SEC Talk

Nick Saban attempts to salvage season 1 with a bowl win.

Alabama Crimson Tide 6-6 (4-4), 3rd Southeastern - West
VS
Colorado Buffaloes 6-6 (4-4), 3rd Big 12 - North Division

Two average teams that appeared to have played themselves out of a bowl game see themselves facing each other in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., on Dec. 30. Alabama is making it’s second straight Independence Bowl appearance after they lost to Oklahoma State last year.

What started as such a promising season under Nick Saban turned into a nightmarish four game losing streak to end the season. The Crimson Tide appeared to be on the verge of making it to a BCS game with a 6-2 record until they gave up a late lead to LSU in their matchup November 3 and it all went downhill from there. Particularly demoralizing were losses to Louisiana-Monroe and cross-state rival, the Auburn Tigers.

As for the Buffaloes, it has been an equally rocky ride all year. There was the high of beating third ranked Oklahoma, but there was also the lowly loss to Iowa State in the second to last game of the year. To cap it all off, the Buffaloes came back in dramatic fashion to post a comeback win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers to earn a berth here in the Independence Bowl.

Alabama is a 3.5 point favorite heading into the game. I think the game will be very high scoring with a score somewhere in the 40s possibly. Both teams can certainly move the chains, but which team will come up with the key stops. Special teams will most certainly be a factor as well.

Alabama, Independence Bowl

Sylvester Croom leads his boys into battle.

Bowl season is upon us and I will be previewing all the bowl games featuring SEC teams from now until they play. First up on the schedule is the Liberty Bowl between Central Florida Knights and Mississippi St. Bulldogs.

UCF Knights 10-3 (7-1), 1st Conference USA - East
VS
Mississippi St. Bulldogs 7-5 (4-4), 3rd Southeastern - West

Both teams head into the game under similar circumstances having endured long droughts without a bowl appearance. UCF capped off a fantastic season, including ending the regular season on a seven game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs made it to the Liberty Bowl by beating some of the SEC’s top teams, including over ranked Kentucky and Alabama before winning the Egg Bowl over Ole Miss to close out the regular season.

The game is being played in Memphis on Saturday Dec 29, with Central Florida favored by a field goal. The scouting report on UCF is simple, they have the NCAA’s top rusher in the nation, Kevin Smith, who averaged 188.3 yards per game and is just 180 yards shy of Barry Sander’s single season record for most yards rushing in a single season. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are led by freshman quarterback Wesley Carroll, who was named to the freshman all-SEC team.

The game will come down to whether the Bulldogs can stop the prolific ground game of the Knights. If they can keep the score in the teens, then Mississippi St. should have enough to come away with the win. Consider this though, the Bulldogs have allowed an average of 159.0 rushing yards this season, and have given up more than 200 yards on the ground in four of its last six games. Hopefully coach Croom has a plan to stop the NCAA’s leading rusher come Saturday.

Mississippi St, Liberty Bowl

Holliday is a Mountaineer at heart.

More news from the coaching carousel, it appears that Florida Gators associate head coach John ‘Doc’ Holliday will be headed to West Virginia to take over the head coaching position that Rich Rodriguez left to go to Michigan. I think it’s a good move for everyone involved.

Holliday has spent a couple of seasons now under Urban Meyer at Florida, and having won the National Championship last year, he has plenty of big game experience under his belt. They offensive system that the Gators have been running under Urban Meyer, the spread option, is the same exact system that Rich Rodriguez ran while at West Virginia, so the players that have been use to running the spread option can continue under the same system but of course under a new coach.

Another big reason is that Holliday is a West Virginia alum. Played his football at WVU as a linebacker in the 70’s, was an assistant in with the Moutaineers from 1979 to 1999. He’s about as close to a sure thing for WVU as they come. As for the job itself, WVU football is as strong as it has ever been thanks to Rich Rodriguez. Holliday has an excellent base to build off with some terrific talent like Noel Devine coming up.

For Gator fans? It won’t be such a huge loss. Recruiting wise, Holliday was a standout, so there might some fallout there, but I expect Urban Meyer to pick up where Holliday left off and should be able to keep most of the interested recruits, this is Florida after all.

John Holliday, Florida

Gator fans relish in Bobby Bowden’s nightmare.

As Christmas nears, the news is starting to slow to a trickle. There are the big bowl games going on as we get close to new year’s but for now, here are some links to what some other SEC bloggers are talking about,

Sea of Blue is previewing the Kentucky basketball game against Houston which is happening right about now. Kentucky basketball is pretty much in a state of disarray right now and Sea of Blue is doing his best to put on a brave face. There seems to be 2 camps, the fire Billy Gillispie camp and the give him more time camp. Sea of Blue is of the give him more time camp.

