It’s nighttime in Death Valley. The War Eagle Flies. We’re running through the T. We’re chomping. We’re asking how ‘bout them Dawgs. We’re clanging, pig sooein’, rammer jammerin’, Ole miss by damn’. We’re a 12^th Man, the ZOU in MIZ, a Commodore, and a Wildcat. There’s even 2001 or maybe a Sandstorm.

Our churches aren’t small. They are megachurches, holding a screaming congregation that will bury you with noise. They’ve even been allowed some in-game communion wine to add to their palates during services now. It should make Saturday church a little louder. When they win with a God-given upset, they jump over railings, get stuck in hedges, surf goalposts through crowded streets and toilet paper trees. When they lose, they look like their world has been torn apart. The pretty sorority girls and young frats with their bow ties look miserable. The painted clowns look clownish and stunned. All of them use words to the heavens that they wouldn’t take with grandma to church.

But in our churches, it’s important to know our pastors. There are 14 of them. If they bring home The Ultimate Prize, then the size of the statue won’t do the achievement justice. Of course, the pastor must obey the main commandment of SEC football: Thou Shalt Not Lose. Particularly if it’s the cardinal sin of losing Eggs, third Saturdays, big games or Cocktail Parties – or losing too many SEC games. If they do, hotter seats than hell will appear and behinds will sit on them. Pastor Gus of Auburn has sought redemption a couple of time from being excommunicated. But this year’s another year. It doesn’t matter if you’re likeable. If you don’t help the congregation reach the higher plain, you’re out. Some elders will give a new pastor two or three years to work their magic, but after that, notice will be hammered on the door like Martin Luther did with his articles.

To make a pastor successful to his congregations, he must be able to bring in the moving parts from smaller, younger churches every season. Churches aren’t expected to fizzle out. We at the SEC don’t mind paying for talent, as long as we don’t get caught. Much. And after their success in college, they go to Big Church Sundays. We implore Mr Goodell, high elder of the professional league, to skip the preliminaries and just call your professional conference the SEC-FL? After all, our boosters probably pay more than some of your teams do. This year, Tua will again make the tongues waggle, although we’re also excited by Bryant, Swift, Fromm, Delphit, Jeudy, Mond, Williams, Stingley and a guy based in the Mid-West known only as ‘Albert O’. But there will be many more names by season-end. Because this is the SEC.

The pastors and the congregrations know who the biggest church in our movement are. At the moment, they are in Tuscaloosa and Athens. They are going to be pretty good in the Year of Our Lord 2019, we hear. They’ve got the West and East divisions running scared and their schedules measure up sweetly. It’s hard to see who is going to beat them. Hell, it’s hard to see who’s going to give them a good fight. We expect more drama at the SEC Championship Game. And no trick plays please, Kirby. The likes of LSU, Auburn and Florida will feel like ‘also-rans’, even if that’s not the case. There’s always room for the upset. See the last time Georgia rolled into Death Valley. Take a moment in thinking about the orders of service for 14 teams for the Pastor Jimbo’s congregation in College Station. It’s downright evil.

But there will be competition for the Ultimate Prize this year from other denominations. The congregation in Clemson in the Atlantic Denomination is pretty good. As are Sooners from Oklahoma in the Southwest. There are the people of ‘The’ and ‘Big Blue’ in icier Big 11, and we’re heard that there might even be a good team in the NorthWest who are known as Huskies or Ducks in the driven down out West. But against us, can they really hold their own? If there’s two teams that will compete with us for the Ultimate Prize, we’ll go for the ‘Eyes and the Tigers. The rest will falter and fall.

I saw on a tweet today that a Georgia fan that Nick Saban’s effort to explain Alabama’s ‘weak’ 2019 schedule in a presser was showing a ‘chink in the armor’.

