SEC football coaches get 'contentious' on conference call about added opponents, per reports

[ACT ONE]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...rence-call-about-added-opponents-per-reports/

From the article, author doesn't think much of Kentucky's chances against Alabama.

"And perennial power Alabama added Kentucky and Missouri, neither of which should provide much resistance."

Hopefully this is proven wrong.

 

[CB3UK]

Weve beaten Alabama twice ever. Im all for making it 3, and we have a good team this year, so anythings possible. Spurrier dropped Bama when he was at Carolina. Its doable.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...rence-call-about-added-opponents-per-reports/

From the article, author doesn't think much of Kentucky's chances against Alabama.

"And perennial power Alabama added Kentucky and Missouri, neither of which should provide much resistance."

Hopefully this is proven wrong.

Just another Hack sleeping on the Powerhouse Stoops is building in Ky. You can bet Saban wont over look us.

 

[The-Hack]

Just another Hack sleeping on the Powerhouse Stoops is building in Ky. You can bet Saban wont over look us.

Watch that “Hack” language!

Seriously, not having yet read the piece linked, above, I suspect Stoops was a cooler head regarding the additions, knowing he has a good, deep team, and I would bet that the new coaches at Arky, Mizzou, Ole Miss and State were complainers. Also, I suspect (whether he has verbalized it or not) Nick Saban would rather not see our line play, if it could be avoided.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Watch that “Hack” language!

Seriously, not having yet read the piece linked, above, I suspect Stoops was a cooler head regarding the additions, knowing he has a good, deep team, and I would bet that the new coaches at Arky, Mizzou, Ole Miss and State were complainers. Also, I suspect (whether he has verbalized it or not) Nick Saban would rather not see our line play, if it could be avoided.

Lol
I actually thought about using a different term because of you Hack.

 

[The-Hack]

From the piece:

"The call got pretty wild," one league coach told ESPN. "It would have been a good piece of reality TV."

Can anyone imagine Mike Leach or Lane Kiffen making an arse of themselves?

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

From the piece:

"The call got pretty wild," one league coach told ESPN. "It would have been a good piece of reality TV."

Can anyone imagine Mike Leach or Lane Kiffen making an arse of themselves?

Don't leave Pruitt out of that conversation. UT fans are expecting a big year, Even after the announcement of the new crossover games quite a few of them are expecting 8-9 wins and a rematch with Bama in the SEC championship game. There is a group expecting to win the playoffs in the next 2 years and people to be talking about the Pruitt coaching tree within the next 5.

 

[Kooky Kats]

Why?

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Why?

Because it seems 2-3 teams came out on the short end of the stick with the new crossover games. Missouri drawing Bama and LSU or Arky drawing UF and UGA. 2 teams that are really struggling got the toughest draws in their division.

If the conference had gone with the 21 and 22 rotating opponents teams may not have liked their draw but they couldn't shout favortism.

 

[Kooky Kats]

Because it seems 2-3 teams came out on the short end of the stick with the new crossover games. Missouri drawing Bama and LSU or Arky drawing UF and UGA. 2 teams that are really struggling got the toughest draws in their division.

If the conference had gone with the 21 and 22 rotating opponents teams may not have liked their draw but they couldn't shout favortism.

My question was why would UT think they’re ready for challenging Alabama? That’s absurd.

 

[K_TIME]

Because it seems 2-3 teams came out on the short end of the stick with the new crossover games. Missouri drawing Bama and LSU or Arky drawing UF and UGA. 2 teams that are really struggling got the toughest draws in their division.

If the conference had gone with the 21 and 22 rotating opponents teams may not have liked their draw but they couldn't shout favortism.

This was the most reasonable way to do it was stick with the current rotations across the board.....but instead what it feels like will happen is we have this odd year in 2020 that we draw 2 names out of a hat ( rolleyes: like anyone believes that was how it was handled) and then when we go back to a normal year, we'll just use the normal rotation. Which the teams that drew the harder 2 new games in 2020 will not at least get to skip these teams for the upcoming rotation.

 

[TBCat]

I'm not one to shy away from criticizing the SEC but in this case I believe they did a reasonable job here. Everyone is complaining but they are focused on looking at their team's situation in a bubble. The people scheduling this couldn't do that. By that I mean not every team could have drawn Arkansas or Vandy. Some had to draw Bama or LSU. It just had to be that way. You also have to balance the 2020 schedule against who got which team in last year's schedule and the next few years. You also have to balance the strength of schedule before adding the new teams otherwise someone would get an impossible schedule. Home vs away games were also needed to be balanced. So there were a lot of factors.

