SEC Struggles

gtrower

gtrower

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This is the first year that I can remember the media - and even SEC fans themselves - acknowledge the lack of actual dominance that has been peddled the last decade. Here's the recent major bowl game results with SEC teams:

2015: Bama beat MSU and Clemson in the playoff, Ole Miss beat OK State
2014: OSU beat Bama in the playoff, GT raped MSU in the Orange Bowl, TCU raped Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl
2013: FSU beat Auburn in MNCG and OU beat Bama in the Sugar Bowl
2012: Bama beat ND in the MNCG and Louisville beat Florida in the Sugar Bowl

So in BCS/NY6 bowl games in recent history theyre 4-6. Bama is 3-2. Ole Miss who is about to get sanctioned by the NCAA for cheating over this time period is the only other SEC team with a major bowl win. IIRC the GT, TCU, OU, and UL wins were beat downs too. This year there's going to be an 8-win Auburn team going to the Sugar Bowl that is running half their plays through wildcat trying to keep pace with OU or OK State. So the non-Bama schools will likely fall to 1-5.

So what's changed? They still dominate the fabled recruiting rankings. Why isn't it translating? I'd say you've got to point to coaching of the usual "powers" more than anything else. Take a look at the coaching changes the big name SEC schools have gone through the last decade from when they really were better than everybody else to now.

- Bama - Saban -> Saban
- UGA: Richt -> Smart (Richt to ACC)
- LSU: Miles -> Orgeron (after getting denied by Fisher (ACC) and Herman (Big 12))
- UT: LOL -> Jones
- Auburn: Malzahn with Cam Newton -> Malzahn without Cam Newton
- Florida: Meyer -> McElwain (Meyer to Big 1o)

Saban is the only bright spot on that entire list albeit he's as bright as it gets. McElwain is being tolerated with the back-to-back SEC Least titles, but they'll grow tired of that putrid offense as soon as he loses one. And he's nowhere near Meyer. Smart, Orgeron, and Jones aren't inspiring fear in anybody. Basically if you look down the list of the traditional SEC powers, their HCs have gone from some of the best in football to question marks across the board (outside of Saban).

This could be the year we look back on that it all turned. The big indicator will be how the preseason polls look next year. If a hyped LSU / Auburn / UT / UF / UGA / A&M all end up in the Top 10/15/20 again then the narrative will continue with "ranked SEC teams beating up on each other."
 
When the ACC expanded and took Miami and VT in, everyone was predicting the ACC to become the dominate conference. It has just taken a bit more than a decade perhaps. The SEC is going down.
 
JJacket said:
When the ACC expanded and took Miami and VT in, everyone was predicting the ACC to become the dominate conference. It has just taken a bit more than a decade perhaps. The SEC is going down.
Click to expand...

Adding Pitt and cuse has just sealed their fate. Or something.
 
It is the same thing it always was: there were two coaches in the SEC that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the college football landscape. One of them is still there, but the other is not. Takeaway Saban's NC team gift to Miles and Cam Newton and you are left with two coaches that won anything in that conference in Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. The conference is perched up by Saban and Saban alone. In wanting to get a piece of what he can produce there are now 4 teams in the SEC East that have bombed on Sabanite hires, which leads one to believe that Saban's success either can't be replicated or he is too much of a control freak to grow coordinators. The only ones that have had decent success are now at MSU & FSU (and Pitt if you consider Narduzzi close enough in the coaching tree).
 
gtrower said:
If a hyped LSU / Auburn / UT / UF / UGA / A&M all end up in the Top 10/15/20 again then the narrative will continue with "ranked SEC teams beating up on each other."
Click to expand...

You forgot Arkansas, but you are right. If any of those schools field a team, they are ranked somewhere 15-25, and they have to lose a TON of games to drop out, a la Ole Miss this year.
 
...to read at an elementary level.

Oh sorry, I thought this was one of those "complete the sentence" threads.
 
If you can't play for Saban, which coach in the SEC do you want to play for?
 
Nothing's changed except perhaps the bloggers at ESPN can no longer spin mediocrity. The SEC's 17000 national titles in a row was the result of four teams. The other eight teams sucked then and suck now.
 
JJacket said:
Only team to beat two teams currently ranked the top ten - Pitt
Click to expand...

Didn't they beat those two on the road, also. Our loss to Pitt at Pitt is looking better and better. I think we should get partial credit, so we now have 8+ wins.
 
Part of it is also the echo chamber - Their recruiting rankings are high because anyone who commits to an SEC school is automatically ranked higher because SEC schools are better. Get it? They're the best because they get the best and the people they get are the best because they're going to the SEC.
 
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