“Not very Saban of him to say “we tried”. He wouldn’t accept that from his players and coaches! He hides behind being for an expanded SEC schedule while criticizing people for not showing up for HIS pitiful schedule. This is THE crack in the Saban armor. #GoDawgs #wisewords” 

Mr Wisedawg’s comments come after Saban’s answer to Colin Cowherd’s rage at Bama’s poor scheduling this year. Saban said: “I think the culture of college football would benefit if we said Power 5 teams have to play all Power 5 teams. I’ve been an advocate of this for several years,” he said on ESPN “I’ve been an advocate of playing more SEC games. Well, I think you should do it like basketball, they have RPI, or whatever it’s called. And basketball says these are the teams that played the best schedule and won the biggest games. So that’s how you qualify for a bowl game, not how many games you win. So that it would be better for fans, it would be better for fan interest….. “So we’ve tried to schedule two opponents — Power Five opponents — every year. We have one time in the next 10 years, we’ve succeeded at doing that. So unless we change the culture of how we all agree to schedule, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The fact is this for the 2019 schedule: Alabama’s 2019 schedule is far weaker than Georgia’s. The Crimson Tide’s biggest non-conference game is mighty Duke, while Georgia’s is a fascinating home game against Notre Dame. Non-conference wise, Alabama plays South Carolina and Tennessee, while Georgia gets the enviable task of playing Auburn and Texas A&M (Of course, both schedules pale into comparison with Texas A&M’s, who have to play a non-conference monster in Clemson, as well as Alabama and Georgia this year).

Saban has said on many-an-occasion to lobby the SEC to increase the schedule by 9 games. This notion isn’t actually advantageous to Alabama in the fact that Maths would dictate that it gets to play Georgia and Florida more often. Kirby Smart has jumped on Saban’s bandwagon now, saying that he too would favor 9 games.

But there’s also the scheduling factor for Saban and Alabama. People simply don’t want to play Alabama. The way the Crimson Tide are stacked, it’s an almost guaranteed loss for any Power-5 team. If that Power-5 team thinks it has a chance to get into the play-off, the risk of getting blown out of the water by a rampant Tide team severely damages those prospects (This goes the same for Texas A&M and Clemson. Why Texas A&M chose to boot Oregon and scheduled Clemson instead in 2014 is somewhat of a mystery, but it’s amazing for college football as a whole).

And while Georgia fans will tell you that it’s all Saban’s fault for scheduling bad teams, there aren’t exactly a lot of Power-5 teams looking to prove themselves (apart from Wisconsin, who were just announced as a future combatant in 2024/5). This goes the same for Georgia, who have mighty Virginia and Oregon in 2020 and 2022 in Atlanta, which might as well be a home game for the Bulldogs.

Look, Saban and Smart (as well as Auburn HC Gus Malzahn) are right. The SEC needs to go a nine-game in-conference schedule. As should the ACC. Otherwise, there will be non-stop bitching and complaining about ‘Alabama and Clemson bias’. Saban is also right when he talks about RPI. He seems to want to see Alabama – as much as anyone – play big-time match-ups.

But no-one has mentioned the elephant in the room – the regular season neutral site games. The reason why it’s not mentioned – by Saban or anyone else – is the fact that the poverty-stricken athletic departments have to play these games as money-spinners (they get in the region of $5 million). I mean, they all really need to get the same sort of beds that LSU has. The major programs are denying fanbases big-time games by these season-opening bowl games. After all, it costs a lot of money to go across the country to an alien dome to see your team play (plus the charges of match tickets, hotels and concessions). Their ticket isn’t guaranteed by the school because there is no home game, and also, they lose out on a ‘good’ game to go to. The same goes for students, who generally can’t afford long treks, and aren’t going to be fighting outside the stadium to see LSU vs Kent State anytime soon.

Beyond the transfers, the head coaches, the stadium reductions and the backhanders to recruits, the NCAA can change something else that would really take the sport a step forward: The schedules.

The ACC and SEC play 8 in-conference games and 4 non-conference games, while the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big XII all play nine.

