That was a Kirby-Stomping, Dawgs

At the start of this season, after Kirby Smart’s baptized Dan Lanning’s debut at Oregon with an annihilation in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Georgia coach about his former defensive coordinator’s team: “He knows we have better players. He’ll never say that, but he knows we’ve got better players.“ At the time, it sounded punch-in-your face arrogant, and prime bulletin-board material. Before the 65-7 beatdown of TCU, Kirby Smart was thinking the same thing. After the 65-7 beatdown of TCU, you KNOW Kirby Smart – although he probably didn’t admit it – was thinking the same thing. The talent differential was so wide that even what TCU brought it back within three (10-7), there was never panic stations for the Bulldogs.

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Week 3 SEC Preview: Auburn at Penn State, Alabama at Florida

After the relative dross of SEC games last week, Week 3 of the season – on paper anyway – is a beautiful mixture of in-house SEC clashes, and some ‘dope’ out-of-conference clashes, which are the filling of some pretty dry bread that you can avoid if you take it away. For a lot of people looking at the season early, it was all going to be about Alabama vs Florida in The Swamp, with a packed Gainseville crowd looking for blood. There was going to be a new Alabama after the NFL had once again decimated the team, and Dan Mullen was going to pull of miracles? Oh, and then we saw what Alabama could do, and dear Lord it’s

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CFB Play-Off: LSU: Tiger Walk or Tiger Upset?

The College Football Play-Off is upon us on Saturday, and we’re all quite excited. After arguments over neutral site bowl games, losses to South Carolina/Arizona State/Kansas State, it’s all set in place, and 4 winners of 4 conferences are in the four semi-finals. As usual – it seems – the best team is being left out in Oregon, but that’s due to their self-shooting at Arizona State, so no sympathy there. But we’re here now, and it’s LSU, Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma who will battle it out for the National Championship on January 13th. On December 28th LSU will face off with Oklahoma and Ohio State will play Clemson. The one that’s being talked about offensively is the LSU

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Why are people so in love with LSU suddenly?

The outpouring of love from the media for LSU has ben stunning this year. Sports Illustrated did an article on the beauty of the spread offense about Northwestern State. People couldn’t stop talking about Joe Burrow’s freak performance against Texas (forgetting LSU’s defense had given up a boatload to Texas that day). College Gameday went to Death Valley for the LSU/Florida game – a game covered by ESPN (which made Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit happy, because generally their games this season have been utterly forgettable). And then, when LSU went to Alabama, they beat them for the first time in eight years. It wasn’t just Alabama or Nick Saban-haters who celebrated. It felt like the whole country. THE BACKGROUND

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Former SEC Commissioner Slive dies

Former SEC Commissioner Mike Slive has passed away aged 77 after losing his battle with cancer. He lived from 1940 to 2018, and is survived by Liz, his wife of 49 years. Slive was the commissioner of the SEC from 2002 to 2015, where under his guise the conference won numerous national championships across a number of sports – most famously including football. In all, the SEC won 81 national championships in 17 of its 21 sponsored sports during Slive’s tenure, the press release announcing his passing away said. With Slive as commissioner, the SEC expanded from 12 to 14, adding Missouri and Texas A&M. Under Slive’s tenure, the SEC also formed a powerful TV partnership with ESPN, which generated untold millions for

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The National Championship Drinking Game

Right, it’s the National Championship Game, and to keep you a little focussed on the game, we’ve got a drinking game for you. You know the rules: If ESPN mentions this (through the sideline reporters, Chris Fowler or Kirk Herbstreit (we’ll let you off the College Gameday show if you’re too busy tailgatin’ the last day of the College Football season (sniff! sniff!)). We aren’t expecting y’all to drink a shot-a-mention, because we don’t want to pay your hospital bills. And make sure that your drink is alcohol, not water or soft drinks. So don’t cheat us on the fun. So…..if ESPN mentions:  —- This is an-all SEC National Championship Game — DRINK A SHOT —- That tickets went for

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SEC fans of the year: The Tennesseee fans who stayed around

In 2017, it was easy to be an Alabama fan. It was easy to be a Georgia fan. It was easy to be an Auburn fan. Hell, at the end of the season, it was easy to be a LSU fan and a Missouri fan. But it wasn’t an easy year for Tennessee fans. This inaugural award doesn’t go to the Tennessee fans who started up the #EmptyNeyland campaign, aimed to show fans’ chagrin at Butch Jones. It doesn’t go to the people who jumped on the ‘No Schiano’ bandwagon, like my former priest, who claimed not to care about Tennessee – or any college football for that matter – because he was ‘too busy with kids, but managed to

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Week 4: How ’bout them Dawgs? Georgia rises in SEC Poll

So it seems that there is no stopping Alabama. Crushing Vanderbilt was hardly unexpected (although the margin of scoring was far bigger than Vegas offered before the game), but the way they looked doing it? Freakish. Out in the East, Georgia moves to No.2 on our list after an immense performance against Mississippi State, while Auburn’s stride up to No.3 was less about the win over hapless Missouri than the fact that we think they could probably beat Florida, Mississippi State and LSU if they played them tomorrow. Alabama: They are unstoppable at the moment. ‘Nuff said. Georgia: Against Mississippi State, Georgia played the perfect game. They were excellent in all facets of the ball. The biggest worry that the

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Nick Saban signs extension but raises questions

Nick Saban has signed a contract extension this year that will pay him $11.1 million in 2017 as part of an eight-year deal that will pay the coach a total of $65 million – and that’s before bonuses that could pay him another $700,000 per year until 2024. Also seeing their salaries bumped are new AD Greg Byrne (who only took the job in June), as well as his assistants, led by co-defensive co-ordinator Tosh Lupoi, who will earn $950,000, while new offensive co-ordinator Brian Dobell has re-signed until January 2020 in a $1.2 million salary deal. Record Saban’s record at Alabama is stunning – 119-19 over the last 10 years, with four of those years leading the Crimson Tide to

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Spring Game Round-Up: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina

The round-up from the first two Spring Games in the SEC are this: Florida and South Carolina seem to have their starting quarterbacks in place, and Auburn doesn’t. GATORS CHOMPING WITH DEL RIO Florida fans are suddenly excited that in the post-Grier and (thankfully) post-Harris world, they suddenly looked as they have a starter for 2017: Luke Del Rio. And while Del Rio is hardly a new face in college football – he walked on at Alabama, transferred to Oregon State, then transferred to Florida in 2014, where he sat out a year. He’s now a graduate, and suddenly the face of Gators football. Del Rio went 10-11 for 176 yards and 2 TDs. Sure, the defense wasn’t exactly vintage

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