Tire Store Report SEC Championship Edition

Remember back when things were terrible?  A favorite son who coached and behaved poorly?   A replacement coach who did ok and then slunk away in the night?  A coach who behaved poorly and never coached a game unless you count A-Day?  Another favored son who seemed to try his best but just wasn’t cut out for head coach and left with hurt feelings on both sides?  A new coach who started a season that filled everyone with hope and then we lost to Louisiana College of Drainage & Tractor Repair at home?  And fast forward just a little bit to when things got better.  We gave a good account of ourselves in the SEC Championship but lost to Florida?  And then, the very next season, Florida was undefeated, ranked #1, the defending national champion and we ran them out of the Georgia Dome on our way to the National Title?

Remember those times?  Remember the elated feeling you had after that Florida game in 2009 when Alabama was the SEC Champion again, for the first time in 10 years?  Maybe you don’t.  We do.  It was a wonderful feeling. 

Times have been so much better lately.  Alabama has won three straight SEC Championships and four out of the last five.  Alabama is the only undefeated major conference team in the country. Around the SEC, Florida now has two conference losses and everyone else has at least three.  The Crimson Tide is back in the College Football Playoff, in which it has never not appeared.  As the Commissioner notes, that’s 26 SEC titles (30, if you count the old Southern Conference, which we absolutely do -- can’t imagine why you wouldn’t).  If you are counting (and we absolutely are -- can’t imagine why you wouldn’t) that doubles second-place Tennessee’s 13 SEC titles.

And you know what?  We had that same wonderful feeling on Saturday evening -- just as we did in 2009.  It never gets old.  It was just as good this time around.

The Grades were tip top and we agree with them.  We also agree with curving them all to A+.  I do hope we get to see one game this year where all three phases of the game excel against a quality opponent for four quarters.  Saturday afternoon’s effort was a little slip shod, and we still hung half a hundred on them

We hear and read that Alabama fans are “entitled” -- we guess meaning spoiled and just expecting to win a lot of football games.  OK.  Maybe so.  That doesn’t, however, translate into taking any of this for granted.

I have deal with an old friend, a loyal Tennessee fan who takes a very clear-eyed approach to college football.  Every year after the Alabama Tennessee game we have lunch.  Winner pays.  It’s a good tradition.  This year, over open-faced roast beef sandwiches with brown gravy (which is the way we have it -- can’t imagine why you wouldn’t) he asked me, “Don’t you guys ever get tired of winning?”  I didn’t even really consider the question.  I just stuck my fork in my mashed potatoes and said, “Nope.”  He laughed at me and then said, “Yeah, we wouldn’t either.”

 For us, the big sequence of the game was not Fitzpatrick’s interception return for a touchdown (regardless of how exciting it was).  We thought it was in the second half, with Florida’s first and goal and a chance to pull within 10 not even half way through the third quarter.  With a first down at about the two, they chose to run up the middle.  Or tried to.  The play, as they say, failed to gain.  On second down, they tried to run around right end, gaining about a yard, but nearly fumbling.  (We’ll pause right here for an interesting point -- did you see Averett and Foster both trying for the scope and score on that play?  From 100 yards away? This defense doesn’t just try to score, they expect to do so.)

On third down, we think they tried the old “jump over the pile” play.  We say think because before the running back could leave his feet, he got punched in the midsection by the defense and ended up hopping up about as far, well, about as far as we can.  On fourth down, perhaps remembering Marty Lyons’s advice to Chuck Fusina in ‘79, Florida decided to pass.  Again, we think it was supposed to be a quick hitter to the left, but gigantic Dalvin Tomlinson forced his way through the line and jumped into the passing lane of the called play.  When he landed he started chasing Florida’s quarterback, gaining on him at an alarming rate.  To his credit, Florida’s quarterback ran for his life towards the sideline, finally throwing a desperation pass into triple coverage.  The receiver got both hands on the ball but couldn’t get his foot down in bounds -- not to mention Fitzpatrick swatting the ball out of his hands back up the tunnel in the corner of the end zone.

Then the offense took the ball and drove it 98 yards for a touchdown. You could just tell after that play, Florida was done.  They went from discouraged to somewhat vengeful.

The zebras once again almost let a game get out of hand.  There had a been a number of questionable hits out of bounds, a really late “sling him down by the jersey play”, as ugly a facemask infraction as we can remember, finally boiling over in a play nasty enough to get three separate infractions flagged and leading to the ejection of a Florida player on Alabama’s next offensive possession.  And credit young Joshua Jacobs (Fr. 5-10 204) with pulling Cam Robinson (Sr. 6-6 310) out of a situation where penalties might have offset. Robinson was rightly upset and coming to the defense of a teammate. Though to give Robinson his own amount of credit due, we doubt that Jacobs (giving up eight inches and 100+ pounds) could make Robinson do anything he wasn’t pretty well inclined to do in the first place. 

Alabama then exacted its own brand of vengeance from the two-yard line, putting in a backfield of Jalen Hurts, Jonathan Allen, Da’Ron Payne, and Bo Scarbrough.  We don’t know what they call it this year -- we’d go with the Half Ton Package.  No, really, we looked it up, and the backs in that formation weigh over 1000 pounds.  We almost felt sorry for Florida’s inside linebacker.  Almost.

We bid a relieved adieu to the Verne Lundquist era, and especially his extended Farewell Tour.  We expect next year to be a little better; presumably fewer player misidentifications and a little more description of the action than “My my” and “Oh my goodness” and “Yes sir”.  Maybe not quite as much effort to find an uncalled penalty on any positive play for Alabama.   Mostly, though, our problems didn’t stem from Uncle Verne, but from the way the executives at CBS direct and produce the games.  Unfortunately, that will remain unchanged.  As will their quest for the magical five-hours-without-overtime broadcast.

We hope you all have a nice December, see your friends and families over the holidays, and get some SEC Championship memorabilia in your stocking.  We’ll do all that, but also spend time getting anxious about and excited for the game on New Year’s Eve with Washington, hoping we whip them and move on to the National Championship.  As I told my friend, we really, really like winning at football -- can’t imagine why you wouldn’t.

Roll Tide, everyone.

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