Gus Malzahn and Nick Saban both expressed a preference for nine games. In fact, Nick Saban has been lobbying for it since 2012, while Gus Malzahn last year admitted he’s had a Damascus experience on scheduling (probably because Auburn’s is so arduous year after year): “Nine I think is best for us moving forward to make the schedules more equal across the conference.”

Kirby Smart of Georgia – also one of the SEC’s most powerful coaches – joined the ‘pro’ shout. He said: “I think it [would be] a good thing, but I think you will have teams with more losses. Does it affect a team getting in the playoff? I don’t know, but I know you have a lot more games to get up for, a lot more good rivalry games. It’s not just about travelling, it’s just as much about the atmosphere of playing an SEC opponent, I think you are playing more comparable teams to your talent level, I think it’s important for college football.”

Other coaches haven’t expressed an opinion – possibly because half of them lost their jobs after the 2017 season, and the new ones have yet to have a voice. The only time that voters voted to keep the schedule as-is was 2013. Will Muschamp, while he was at Florida, said that it was likely to move to nine games in 2013, but never happened.

The ACC has done the same. While this isn’t a huge surprise bearing in mind the ACC and SEC are two of the biggest superpower conferences in college football right now (although the ACC Network is still going to be minor compared to the SEC Network and the Big Ten Network (that may well turn around during basketball season), it has to change.

For the fans! 

Why? Because not only are Big Ten, Big XII and Pac-12 looking at tougher, in-conference schedules which have in the end worked out nicely for the ACC and SEC, which have captured the last four National Championships. Both Clemson and Alabama in the last four days have lost less than five games. Combined.

Also in the SEC, the way that the rivalries work is rather stupid. What could be more dislikeable than putting together one permanent rival and one division rival?

It means that the likes of Alabama and Georgia hardly play each other in the regular season, and teams like Auburn get royally screwed because they have to play Georgia – and Alabama – every season.

We get that SEC fans like their rivalries. We love them too. If it was a nine-game format, the Iron Bowl will still exist. So will the Egg Bowl, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, and LSU vs Alabama. We can still have the major cross-divisional rivalries like the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry (Auburn vs Georgia) and the Third Saturday in October, but we can also have one more cross-divisional games, which means the fans (probably quite important) get to see more East vs West games (which may reverse the trend of declining attendances, too), which will also be good for the ones that pay the bills – the SEC Network, CBS or ESPN.

Why should the SEC and ACC changing their schedules change college football in general? Easy. It shuts up the argument altogether. It makes for equality between FBS Conferences, shutting up the whole “we play more in-conference games than you”, because the other one (“We play in a more difficult conference than you”) becomes null and void. Not only that, it’s an easier job for the College Football Play-Off Committee to work out who’s should be ‘in’ with a flat schedule, and also, it pretty much shuts-up massive controversy.

What about the NCAA?

The NCAA will argue that ‘scheduling is not our business’, but that’s absolute crap. If the NCAA is happy to govern everything else, then why not govern one of the key aspects of the game? Not only that, but why are the conferences letting coaches or Athletic Directors – who all have biases on this subject but may well be fired before the next vote comes out (the SEC last voted on it in 2013 and ACC ADs voted on it in 2016) – vote on this altogether. The NCAA should mandate this and that would be that.

The ones that will suffer, inevitably, will be the smaller non-FBS schools, which rely on coming to a stadium and getting the living crap beaten out of them for $1 million (there are quite a few exceptions.

But unfortunately, college football is not a charity. Smaller FCS schools will still make their money. But unless there will be less of them. Will this lead to a shutdown of smaller programs? Sadly, probably. But will it be better for college football as a whole we see more and more in-conference rivalries? Definitely.

I read a riveting tweet to Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples which read: “What would be the most Twitter-melting CFB moments before Twitter was around?’

