's Only SEC (but I like it....)
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
week 12
Unless you are Lane Kiffin, stress levels in SEC football have gone through the roof this week!
Georgia football plummeted down the rankings, leaving only three SEC football teams in the rankings, which has upset many!
But here we are in Week 12, with a huge must-win game between the Bulldogs and Vols this Saturday!
So, welcome y’all to our weekly round-up of life in the Southeastern Conference.
Here are this week’s headlines….let’s get started!
this weeks sec headlines
They think its all over
Oxford, mS
In addition to upsetting all of college football, the Ole Miss Rebels’ stunning victory over the Georgia Bulldogs tells us that Lane Kiffin’s team is BACK!
While many predicted a close game with Georgia being favourites, it was the commanding matter in which the Rebels took the Bulldogs apart that stunned onlookers.
So it was no great surprise that there was a lot of news coming out of Oxford this week. Most of which was good, but not all.
there’s fans on the field!
Firstly, the SEC penalised the Rebel fans’ exuberance Saturday before and after the final whistle. With 16 seconds left on the clock Saturday, Ole Miss fans stormed the field, believing the game was over. It was not, and they were ushered off the field only to return with the very next play, which thankfully ended the game.
After the game, Kiffin joked that the school “might be fined twice…because they actually stormed it twice,” which raised a laugh during the post-game press conference.
However, mid-week, the laughs turned to frowns after the SEC fined Ole Miss twice for the on—and off-field behaviour. The SEC decided to fine the Rebs $100k for the first field rush and then a further $250k for the post-game rush. As with other fines handed out by the SEC, the money goes to the opposing team, with Georgia now $350k better off.
“we’ve been in the Playoffs for three weeks”
Aside from overly exuberant fans, things were looking good for Kiffin and his team—the victory over Georgia jettisons Ole Miss back into the play-off discussion. With games over Florida and Mississippi State after this week’s bye, the Rebs are staring at a 10-2 season. With chaos all over the SEC, a two-loss team likely gets into a tie-break scenario as to who plays in the Championship game.
This is quite a turnaround for the Rebels, but there is still work to do. This week, the Rebs have a bye week before heading into the Swamp to play Florida, before the Hail State Bulldogs head across the state to Oxford to fight for the Egg Bowl.
I spoke to Coach Kiffin during the SEC head coach’s teleconference this week. With a bye week before heading into the Swamp to play Florida, I asked Kiffin about how he maintains the intensity and momentum from the Georgia game through the bye week.
“I think there’s stuff going around, the playoff’ and everything which create a lot of momentum what with the rankings and all that” said Kiffin who was in a buoyant mood.
“I say momentum but it’s really excitement for players” continued the Ole Miss head coach.
“You know they got a taste of playing a really good team and like I’ve said in the last three games we’ve been in the playoffs. Losing both of those games in the last second the way we did, we put ourselves in a must win situation. So we’ve really been in the playoff’s for a while. There’s a lot of excitement around that”.
The season has been resurrected for Ole Miss, and they can, to some degree, control their own destiny. However, no more slip-ups for the Rebels.
Kalen DeBoer talks to the touchdown
Tuscaloosa, AL
No one ever thought this season in Tuscaloosa was going to be a quiet one. Whatever Kalen DeBoer achieved in his first season at Alabama was going to be a major talking point. You don’t take over from the G.O.A.T. in a quiet and unassuming manner. However, that is exactly DeBoer’s demeanour. He isn’t a shout-from-the-rooftops kinda guy.
But at times, Alabama fans have mistaken that soft, quiet Midwestern tone for weakness, and they have been found out for doing so.
Just at points when Crimson Tide fans have lost their collective minds – Vanderbilt and Tennessee were the peaks of their madness – DeBoer has hit back. And to such an extent that Alabama is now back in the hunt for a college football playoff position, which frankly seemed unlikely after that defeat to the Commodores.
It’s fair to say that DeBoer’s first season in the SEC has been a rollercoaster ride. So I was curious to find out how the Alabama head coach has found his debut season in college football’s premier conference. Lo and behold, the SEC midweek teleconference with head coaches gave me such an opportunity. So I asked DeBoer that very question.
“The SEC has been around for a while now, so you know even from afar that there are a lot of good teams and that each week you’re going to have to bring your A-game,” said DeBoer in response to my question.
