Tag: SEC West

CFB Analyst claims Alabama’s most important game of 2022 is Texas A&M

Alabama’s most important game of 2022 is against a former Saban assistant that wants nothing to do with him. Do you agree?

Alabama will enter the 2022 college football season as one of the hungriest teams in the entire nation. Despite having what some Crimson Tide fans would call a down year, the team made it all the way to the national title game and won the SEC championship.

In 2022, Alabama will play its usual SEC West schedule that will also include in-conference matchups against Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

In Week 2, the Crimson Tide will travel to Austin, Texas to face the Longhorns. While that game will have high viewership as it’s two of the games biggest brands, one college football analyst believes it’s not the most important game for Alabama.

Jesse Simonton of On3 listed the most important games of the 2022 season for every team in the SEC West.

He explains why defeating the Aggies on Oct. 10 is vital to the Crimson Tide’s success.

“This one has been circled since the Aggies stunned the Crimson Tide last season in a 41-38 shootout, and the matchup only became spicer after the very public Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher spat. Alabama has some tricky conference road games in November (at LSU and Ole Miss in back-to-back weeks) but as it stands, Texas A&M is the only preseason Top 10 team on its schedule. With all the intrigue and off-field storylines, this game will generate a crazy viewership number, but Vegas (which I agree with) has Alabama has an early 16-point favorite. “

This game has so many storylines to follow. Whether it’s Alabama seeking revenge for the loss from 2021 or the Saban-Kirby beef, it’s going to be a must-watch contest in Tuscaloosa.

Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama football throughout the remainder of the 2022 offseason.

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Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow AJ Spurr on Twitter @SpurrFM.

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Putting some respect on it: Arkansas tabbed as fourth best team in SEC football

Arkansas picked as fourth best team in SEC, tabbed to finish third in SEC West by league’s sports information directors.

For most of the last 15 years, the SEC has been Alabama and either Georgia or LSU and then, mostly, everyone else.

It’s no surprise, then, the Crimson Tide and defending champion Bulldogs were picked as the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the SEC heading into this football season by the league’s sports information directors. Texas A&M, which has established itself as an upper-tier SEC team was picked third.

Then, in fourth, the highest projection in a decade, was Arkansas. The Razorbacks picked up five votes for fourth, four for fifth, three for sixth and one for eighth. That point total five more than Kentucky, the fifth-place team, received as the Wildcats were tabbed third by one SID, fourth by four, fifth by two, sixth by three and then received one vote each for seventh, eighth and ninth.

Arkansas’ slotting would place them third in the SEC West, where LSU, Ole Miss, Auburn and Mississippi State were picked in that order.

The Razorbacks had their best season since 2011 last year, finishing 9-4 with a win over Penn State in the Outback Bowl. They kick off coach Sam Pittman’s third season September 3 at home against Cincinnati.

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Texas A&M fans still not happy with Oklahoma, Texas joining the SEC

Despite hauling in the top recruiting class in modern history, the Aggies are uneasy about sharing a conference with Texas.

The Aggies are once again displaying some of their message board genius. One Texas A&M fan has had enough of being in Texas’ shadow and wants no part of the Longhorns in the SEC.

The fan had this to say about the Longhorns’ preferential treatment: “I don’t like where any of this is going, and about had my fill of the SEC treatment of A&M. We really showed DeLoss and TU. Oh wait, now here they come.”

I’m not sure what Tulsa has to do with the Texas and A&M feud, but once again we have a T.U. sighting in an Aggie rant.

The A&M fan continues, “For a nickel I’d call TU and OU and say let’s rethink all this. This tractor pull conference is not who we are. We are never going to be represented in the SEC, and mark my words, when TU joins the conference, it will get worse…”

 

 

 

Despite hauling in eight five-star recruits and the top recruiting class in modern history, the Aggies are still uneasy about sharing a conference with their longtime rival, Texas. They won’t keep the Sooners and Longhorns from the SEC, but you can’t fault them for trying.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.

LSU Morning Rush: Top Tigers stories of the day

A look at the top LSU Tigers stories of the day.