In other words, moments in college football history prior to March 2007, when Twitter exploded on the scene at South by Southwest (March 2007)

I added a few things, which included the B.S. call against Miami in the National Championship Game of 2003 (NCBS), any of the FSU-Miami ‘Wide Rights’ (#WDR) and ‘Wide Lefts’ (#WDL), the Convicts vs Catholics (#ConvictCath), and – of course – Vince Young (#VY) running the ball in against USC in the 2006 National Championship Game (#VYvsUSC). I also wanted ALL of Barry Sanders’ highlights from the 1988 season (#Barry) because he was the best running back whoever lived (sorry Herschel and Bo).

Of course, there were SEC calls (Auburn vs Georgia OTs) and #RunLindseyRun (Georgia vs Florida 1980), but it got me thinking.

What moments from the SEC would have made Twitter melt if it had existed back in the day? Sorry Texas A&M and Missouri fans, you don’t get in – although Missouri’s #FifthDown game would have melted Twitter.

We could go for Spurrier snark – and those remarks continue to live in history (#FreeShoesUniversity) – although my favorite that still stands was about Auburn and a fire that destroyed 20 books: “The real tragedy was that 15 hadn’t been colored yet,” so here we go.

1. Nate Northington steps on the field against Ole Miss

Nate Northington stepped on the field against Ole Miss as the first African-American to play in the SEC in 1967. That was one of the biggest landmarks in college sports, and would have melted Twitter. For good reasons. There are no clips of this happening, so we went with something a little salient.

2. Bear Bryant dies and days later, his funeral. Alabama fans mourns. College football mourns. Sports mourn. He was the greatest football coach (prior to Nick Saban and Bill Belichick’s reigns in latter years), and his hat and chainsmoking habit made him a king forever. Why it’s No.1? Because whether you are a Rockne, Hayes, Paterno or a Saban fan, it’s hard to imagine a coach that was more revered in college football. Fun fact: He tried to integrate African-American players at Kentucky and Texas A&M but was turned down. After pressure from Alabama’s governing bodies, he was not allowed to recruit African Americans. When he did, his first

3.  “Goodbye. In Your Face”

Bo Jackson’s run in the 1983 Iron Bowl. The line: “In your face” would have elicited more tweets and comebacks than Jen Bielema’s #Karma tweet did.

4. “Run Lindsey Run”

Larry Munson’s scream down the microphone in the 1980 would have been on repeat (#RunLindsayRun), as well as live videos later on of drunk Georgia fans burning down **** in St Simon’s. And then Larry Munson would have to issue an apology for ‘encouraging violence’ and the World Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party would be renamed “The Family Fun in Jacksonville” due to alcohol-related worries.

5. Billy Cannon

The Billy Cannon run-back against Ole Miss in 1959 in one of the biggest games in college football (#Cannon). Added in would be .gifs showing cannons, as well as shots of your usual horrified Ole Miss fan.

6. ARE YOU HERSCHEL WALKER?

HE RAN OVER TWO MEN….There would be memes of Larry Munson having a heart attack. Plus there would be numerous tweets of people saying #ImNotHerschelWalker. Georgia would make a ‘thing’ about it and sell loads of merchandise….and Walker would not see a thing.

7. Bluegrass Miracle

Kentucky beating LSU. Kentucky’s head coach Guy Morriss got the Gatorade bath before the final whistle. And then Marcus Randall hit Devery Henderson. There would be a lot of #TooSoon shots and people making (a lot) of fun of Kentucky fans.

8. The Loudest The Swamp Has Ever Been

Florida State walk into Florida as the No.1 team in the country facing off. A fight before the game (#GatorFight). A great account is that someone was celebrating so hard that they fell off the ‘Gators’ wall and fell on top of the writer. I can’t believe Sean McDonough was doing the call back in the day.

9. Bats**t crazy Arkansas Games

Twice in three seasons, Arkansas played in a SEVEN-OVERTIME game. There was one in 2001 , which would have sparked enough chatter, but then there was the equally-crazy 2003 game against Kentucky in 2003. There would be sly commentary from Twitter about finishing the game because church was starting soon, methinks.

