SEC Talk

The Les Miles story keeps on going.

The story that never seems to go away. There is a report that Les Miles, current head coach at LSU, talked as recently as last Friday with Michigan. Now Les has come out with a statement saying he was contacted to discuss as an alum about the search for a football coach and who they should be considering. He denies ever discussing himself as a possible candidate.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were talking about this on ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption this afternoon and I have to agree with what Tony said. Not until Michigan actually hires it’s new coach, will this story go away. I know that Les Miles has categorically denied any rumors of his interest and has said that he will be the head coach at LSU next year, people these days don’t trust anything anyone says until the hiring actually takes place. We heard Nick Saban last year, categorically deny that he is going to be the head coach at Alabama, then a few weeks later, he’s in Tuscaloosa being introduced as the next head coach of Alabama.

Plus, why would Michigan officials feel the need to contact Les Miles and ask him who they should interview for the head coaching job? There are plenty of Michigan alum that they could ask, why not ask them? Why put Les in that kind of situation, knowing what he already has to deal with? Heck, why don’t they just listen to Lloyd Carr and let him tell the Michigan officials who to contact for the job.

It just doesn’t make any sense?

LSU

Crushed in Indiana.

The Kentucky Wildcats got thrashed against another top 25 team in Indiana, losing 70-51. The worst thing about the loss was that Indiana was missing Eric Gordon, their best player by far. Granted, they were playing in Bloomington, but to lose that badly when the other team’s best player was a late scratch is really bad.

Over at Sea of Blue, they are wondering about the state of Kentucky basketball at this point. Obviously, disappointment would generally describe the overall feeling by the big blue nation. Disappointment in Billy Gillispie as a coach, and disappointment in the players. Sea of Blue makes a good point that it is easy to point the finger at the coach, after all, Billy is the head man and is responsible for the direction of the program and preparation of the players.

One of the big things that has been noticed by many is the excessive fouling and poor shooting. You can’t win basketball games if your players are fouling out of games, which seems to be an epidemic so far in the early season. Meanwhile, the poor shooting has just plagued the Wildcats from the get go. One of the reasons for the poor shooting has been the inability to establish an efficient low post presence. Everyone knows that you setup perimeter shots by getting the ball inside and forcing teams to double down low. It’s not like Patrick Patterson hasn’t been playing well, the guards just haven’t been able to feed him the ball. FEED HIM THE BALL, for pete’s sake.

At this rate, I doubt Kentucky will make the NCAA tournament. Realistically, they are the sixth best team in the SEC right now. If you were an eternal optimist, you’d probably say they are fourth, behind Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Florida. If you were a pessimist, you’d probably put them at seventh or eighth in the SEC.

Kentucky, Billy Gillispie

The man they call Superman wins the Heisman.

I called it, Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow won the Heisman Trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York last night. Though it was closer than I had written about with Tebow getting 1,957 points and 462 first-place votes to Arkansas runningback Darren McFadden’s 1,703 points and 291 first-place votes. Hawaii’s quarterback Colt Brennan was third and Missouri’s quarterback Chase Daniel a distant fourth.

A lot is being made of Tim Tebow winning the Heisman as a sophomore, the first sophomore to win since 1935, when Jay Berwanger of Chicago won the first ever Heisman. And that is significant, but not so much in that the landscape of college football has changed over the past decade. With high school football advancing as quickly as it has, kids coming out of high school these days are better prepared to play in college than ever before.

What Tim Tebow did this year was simply unprecedented. Even if Tim Tebow decides to stay in college next season (which he probably will), I doubt he will have the same kind of season like he did this year. Not because of Tebow himself, but simply because of injuries. To run the ball the way Tebow does, in between the tackles, is not good for a quarterback longterm. If Tebow wants to have a future in pro football, he’s going to have to start thinking about protecting his body. Already this year, in the Florida State game, we saw what can happen when 300 pound lineman sit on top of you.

Congrats to Tim “aka Superman” Tebow, he had a terrific season, and the Heisman is well deserved. Good luck to Tebow and his Gator teammates next month.

Tim Tebow, Florida

Phil Fulmer agrees to one year extension.

With Les Miles and Tommy Tuberville both agreeing to long-term big money contract extensions at LSU and Auburn respectively, the attention has turned to long-time Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer.

After an up and down rollercoaster year, all signs point to Phil Fulmer getting a long-term extension to stay as the head coach for Tennessee. And why not. Fulmer has been as consistent as any coach in the tough SEC. As mentioned, this year was both a tough but ultimately rewarding year. They struggled a bit early on in the season with losses to California, Florida and Alabama but huge wins over Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky allowed the Volunteers to secure the SEC East title and the right to play LSU in the SEC title game. The Volunteers would lose but played the number two country very tough. Tennessee plays Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl on January 1.

As for the contract extension details, the length is by one year to stretch his deal with Tennessee to 2012. The amount of the raise is to be sorted out following their bowl game. Fulmer currently makes $2.05 million per year plus bonuses.