We look around the wide world web for the top stories of the day surrounding the LSU Tigers.

Derek Stingley Jr wins a Herbie Award

College football analyst Kirk Herbstreit handed out his Herbie Awards for the upcoming season. Current Tigers cornerback Derek Stingley Jr was named for the most exciting player. Despite a down year in 2020, he still has six interceptions and 21 passes defended in 22 career games. Stingley is looking for a rebound year as he gets closer to heading to the next level with the NFL draft for 2022.

LSU picked to finish third in the SEC West

CBS Sports put out their predictions for the SEC, the Tigers expected to finish third behind the Alabama Crimson Tide and Texas A&M Aggies. Of the seven analysts polled, LSU was picked third in four of the seven. One had them second, one had them fifth, and one had them at the top.

Barrett Sallee had one bold prediction for the team:

LSU will rebound from its extremely disappointing 2020 season and look more like the 2019 team that ran the table and won the national title. This team won’t run the SEC, but it will top Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the second time in three years, win the SEC West with one loss (an upset by Ole Miss) and produce one of the most dangerous offenses in the country.

USA TODAY Sports predicts bowl matchup

After Thursday’s update where ESPN projected the LSU Tigers to face off with the Big Ten in the Outback Bowl, we have a different slot for the Bayou Bengals. Erick Smith is going with the Citrus Bowl in a Jan. 1 matchup against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

In the most not shocking manner, he projects Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Oklahoma as the four teams in the College Football Playoffs. The national championship would be the Tide facing the Sooners.

Game-by-game predictions for the No. 13 LSU Tigers in 2021

Giving game-by-game predictions for the No. 13 LSU Tigers ahead of the 2021 season. Are you buying or selling on the predictions?

The LSU Tigers were recently ranked at No. 13 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Poll. A lot of high expectations as Ed Orgeron and company look for a bounce-back season after finished 5-5 in 2020. New coordinators take over for the Bayou Bengals.

Looking at the 2021 schedule, the Tigers have a total of four ranked opponents on the upcoming slate of games. The first ranked matchup won’t occur until Oct. 16 when the No. 11 Florida Gators come to Tiger Stadium looking for retribution, let’s hope they don’t throw the game away again like they did Kole Taylor’s shoe.

Every ranked opponent will come in the final six weeks of the season. Well, at least for now as rankings change every week.

A look at the game-by-game predictions for the Tigers’ 2021 campaign:

Is Nick Saban going to hire former Texans coach Bill O’Brien at Alabama?

Former Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien may land a job with the Alabama Crimson Tide as an offensive coordinator under Nick Saban.

Sooner or later, Bill O’Brien was going to get a crack at another job.

The question of where has been answered as Bruce Feldman from FOX Sports reports that Alabama head football coach Nick Saban is considering the former Houston Texans coach as his new offensive coordinator. The other name Saban is looking at is Adam Gase, who was fired on Jan. 3 from the New York Jets.

Saban is looking for a new offensive coordinator after Steve Sarkisian departed the program to take over the Texas football program. Saban has a history of taking reclamation projects as offensive coordinator, and then the assistants are able to build back up their stock and take on head coaching jobs elsewhere.

O’Brien has experience at the college level as he was the head football coach for Penn State from 2012-13, helping rebuild the program after it crumbled on and off the field in 2011. O’Brien also has connections to Saban as both are branches on the Bill Belichick coaching tree.

What LSU’s loss means for the SEC West

LSU suffered a season-altering loss to Mike Leach’s Mississippi state bulldogs to kickoff 2020. It has plenty of impact on the standings.

The 2020 SEC football season is underway, and it started with a bang. The reigning 2019 National Champion LSU Tigers, who entered their first game ranked No. 6, lost their season-opening matchup against Mississippi State at home. It marks the first time a National Championship-winning team has lost their first game of the season in the following season since Notre Dame in 1978.

That 1977 Notre Dame team that won the National Championship only suffered one loss in the season, unlike LSU’s perfect season in 2019. The following year, however, Notre Dame finished the 1978 season with a final record of 9-3, a Cotton Bowl win and a final ranking in the AP Poll of No.7.