10. The LSU ‘Earthquake Game’

The noise in Tiger Stadium when LSU beat Auburn was so loud that it made it onto the Richter Scale (#LSUEarthquake). It helped when the fans had been drinking Jack Daniel’s for 12 hours straight, too.

The University of Georgia will come out as a winner of a national championship in 2019. Sadly, it’s not THE National Championship, but it’s the National Championship for Pros- the Super Bowl.

On one side is one of the most destructive running backs Georgia football ever saw – despite injuries – in Todd Gurley (St Louis Rams), and the other is the ankle-breaking speedster Sony Michael (New England Patriots).

In their times between the hedges, Gurley had 3,900 total yards and 46 TDs (in just 30 games because of injury and suspension), while Michel had 4,234 yards and 39 TDs.

This season, both posted excellent years.

Gurley posted his second-straight 1,000-yard season this year and his third in four seasons. This time it was 1,251 yards and 17 TDs. He also had 59 receptions for a tidy 580 yards and 4 TDs on top of that.

Bearing in mind New England’s pass-first offense (it helps when Tom Brady’s playing), Michel – in his rookie season – had 931 yards and 6 TDs, but has exploded in the postseason, scoring 5 touchdowns total against Los Angeles and Kansas City, and has gone for 129 and 113 yards respectively. Talk about a player on form. Gurley was dreadful in the game against New Orleans, which included four carries, one fumble and a drop (he still scored a touchdown), but put up 100 yards and a TD against Dallas.

Gurley said about Michel on Tuesday: “I remember when he first came in, he couldn’t run and catch,” Gurley said of Michel’s freshman season at Georgia. “I had to teach him how to do all that stuff….Hopefully everything I taught him, he doesn’t do it and he just plays like he used to play before I taught him everything.” He added – not surprisingly – that he wanted to ‘beat Michel’ in the Super Bowl.

Michel was more deferential, calling Gurley a “big brother”.

If you’re going on form, you’d take Michel to have the bigger game in Atlanta on Sunday – particularly with the fear factor that New England holds under centre.

This Monday is the College Football finale between two teams that EVERYBODY thought would get there: Alabama and Clemson.

It’s no secret that both teams are amazing. Both teams are stacked with first round draft picks. Both teams have five-star quarterbacks who been revelations. Both teams have insanely good wide receivers and running backs. And their defenses? Whoa.

The only bad thing about the National Championship is that it’s going to be played in Santa Clara, California. My brother – who lives there – said to me: “Why in the hell are they having a massive college football game during rush-hour on a weekday? The place is hard to get to and isn’t a great stadium experience? The 49ers can’t even fill the place.”

But onto the game itself….Even if it’s played in front of a few thousand people. 

Thinking about the game in the shower today, all I could think about it the reasons why both teams will win. Alabama will win if their offensive line can stop Christian Wilkins and his gang from getting to Tua – something they weren’t amazing at against Georgia and only a little better for three quarters against Oklahoma (although they smashed it in the first quarter!). Give Tua the time, and Tua will rip apart a Clemson secondary that gave up 510 yards (FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN) passing to South Carolina, who then was shut out by mighty Virginia. True, they were excellent against Notre Dame….but Notre Dame’s passing offense was 37th during the season. Ian Book was a manageable QB, but he’s no Tua – and the weapons he has with Isaiah Buggs III and the freakshow known as Jerry Jeudy.

On the other side, Alabama’s passing defense has just given up  300 yards to Georgia, and 308 to Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma Sooners. If Trevor Lawrence – who’s a great quarterback in himself despite looking like a giraffe throwing a javelin – can get the ball out quickly and to his wide receivers Tee Higgins and Hunter Renfrow without getting murdered by Quinnen Williams, Alabama might have problems. We don’t think Travis Etienne’s going to have a big game on the ground because running through that Alabama defensive corps will be murder for him.

