Tide rolls into SEC title game; AU has been a tragedy
Wow, that was a sensational performance by the Tide and another brutal one by the Tigers. A.J. McCarron 15-of-21 for 216 yards and four TDs. Wow, that’s something else. Eddie Lacy 18 carries for 131 yards and two more scores. Amari Cooper five catches for 109 yards and two TDs. Robert Lester and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix each with a pickoff. Dee Milliner with a fumble recovery he returned 17 yards. What else can you ask for? I thought Jeoffrey Pagan showed off some of his massive potential at defensive end. The oline was terrific as usual. Now it’s Georgia and a chance to play for an SEC, and, with a win, another national championship. ‘Bama is a 6 1/2 point favorite right now. I think they’re going to win by more. Georgia is a very good football team, and this is no knock on them–they’ve had a great season– but I just think the Tide has recovered fully from A&M, and is ready to excel on the biggest stages. Notre Dame, to me, is not as good as Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M or Stanford. They beat Stanford at home barely on a very controversial call in the end zone in which the Stanford player was ruled he didn’t score while in fact he did. The refs blew that game. I’d like to see Stanford, Florida or A&M play Notre Dame. I think they’d win. Notre Dame is pretty good. Not great. Georgia is better than Notre Dame. Boy a playoff would be interesting this year with the winner of the SEC Championship game playing Notre Dame and A &M playing Florida or even Stanford. There is a committee that will select the teams in the 2014 playoffs and in my opinion those are the four teams that should be playing in it if a playoff were held this year. I’d have a little trouble between Stanford and A&M, but if Stanford won the PAC 12 title game, they’d get the nod. A&M would if Stanford lost. But we don’t have a playoff yet, so we can just speculate. Stanford still has to beat UCLA for the second week in a row (ridiculous) to make it to the Rose Bowl to play either Nebraska or Wisconsin. Like Stanford and Nebraska in the Rose Bowl. If Stanford gets upset by UCLA, then it’ll be interesting to see how the bowls shake out. UCLA would be in it, but they shouldn’t get by Stanford to make the Rose Bowl. I like Florida in the Sugar most likely, and A&M in the Cotton, with Georgia going to a New Years’ Bowl, most likely the Outback. That’s assuming the Tide beats Georgia, which I think they will. But this could be a very entertaining game. Still not sold on Mark Richt and Aaron Murray in big games. Know they beat Florida in Jacksonville which propelled them to the East title, but Murray had thrown three interceptions in the first half, and his clinching touchdown pass was really just a seven yard pass, which Malcolm Mitchell, Georgia’s talented wide receiver, took to the house 50 yards to beat the Gators. But Jarvis Jones, Alec Ogletree, John Jenkins and Bacarri Rambo are outstanding defensive players, and there are playmakers on offense. Todd Gurley is an elite running back and Keith Marshall is pretty outstanding as well. But can Georgia run it on the Tide? Nobody else has been able to this season besides Johnny Football and Jeremy Hill of LSU. I think Alabama will be geared up to stop the run, so Murray is going to have to make something happen with his arm. Like Dan Mullen said before his team’s game with the Tide, you have to try and run it and establish something on the ground to set up the pass. If Georgia can run the ball, that would help their chances exponentially. But I like S, Kirby Smart and their talented football team in this game. Just think they’ll have too much power and skill for the ‘Dawgs. And if the Tide gets by the Dawgs, I like them against the Irish in title game. Like S and the team to bring home the programs’ third national title in four years. It doesn’t get much better than that, though for Alabama fans the future looks very bright too. Who knows what the Tide can do if they could keep S and company at the helm for 10 more years? He’s not even close to retiring, he’s like a 30-year old coach energy-wise, so the Tide will keep on rolling.
