Don't doubt Alabama or Blake Sims or you'll come up wrong.(Kevin Cox/Getty Images)
Summing up the Iron Bowl and the Regular SEC Season
By: Larry Burton
Summing up the Iron Bowl is easy. Auburn played their best game of the season last night hands down and if it weren’t for a mercy touchdown in the closing seconds they were still 19 points of being as good as an Alabama team that played perhaps the worst first half of football they have all season.
That in a nutshell sums up why Auburn is still the little brother in the state and how far behind Alabama they really are. Alabama can play badly and still beat Auburn even when Auburn plays at their optimum level. Provided they don’t have a miracle or a rare freak play.
One other analogy that bears saying, Blake Sims is like Alabama, many people gave up on both at times this season, but both proved that could be a huge mistake.
Summing up the SEC regular season is a sentence or two:
Starting with the East –
Missouri – Maybe a good team, but the worst resume of any SEC division champion. The losses to Indiana, who has just four wins against terrible teams and the shut out loss to Georgia, 34-0 is dog crap they just can’t scrape off their shoes.
Georgia – No team has had more talent in the last then years with so little to show for it. Mediocrity, thy name is Georgia.
Florida – A team just one or two pieces away from really being dangerous again. May have pulled the plug on Muschamp one season too early and now are looking at another 3 year rebuilding mode at best.
Tennessee – Still trying to rebuild since the 2008 firing of Phillip Fulmer, the dumbest move ever made considering he was one season removed from their last 10 win season. Bet they wish they could undo that stupid decision.
Kentucky – It was almost cruel to fans to start well only to become the Mildcats yet again. Mark Stoops best job would be to get them back to mediocre and he almost did this year.
Vanderbilt – Back to being Vanderbilt. James Franklin left just in time before the sinking.
And now for the West –
Alabama – Creme once again rose to the top, even in a year many considered a rebuilding year. Kiffin’s hire proved to be the spark this team needed, especially with the development of Blake Sims by Kiffin. Are they THE best? Time will tell.
Mississippi State – If Dan Mullen ever wanted to escape Starkville, now is the time. They were a solid team but will miss a lot of pieces of the puzzle next year that made this happen. This is as good as it will ever get there and it won’t be there long.
Ole Miss – Hugh Freeze is a hot name and may not be back next season. Either way, Ole Miss will remain a middle of the pack SEC West team no matter what. At least they got to dream a little this season.
LSU – A better team than their 8-4 record and a team on the rise next season. Les Miles has found a home and I expect him to retire there. Watch out when these babies grow up.
Texas A&M – If this team can ever get a defense, they’ll be dangerous. Kevin Sumlin has had his bad year and I don’t expect this team to repeat a 7-5 season again any time soon.
Arkansas – How sad to be last place in the SEC West and still be a team that NOBODY outside the SEC would want to play in a bowl game. The worst SEC West team could possibly beat the best Big 10 or ACC school, yes including Florida State. That says all you need to know about the SEC West and Arkansas.
Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
