My impression of the conference after last week’s games is that things are becoming surprisingly stratified. Which is another way of saying that the West isn’t as strong as many thought it would be. The top is quality, but there are more lousy teams in the conference than we’ve seen in a while.
- Alabama. Even as 52-point wins go, that was lopsided.
- LSU. Can you say rematch? I thought you could.
- Georgia. A disinterested defense, no Jarvis Jones and the Dawgs still win by more than five touchdowns.
- South Carolina. Arkansas is a shell of its former self and the ‘Cocks have a fledgling quarterback controversy. It’s been a good week for the OBC.
- Florida. The Gators look like they’re improving week to week, but are they improving fast enough to win the East?
- Mississippi State. They haven’t lost yet, but giving up 572 yards to Troy suggests that’s coming soon for the Bulldogs.
- Missouri. Beat Arizona State, but did so without a starting quarterback who had his manhood questioned by his head coach. That doesn’t sound like a formula for long-term success.
- Texas A&M. Destroyed SMU. That’s nice. It’s also more than you can say for most of the teams below the Aggies on my ballot.
- Tennessee. Got pantsed by Florida. (Man, I’ve been waiting to use that line.)
- Auburn. With the win, the Tigers move into a first place tie in the Sun Belt.
- Vanderbilt. Anchor Down, baby! Hey, look what Georgia Tech did after crushing the Blue Hose.
- Ole Miss. The Black Rebel Bears are kinda fun to watch on offense, but overall, they are woefully short on the personnel front.
- Kentucky. Hey, at least the ‘Cats have beaten a D-1 team. Which is more than you can say for…
- Arkansas. An absolute, total dumpster fire. But at least John L. has the money to pay his bankruptcy attorneys.
Get The Picture 
To answer your question Senator, no the Gators are not going to win the East. UGA will.
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Hey Gator, we can see right through your thinly veiled rational, humble commentary. If you think that an improving Gator squad with a few remaining areas needing work will cause us to either get overconfident or perhaps become nervous and play lousy in Jacksonville because “the Gators are in our heads” is going to work this year… wait a second… damn you Gator! Low down slithering reptile! 🙂
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That’s how I prefer the opposition! Pliant and supple.
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Hoo boy! Now that’s a threat! You going to dance with them before all the fighting starts? Don’t forget to wear a condom after the fight.
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The bottom of the conference is as bad as expected but appears to include many more teams: to Ole Miss and Kentucky, add Arkansas and Auburn. Personally, I think Vanderbilt is likely better than Auburn, but if not, add Vandy to that list too. Five truly awful teams at the bottom?
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That’s pretty bold putting Arkansas below Kentucky. We are talking Kentucky.
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You confident Arkansas would beat UK?
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Yes
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With Wilson, yes. Without, eh?
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Both of ’em lost to Sun Belt squads on the last play in overtime. As I said, at least UK beat a MAC squad. The Hogs had to work to beat Jacksonville State in their opener.
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I’d have to think having Wilson healthy gives the Hogs an edge in the long run, though. Said poll is perhaps not really about the long run.
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It’s not. A Power Poll is a look at which team would beat which team in the here and now.
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I think we should have a Joker vs. John L. power poll for shits & giggles. Who would beat whom in the here and now– less any actual players? Could be fund just imagining the “wrestling” match and general strategery.
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They face off in three weeks, I think.
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There is no way — ZERO, zilch, nada, nil — that these Hogs go bowling. I’m not even sure Mr. Smith gets through the season without adding motorcycle acrobatics to his personal thrills checklist. He appears quite out of touch.
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Senator is there another category above number one? It is obvious to me Processed Bama is on a level between the mediocre teams of the NFL Business and the good teams in the NFL Business. Of course Arkansas was overrated, but still….
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Don’t buy all the Bama hype, SJ3. And what about Vandy’s long snapper, anyway?
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You forgot the smiley face.
On the serious side, don’t let ESPN’s super hype of Bama and LSU from last year fool you. LSU barely beat Bama, beat the snot out of us for half a game and lost big to Bama. The point is that anyone can beat anyone in this bruhaha. I hope this team of Dawgs gets a shot at Bama. If anyone in the country can beat them, it’s us.
OK, get back to worrying.
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Meh. Bama’s got an easy schedule. They avoid the Big 3 from the East, so their entire regular season boils down to Michigan in the opener and LSU.
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+1.
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SOS is nuts for putting Shaw in against UAB – only to see him get slammed. I think we can forget about Shaw making a full recovery, or even being 80%, by the time we come to town.
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Yeah he may have screwed up his season with move depending on how well their backup does. Well have to see…
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Loved Dooley’s caught and spiked pass. Poor Ole Miss… Expected more from Arkansas; who in the West can compete with the TIDE. Auburn: Hale Sammy indeed! Loving having Mizzou in the SEC. Wonder what they will do to Uga in Athens next year…hopefully not something as tacky as what some dawg did to their Tiger.
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Just for grins (and anguish), just suppose there is another low-scoring, late field goal winning game between Bama-LSU regular season. Winner goes undefeated to SECCG to face, say an undefeated UGA. UGA loses a close one, again by a last second field goal.
Last year, Bama lobbied and got to go to the rematch game. In the scenario above, does UGA get the same chance? (Answer…hell no.) Now suppose Bama-LSU loser drops another game, so only UGA in this scenario has the “1 loss, we deserve a rematch” argument…do we go? Again, answer is hell no.