I just hate this for Auburn fans. Gene Chizik had a 5-19 record coming into Auburn, and while he did win a championship with an NFL quarterback and some stellar offensive players and some pretty good defensive players whom he didn’t recruit except for Cam, he just wasn’t cut out for a big time job. Seems like a nice guy, but just couldn’t get the job done. Auburn has a lot of talent. I truly believe it. Whether it was lack of good coaching or players who didn’t care, well, it was both really. When you have talent like Auburn has, though there were some young guys, you need to be winning 10 games, not losing nine. Where does Auburn go from here? Hopefully the NCAA won’t hammer the Tigers with sanctions from this Javon Robinson mess out of Memphis and whatever else Trooper and Luper may have done . That would add more insult to injury. Who can AU get? The first guy that came to my mind before last Saturday was Jimbo Fisher. But does he want to leave FSU to come to what would be considered somewhat of a lateral job, though Auburn is considered by many to be an elite job. And even if he did, the loss to North Carolina State and then the domination by the Gators over the ‘Noles puts some doubt in ones’ head about Fisher and if he can get it done. But Fisher would be a quality candidate. Somebody I’m sure the Tigers would take. I’ve heard Jeff Fisher, who’s coaching the St. Louis Rams, is a potential candidate. His son, Trent, plays for AU. That could be possible. He’s not been wildly successful in the NFL. He won earlier in his career, struggled with Tennessee later in his career but is doing pretty decently in his first year at St. Louis. So that’s interesting. Maybe a good d coordinator. I don’t know if Kirby Smart would take it. Auburn may not offer and he may not accept if offered. The guy at Florida, Dan Quinn, is an excellent defensive coordinator. Florida was outstanding on defense this season. He might be an interesting choice. I’ve heard him in interviews. He’s impressive. The offensive coordinator for Florida, Brent Pease, is also stellar. The offensive and defensive coordinators at A&M, Kliff Kingsbury (offense) and Mark Snyder (defense) could be interesting choices. It might be exciting to get a young, hungry guy, who would sprint to Auburn for the opportunity to coach the Tigers. Should be a pretty fascinating time on the Plains. Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan, Jay Jacobs and some business guy are on the committee to find a coach. A couple of good football minds, so they should make a good choice. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully, AU can avoid the wrath of the NCAA also.
Otherwise, tremendous day in college football Saturday. Georgia and Florida both looked awesome. Florida really impressed me as they just dominated the fourth quarter over FSU. Really impressive football team right now. Will Muschamp has it going in Gainesville. Miles and LSU earned a hard fought win on Friday at Arkansas. Can’t argue with Miles’ results. Keeps getting it done and his recruiting class is ranked second by Rivals. LSU is behind only USC in recruiting rankings. Miles has LSU in good shape now and shaped well for the future. He’s a character, which is refreshing, and he gets the job done well. Ball Coach with another classic season at SC with 10 wins. Beautiful second half against Clemson. The backup quarterback , Dylan Thompson, threw for three touchdowns, and Jadeveon Clowney is a dominator. Four and a half sacks against Clemson. Are you kiddin me? The guy is terrific. The bad news for the SEC East is he’s coming back next year. Steve Spurrier has gotten Mr Football in South Carolina since 2009, from Alshon Jeffrey to Jadeveon Clowney to Stephon Gilmore to, there’s another one. He just keeps excelling and at 67, he’s not slowing down.
Vanderbilt is a pretty impressive story as well. 8-4 in James Franklin’s second year at the helm and there’s a good chance the Commodores could go to the Gator Bowl. Franklin is a hot commodity. As a Vandy alum, I hope James wants to retire from Vanderbilt, but that may be wishful thinking. How about Ole Miss and the job Hugh Freeze did this year. When I watched the Rebs in their spring game, I thought the team would be lucky to win two games. But they finished with a 6-6 record and are going bowling. I think the future for the Rebels is very bright under Freeze. They, like Vandy, have a very fine recruiting class coming in. Excellent job from a guy who has paid his dues and has earned his early success.
This weekend was terrific, and with title games, bowl games and the national championship coming up, a lot to look forward to. I’ll have more as the week progresses.
