I don’t know about a National Title this year, or our QB and offensive line situation next year, but the future is bright.

ive been saying this for a while.

This season will be remembered for what happens over the next few seasons. The thing that should really scare the rest of the SEC is that this will be probably the least talented team Alabama will field in awhile. I am not saying this will be the worst team that we will produce over the next few seasons, because I do not remotely believe that. It is amazing the confidence and togetherness that this team displays.

There are a total of NINE seniors on the entire two deep roster. Some of these guys do not even see significant playing time. We have played the second most freshmen out of any team in the country. I know these are all points that we have made before, but it is simply amazing to think about.

I am with everyone else. Let’s beat the hell out of Auburn; I am taking the over in that game!

“There is one thing and one thing only I ask of this team explicitly – beat the beejesus out of Auburn. Everything else, is just cream.”

was my favorite part. I completely agree with the spirit of this post. I’m unbearably sad this season is almost over, and I don’t want to think about anything other than handing Auburn’s ass to them next weekend. I’m enjoying the hell out of this year. It’s been a long, cold winter of Alabama fandom the last few years, so I, for one, am going to relish this awesome season as long as it lasts.

…that this is such a down year for the SEC. 5 teams are up, 6 teams are down, and I still can’t tell about UGA. They have only lost to the #1 and #4 teams in the BCS and were seriously wounded (physically and psychologically) by the beating we put on them.

It looks like the conference may be a little down, but I’ll hold my opinion until after the bowls…especially those that may match the SEC and Big 12. Right now, I’m taking your advice and soaking up this season…and focusing on beating the boogs. RMFTR.

but it’s far from a terrible conference. If we had to play through a conference schedule again at this point the only conference I would be more afraid of is the big 12. And lets not forget that while the SEC may be down this year, Alabama looks in good shape to run through the regular season unbeaten which is something that none of the recent SEC national championship teams have done. And with 3 different teams that all consider us to be their main rival, that’s not a small feat.

We have 2 teams ranked in the top 5 (Alabama & Florida). Georgia is a pretty solid team. They’ve been hit pretty hard with injuries and have had a couple of bad games, but still solid. LSU is a pretty good team, but they have a huge consistency problem and terrible QB play. Ole Miss is a solid team. They beat Florida and a couple of their losses were very close ones against great teams. Kentucky could have been a quality team, but they were hurt by a ridiculous number of injuries.

What’s really hurting the perception of our league is Tennessee and Auburn. But other conferences have their versions of Tennessee and Auburn. Look at the Big 10. Michigan is having its worst season ever. Even though Notre Dame is an independent, they are rivals and play against Big 10 teams. Notre Dame is still terrible (though improved from last year). The Pac 10 has two of the worst teams in football. UCLA is terrible. Oregon State is poised to win the conference and is 7-3 with a loss to Stanford and a 31 point beat down by Penn State.

The ACC might average out to be the best conference, but they don’t have any dominant teams.

This is a great post about something that is very relevant, and that basically asks the question “is Bama good this year because everyone else is down?”

But the more relevant question might actually be “is everyone else down because Bama is good?”

If you look at Bama’s dominance through SEC history, it has always come during periods where the rest of the conference is weak (e.g. 60’s and 70’s), but the periods of SEC conference dominance come when Bama is weak (e.g ‘50s, mid to late ’80s, and certainly the ’00s). As much as I love to promote SEC pride and dominance, the reality is that our rivals are so pre-occupied with beating Bama, that they fall in disarray when they can’t.

It takes both hands to count how many coaches were cycled through LSU, Auburn, Tennessee, and a lesser extend Miss St precisely because they could not beat Alabama during the 70’s. Dooley stuck around at Georgia by the skin of his teeth (pre-Herschel) simply because he did not have to play us every year, and when he did (‘76) it was our one down year in the ’70’s. I know that was a long time ago, but Fulmer bought himself additional years at Tennessee by getting us on probation.

Sure, let the pundits belittle this team’s accomplishments, because it sets us up very well for the SECG, but don’t overlook the fact that it has ALWAYS been about beating Bama for Tennessee, Auburn, and LSU. Maybe I drank too much kool-aid, but I really think Saban’s dominant recruiting class at a program that knows how to dominate has been a big factor in bringing about the disarray at our rival programs.

At then end of the day, the rest of the SEC will look weak when we pound on them, and that’s just fine with me. It’s part of The Process.

It’s not a part of the “plan”, kleph, it’s a part of the process.

PS: “Holiday.” One ‘l’… how my Mom is ever going to find this stuff if y’all keep misspelling my name is beyond me.

This post and related commentary are why I love this blog, guys. Well thought out, reasonable and rational, and intelligently communicated. Makes me even more proud to be a Bama fan!

One thing I will add, though, is that we should probably wait until after the bowls to decide which conference is down and which one is up. For the most part, all the conferences beat each other up during the regular season. And, it’s only in the bowls when we get a chance to go at each other that we see which conference is really tougher. I, for one, think we’ll do just fine.

