The Monday morning meltdown (Sec mean tweets edition)
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
As we know, in SEC football, It Just Means More! And that goes for both the glory and the failure!
Week 6 brought the chaos of a college football season that we have been waiting for. Over the full week’s schedule five of the top 11 teams (as ranked by the AP) fell to defeat, with four of these teams beaten by unranked opponents. It was a crazy weekend of football and exactly why we all love the college game so much. The biggest shock of Saturday was #1 ranked Alabama falling to Vanderbilt. Vandy hasn’t beaten Alabama in over 40 years and, in fact, this was the Commodores first win over an AP ranked top 5 team in program HISTORY!
While the rest of the SEC was sniggering in the background, Sam Pittman’s hugely unfancied Razorbacks took down the very much fancied Tennessee Vols. Which means that the SEC is in chaos. I also haven’t mentioned the absolute shellacking that the Texas Aggies gave top ten Missouri in what was the weekends only match between ranked teams.
So this Monday the Meltdown is REAL my friends. It is R.E.A.L!
So, onto the madness of the meltdown. Read on MacDuff…..
Heroes to Zeros
This time last week the Alabama Crimson Tide were sitting at the very top of college football, looking down at the rest. Last Saturday we witnessed perhaps one of, if not the greatest football matches in college football history, when Alabama beat out Georgia.
The plaudits ran thick and fast for the Crimson Tide who everyone had crowned National Champions albeit several months early.
But, what a difference a week makes and as I wrote in my introduction, the Vanderbilt Commodores made history beating an AP top 5 ranked team for the first time in the School’s history.
While the mean tweets focus a lot on the deficiencies of an Alabama team, this is not to be disingenuous to a fantastic Vanderbilt team. Under Clark Lea, gone are the days of the Commodores being the whipping boys of the SEC. Led by their talismanic and Manziel fanboy, Diego Pavia, the Dores are a great team to watch.
Even with Alabama fans packing out the First Bank stadium in Nashville to make it a quasi-home game for the Crimson Tide, much was expected and little was delivered.
So the criticism was fierce but at times humorous. Of course the comparisons to Coach Saban were there – that was an obvious one. But apparently Bama fans didn’t like DeBoer’s choice of game time wardrobe? Yup, it was the mans choice of t-shirt which contributed to the Tide’s defeat! Sheesh!
Every game for Bama now is a must win with the road game in Knoxville on October 19th a must win for both teams!
Rocky bottom!
Speaking of the Tennessee Vols, they were heavy favourites to beat an inconsistent Arkansas team.
With Alabama and Georgia slugging it out the week before, the Vols were almost flying under the radar as they made it to 5-0 by beating Oklahoma. Confidence in Knoxville had been growing week after week and going into the Razorbacks game they very much fancied their chances of a resounding victory.
However, Tennessee just couldn’t kill off the Razorbacks and a fourth quarter flurry completed a comeback for the Hogs giving them their first win over a Top 5 ranked team since 1999.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel had received a lot of praise for building what is one of college footballs most explosive offenses. However, the Arkansas defense stepped up in this game and allowed the Vols only 332 yards of total offense.
Like Alabama and Georgia, Tennessee’s fans are fierce and don’t hold back. While there is no question of Josh Heupel’s job security that does not immunise him from criticism! Safe to say that Twitter/ X is only the appetiser to those callers on the Finebaum show on Monday!
Up next for Tennessee are the Gators who travel to Knoxville. While the Gators early season form had been poor a better showing against UCF will have built some confidence. But, with the showdown against Alabama looming in a couple of weeks time, the Vols cannot afford any more slip ups! Pressure is on!
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.