So from UK's standpoint based on recent games Arkansas and A&M were out. We already play Miss State and Auburn. So from there we only had 3 possible outcomes.

1. Bama and LSU
2. Bama and Ole Miss
3. LSU and Ole Miss.

Those were basically our 3 options. The league at least did a good job of not giving us both Bama and LSU. They also did us a favor in giving us the winnable game at home. It's a brutal schedule but that's mostly due to us having a brutal schedule even before the shake up.

Florida and Bama were the big winners here but I believe that's mostly due to the circumstances. I don't believe the SEC actually tried to help them.

 

[Pickle_Rick]

"I don't believe the SEC actually tried to help them"

I hope this last was said tongue in cheek.

 

[K_TIME]

I'm not one to shy away from criticizing the SEC but in this case I believe they did a reasonable job here. Everyone is complaining but they are focused on looking at their team's situation in a bubble. The people scheduling this couldn't do that. By that I mean not every team could have drawn Arkansas or Vandy. Some had to draw Bama or LSU. It just had to be that way. You also have to balance the 2020 schedule against who got which team in last year's schedule and the next few years. You also have to balance the strength of schedule before adding the new teams otherwise someone would get an impossible schedule. Home vs away games were also needed to be balanced. So there were a lot of factors.

So from UK's standpoint based on recent games Arkansas and A&M were out. We already play Miss State and Auburn. So from there we only had 3 possible outcomes.

1. Bama and LSU
2. Bama and Ole Miss
3. LSU and Ole Miss.

Those were basically our 3 options. The league at least did a good job of not giving us both Bama and LSU. They also did us a favor in giving us the winnable game at home. It's a brutal schedule but that's mostly due to us having a brutal schedule even before the shake up.

Florida and Bama were the big winners here but I believe that's mostly due to the circumstances. I don't believe the SEC actually tried to help them.

Really astute breakdown and you're right the 3 scenarios are the ones that made sense. My only comment is this...we should change the rotations in 2021 and beyond for all the programs going forward based upon 2020 games as well. (i.e. for UK Ole Miss and Bama should be in back of rotation for us going forward). And I am not sure that is the plan for SEC in terms of future schedule rotations.

 

[vhcat70]

I feel sorry for the coaches. Their AD's should pay them more for this abuse.

 

[Deeeefense]

They also did us a favor in giving us the winnable game at home.

Not if your goal is to win the East (as I'm sure it is for the staff), you have to figure you can beat Ole Miss on the road and have a better shot at Bama at home.

I agree with the rest of your post - good points.

 

[STUCKNBIG10]

Because it seems 2-3 teams came out on the short end of the stick with the new crossover games. Missouri drawing Bama and LSU or Arky drawing UF and UGA. 2 teams that are really struggling got the toughest draws in their division.

If the conference had gone with the 21 and 22 rotating opponents teams may not have liked their draw but they couldn't shout favortism.

Agreed...UT is arguably one of the biggest losers in this arrangement. Their original schedule had them favored to go 8-4, but with games against Florida and Alabama at home you had some Vol types hoping for 9-3 or better.

Now, they have added @Auburn and A&M to the schedule and they lose three patsies and @oklahoma. I believe that the O/U for UT will now be 5 games (they'll be favored to lose against Bama, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, & A&M and have swing games against UK and @USC). Life could get ugly for pruitt if he goes 4-6 or 5-5.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

My question was why would UT think they’re ready for challenging Alabama? That’s absurd.

Because they went to a bowl game line 19, and those 2 losses to Georgia State and BYU difnt really happen.

They lost more of their offensive production than we did but they are expecting to win at least 8 games because they have a good OL and the best coaching staff ever assembled, just ask any of them about that one.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Agreed...UT is arguably one of the biggest losers in this arrangement. Their original schedule had them favored to go 8-4, but with games against Florida and Alabama at home you had some Vol types hoping for 9-3 or better.

Now, they have added @Auburn and A&M to the schedule and they lose three patsies and @oklahoma. I believe that the O/U for UT will now be 5 games (they'll be favored to lose against Bama, Florida, Georgia, Auburn, & A&M and have swing games against UK and @USC). Life could get ugly for pruitt if he goes 4-6 or 5-5.

I know a few UT fans, they are claiming foul for sure, maybe they have reason to. But it's all because Bama and UF didnt want to play regular season. But nothing the office can say that will not make it.look like some teams were taken care of. And it was easily avoided by going to the next 2 rotations.