But let’s be honest. Both sides are incredibly equal to each other. Both sides give up around 530 yards a game. Both sides have scored around 45 points per game – helped by the amount of crappy teams on their schedule and their up-tempo offenses. Clemson is better against the rush (predictably), helped by the sort of wall that Donald Trump’s pleading to be put up against Mexico. And coaching-wise, both Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney are doing incredible jobs.

This is going to the wire.

PREDICTION: Alabama 30, Clemson 27.

If you believe in such thing as social media noise, then Twitter shouted the loudest.

And in particular, the insufferable yelling came from the SEC – and most particularly Georgia and Alabama fans.

RANT NO.1: WHY WASN’T GEORGIA IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF AHEAD OF NOTRE DAME?

Georgia fans were screaming their nuts off about the fact that Notre Dame’s blow-out by Clemson meant that they should have been in the blow-out instead of the Irish.

“They don’t even have their own conference” said some. “How could the Committee talk about the best four teams? Sure Georgia, in their loss to Alabama, showed that they are one of the best teams in the country?”, groused another. “Notre Dame didn’t play anyone this year”, grumbled some more. And when we say “another” and “some more”, we meant Georgia fans in their hundreds – and that – of course – including, Georgia players, Georgia legend and ESPN analyst David Pollock, as well as SEC Network anchor Peter Burns.

And if you wrote something positive about Notre Dame or Oklahoma getting in the play-off, the rage coming out of people’s mouths – particularly from ‘SEC fans’ – was enough to make Donald Trump’s haters blush.

Georgia’s basic premise was this: The Bulldogs took Alabama really close, and therefore we were one of the best teams in the country.

Never mind the fact that they got the doors blown off them at LSU. Never mind the fact that they blew a big lead to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Never mind that Notre Dame finished with nine wins over bowl-eligible teams. Never mind that Oklahoma won its conference and avenged the loss against the team that it was beaten by earlier in the season (Wait: Did Georgia do the same last year??). Logic got a combative growl from doggies everywhere.

Of course, if the Committee and ESPN had sorted out an 8-team playoff, we never would have had the arguments in the first place, but that’s simple semantics.

BTW, one of the better lines from Twitter was: “If the Georgia players had expended as much energy on beating LSU as they did on Twitter tonight, maybe they would have won”. 

RANT NO.2: TUA SHOULD HAVE GOT THE HEISMAN

Anyone who’s anyone knows that Alabama fans are basically bad losers. If they win, they think they should have won better, and if they lose, it’s the end of the world. When Alabama beat Oklahoma comfortably in the second play-off game, Alabama fans turned their rage to the fact that Kyler Murray had beaten out Baby Tua to the Heisman Trophy.

Don’t get us wrong: They were more pissed off and jealous than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction before the play-off game. But now that Alabama had beaten Oklahoma, they were even more pissed off.

The problem with the rage is that logic – again – seemed to have defeated them.

Here are both of their arguments….

• ‘Kyler Murray didn’t play any good defenses this year because the Big XII sucked” – That one was true. Then again, the one big-time defense that Tua played this year (Georgia), beat him so badly he had to be replaced by Jalen Hurts. Kyler Murray had an exceptional season. Even if the Big XII had terrible numbers, Murray was making plays with his legs and his arms. 
• ‘When will Kyler ever play a good defense? Tua faced one in practice every day of the week’ – Actually, Kyler Murray did face a good defense this year, and he proved he was a Heisman quarterback. After a poor start when his offensive line was obliterated, Murray threw for 308 yards and 2 TDs and ran for 109 yards and 1 TD on 17 carries on this defense. That defense was Alabama’s. And Murray didn’t do that because Alabama. After a poor first quarter, Murray stepped it up a notch, and the game finished with Bama winning by 11.