Is the 2020 LSU squad on it’s way to becoming the next Notre Dame of the late-1970’s? Too many questions left unanswered after Week 1 of SEC play to say.

The 44-34 loss to Mississippi State definitely shakes up the SEC West and leads to a slew of confusion as to how the conference will look at the end of the 10-game, conference-only season.

To start, LSU’s offense was no where close to what it was in their historical 2019 season. It is just the first game, but some things require acknowledgement.

The Joe Burrow-led offense saw an average of 569 yards of offense per game (402 passing, 167 rushing), an average of four passing touchdowns and 2 rushing touchdowns per game and a 75% completion percentage.

With Myles Brennan taking the snaps to kickoff the 2020 LSU offense, they were unable to come close to any of the averages from the previous season. The stats from the loss show signs of a team that might not be able to live up to their predecessor. In Week 1, LSU had 425 total yards (345 passing, 80 rushing), three passing touchdowns and not a single rushing touchdown with a completion percentage of only 59%. Brennan also turned the ball over twice, both interceptions.

The LSU defense, commonly referred to by some as ‘DBU’ for their infamous secondary, allowed 623 passing yards (an SEC single-game passing record), five passing touchdowns, and had three opposing receivers eclipse 100 yards. However, they did bring in two interceptions.

So, you may now be asking yourself, ‘what does this mean?’

Is LSU done for in the SEC? Is Mike Leach’s Mississippi State a contender for the SEC Championship? Who is Alabama’s biggest threat in the West?

Well, let’s slow down.

LSU’s season isn’t done, but things aren’t looking good in Baton Rouge. They should not be counted out, but can’t be seen as the unstoppable force they were in 2019.

Mike Leach is, like he always has been, outspoken. A day after taking down the reigning champions, he is already inviting fans to join the Mississipi State “bandwagon.”

Are the Bulldogs from Mississippi a team that could challenge Alabama, or the rest of the SEC? If you would have asked anybody two weeks ago, the answer would be a definite no.

The official SEC media predictions for the final conference standings had Mississippi State finshing second to last in the West, right above Arkansas.

Leach is known as an offensive-heavy coach, especially in the air. As previously mentioned, his quarterback K.J. Costello set the SEC single-game passing record in Leach’s first game within the conference.

In recent years, the SEC West has always had the same three or four teams own the top few spots with a chance to contend for an SEC Title: Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Texas A&M, though their chances usually seem to diminish after each season’s first few games.

Auburn had a win over a promising Kentucky team, Alabama got the win over Missouri and Texas A&M squeaked passed Vanderbilt with a five-point win at home. Then there’s LSU, whose season has already been tarnished by Leach’s Mississippi State.

Nick Saban and the No. 2 Crimson Tide will face off against the No. 16 Bulldogs in late-October in Tuscaloosa. By then, many questions will have received their answers. For now, though, there’s no telling what can and will happen in the weeks leading up to the contest that could be a battle for the West.

Georgia football play of the day – Georgia vs Auburn (2017)

Watch the Georgia football play of the day here!

It’s Tuesday, September 1, just 25 days until Georgia football is scheduled to kick off versus Arkansas.

Today’s play of the day comes from the 2017 SEC Championship game which featured No. 6 Georgia and No. 2 Auburn.

Auburn had thrashed the Bulldogs in their annual regular season matchup 40-17, so Georgia was looking for some redemption this time around.

We pick up early in the second quarter with the Tigers up 7-0. Auburn has controlled the pace of the game so far and faces a third and six from the Georgia 14 yard line.

Watch what happened next here:

A turning point for Georgia who would go on to score 28 unanswered points and secure its first SEC title since 2005. Truly an outstanding defensive performance by the Bulldogs in this one.

Auburn star quarterback Jarret Stidham was held to 145 yards passing and the Tigers offense tallied just 259 total yards.

 

Would an all-SEC schedule help or hurt Alabama?

