SEC Preview: Alabama, Jimbo back at it again, and LSU’s soul

It’s an interesting week in the SEC. There’s the Jimbo Fisher v Nick Saban media-fuelled battle. There’s LSU – fresh from getting buckets of crap thrown at it about their defense, visiting a Missouri side that people are believing in. There’s a Georgia team under the microscope about their eliteness hosting Kentucky, who’s gotten some rave reviews. The Lane Train continues against Arkansas. Florida hosts, er, Vanderbilt. And let’s not talk about the Mississippi State v Eastern Michigan game. Anyway, so here we go:   No.11 Alabama (-1) at Texas A&M: This is a HUGE game for both parties. Because both sides have a loss, another one would pretty much kill their playoff chances, unless they won the SEC West and

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SEC Preview: Is Vanderbilt really going to be fine?

For years on end, Vanderbilt has been the laughing stock of SEC Football. Look, we loved the coaches. James Franklin put the team on the map. Derek Mason brought the energy of a great coach, but wasn’t a great head coach (He’s now working for the SEC Network). And now Clark Lea’s here, who’s on a very long leash, and is willing to take things slowly. At least at Vanderbilt, they know nothing’s a quick fix. Lea went from 2-10 (0-8 SEC) in his first year to 5-7 last year, with a 2-6 record, which included wins over Florida and Kentucky. Anyway, we think that Vanderbilt is going to be just ‘fine’, this year. We haven’t a clue what means,

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Lane Kiffin: Winner or Whiner? (Ole Miss Preview)

Lane Kiffin is on a mission to make a statesman of himself. After failing to get the Auburn job, Kiffin has decided that he’s going to be the Nick Saban, proclaiming the evils of NIL. He reckons that it’s a crazy free market, with schools that have the most aggressive donors (I think he was taking a shot at the rest of the SEC, but who knows?) being able to sign any recruit they want, limiting the actions of recruiting and essentially played Money-ed ball (you heard that line hear first). Speaking of free market, it’s not secret that Lane Kiffin was lifting his blouse to Auburn for ages, and it didn’t work out. For some reason (and we suspect

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Week 6 SEC Preview: LSU – Auburn and A&M-Arkansas highlight the show

This week it’s normal one of the craziest games on the SEC Calendar: LSU vs Auburn. We’ve had burning buildings, missed kicks at the end, last-second touchdowns and the end of Les Miles’ tenure. The Geaux Tigers have won 3 in row and 7 of the last ten, but of those last three games, they’ve been settled by a TOTAL of eight points. With no-one thinking about both sides seriously, it should be fun to at least watch, praying for a Big 12 game to once again break out in Jordan-Hare (if you’ve got the over!). Elsewhere, one of the SEC West’s most underrated rivalries takes place at Kyle Field instead of Arlington, which is unfortunate bearing in mind just how awesome

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What is wrong with Vanderbilt?

What is going wrong at Vanderbilt? On Tuesday six more Vanderbilt players became unavailable for the Texas A&M game. There was one more opt-out. This time is was starting LB Feleti Afemui who became the sixth person to walk away from the 2020 season. Afemui joins kicker Oren Milstein and offensive linesmen Cole Clemens, Bryce Bailey, Jonathan Stewart and Stephen Spanellis in deciding to sit 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. Then there was an injury to LB Elijah MacAllister and S Brandon Harris, and  LB Michael Owusu, who will miss Game No.1 because of COVID-19 quarantine. Harris was one of Vanderbilt’s leading tacklers last year.   The news has infuriated some of the Vandy faithful. On Twitter, @NotVandyOC said: “Look around the SEC and find another school

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Sophomore Vanderbilt TE loses fight with cancer

In news far bigger than any football game, Vanderbilt tight end Turner Cockrell has died of cancer aged 21, the school has announced. Cockrell was a redshirt sophomore, missing the entire 2018 season after he was diagnosed with melanoma. When the disease spread to his lungs, there was little the doctors could do. He passed away on Thursday. “My heart is broken for Randy, Noelle and the Cockrell family, for all of Turner’s teammates, and for all who came in contact with Turner,” Vanderbilt head football coach Derek Mason said in a statement released by the university. “Turner had a wonderful spirit and fought an incredible fight. He was a Vanderbilt Man through and through, and he will always be remembered here.”

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