But again – where Alabama fans are concerned – logic took a beating.

I love the bowl time of year. I get to ignore politics for a few hours and sit and balance a beer on my belly and watch college football.

This is a beautiful time to be a SEC fan. We get to generally see a National Champion, and we get to celebrate by haunting others with our war cry: “SEC! SEC! SEC!”.

I was going to go for a long, weaving preview of every bowl, but I realised that this (might) suffice.

So here we go – Why EVERY SEC will win its bowl game.

1. Why Vanderbilt (-4)will beat Baylor: Vanderbilt can stop someone, Baylor can’t. Vanderbilt’s got one of the most underrated running backs in college football in Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who ran for over 1,000 yards in the regular season. Vandy QB Kyle Shurmur’s better than what Baylor will offer, too.
2. Why Auburn (-3.5) will beat Purdue: Because Jarrett Stidham NEEDS a good bowl game to lift his NFL Draft status, and Gus Malzahn needs a good bowl game to get some ju-ju off his back. And also, Purdue really isn’t that good.
3.  Why Florida will beat Michigan (-6): Florida will bring back all of its talent from 2018 for this one, while Michigan is going to have some heavy losses. Michigan winning by almost a touchdown? Are you kidding me? Chomp, Chomp, Harbaugh.
4. Why South Carolina (-5.5) will beat Virginia: Virginia isn’t very good. Despite Deebo Samuel electing to forgo this game so that he can concentrate on the draft, South Carolina will be just fine without him. Jake Bentley will pick apart Virgnia’s secondary with his bevvy of tight ends (Kiel Pollard, Jacob August, Kyle Markway and KC Crosby).
5. Why Missouri (-9) will beat Oklahoma State: Missouri’s en fuego after getting Kelly Bryant to sign for next year, and Drew Lock’s coming back for his swansong. Oklahoma State’s going to miss its best RB (Justice Hill) because he’s declared early. This will be fun, but Missouri will win. Double digits. Mark it down.
6. Why Texas A&M (-7) will beat NC State: Because Texas A&M’s a good team, and NC State’s ‘D’ is porous at best. Kellen Mond will have a field day.
7. Why Mississippi State (-7) will beat Iowa: Iowa’s offensive line won’t be able to stop Mississippi State. 96-tackle anchor Jeffrey Simmons has said he is GOING to play before he leaves for a bright future in the NFL. Good luck, Hawkeyes.
8. Why LSU (-7.5) will beat UCF: Because UCF’s QB Mackenzie Milton isn’t playing. LSU will grind UCF into the ground using their bevvy of running backs. This will get ugly.
9. Why Kentucky will beat Penn State (6.5): Because even if Penn State stops Benny Snell, Josh Allen’s going to kill Trace McSorley on the other side of the ball.
10. Why Georgia (-13) will beat Texas: Texas hasn’t got a great defense, and Georgia will run straight through them. It might be exciting early with Texas’ big wide receivers, but Sam Ehrlinger’s moxiness will get crushed by UGA’s defense.
11. Why Alabama (-14) will beat Oklahoma: Because Oklahoma couldn’t stop a damned thing all season, and it ain’t about to start now.

Stop if you’ve heard this before about recruiting: It’s an Alabama and Georgia world, and everyone else just lives in it.

Every time there was a tweet from the two schools’ Twitter during the National Signing Day flurry, there was another four or five-star recruit that wanted to play for Nick Saban or Kirby Smart.

Everywhere you looked, the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs were in everyone’s thoughts, and it seemed a rarity when a player decided to go elsewhere.

Alabama pulled in five-star RB Trey Sanders, OT Evan Neal, and DE Antonio Alfano, while Georgia celebrated the signings of five stars OC Clay Webb, DE Jermaine Johnson, CB DJ Daniel, while DE Nolan Smith, LB Nakobe Dean, DT Travon Walker, and WR Dominik Blaylock also either signed letters of intent or enrolled early.