Fulmer said he hopes to win another national championship with Tennessee in the near future before retiring. That might be a tall order, especially playing in the very tough SEC, but anything can happen. I think it’s a good think for Tennessee that Fulmer has signed on for at least one more year beyond his contract. He is the best man for the job there and he has the results to back him up.

Tennessee, Phil Fulmer

Tim Tebow had a record-setting year.

Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow won the Maxwell award as the country’s best all-around football player and the Davey O’Brien award for the country’s best quarterback last night at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Is this a precursor to winning the Heisman trophy tomorrow? Most probably.

Surprisingly enough, the past seven Maxwell winners have not gone on to win the Heisman. Last year, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn won the Maxwell but finished third in Heisman voting to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith. This year’s Heisman finalists include The other Heisman finalists who will all be in New York City tomorrow night for the annual award ceremony are Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel, Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan and Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.

Tim Tebow is the overwhelming favorite here. He is the only player in college football history to finish with 20 touchdowns rushing and 20 touchdowns passing. Albeit, several of those running touchdowns came against much weaker opponents, it’s still an amazing feat. Tebow has played hurt most of the season but has continued to play through his injuries, en route to a record setting season. Finally, his Gators finished with a very respectable 9-3 record in a tough SEC East conference and a berth in the Capital One Bowl.

In my opinion, the runner up will be Darren McFadden. After a slow start, McFadden single-handily beat South Carolina and LSU, both ranked in the top five at the time of those big wins. He is the only reason why the Razorbacks are bowling at all this season. Interestingly enough, McFadden will face fellow Heisman hopeful Chase Daniel and the Missouri Tigers in the Cotton Bowl.

Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden, Florida

Kevin Stallings has Vanderbilt in the Top 25.

It’s that time of week again to take a look at SEC basketball and the movers and shakers.

Vanderbilt was the biggest mover of the week, entering the AP Poll at 23. Kevin Stallings has his Commodores playing some great basketball right now. They are undefeated at 8-0 with big wins over Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Bradley. I wrote about Vanderbilt last week and how I liked Australian Andrew Ogilvie, and he has been absolutely gangbusters so far this season, he could very well be the SEC rookie of the year. With the way their schedule is shaping up, they could be 18-0 before they face their biggest test of the year against tenth ranked Tennessee.

Tennessee appears to be back on track but that loss to Texas earlier in November still haunts them. They have a chance to move up in the rankings from their current spot at ten with games against 21th ranked Xavier and 17th ranked Gonzaga. If they beat those 2 teams later this month, they could be a top 5 team.

Ole Miss has been another big surprise of the year. They beat New Mexico to stay unbeaten at 6-0. Most impressive was that they dominated New Mexico. And their schedule sets up pretty good, so they could be unbeaten heading into conference play.

The Florida Gators picked up after the loss to Florida State with four straight wins over lesser teams. The biggest test for the Gators will be against Ohio State. Freshman Nick Calathes continues to lead the Gators.

Kentucky did well against the top-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels last week, but ultimately lost. Another big test awaits Gillispie and his Wildcats against Indiana this Saturday.

LSU plays 25th ranked Villanova tonight. Villanova should win easily, but it will be interesting to see how the Tigers play. John Brady doesn’t have the talent of year’s past but his ability to coach up this group is on the line.

Here are the SEC standings to date,

East Conf All
Vanderbilt (23) 0-0 8-0
Florida 0-0 9-1
Tennessee (10) 0-0 8-1
Georgia 0-0 5-1
Kentucky 0-0 4-2
South Carolina 0-0 4-4

West Conf All
Mississippi 0-0 6-0
Arkansas 0-0 7-1
LSU 0-0 5-2
Auburn 0-0 4-2
Alabama 0-0 4-3
Mississippi St. 0-0 4-3

Vanderbilt, Tennessee

Tommy Tuberville agrees to stay at Auburn.

It is being reported that Tommy Tuberville has agreed to a contract extension with the Auburn Tigers. The extension is reportedly for six years guaranteeing a $200,000 raise yearly. The contract buyout has increased to $6 million going down with time to $4 million in the final four years of the contract.

Money aside, I think this is obviously very good news for Auburn in the long-term. Tuberville has been the single reason why Auburn has been so good in the past five years or so and with him locked up they should continue to be just as good if not better in the next six years.

On the flip side, there are some mixed feelings about this from Auburn fans. There was the brief flirtation with Texas A&M, and then the reports that Tuberville had a secret interview with Arkansas for their head coaching vacancy. After all Tuberville is an Arkansas native and would’ve been a natural fit had he gone there. Though Tuberville denies being in contact with Arkansas, there is no doubt that Arkansas did meet and did offer him something. Alot of fans feel that Tuberville has given his current job enough attention that it should and has instead been sniffing out jobs with more money. Especially since most head coaches are busy visiting and talking to potential recruits as the February signing day approaches.