At Rocky Top Talk, they’re prognosticating about who the new offensive coordinator might be now that David Cutcliffe is the head man at Duke. He seems to make a strong case for Trooper Taylor, but all signs point to Trooper taking the Baylor offensive coordinator position. I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

With the December 16 contact period with potential high school recruits come and gone, the commitments are starting to pile up. At Track Em Tigers, they are following all that is related to the new pickups and salivating over what their 2008 lineup could look like. At Roll Bama Roll, they are also optimistic on the new pickups. They always look so good on paper, and when the real deal shows up, we all come back to earth. They hype on these kids is too much.

Garnet and Black is breaking down the hiring of Ellis Johnson as the defensive coordinator by Steve Spurrier. Hope it leads to a turnaround, because USC was downright awful on run defense this season.

Finally, Alligator Army is relishing in the misfortune of others, namely their state rivals FSU who have been penalized by the NCAA for an academic cheating scandal involving 25 football players. They have all been suspended for the bowl game which suddenly looks one sided for Kentucky.

SEC blogging

Good Luck at Duke, you’re gonna need it.

With the ongoing college football coaching carousel making its rounds, Tennessee Volunteer’s Offensive Coordinator David Cutcliffe is reportedly headed to Duke. Apparently, Cutcliffe contacted South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier for advice and Steve Spurrier told him to take the job, because the dookies were ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘hungry’. According to some sources, the ripple effect has already hit the fan, as the nation’s top quarterback prospect, Terrelle Pryor, has demoted Tennessee to ‘maybe’ after Cutcliffe’s departure.

Apparently, Terrelle and Cutcliffe had quite the relationship going and with Cutcliffe going to Duke, Terrelle is not longer really interested in Tennessee. In the world of football recruiting, relationships are everything. The head coach himself actually does little of the actual recruiting himself, all the assistant coaches are assigned territories and are responsible for the recruits in their territory. The problem is, when that coach leaves, so do many of those recruits he was tracking.

Back to Cutcliffe, it certainly is an odd place for him to end up. Last time I checked, Duke was dead last in the piss poor ACC and I haven’t checked but I don’t think they’ve won a game in over six years. Now, if it had been Steve Spurrier himself that accepted the position, that would be something different, Spurrier is a Duke guy, coached at Duke, in fact he was the last coach that had a winning record for Duke. The Cutcliffe move is perplexing. Though he wasn’t the head coach, football in Tennessee means something, and with Phil Fulmer probably retiring in 2-3 years, there was a strong possibility of Cutcliffe taking over.

Oh well, Fulmer and the Vols now start the search for a new offensive coordinator. With all the shakeups in coaches being fired and hired, I’m sure they will find someone. In fact, names like Tulsa’s Gus Malzahn or Georgia Southern’s Chris Hatcher have already been thrown about.

David Cutcliffe, Tennessee

Andy Kennedy and his Rebels are the surprise of the SEC.

Now that exams are over, the boys are back to the hardwood with a full slate of games on Saturday and another full week ahead before Christmas, lets take a look at what is in store for SEC basketball this coming week.

Vanderbilt is coming off another impressive win, this time on the road over DePaul. The schedule is setting up nicely and I easily see the Commodores 17-0 before their last big non-conference test before the start of conference play against UMass. I’ve covered it before, but the biggest reason for the great play of the Kevin Stallings’ team so far has been the play of Australian Andrew Ogilvie.

Florida continues to show it’s youth after a shaky win over Georgia Southern yesterday. In fact, the Gators trailed for most of the game but managed to pull it out in the end with a big time block by Dan Werner. So far, the Gators have beaten the really bad teams badly, using their superior talent, but have struggled against the decent teams. Still, Billy Donovan has done a good job showing the younguns how to win ball games, which they are doing quite well at. Hopefully it will be good enough when it’s tournament time in March.

Tennessee has started to play basketball the Bruce Pearl way. Tenacious defense, fast-paced offense, a lot of 3-point shooting. The Volunteers are playing as good as anyone right now and their 11th ranking will only rise through conference play, their loss to Texas doesn’t look half as bad now as Texas is a legit top 3 team. The Vols are an elite eight team, possibly a final four team when it’s all said and done.

Kentucky is just in disarray right now. Sure, their schedule has been tough, but it’s always been tough, they’re big blue. Right now, the offense is just now playing well. Gillispie wants them to play a motion offense, but the players he has want to play 1-on-1. Right now, it’s a bad version of neither.

The SEC West is downright terrible right now, but Ole Miss is certainly the surprise of the entire conference. The win over New Mexico the other week was huge. Next up is a tough DePaul team at home, then the biggest test of the year, Clemson. We’ll see what these Rebels are made of after Christmas.

Here are the SEC standings to date,

East Conf All
Vanderbilt (20) 0-0 10-0
Florida 0-0 10-1
Tennessee (12) 0-0 9-1
Georgia 0-0 6-1
South Carolina 0-0 5-4
Kentucky 0-0 4-4

West Conf All
Mississippi 0-0 8-0
Arkansas 0-0 8-2
Auburn 0-0 5-2
LSU 0-0 6-3
Alabama 0-0 5-3
Mississippi St. 0-0 5-5

Vanderbilt, Tennessee

Tebow back at practice, just in time.