Georgia only signed 3 players below a four-star 24-7 ranking, while Alabama just one.

Alabama pulled in 26 commits, while Georgia had 23. Nick Saban’s number was higher due to the attrition of juniors going to the NFL.

THE SEC RULED RECRUITING

Behind them, Jimbo Fisher was doing great things in Texas, vaulting Texas A&M to 3rd overall headed up by five-stars OT Kenyan Green and DT DeMarvin Neal, while LSU was fourth. They added Baton Rouge local CB Derek Stingley, RB John Emery Jr, OC Kardell Thomas, and LB Marcel Brooks.

Whether this will lead to a deeper SEC West in 2019 with everybody beating everybody is anybody’s guess, but Georgia will probably dominate the East. 

Auburn was 11th, Florida 16th, Tennessee 17th, Mississippi State 19th, Arkansas 20th, South Carolina 22nd, and Ole Miss 23rd. Kentucky and Missouri were 32nd and 33rd respectively – although Missouri’s biggest recruit may have been the signings of the ‘silly season’ when former Clemson QB Kelly Bryant elected to play in Columbia. Vanderbilt was 51st.

Football loves winners. Sure, there are the celebrated losers (Charlie Weis in his time in Kansas), but we care more about the trophies, the Heismans, and the winners.

After all, schools build their cathedrals because they like winning and let rich people know that they like winning, and will do anything for that. The rich people then put in their money for winning, and coaches are hired. Hopefully, the coaches win, and statues are created in their image, and the congregations bow down.

Urban Meyer was a skilled high priest. He won three of them.

The first two were at Florida, a program that was still recovering a little from Steve Spurrier’s departure. He took home two National Championships, three SEC Championships, and more important for Gators fans, beat Georgia 5 out of 6 times.

After he returned after a year of stress relief, he went to Ohio State. Ohio State doesn’t lose much and doesn’t like losing much, and in Columbus he didn’t do that, winning another National Championship (1) and beating Michigan (7-0).

His brilliant recruiting at Ohio State and Florida made sure that his guys earned some money in the pros, too. Maurkice Pouncey and Mike Pouncey are still stalwarts on the offensive lines. Joe Haden is still playing. Percy Harvin had 8,000 receiving and kick returning yards before retiring. Brandon Spikes had a mixed career, but still ended up with 349 tackles. And although you wanted to punch him for his outrageous remarks in 2013, Riley Cooper was a great target (2,400 yards, 18 TDs). And Ohio State, Meyer saw – amongst others – draftings for Joey Bosa, Ryan Shazier, Michael Thomas, Marshon Lattimore and one Ezekiel Elliott. Even 2018 first rounder Denzel Ward has shone, grabbing 3 INTs and 48 tackles. And even though Aaron Hernandez could be defined as an awful human being, he was a  stud tight end for the New England Patriots.

The Flaws

The mistakes I make,

That’s the real me

Nas

But while the football was going well, the man management went to hell.

During his reign in Gainseville, forty-one players were arrested. That’s half a football team. Of these, one was Cam Newton (laptop stealing), and the other was Hernandez (felony battery). We all know what happened to both of them. Newton was kicked off the side, and Meyer kept Hernandez on after appeals from St. Tim Tebow. As it goes, even Tebow couldn’t save Hernandez in the same way as Gus Malzahn did for Cam Newton.

At Ohio State, 8 Ohio State players were handcuffed under Meyer’s supervision, and then there was the bit this summer where Meyer lied about knowing about domsetic abuse allegations made against his wide receivers coach, Zach Smith. Because of football’s eagerness not to keep its bosses on the sidelines, Meyer was only given a three-game suspension.

And yet through all of this, it’s difficult not to feel sorry for Urban Meyer. We should be grateful that it was just stress that gave Meyer chest pains during his Florida reign, and thank God that Meyer didn’t have an aneurysm on the field. You know, because sometimes the Devil deserves some sympathy.