There’s a possibility the SEC decides to transition into a conference-only schedule. Would this drastic change help or hurt Alabama in 2020?

The Coronavirus pandemic halted all winter and spring collegiate sports in the first half of 2020, but as the number of cases rise across the country, as does the fear surrounding a possible cancellation of fall sports, including football.

The Ivy League announced they will be pausing all fall sports, with a possible beginning to the season in the spring semester. The BIG 10 and PAC 12 decided to allow fall sports to commence, but by cancelling all non-conference games. The football programs will be plying 10 games, opposed to their usual 12-game schedule.

Alabama football’s schedule has already been affected by the changes made to protect the student-athletes and members of the staff. Due to the PAC 12’s decision to cancel non-conference games, the season opening matchup between Alabama and USC in Dallas, Texas has been removed from both schedules.

The rest of Alabama’s schedule, however, has not yet been impacted. The SEC has yet to make any announcements regarding potential changes to the conference’s scheduled games with out-of-conference programs.

The SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, will be meeting with athletics directors from all across the conference. The decision to whether or not all 14 teams will be forced to play an all-SEC schedule is expected to be announced.

Alabama is already scheduled to play Georgia in Week 3 of the season, and they will be playing Tennessee in late-October; so would an all-SEC schedule, where the Crimson Tide will play two additional teams from the SEC East, help or hurt the team?

The SEC is considered college football’s premier conference, with some debate.

At the end of the 2019 season, nine of 14 teams finished with winning records and eight teams won their respective bowl games, the most of any conference. The eventual national champions, LSU, also claim the SEC as their home.

Therefore, it would be safe to assume Alabama’s 2020 schedule would be more difficult, thus diminishing their chances to finish the season with a perfect 10-0 record. Right?

Well, not exactly.

While there’s a chance Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide will have to face off against the SEC East’s top programs, such as Florida and Kentucky – with exception to Georgia-, history is on the side of Alabama.

The last loss Alabama had to an SEC East team was in 2010 to the South Carolina Gamecocks. Since then, Alabama has won 24 consecutive games against the conference opponents in the East.

Another argument that could be made to support the idea that an all-SEC schedule helps Alabama, would be the strength-of-schedule factor.

John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Before the 2019 season, six SEC teams were ranked in the AP top-25 poll. By the end of the season five teams were still ranked in the top-25.

This is where playing an undoubtedly stronger schedule can be a double-edged sword.

If Alabama is able to sweep their SEC West divisional schedule, as they’ve done numerous times in recent years, then they have won only half the battle.  They will also need to play four SEC East teams.

Wins against more in-conference programs will lead to the Crimson Tide rise up the rankings, or hold on to their respective spot.

Though, if Alabama is not able to get the wins, it could lead to in a drop in rankings. This is what led to the Crimson Tide missing the College Football playoff since it’s creation, finishing the season ranked No. 8.

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Upsets are always exciting, and always a possibility, but for the most part they are seen as “tune-up” games that fans generally consider a guaranteed win.

While playing teams like Florida or Kentucky from the East would likely make for an exciting game, but there is also a possibility that Alabama will play teams like Vanderbilt or Missouri, both of which finished 2019 with losing seasons.

Overall, an all-SEC schedule for Alabama could result in one of the program’s most difficult schedules and can lead to a very memorable winning season during a year that will definitely not be forgotten for years to come.

 

2020 CFB countdown: 59 days until Georgia football

Join us as we count down the days until Georgia kicks off in Atlanta!

There are 59 days until Georgia football kicks off versus Virginia in Atlanta on Sept. 7.

Instead of spotlighting No. 59, let’s take a look back at Georgia’s 1959 football season.

Led by head coach, College Football Hall of Famer Wallace Butts, the 1959 Bulldogs football team went a perfect 7-0 in conference play, 10-1 overall and defeated Missouri in the Orange Bowl – their only loss to South Carolina (ACC) . They finished No. 5 in the AP Poll with star quarterback, future NFL Hall of Famer Frank Tarkenton as Georgia’s most valuable player.