Roll Tide!

and no one points out that Troy is actually a pretty good football team. Their only losses are to Ohio State, Oklahoma State, ULM (us last year), and now LSU. So three out of the four teams theyve lost to were ranked in the top ten at some point last year, and the other they lost to when they were down to third string QB, 2nd string ROLB, 2nd string OL, missing their no 1 WR and it still came down to just a missed field goal.

Troy blew out Oklahoma State last year, almost beat FSU two years ago, put 31 pts on UF’s starters last year, went late into the 4th quarter with UGA last year, toe-to-toe with Arkansas last year, nearly beat LSU in 04 (24-20 final), beat Miss St, beat Mizzou….

I mean yeah, it wouldve been an upset, but maybe you guys just havent been paying attention. Troy is a darn good team and the only reason teams like UGA and LSU haven’t already loss to them is because they dont have much depth and the Sun Belt’s self imposed roster limitations for away games.

and there’s less, much less, talk about this being a “down” season for the SEC. You’re hearing a lot of that (so much that it’s become a meme) mostly because national pundits DO NOT WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE that Alabama deserves its rank. If you denigrate the SEC, you denigrate the team at the top of the SEC, which is most of the point of all of this (at least at ESPN!)

Let’s play what if. If Auburn has steamrolled Georgia (who had beaten every other team they played including Florida) and cruised to a relatively easy victory over every opponent they faced, and they were ranked #1, and Georgia was ranked #4, would we be hearing all this talk? No, because everyone expected Auburn and Georgia to be good, and when they weren’t everyone repeated “Well, the top teams of the SEC aren’t as good as we thought this year, that’s all.”

Instead Alabama and Florida are great, and no one wants to stand up and say “Hey, these are two of the best teams in the country! They could beat any team they faced right now!” No, it’s instead a lot of “Alabama is winning in a down year” nonsense.

On another note, who has the Big 12 played this year besides each other? Their top teams only have the boast that they have beaten a lot of really, really bad big 12 teams. What top non-conference teams has the entire slate of them beaten? I looked, and didn’t find a single top 25 (currently ranked) team that any of them have beaten. So why no talk about a down Big 12 year? What do they have to boast of??

The real story in the SEC is that some teams we thought were going to be great aren’t, and some we thought were going to be just ok are great. Besides that, we have good, bad, and ugly teams, but you cannot make the case that overall the conference is bad.

This was a well thought out and well researched post. I’m hoping we see some great match-ups in the bowl games to help determine the question of conference superiority. I will be surprised if the SEC dominates the bowls as in previous years, but I think even the lower tier SEC teams will be competitive.

Regarding the LSU-Troy game, it is true that Troy has a good team. I thought at first that an upset would be awesome. Then WE could say LSU loses to a lot of teams from Alabama. However, I doubt our coach would ever say something so classless. My rational mind then took over and I knew it would be better for us if LSU got the W.

This season has gone so fast. I see the headlines of “Alabama #1” and “Alabama Heading to the SEC Championship Game” and it still seems unreal. It’s almost been hard to savor the success because there’s always the next game to concentrate on. We’ve had wrongs to right and streaks to break. A couple more streaks to break BAMA fans and as Pete Holiday said “we will be where we are SUPPOSED to be”. I think the true enjoyment of this season will come later when we think back on what we saw on the field, what this team accomplished and most of all, how this team made us feel – that once again Alabama is “King of the World”.

…still wake me screaming in the middle of the night.

Florida and Alabama is all we have. The reason why we never have a SEC Championship showdown between top 5 teams like this year is because the SEC is normally so good from top to bottom.

might be a little down, I agree with what StarStarr said.

Blockquoted paragraphBut the more relevant question might actually be "is everyone else down because Bama is good?" bq. Blockquoted paragraph

Some of our rivals do not look as good because Florida and Alabama have been so dominant. If we had two or three losses in conference, some of those opponents would have an extra win or two, which, combined with a little momentum/confidence (never overlook the human factor, guys) could mean an extra win or two for those teams.

Also, the SEC does have the best out of conference record of any major conference. I know you can argue all night about the quality of the out of conference opponents, but that’s worth a little something. We have eight bowl eligible teams; last year we had nine, but we didn’t have a team with fewer than two conference losses. I don’t know if it would be possible for the conference to be balanced with an 11-0 team and a 9-1 team leading the respective branches.

Look at the bright side. Auburn, LSU, and Tennessee, the THREE BIGGEST BENEFICIARIES OF OUR PROBATION/PROBLEMS/STRUGGLES/ETC. have returned to earth.

Beat Auburn!!!

…with your overall message, I should point out that we actually had ten bowl-eligible teams last year (SC had nowhere to go ‘cause the Independence Bowl chose us). However, Arkansas and Auburn aren’t dead yet…they just look dead.