Drew Kerekes

Me, my mother and two family friends made our way to Bryant-Denny Stadium Sept. 30 hoping the Alabama vs. Ole Miss football game would keep us entertained long enough for the 8 p.m. kickoff time not to start taking effect.

It took a little coaxing to get my mom to even agree to buying the tickets in the first place, since she’s usually in bed no later than 9 p.m. I happened to have that Saturday off, and our family friends had two tickets to sell, and I wanted to see an SEC football game in action.

Wary of how late the start was — and the inevitable traffic slowdowns that follow college football games — I brought up the subject of what to do if Alabama did to Ole Miss what it did to Vanderbilt just the week prior. If it were an Alabama blowout, perhaps we should leave during the fourth quarter, when the second- and third-stringers for the Crimson Tide would have hypothetically been in the game?

Just a year prior, this line of thinking would never have crossed our minds. Ole Miss had beaten Alabama two times in a row entering the 2016 contest in Oxford, and it took an Alabama comeback down several touchdowns just for the Tide to pull out last year’s game with a win. Under Hugh Freeze’s leadership, Ole Miss had become a genuine threat in the SEC West, as Alabama fans knew all too well.

The problem was, this was 2017, not 2016. Hugh Freeze was fired for alleged off-the-field conduct issues, and with the cloud of an NCAA investigation looming, the school had already agreed to a bowl/playoff ban for this season. The Rebels were coming off a bye week entering the Alabama game after losing to Cal on the road 27-16. Alabama, meanwhile, was showing signs of being a well-oiled machine after utterly dismantling the Commodores 59-0.

Our group ultimately decided to discuss the matter if and when it happened. As it would turn out, it did happen — Alabama ended up winning the game 66-3, and we left about midway through the fourth quarter. A team that had handled Alabama about as well as any team in recent seasons was just beaten down in the most convincing of fashions.

It’s a microcosm of the Southeastern Conference as almost a whole — with the exception of a few teams, the league has become as lacking in parity as I’ve ever seen since I’ve been following it in the mid-1990s.

When Saban returned to the SEC in 2007, the following coaches made up the league and had seen previous, sustained success: Les Miles, Tommy Tuberville, Phillip Fulmer, Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier. Of those coaches, Fulmer, Meyer and Spurrier had national titles to their name. Miles would win one that season. Tuberville deserved a shot at one with an undefeated record in 2004 but with no playoff in place at the time was denied a berth in the BCS title game. All of those coaches had won SEC championships, as had Mark Richt at Georgia. Houston Nutt at Arkansas and Rich Brooks at Kentucky had seen some success at their schools — in Nutt’s case, over a long period; at Brooks’ case, over a short period.

Now? Well, there’s Nick Saban. Then there’s Dan Mullen, who I feel has done a good job at Mississippi State overall. (I’m sure there are at least some Bulldog fans out there who would vehemently disagree, and that’s fair.) There’s Gus Malzahn, who’s done a good job at Auburn overall. (Again, I’m sure there are some Auburn fans out there who would vehemently disagree, and that’s fair.) Then there’s Georgia, who let a successful coach in Mark Richt go and may have actually upgraded. Whether that proves true remains to be seen, but there are some early signs Kirby Smart is building a powerhouse there. 

The rest of the league is made up of underachievers/folks their fanbases want fired. Let’s examine the other teams:

•Missouri — Gary Pinkel getting non-Hodgkins lymphoma was incredibly unfortunate and very sad to see. Obviously, you can’t blame him for retiring and wanting to spend his remaining days with his loved ones. It was going to be difficult to replace a man who went 118-73 at Missouri, including two SEC Championship Game berths in his final four seasons. That said, so far, Barry Odum hasn’t impressed, especially when you consider the overall sad state of the SEC East.

•South Carolina — Will Muschamp didn’t exactly impress while at Florida, and he’s currently 9-9 in SEC games as of me writing this. I guess he could get better — and I don’t sense South Carolina fans want to cut him loose yet — but I’m not convinced he’ll have the same success Spurrier and Lou Holtz periodically saw at South Carolina.

•Florida — Yes, Jim McElwain has led the Gators to back-to-back SEC title berths, but is anyone convinced his offense is going to suddenly improve leaps and bounds after three seasons? Their recruiting rankings the last few years haven’t exactly lit the world on fire, either.

•Kentucky — After being expected to contend for the SEC East this year, the Wildcats lost to Florida and haven’t looked like a top-25 team. Mark Stoops isn’t looking like the guy to make the perennial basketball power into a respectable football team.

•Vanderbilt — Derek Mason isn’t James Franklin, obviously, but he’s probably doing as well at Vanderbilt as can be expected after a rough start.

•Tennessee — Calling it a dumpster fire would be insulting to dumpster fires. Next.

•Ole Miss — Matt Luke is an interim coach, and I fully expect the NCAA hammer to come down hard when it does drop. Difficult to see the Rebels being competitive in the short-term thanks to that, regardless of the coach.

•Arkansas — Bret Bielema is 10-23 in SEC play as of my writing this. He’s not a bad coach, as his time at Wisconsin proved, he just isn’t getting it done at Arkansas.

•Texas A&M — Maybe the Aggies pull off the upset this weekend against Alabama. (I’m writing this the Friday before the game.) Still, it’s difficult to overlook how Kevin Sumlin’s success has dropped in the post-Johnny Manziel era. Another winning record might keep him around at least one more year, but is that what A&M fans want — a program that’s merely good?

•LSU — What can be said that isn’t painfully obvious?

Again, it’s Nick Saban, and a few good coaches, and a lot of bad teams. Whether it’s unfortunate circumstances, or potential NCAA probation, or teams picking the wrong guy in an effort to keep up with Alabama or coaches who maybe aren’t good enough to meet the demands of their fanbases, it’s an entirely different landscape than from a decade ago. 

In fact, it’s so different that I’m no longer convinced the SEC is the clear No. 1 college football conference. That’s not great for us Southerners when it comes to trash talking, but reality is often painful. Unless there’s an influx of better coaches league-wide, expect more 66-3 Alabama blowouts like we saw a week ago. 

Drew Kerekes is the sports editor at The Meridian Star. He can be reached at dkerekes@themeridianstar.com.