Super sophomore Tim Tebow had the cast removed from his right hand today and was able to practice without any problems. Tebow injured it in the rivalry game against Florida State back in November. The Florida Gators will play the Michigan Wolverines in the Capital One Bowl on New Year’s Day.

Tim said he didn’t feel any discomfort or pain when practicing and says it felt weird to walk around without the cast after wearing it for three weeks. Tim even picked out a cast that matched his suit when he was in New York last week to receive the Heisman trophy, as College Football’s player of the year. Tim went on to say that he got the cast signed by all the other Heisman candidates, Arkansas’ Darren McFadden, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Hawaii’s Colt Brennan. Tim said he’s keeping the cast for his personal memorabilia.

Couple of other tidbits, Tim said he’s been receiving a ton of congratulatory notes, emails and letters including from President George Bush. The letter from the President congratulated Tim on winning the Heisman and talked about having his priorities in order, God, family, academics and sport. Tim also received a text message from Kenny Chesney whom he had met last year at a concert.

Finally, Urban Meyer confirmed that senior fullback Eric Rutledge was kicked off the team and will not be playing on New Year’s Day. Coach Meyer went on to say that freshman tight end Aaron Hernandez will probably fill Rutledge’s role against the Wolverines.

Tim Tebow, Florida

Big start for Big Baby.

The Boston Celtics played last night and LSU fans will be happy to hear that Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis started his first NBA game last night and had an awesome debut starting performance. The man was all over the boards and he was one of the big reasons why the Celtics were able to beat the Sacramento Kings 90-78 last night.

Glen Davis got the start over injured center Kendrick Perkins who has an injured toe. Glen had a season-high 16 points and added nine rebounds. Glen also made 10 of 10 free throws and shot 3 of 6 from the field in 27 minutes. Before the game, Glen said he was the most nervous he had ever been in his life, Celtics head coach Doc Rivers just reminded Glen to breath.

A lot of people think Glen made a big mistake by coming back for his Junior year last year. Following LSU’s 2006 final four run, Glen would’ve easily been a lottery pick in the 2006 draft. Instead, Glen returned to LSU, did not make the NCAA tournament in 2007 and wound up as a second round pick by the Boston Celtics. But now that the Celtics are off to a hot 19-2 start, it appears to be the perfect fit for Glen. He plays behind one of the best power forwards ever to play in the NBA in Kevin Garnett and is able to learn how to be a good NBA player. It’s not easy making the transition from college to the NBA. I’d say the biggest adjustment is speed of the game, in the NBA you have to be in shape to run up and down the floor for 48 minutes, and sometimes 3 games in 4 nights. In college, you probably play twice a week with 40 minute games and a 35 second shot clock.

In that area, I’ve seen a big improvement in Glen’s conditioning. He’s dropped a lot of weight from over 300 pounds to his current weight which is around 285 pounds. He needs to turn some of that baby fat into muscle.

Glen Davis, LSU

What the heck was Petrino thinking?

Gotta love college football where the weird and wacky always seems to happen. Last year it was the weird Nick Saban situation that led him to Alabama, and now Bobby Petrino leaves mid-season of the NFL to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Here is the timeline. Monday afternoon, Atlanta Falcons former quarterback Michael Vick is sentenced and receives almost two years in federal prison for the dogfighting thing. The Atlanta Falcons play monday night football against the New Orlean Saints at home in Atlanta. Bobby Petrino slips his resignation under the door of owner Arthur Blank, hops on a plane to Arkansas, signs a brand spanking new five-year deal, and then in a nationally televised press-conference on Tuesday is announced as the new head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Obviously, if you are involved with the Atlanta Falcons or a fan, you couldn’t be at a lower point right now. Your franchise player is in jail for 2 years, the coach that was supposed to bring you back to the NFC Championship and beyond has bolted after just 13 games. It’s really a bad situation all-round for the Falcons. What they need is a total guttage, just gut the team and start all over.

For the Arkansas Razorbacks, they get the big name they wanted. Bobby Petrino basically revolutionized football at Louisville, especially offensively and with the resources he has at Arkansas, fans won’t even remember Houston Nutt’s name after next season.

My personal thoughts? I think it was a cold move by Petrino. He had just met with Arthur Blank hours earlier, and Petrino did not have the guts to tell him there that he was not staying. Instead, he cowardly slipped in his resignation and bolted for Arkansas, mid-season no less.

Arkansas will be playing in the Cotton Bowl, but won’t even be coaching them. Reggie Herring will coach them for one game, then Petrino will take over.

All I can say, is what a mess.

Arkansas, Bobby Petrino

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