Random Thoughts From Around The SEC

i watched fla-ga and saw more offense generated than we exhibited throughout october. the one-armed catches, hitting receivers on the run, using the pass to open rushing lanes, receivers overcoming double coverage. and i’m not just talking about fla!

i hope this has been a good restful bye week for bama. we’ll need to return with renewed energy, fresh insight, and dedication to excel. i can’t figure how our passing game has been so poor when we have a heisman trophy candidate running back that keeps backers from overplaying the pass.

julio HAS to step up! we continually mourn how we haven’t used him properly, but we’ve seen him drop catch-able balls — several times. lots rests on him since overplaying julio will open other receivers and we have good ones. can you believe the leading receiver presently is a tight end?

bama has all the pieces to blow people out and warrant a run at the nc. so far stupid, meaningless penalties, questionable calls and easily fixed errors (remember after VT when we all thought it could be fixed so easily?) has hindered us looking like nc contenders.

gut check time is here.

that kiffin was going to have his team wear those godawful black practice squad jerseys at BDS if he got the ok to wear home attire. once again, thank you mal moore for keeping this atrocity from coming to pass.

We played UGA during the Shula years?

Pretty ugly game

by UT. This is not the team that lost to UCLA. I don’t like Kiffin one bit and I don’t think he will lead them to a NC or anything like that, but they are clearly the #2 in the East and should be a solid #2 for a while now as UGA and SC both have serious coaching problems. Good thing we have Saban or we could be entering into a time when UT dominates us. UGA is already in that time. Still Kiffin will not be able to beat UF in the East as long as UM is there. And, he ain’t going anywhere.

And I do not think UGA will get rid of Richt this year or next as they settle into being a 6-6 team. For being such a great, clean Christian person etc. his team is the most undisciplined bunch in the SEC.

Tebow’s takes ages. Once he picks his receiver, he dips that ball to his waist and then ferris-wheels it over to the receiver. Granted, the ball comes out quite fast when it does, but you have to think if he tries any passes other than deep balls to open receivers, someone should be able to jump in front of them.

but nothing special. I swear to christ half of that Dawg team wouldn’t play for any coach who actually demands effort, absolute give up runs deep in their spines (If you need proof, go back and look at Joe Cox gift-wrapping the tipped ball interception for instance). Florida can be ran on, right up the gut, and they can be challenged in the secondary. I want a piece of these jokers in the worst possible way.

When you do the meltdown post, could you please include Auburn? I want to hear more about how Chizik is now the next Pat Dye and how they are back because they are so dominate. You know, compared to last week when they all wanted him gone.

That ole miss won’t be bowl eligible after next week…they will have to beat one more d-1 school. I hope it comes down to the end of the season, and having to win the egg bowl to go to the postseason.

1) Auburn. This season should be credited to Malzahn. He’s the reason they’re setting semi-pretty at six wins. He’s also the reason they’re sitting ugly with three losses. If Chizik had hired a Dave Rader, Mike Bobo, or anyone of that caliber, he’d be lucky to have one win this year. When Malzahn leaves, the truth will be revealed.

2) LSU. I hate to say it, but I honestly think they’re going to walk out of Bryant-Denny Saturday as victors. The difference maker in the game will be the fact that their offense will score touchdowns opposed to our offense only scoring off of field goals. I do think we’ll out-play them, but failure to capitalize on touchdowns will ultimately cost us the game. HOWEVER, if we can win the next three, we’ll still be in ATL because I don’t believe LSU will win out the rest of their conference games after us.

3) USCe. People can talk about their usual late season meltdown, and or 6-6 finish all they want, but if Spurrier leaves that program, three years after his departure, they’ll be wishing they were a 6-6 program again.

4) USCw. Not much chatter on here about them. Why not? All the so-called pundits claimed they were just as good as Florida and Alabama and I argued otherwise. Oregon was the first decent team they played all year and look at the end result. The computers should permanently ban them from the top 15, along with Ohio State, forever!