“That’s certainly been the case this year. You know a lot of teams have been ranked when we played them and even these ones that aren’t (ranked) are well coached and every game has been physical and highly contested. Week after week, not just in one month – the month of November or the month of October its an all season long type of thing” said DeBoer
But what about the push now to the end of the season? It all gets very serious from here on in, but with the heavy defeat of LSU, Alabama fans are expectant.
“We’ve done a good job of getting some guys back and getting healthier even tho’ there are a couple that we have lost for the season. Just overall the health of our team is slowly improving which I think leads to production on the field being at the level its at. And that’s what you need.
I think you need to continue to improve and have that edge to you, have a couple of breaks go your way and stay healthy. So going into these last few games that’s going to continue to be key”.
cheers to Atlanta
Atlanta, GA
The SEC Championship game will be held at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta on December 7th.
This is not unusual, as the stadium has been the host to the Championship game since 2017. However, what will be different this year is that fans inside the stadium will be able to buy and drink beer during the game.
While the SEC has permitted alcohol sales since 2019, schools have generally been slow to adopt the practice. In fact, two schools, Georgia and Auburn, still don’t sell alcohol during games.
And up until this year, neither did Mercedes Benz during the SEC Championship game. However, per a report from Justin Elder of Fox 5 Sports in Atlanta, this is set to change on December 7th.
Ooh, imagine the lines of LSU, Tennessee, Alabama, or Texas fans on December 7th. Cheers!
Playoff Controversy!
Grapevine, TX
Let’s be honest. The Playoff rankings are always highly debated. It’s the nature of the beast.
But this week, those in SEC land, south of the Mason-Dixon line, were left scratching their heads and unsurprisingly angry.
Sure, results in the SEC have been wild. The conference is competitive and has been highly so this season. Meaning now there are no undefeated SEC teams which has had a detrimental impact on the rankings. Texas remains the sole SEC team in the top 5 with Tennessee (#7) & Alabama (#10) being the only other conference teams in the top 10. Most surprising was the fall from grace bequeathed on Georgia from the committee following their defeat to Ole Miss. The Dawgs fell from #3 to #12 this week. It is well documented that Georgia has the toughest schedule in CFB this year, travelling to Alabama, Texas and Ole Miss. Indeed, the Dawgs beat third-ranked Texas in Austin to give them that signature win.
Miami falls but not far
But what raised eyebrows was Miami’s fall from #4 to #9 on the back of their defeat to unranked Georgia Tech. Miami has struggled in recent weeks but has been able to pull out wins thanks to the play of their superstar quarterback, Cam Ward. On Saturday, Ward couldn’t pull the Hurricanes out of a hole, and their unbeaten season was over. Surely that loss was damaging to the extent they fell below Georgia? Well, the committee says no.
Also confusing is the rise in ranking of Penn State and Indiana, whose strength of schedule has been challenged. Neither has notable wins on their resumes, with the Nittany Lions needing overtime to overcome a hugely disappointing USC.
Sankey speaks out
So, as you can imagine, those within SEC confines have had some angry words to say.
Commissioner Greg Sankey, who spoke on the Finebaum show, talked about the strength of the conference.
“the strength of our teams & the number of teams that we have had ranked throughout the year is a sign of respect. I believe that the loss column is more about the depth of talent and the strength of competition than necessarily about the team that bears that loss because some of these have been incredibly close”.
Perhaps most critical of Georgia’s fall from grace was the host of College Gameday, Race Davis.
“well if you play Georgia’s schedule and you lose two – you’re out. Or you lose three and Tennessee kicks a 62 yard field goal and beats you between the hedges – you are done, done, done. If that’s what you are saying you have a right to say it.
But I’m not here to listen to you when you start saying “hey SEC, play nine games, hey I don’t want you to play double directional state Georgia. I want you to play Clemson! You can’t have it both ways, man.
If you’re going to say that the 100th ranked schedule is number 5 and you’re good with that, you agree with it, you think that’s as it should be. And the Number one schedule is not worthy of the playoffs then I don’t want to hear the other stuff”.
Which I think sums it up quite nicely, Rece. Well said.
Mississippi road trip diaries
Starkville, MS
If you have read these pages for any time you know about my love for the South. And you probably know that I was in the Deep South in October to watch Arkansas travel into Starkville to play Mississippi State.
I wrote some road trip diaries while I ws there and have published them this week on the Touchdown. So in a shameless plug and in case you missed them & haven’t read them yet, here are the links to each piece below.
Mississippi Road Trip Diaries Part 1
Mississippi Road Trip Diaries Part 2
Mississippi Road Trip Diaries Part 3
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.