SEC West goes 2-5 in bowl games

[Jazzycat]

Re: SEC West loses every bowl game

SEC teams playing in 11 bowl games....enough said

SEC lost over 65 players to the NFL in the last two years,,,that has been a major hit for the upper tiered teams, in particular

The bottom tiered teams won their games, even though the top tiered didn't....shows how deep the SEC is top to bottom

Praying that Tennessee beats Iowa today...otherwise it will be how great the BIG10 is for the next 12 months....

Lots of coaching changes in the past few years in the SEC, as well. Some great coaches left (Meyer, Franklin, for example) with more inexperienced coaches taking over.

I predict a resurgence of the SEC East in the next 2-5 years that will balance out the power of the SEC West.

 

[Blueworld_3.0]

Re: SEC West loses every bowl game

Originally posted by kyhusker2:

Originally posted by Blueworld_3.0:

The SEC West has certainly given all the haters (and they're coming out of the woodwork in droves) new ammo. Miss. St. and Ole Miss were soft all year long but, benefitted from association with the SEC and a fairly easy schedule. You want to know what the SEC West really was? Look at Auburn. They had a very tough schedule and finished 8-4.
Alabama only had one loss but, were lucky to get by Arkansas. They also had a favorable schedule. I don't know if you could call Alabama "soft" exactly but, they certainly weren't the same team that dominated other programs for the last years. Lane Kiffin will catch a TON of heat for his play calling in that debacle against OSU last night. He may not survive it. At most, I expect him to be gone after next year. Especially if Bama doesn't contend.
LSU never wants to play in a Bowl Game unless it means something so, they were expected to come up with a stinker. However, Notre Dame is very weak and the Tigers should have taken care of business.
Surprisingly, it's been the so-called "2nd tier" SEC schools that have done well in the Bowl season.

You know why the haters are coming out of the woodwork? Because all season all we heard was how the SEC West was the best division in college football history. ESPN had 4 SEC West teams in the top 4 of its "FPI" at one point. Everyone talks about "SEC speed" like it's different than speed in other conferences. People were talking about how some of the teams in the West could compete in the NFL.

Then yesterday, the Auburn RB talks about Melvin Gordon and says he wishes he could play Illinois, Purdue, and Northwestern. As if Gordon got his stats against crappy teams. In the Missouri/Minn game, one of the players made tackle and started yelling about how that play doesn't work against SEC speed. Some other SEC QB (can't remember the game) was encouraging his team by telling them "we are the SEC." Everyone talks about "SEC defense." The list goes on and on. It started with the media and the fans and players bought in.

The SEC arrogance is why fans of other teams came out of the wordwork and have relished the last couple of days. The whole idea of rooting for other teams in your conference seems stupid to me, but fans of the SEC schools have bought into it for some reason. I mean, you had Alabama fans taking pride in Auburn winning the NC a couple years ago. WTH is that about? In any event, that's why haters are strutting that ass a bit today. The SEC needed to be taken down a notch from where the media propped it up.

But, it was the sports media that built up what proved to be a very average SEC West. Now, they're orgasmic over all these Bowl defeats. They're freaking bi-polar! Earlier the SEC West was like Mt. Olympus in the opinion of these idiots and now the very same people are trashing it.
Frankly, I couldn't care any less about what opposing fans say about the SEC. They've hated this conference for most of the last decade. They hated that the SEC won so many Titles and so many Bowls. The law of averages says eventually the SEC will have a down year and it happened to be this one. Now, the media and talking heads are all saying "see! we told you the SEC wasn't any good!". You said it yourself. However, it's like suddenly the media seems to have collective amnesia and can't remember the stranglehold the SEC has had on college football for the last 10 years.
Why this year? Probably a combination of things. The SEC has lost a TON of talent over the past two seasons. QB play in the conference was marginal all season long. Finally, maybe some other programs were just good this year. Oregon looks like a juggernaut and OSU is surging based entirely on the methods incorporated into that program by a former SEC head coach and two-time National Title winner. Maybe OSU got smart and decided if you can't beat 'em (SEC), just hire one of their former coaches. Pretty strong statement about the much-maligned SEC if you ask me.

 

[bigbluefattycat]

Re: SEC West loses every bowl game

Originally posted by UK90:

What's more telling is that, not only did the SEC West's 5 best teams ALL lose, none were fluke losses. In all 5 cases (including the two overtime games) they were simply outplayed, outgained and beaten at the line of scrimmage.

I was just shocked at how easily Wisconsin and Ohio State were gashing open holes in Auburn and Alabama D-Lines yesterday. For cripes sake, both Wisconsin and Georgia Tech rushed for over 400 yards, and each AVERAGED 7.4 YARDS PER CARRY in their bowl games--they ran through Auburn and Mississippi State's defensive fronts like they were playing Sun Belt defenses. And I won't even get into the utter humiliation laid on Ole Miss.

Tells me that all the hype over the SEC West this year was overblown and the Division was probably overrated from the start. Hopefully it's just a temporary blip and not a continuing trend, but either way, it sure was a humbling couple days for SEC fans everywhere.



This post was edited on 1/2 3:28 PM by UK90

I hope it is a continuing trend. I hope our players finally see that they can beat them. Stop playing scared and getting your ass handed to you. I hope recruits see it and decide not to go to Bama or the other top teams. Come play at UK.

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

Re: SEC West loses every bowl game

I think most of it is that many of the SEC teams are getting fat eating their own cake.
These guys read the headlines and watching the tv and all of them are singing their praise and how their poop don't stink. All they had to do was just show up and the other guys were gonna roll over. None of the teams that lost were playing with a chip on their shoulder.
The SEC teams that won their games are the ones that people pounced on during the year so they had something to prove. They come out ready to play while the fat ones in the west just sat on the couch and demanded the trophy to be mailed to them. You see the 2 wins in the west who were they? The only ones in the west that wasn't proclaimed to be high and mighty.
The East teams were ragged on all year talking about how terrible the east was. The worst division in the country. Well they are cleaning up.... If the west played up to their potential then yes they could be great but they wasn't gonna put forth the effort.

Thats exactly what happened.

 

[VT/UK Rondo]

Re: SEC West loses every bowl game

The SEC East got swept by the ACC in rival games...
The SEC West "banner carriers" got swept in their bowl games...
The best team in the SEC got sent packing by a team most said shouldnt have even been in the playoff series...

Considering where the SEC finishes in recruiting classes every year at what point do you stop trying to polish a turd and making excuses and hold the programs and coaches responsible for the losses? Look at the East and be honest, should Mizzou really be winning the division over the likes of Florida,UGA, UT and even USC? Since when the hell were they even "SEC caliber"? When they joined the SEC, most on here were chalking them up as sure UK win every year.The SEC is a wreck right now. Florida needs a REAL coach...UGA should have fired Richt years ago to keep from wasting more talent...Tennessee needs to get the hell back to relevance...Spurrier lost whatever momentum he had and probably should retire...LSU needs to get out of whatever funk they are in...AM needs a defense...Bama needs to
get back to doing what they do best-run over people. Two RBs like Yeldon and Henry and that dumbass Kiffen throwing the ball...geez. And spare me the "good teams beating up on each other" BS they all had noticable weaknesses this year that got exploited in and out of conference. Thats not like the SEC...especially the elite SEC.