UF thinks they are destined to win the SEC and playoffs this year. According to them Trask is a heisman candidate and the rest of us are just bystanders. What they are having a hard time understanding is SOS isnt walking their sideline and Ray Goff and Joker are walking our sidelines. We have beaten them 6 out of last 10.

 

[Kooky Kats]

They suck.

 

[Mashburned]

UF thinks they are destined to win the SEC and playoffs this year

HA!

I ain't skeered of UF one bit.

 

[TBCat]

Really astute breakdown and you're right the 3 scenarios are the ones that made sense. My only comment is this...we should change the rotations in 2021 and beyond for all the programs going forward based upon 2020 games as well. (i.e. for UK Ole Miss and Bama should be in back of rotation for us going forward). And I am not sure that is the plan for SEC in terms of future schedule rotations.

I agree, and from the sounds of it that's what they were going to do at first.The first we heard is that it would be LSU and Ole Miss for us but that changed. I suspect some sort of other conflict caused that to change such as if we did it that way then LSU would get 2 home games and someone else would get 2 road games so that wasn't fair. This was never supposed happen like this so it just came out like it did.

 

[The-Hack]

We all make a living ridiculing UT, me included. I have more kin in Tennessee than anywhere else.

Still, if I was UT, I’d have some reasonable hopes. Their bizarre losses came at the beginning of last season, and they won lots of games late and played Bama on the road evenly for three quarters.

They have lots of offense to replace, but like all fan bases, are projecting AA status on their replacements.

 

[The-Hack]

Ray Goff and Joker aren't walking our sidelines. We have beaten them 6 out of last 10.

Sorry, Grump, I could not stand to let your typo stand for even a second longer without correcting it.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

We all make a living ridiculing UT, me included. I have more kin in Tennessee than anywhere else.

Still, if I was UT, I’d have some reasonable hopes. Their bizarre losses came at the beginning of last season, and they won lots of games late and played Bama on the road evenly for three quarters.

They have lots of offense to replace, but like all fan bases, are projecting AA status on their replacements.

Not sure we will have bowls this year, or what the requirements will be, but UT will be hard press to win 5. UF, UK, UGA, BAMA, A&M and AU is tough road. Pruitt seems to have Gus and his HS offense figured out, they could easily go 1-5 there and 0-6 wouldnt include a big upset.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

Sorry, Grump, I could not stand to let your typo stand for even a second longer without correcting it.

Thanks, this damn phone and its spell check aren't helping my lack of correct spelling and grammar. I have got to make a habit of checking every post before hitting post.

 

[The-Hack]

UF, UK, UGA, BAMA, A&M and AU

I hadn't looked at theirs in that detail.

Kentucky has Ole Miss (H), Vandy (A), Mizzou (A), Miss state (H), USCe (H), all of which we should easily be favored in. UT is close to a wash, but in Knoxville, they'll be favored. Auburn (A), Bama (A), UGA (H), Fla (A) will all be favored, but I could see upsets along the way.

From Kentucky's perspective, with a deep roster, why the heck not face a conference slate, when 90k (plus) won't be in attendance at any SEC venue . . . I might be dead wrong, but I think in a perverse fashion, all the mess benefits UK.

Oh, and when I say we should easily be favored, I'm not talking the betting lines. Mizzou has been favored in all their 5 consecutive losses to us, as has been USCe, losing 5 of the last 6.

 

[Grumpyolddawg]

I hadn't looked at theirs in that detail.

Kentucky has Ole Miss (H), Vandy (A), Mizzou (A), Miss state (H), USCe (H), all of which we should easily be favored in. UT is close to a wash, but in Knoxville, they'll be favored. Auburn (A), Bama (A), UGA (H), Fla (A) will all be favored, but I could see upsets along the way.

From Kentucky's perspective, with a deep roster, why the heck not face a conference slate, when 90k (plus) won't be in attendance at any SEC venue . . . I might be dead wrong, but I think in a perverse fashion, all the mess benefits UK.

Oh, and when I say we should easily be favored, I'm not talking the betting lines. Mizzou has been favored in all their 5 consecutive losses to us, as has been USCe, losing 5 of the last 6.

I think you are dead on with your predictions. With that being said, State is bringing in a 3 year starter at QB from Stanford. He hasnt set the Pac12 on fire but Stanford is pretty conservative. Former 5* wanting to play in an offense where he can sling it. But on the flip side State will be lucky to force a punt against UK.

 

[The-Hack]

But on the flip side State will be lucky to force a punt against UK.

True.

And what a sea-change.

It reminds me of Barkley’s quote in 2002/3: “The best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, the tallest basketball player is Chinese, and the Germans don’t want to go to war.”

And Kentucky is winning in Football!