But with the contract extension out of the way, the feelings will ease. Auburn fans will eventually forget this whole debacle and Tuberville will go back to doing what he does best, win football games.

Auburn, Tommy Tuberville

Are things getting too hot for Gillispie?

If Billy Gillispie isn’t sweating yet living in the country’s biggest college basketball fishbowl, the temperature in the sauna just eclipsed one hundred degrees.

Yesterday, reports surfaced and were later confirmed that freshman Alex Legion has decided to transfer out of Kentucky. The former four-star recruit was supposed to be one of the key signings by Gillispie heading into the season and now Legion has decided to take his ball and play somewhere else. Worse yet, speculation has it that Legion did not get along with Gillispie and that is the sole reason why he is leaving.

Just when you thought that was the extent of the problem, more rampant rumors indicate that the desertion may not end with Legion. It appears that at least one or more players are also considering leaving big blue for greener pastures elsewhere.

All of this is very damaging for first-year head coach Billy Gillispie. Once seen as the savior after the Tubby Smith stagnation, Gillispie appears to be headed for a much worse fate. It’s one thing to be losing games to mid-major division one teams like Gardner-Webb at home. It’s an entirely different thing when players from within are questioning Gillispie’s authority and coaching, especially when these are players that Gillispie recruited himself.

Now, there is the other side of fan opinion. Some fans are remaining optimistic, willing to give Gillispie the benefit of the doubt. After all, Legion has had a history of school hopping through his high school years. And I would agree with that. Except that, Legion was a kid Gillispie recruited himself, as in he flew to meet Alex and his parents in their home. And Legion was one of those big time gets for Gillispie, one that he trumpeted as key to the rebuilding. Now it appears Gillispie is tooting a different horn, and who can blame him, he’s drowning in his own bad fortunes.

I think at the end of the day, Gillispie just isn’t the right man for the job. Billy Donovan was a better fit. Donovan can handle the pressure, the media glare, in fact he thrives on it. Gillispie is best when he can take a non-basketball school and make them competitive, like at Texas A&M and El-Paso.

Kentucky, Billy Gillispie

Bulldog Nation up in arms about National Championship snub.

The talk around the SEC is the apparent snub of Georgia for the National Championship. Mark Richt let his feelings known about it, saying that regardless of what the rules are, his team deserves to play in the National Championship.

The debate essentially boils down to whether or not a team that has not won it’s conference deserves to be considered for the National Championship.

Trust me, I’m a big Georgia fan. If the National Championship was about picking two of the best teams in football at the beginning of December, I would say Georgia would play USC (Southern California) for the National Championship. Georgia has played about as good as anyone in the country the past month beating Florida, Kentucky and Auburn. USC after losing a couple of games early to Stanford and Oregon, has been simply unstoppable since becoming completely healthy.

I like LSU, and Ohio St. are both good teams. But they are not the best 2 teams in college football right now. They are the two teams that have emerged based on the BCS unwritten rules. What does that mean? That means that since the wild weekend saw #1 Missouri and #2 West Virginia lose. Now since #3 is Ohio St., they get bumped up. But what of #4 Georgia? Well, since they lost the tie-breaker to Tennessee by virtue of their loss to Tennessee earlier in the year, they lose the SEC East. #5 LSU beat Tennessee and therefore LSU jumps over #4 Georgia to go the National Championship. According to the BCS unwritten rules, this is fair because LSU are the SEC champions, Georgia are not.

Georgia

Good Week for Les Miles and his Tigers.

Oh, how much things can change in just one week. Remember just last week we were talking about how LSU’s title hopes were gone and Les Miles bolting for Michigan. Well, it turns out neither of those came true.

There was probably a less than three percent chance heading into the final week of college football that LSU would be playing in the National Championship. There were just too many things that had to happen. First, number one Missouri had to lose to Oklahoma, which they did. Second, West Virginia had to lose to a much weaker Pitt team, which they did. Third, LSU had to beat Tennessee, which they did. After all that they’ve been through this season, the Tigers are going to the National Championship, what an improbable season it has been to start as pre-season favorites, to falling almost out of the picture completely, to playing in the National Championship. The same can be said of their opponent, Ohio State, who make it back-to-back into the National Championship.

Then, there is the Les Miles saga. All season we heard how Les apparently coveted the Michigan job, his alumni. When the Tigers lost, with many in Baton Rouge calling for Les’ job, it appeared closer to reality that Les would leave for Michigan. Speculation turned rampant when Lloyd Carr formally retired a few weeks ago, coupled with the loss to Arkansas, it almost seemed a foregone conclusion that Les was gone. But with LSU back in the National Championship picture and the SEC Championship under his belt, Les Miles appears to have agreed to a 2-year contract extension to remain with LSU. Les appeared in front a raucous crowd announcing that he wasn’t going anywhere.

LSU