All I ever hear in Baton Rouge from my friends and sports fans in general is how good the Southeastern Conference is in football year in and year out.
The way people talk about the SEC would make a person think it’s a supreme deity that can’t be touched.
But in the last few years, and especially in the first weekend of this football season, I think we all learned the SEC is not what it is all cracked up to be and should not even be mentioned in the same breath as the Big XII, with powerhouses Oklahoma, Kansas State and Texas all in the Top 10.
First there is Ole Miss, which squeaked out a 24-21 win over (wink, wink) fellow SEC powerhouse Vanderbilt.
The Commodores outgained Eli and his buddies 399 to 370 in yards, and “Joe Heisman” had to lead the Rebels on two fourth quarter drives to come away with a victory. If it were not for two Vandy turnovers deep in Ole Miss territory, the mighty ‘Dores might have come away with the upset, if you want to call it that.
And let’s not forget that joke of a team known as South Carolina, which beat the University of Louisiana at Lafayette or whatever it is called by a grand score of 14-7. That’s right, 14-7, against the Ragin’ Cajuns, the same team LSU beat 48-0 last year. And this was in Columbia, S.C., before 82,227 USC fans.
The Gamecocks now must face No. 15 Virginia, and USC coach Lou Holtz, who loves buttering up opponents, said his team has about as good a chance of winning this game as the stripper who is running for governor in California has of winning that race.
I’d bet on the stripper.
Of course there is Mississippi State, which actually put up a good fight in its 42-34 loss to Oregon in Starkville, Miss.
Mississippi State has become an embarrassment to the SEC, and may be the worse team in the league, replacing conference cellar dweller Vanderbilt.
But then again, that honor could go to Kentucky, which was stomped, 40-24, by Louisville in Lexington.
The big fella Jared Lorenzen did have a good game, going 18-of-21 for 236 yards, but the Wildcats couldn’t recover from a 21-3 deficit. The best part about the game was the Kentucky coaching staff calling for Lorenzen to run the option, even though he could pass for an offensive tackle.
And probably the biggest disappointment at all was the effort put forth by the Auburn Tigers/Plainsmen/War Eagles.
The Tigers, a trendy pick for a national championship contender and a Top 10 pick in almost every poll, were thoroughly dominated by the University of Southern California, 23-0, in Auburn.
Auburn’s version of the Four Horsemen racked up 43 yards on 36 carries, and the Tigers amassed a total of 164 yards on offense. It looks as though Tommy Tuberville and company can’t handle the lofty expectations, and an opponent’s best bet is to stack the line and make Jason Campbell toss it around. The Trojans surely did.
Although Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida and LSU all won by wide margins, all of the games came against inferior competition, with the Bulldogs gaining the most impressive victory, winning 30-0 at Clemson.
Judging from the performances of Ole Miss, Auburn, USC, MSU and Kentucky, the SEC may struggle this year and once again be overshadowed by the Big 10 and Big XII.
Until SEC schools start stepping up against namely non-conference opponents, it may be left in the dust by all the “Big” conferences of the country.