Now sub USCe for UGA…I wonder if the sentiment for the Ol’ Ball Coach changes the answer (Answer…maybe.)
Here’s to hoping we simply take care of business all season long, one game at a time, and Les finds a way to dump one he shouldn’t.
#/sugarbowled
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Oh Lord, please give me strenth….Vandy, Vandy, Vandy
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It’s going to be tough for this team to go undefeated, let alone make a BCS bowl game. The next 3 games will decide the season, in my opinion. 3-0 means we’re on the way up. 2-1 means we dropped one to a good but not great team. 1-2 means we peaked early and got caught up in our own hype. I’m not putting 0-3 as an option because we are not losing to Vandy.
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Based on the limited evidence we have, Alabama has separated themselves and looks to be the best and probably should have the #1 spot. The next best still is undetermined, but is a group of LSU, UF, SC, and UGA, in no particular order. The next is a group of temas who will likely make a bowl, and includes Mizzou, TN, TAMU, MSU. A group who may struggle to make a bowl by getting to 6-6, or 7-5 including Old Miss, Arky, and Vandy. A battle for the bottom and probably will not make a bowl–AU and Kentucky.
I think any of the teams in the tier just below Bama could upset them but would be at least a 7-10 point underdog with the personnel currently available. I thought going into the season LSU would have the edge at home against The Tide, based on the play so far LSU will have to step it up. I think they were the better team last season, but not so in 2012….so far.
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I agree with your analysis on the pecking order of SEC teams, Mac. Bama only has to play LSU and not any of the other 3 next level teams you mentioned during the regular season. The reality is that Bama has the easiest road to the SEC West title and a berth in the SECCG of any team in the West.
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Does anybody know if McCarron actually hurt his hand, or was that just part of the process.
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I thought we were just supposed to focus on Georgia. 😉
Early post-game comments were to the effect that the hand isn’t a problem.
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Oh, damn, sorry, I thought this was a college football blog (followed by smiley face, which, of course, is not part of my keyboard.
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Type a colon and a right parenthesis and WP converts that into a :).
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Oh….wait….[:)]
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😦
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And I thought we were just supposed to focus on long-snappers. :O
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Damn. Again. 😮
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Gotta watch those O’s–always jumping out at you like that. 🙂
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It pains me to say this, but I think you have AU too high.
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I think y’all lucked into a year where some other SEC teams are abysmally bad this year.
Which begs the question, who on God’s green Earth thought John L. Smith could coach a team to anything other than a dumpster fire?
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How long do you think AU can play this badly… with all that talent from top 5 recruiting classes and BVG as Defensive coordinator? Unfortunately, I think they will be improved by the time we face them (how much is hard to predict). This isn’t Ky or Old Miss talent wise. I have so enjoyed watching Chizik’s face blank during these losses though. He was such a smug bastard during their title run.
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How much can you improve with Kyle Frazier at QB?
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I think they improved on pass coverage last week to this week. At this point, improvement is almost the only option.
I think those good recruiting classes were built on anything but the defensive backfield. That’s a result of the standard, 5’10” very fast recruiting strategy. Unfortunately, you can’t coach height/talengit.
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Normal: John L. was Big Ten coach of the year at Michigan State in 2004. I know there are jokes about that, but . . .
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I think he’s proven himself to be a good coach. Maybe a bit shady, but a good coach.
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Who else were they going to get for one year on such short notice?
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There is an element of justice in all this Arkansas BS. John L. Smith dumped all over his alma mater, Weber State, and left them in a lurch to take this job with Arkansas with a contract for only TEN MONTHS! Not even a year! So he alienated his own alma mater and sh!t the bed at Arkansas. This will undoubtedly be the end of his career as a HC. Who would hire him after all that? “Be careful what you wish for ’cause you just might get it”.
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WarD, you guys just need to find a singer because what’s been an absolute total Dumpster Fire for John L. has been an Opportunity to Nowhere for her but I doubt if she’ll switch teams
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I guess what they mean by “The West is not as strong” is that they thought Arkansas was good, and its not. But you still got three teams from The West and three teams from The East…one of which is overrated, but still, looks about the same to me.=-0
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I said this in an earlier post, but I think it more appropriately goes here. While I enjoy seeing a ULM beat Arky and scare AU, games like that, and WKU beating UK worry me. I’m afraid anyone not named Bama or LSU will automagically have their schedule dawgraded regardless of the results.
FSU will probably run the table, though the Gators should give them a good game. Now that USC has lost, not sure of who else could mess up our annual SEC coronation in January.
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Joe Schad?
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Pollsters are constantly begging for a reason to rank Notre Dame highly. Their success = $$$ for all.
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I think you’re dead on here with ND. Fortunately and a bit ironicly, I think their schedule is actually too hard to run it out without 2 or 3 losses. This makes me happy – and to prove my happyness I’m gonna try one of those smiley faces – here goes – 🙂
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Nailed it.
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Trust me. Once you’ve mastered the sublime art of the smiley all your troubles just fall away.
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Don’t go getting Halloweenie on us. 🙂
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Isn’t it time to start a “Hot Seat” Poll? Looks like Joker Phillips moved into first after Sat., but Chizik almost gave him a run for his money. SOD is on the edge looking in with John L.
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I spec after Saturday’s College Game Day debacle, SOD’s seat could be used to cook possum.
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Great, now I’m not going to be able to eat lunch for thinking about burnt possum ;))
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