5) Lame Kiffin. I refuse to give this 30 year old baby any kind of credit. Crompton and Monte deserve all the credit. Talk about a QB drastically stepping his game up and a guy who’s coaching lights out on defense. But I’m still not ready to name the Viles 2010 SEC Champions just yet. People tend to forget this was also a transitional year for Alabama, offensively (QB, RB, O-Line), and Tebow’s replacement appears to be a gem as well. In addition, Mike Shula had moral victories over UT, AU, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in his first season. ;-)

6) Screw Brandon Spikes. Period.

but I can’t tell you for what I’d give to see McElroy throw vertically with authority. He’s accurate and very smart, but we could really hurt some of our opponents if he could zip the ball downfield. Right now he’s throwing little dinks and dunks that are safer (and easier to defend) and our offense is going nowhere. At the same time, the receivers need to get open, but last night in the Tennessee game I saw Jonathan Crompton throw bullet passes into some tight spaces. I know our play-calling is “risk adversive” or whatever Saban said, but I’d love to see us take some shots instead of trying to dink and dunk (and then be forced into a field goal when the defense fills the box and crowds the line.

*Tennessee is playing well, but again, Lane Kiffin inherited a team full of seniors at key positions. They had an elite recruiting class in 2007 and they returned eight or nine starters from a top five defense. Kiffin deserves some credit, but he’s got a pretty good team. Next year, after losing all five starting offensive linemen, a five-star quarterback who’s finally playing like a five-star recruit, a stud tailback, and many key members of their defense, they will be rebuilding.

*Jevan Snead is the most inaccurate quarterback I’ve seen in a long time.

*LSU is very talented, very dangerous, and they score touchdowns instead of field goals (seems like every friggin’ team except for us does this). They will be extremely difficult to beat…but before anyone concedes the victory to Le’ Smiles, consider several things. They haven’t beaten anyone very good. They benefit from short fields after great returns and turnovers. Tulane, truthfully, is probably somewhere between FIU and North Texas in terms of talent (they were DESTROYED by Tulsa, BYU, Southern Miss, Houston, and Marshall…their wins came against McNeese State and Army 17-16). Georgia, LSU’s best victory to date, is probably in the latter third of the SEC this year.

Again, I’m not saying LSU is a bad team. They’re very, very good. But I’m getting the sense that some people around me don’t think we can win this game because we struggled in the last 3:40 against Tennessee. The surprise is, Tennessee might finish up as the third or fourth best team in the SEC at this point given their improved play and Ole Miss’s inconsistency. Remember, UT needed a fumble recovery on a great gain by Ingram, a blown assignment, an onside-kick recovery, and a last second field goal attempt after Crompton threaded the needle on a pass to Luke Stocker. They got a lot of breaks in the last 3:40. If Ingram had held onto the ball (or broken his first carry of the series for a TD) we would consider UT an impressive victory over a good team instead of a clutch escape. We very easily could have (and maybe should have) won 19-3. That’s a dominating win against a very good team. But we ran out of steam and held on for dear life in our fifth consecutive SEC game.

Again, LSU is good, but let’s keep their accomplishments in perspective. They struggled against Washington, Vanderbilt (at times), Mi’ssippi State, and Georgia. They beat up on Louisiana-Lafayette, Auburn, and Tulane.

We’ve played a tougher schedule. We played and won five consecutive SEC games. We are playing at home. Don’t let these guys intimidate you. If they want to beat us, they’re going to have to earn it.

Before Saban and even in his first year we were a bit in awe of LSU. And we should have been. They won a NC and were better that us. I mean in 07 we could have beat them but we just knew they were better and we kept waiting for them to beat us.

Last year we were clearly the better team but we still were a bit in awe. It resulted in a close game, too close.

Now we are not in awe of LSU. That doesn’t assure victory, but at least there is not the fear factor.

A few years ago we had to hope LSU would play a bad game for us to even have chance. But now all we have to do is play up to our abilities and we will win.

If we lose we can be assured that this team has not lived up to it’s potential.

I’m thinking we win, 16-7.