SECond Look links it up

Lots of good SEC-related stuff out there on the bloggitysphere since Saturday, so before we get to the ballot, let's look at some of it.

Time to write the concession speech? I'll stick with my Friday assertion that there's neither conclusive evidence nor any rush to declare a winner in Conference Wars 2008, but yeah, when your conference is kinda fortunate to have that fourth team ranked, is chasing the benighted ACC in the Sagarin ratings, and watches the team still No. 2 with a bullet in its stronger division go down in flames at home to Duke ... yeah, a banner year for the league this isn't. That's quite, quite the safe assumption to make at this point. As Orspencerson Shwallindle put it:

The SEC is Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and then mediocrity down the stacks, a fact reinforced by Vandy’s loss to Duke, Auburn’s loss to West Virginia, and Mississippi State’s loss to Georgia Tech earlier this season. Add in Tennessee’s loss to UCLA, and even devalue Georgia’s victory over an overrated (at the time) Arizona State team, and as a whole the conference is down in terms of any measures of objective quality wins to justify the “ESS--EEE--SEE” chants of rabid fans.

Aside from the Big Three, the conference’s teams are either rebuilding, retreading or regressing (see Tennessee.) There may be a time for hootenanny SEC chest-thumping, but to speak in the vernacular: this year ain’t it.

Yes, I think "Pathos" is the word. In what's probably the SEC Factoid of the Year, the 'Dores have now built on this pre-Georgia tidbit to have lost 16 consecutive games with bowl eligibility on the line. That's not just a monkey on Vandy's back, it's not just an 800-pound gorilla, it's not even Kong--it's more like some sort of mutant space ape the size of all downtown Nashville. It's why I can almost understand why PhillipVU94 is throwing in the towel as a method of preserving his sanity:

I must say, in the annals of Vanderbilt Football Teases, this year’s team proves that it really hasn’t all been done before. I mean, starting 4-0 and going on to finish with five wins is old hat now. But 5-0? Dragging me in with 4th-quarter performances like Ole Miss and Auburn? I didn’t see that coming. That’s the point of Vanderbilt football. You never see the wins coming, but they’re necessary to drag you in, to make you believe that one day things will be different. And then ...

[...]If I can maintain self-discipline, this will be my last post about Vanderbilt football in 2008. (Hopefully my co-authors will pick up the slack, bless their hearts, because they’re stronger people than I am and can handle this mess.) If I can maintain self-discipline, I just won’t care about a Vanderbilt football game until that game is a bowl. Maybe that means I won’t care about Vanderbilt football until 2025, or indeed, ever.

Now, this is what I don't understand: any sort of frustration with Bobby Johnson. Yes, that's 16 straight losses with Vandy stuck on "5" in the win column, a trend Johnson hasn't broken quite yet. But this is Vandy's 26th season since the last bowl trip, and Johnson's been at the helm for 7 of those. In the first 19 of those seasons, Vandy had nine of those sixth-win opportunities; Johnson has handed the 'Dores seven of them the last two seasons alone and would hypothetically equal that 19-season total if Vandy (heaven forfend) fails to get it done against Florida or Kentucky. It seems stunningly shortsighted of 'Dores fans to say the first word against Johnson when more than one expert was calling for an 0-8 SEC season in the summer and when 2009 was the bowl-eligibility target date all along. There's just no pleasing some people, I guess.

We know about that. Michael at Braves and Birds offers some worthwhile analysis of LSU:

As I was trying to figure what exactly has happened to the LSU defense, it occurred to me that Les Miles did not do a very good job of replacing Bo Pelini. I like Les enough to have created an entire category of posts entitled "LesCrush" last year when it looked like he was going to be the next coach at Michigan (and even afterwards when he delivered that phenomenal "have a nice day" oration), but he is a CEO coach and CEO coaches are dependent on having top-shelf coordinators. The risk that CEO coaches run is that their coordinators are good enough to get head coaching gigs and then they're hard to replace. Or, as Tommy Tuberville is illustrating this year, their coordinators aren't the same when put into new surroundings ... The risk with a coach like Miles who is not an expert on either side of the ball is that the risk is doubled. He needs to have two good coordinators. There are two chances for a disastrous replacement instead of one.

Here's to hoping that five years from now, when Miles has had to replace a hired-away Crowton and another couple of coordinators haven't worked out, people are giving him the same grief they've given Tubby for the turnover.

Yes, I saw this coming. At what point of either of the last two seasons did you ever think you'd see this written with a straight face about John Parker Wilson?

Despite some pressure early, John Parker Wilson turned in one of his typical solid-but-not-spectacular performances, going 17-for-24 for 188 yards

Emphasis added because, hey, typical? But yeah, that's what it is. JPW is now, typically, solid. There's hope for us all.

On with the ballot.



1. Alabama. Funny how Tide fans weren't exactly doing backflips over the tight wins over Kentucky and Ole Miss, but if the Tide run the table those two will have to be seen as their two greatest risks for the season-ruining stunner. They'll have made the Tide's season.

2. Florida. I know Kentucky was suiting up bottled water vendors by the end of the game, but still, the 2007 Florida defense doesn't hold the 'Cats without a touchdown.

3. Georgia. Garbage time or not, giving up 497 total yards and 38 points to Jarrett Lee is not a good sign the week before you play Tim Tebow.

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CAVERNOUS YAWNING GAP

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4. LSU. Maybe the Tigers knew what they were doing after all by scheduling Appalachian St., Troy, North Texas, and Tulane outside of conference, huh?

5. South Carolina. Second-half offensive collapse at home vs. LSU suddenly looking even less explicable. Fortunately, Garcia's got two weeks to tune up before going in search of the 'Cocks season-definer in Gainesville.

6. Ole Miss. Two-point squeaker on the road over improving 'Hogs more impressive than, well, "two-point squeaker" implies. With Auburn, Louisiana-Monroe, and Miss. St. all still left on the schedule, odds are pretty heavily stacked in 7-5's favor--at least.

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CAVERNOUS YAWNING GAP

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7. Vanderbilt. If the 'Dores somehow collapse all the way to 5-7--an outcome I still doubt given the 'Cats and Vols equally wicked offensive struggles--I think the Guinness record for "Cruelest Football Season" will have a new owner.

8. Kentucky. Exhibit No. 564 that the concept of week-to-week "momentum" is a complete canard: Week 8: Kentucky 21, Arkansas 20; Week 9: Florida 63, Kentucky 5.

9. Arkansas. Hey, at least the Hogs are willing to give you bang for your ticket buck: their five games against teams not currently ranked No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 in the country have been decided by a combined 11 points.

10. Auburn. 260-yard EXPLOSION in Morgantown helps Tigers hold steady at No. 109 in the total offense rankings. In your face, No. 114 Vols! You guys suck!

11. Tennessee. Maybe Dave Clawson can join Tony Franklin on the road when he goes back to selling The System out of his trunk. Maybe they'll even have some wacky adventures! It'll be like Blues Brothers, but with disgraced former one-season SEC offensive coordinators whose reigns helped bring about the end of a decade-long streak of prosperity for their respective programs instead of musicians.

12. Mississippi St. Hey, they came within a point of covering the spread against Middle Tennessee. Not a bad day's work for these guys.