As the football season approaches, true fans endeavor to spend their time gobbling up every morsel of information available. While we're all ready to see what unfolds when the season opens in a few weeks, it's worth taking a look back to the season that was and remembering some of the highs and lows for SEC football.While we're currently separated from the 2007 campaign by a whole mess of off-season goings on and shenanigans, it's hard to forget the multiple Croomings, yet another MNC for the SEC, Mississippi's drop from really bad to absolutely terrible, or Tebow's Heisman season.
Let's take a look at the superlatives from the 2007 season:
| Most Ridiculous Moment |
 The SEC's universe of ridiculousity certainly centered around Georgia last year. It's difficult to pick just one moment, though.Was it Richt's scripted End Zone celebration in the Cocktail party which lit a fire under the Dawgs and powered them to a convincing win over rival Florida? Was it the cacophony of excuses the typically self-righteous Georgia fans made to try to excuse behavior from Richt that they certainly would have chastized from Meyer, Miles, or Saban? Or maybe it was conventional wisdom in the lead up to the Sugar Bowl, thinking that Hawaii had a shot to beat the Dawgs when, in reality, they looked like the Little Giants taking on the New York Giants. Then again, it could be Richt's hopeless campaigning for a spot in the national championship game despite the Bulldog's failure to even win their own division. Whichever you choose for the "most ridiculous" moment, no team has more candidates than the Georgia Bulldogs. |
| Most Disappointing |
 While nobody with more than a handful of brain cells really expected the Crimson Tide to set the world on fire in 2007, few foresaw the late-season collapse which included losses to Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe.The disappointment was amplified by tremendous excitement coming into the season (see, e.g., 92,000+ for a spring football game) and decent success on the field early, including an absolute thrashing of the Vols in Tuscaloosa. Even the Tide's early losses were heartening, with one-score losses to Georgia, FSU, and LSU before the wheels came right off. Alabama fans: before you get too jazzed up about Julio Jones and the bevy of highly-touted new recruits, remember that you're not too far removed from some pretty embarrassing losses, and more could be in store for 2008 if those young players don't get their act together in a hurry. |
| Most Improved |
 Mississippi State hadn't eeked out more than three wins in the same season since their 8-4 campaign in 2000. Most were expecting Croom's efforts to eventually bear some fruit, but few expected him to break his three-year streak of 3-win seasons with 8 wins and a trip to a bowl game, let alone victories at Auburn, at #14 ranked Kentucky, and at home against Alabama.Things have not gotten easier, but harder, in the SEC since last year, and it is highly unlikely that Croom will have a repeat of that kind of success, but it's impossible to name a team which comes anywhere close to the level of improvement MSU showed from 2006 to 2007. Or 2005 to 2007. Or 2004. (You get the idea.) |
| Biggest Fraud |
| How do you take the player who was, arguably, the nation's best running back, pair him up with another back who is every bit as fast and talented, and with those two young men anchoring your offense, produce a frustratingly mediocre 8-5 record, concluding with a drubbing in a New Year's Day bowl game? It's easy if you're Houston Nutt, who was easily the SEC's biggest fraud in 2007, and that's before you consider how poorly he managed the myriad situations in the Circus that is Fayetteville. Maybe Petrino will have better luck for the Hogs. |
| Best Player |
 I couldn't possibly give the "best player" award to anyone other than Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, could I? After all, Tebow is superman! He turned down a shot at being a Playboy All-American this year. He circumcizes young boys in third world countries! ...Yeah, okay, fine. He's tops at minor medical procedures, but he was no better than third-best at football in the SEC last year, and a solid case could be made for Fourth. While Darren McFadden and Knowshawn Moreno could be argued to be better than Tebow, the travesty of the 2007 season was Glenn Dorsey not getting more respect in the Heisman balloting. Dorsey earned 2007 SEC Defensive Player of the Year accolades in addition to winning the Lott Award, Outland Trophy, Lombardi Award, and Nagurski Award. And he played a not-insignificant portion of the season on a tender knee after the nasty chop block by Auburn Lineman Chaz Ramsey which Tuberville "didn't tolerate" by patting Ramsey on the head and making excuses for him in the media. In short: Dorsey was a men among boys and, even hobbled, was a scary, scary guy to see on the other side of the line. |
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-06-2008 @ 4:41PM
cfb expert said...
pete you said it best. another mythical national title for the sec. when we look at the 83 teams that have been awarded national titles from 1936 (ap,upi,bcs) to present what we see is the big 12 earning 12 national titles with unbeaten, untied titles where no team can claim you werent the best by having defeated you. the big 10 has 9 EARNED national titles, the sec has 7. when you look at MYTHICAL NATIONAL TITLES (1 LOSS OR MORE) then the sec has 8 of those. 7 with 1 loss and 1 with 2 losses and of course the sec was handed so called titles over unbeaten teams as well or teams that had better records. any so called title with a loss or more is a joke and unearned. i like to refer those joke titles as begged for titles. you have to beg WHEN YOU ARENT GOOD ENOUGH TO PROVE EVERY WEEK you were indeed the best team by going undefeated.
now as for the sec being the greatest conference the documented historical facts state otherwise. when comparing the top 6 sec teams against the top 6 big 12 teams it isnt even close. against the big 12 top 6 (i only compare the top 1/2 of conferences against each other because no one cares what temple did against new mexico st.) alabama is 10-15-2, tenn is 4-5-1, uga is 4-7, lsu is 39-37-5, auburn is 5-12, and florida is 1-6-1. now against the top 6 sec teams ou is 5-3-1, texas is 28-12-3, neb is 15-4-1, colorado is 2-9-1, texas am is 27-33-3, and missouri is 5-2. that states the big 12 top 6 head to head lead the sec top 6 82-63-9 with about 80% of those games at sec venues. the sec is weak. overhyped. if you notice only lsu has a winning record against the big 12 top 6 combined mostly due to their series lead of 26-20-3 against texas am. lsu does have losing records to 3 of the big 12 top 6 teams while no sec top 6 program has a winning record against ou. texas has a winning record against all top 6 sec programs. neb leads 5 of the 6 and missouri leads 4/5 top 6 sec teams it has faced. face it the documented stats prove the big 12 is superior to the sec. if you took the top 6 teams of each conference and formed a super 12 conference it would be a conf in which ou and texas would dominate. neb would win some titles and occasionally lsu and missouri would win but alabama, tennessee, uga, auburn, and florida would be fighting it out with colorado and texas am for 6th place in such a conference.
these are just a few of the stats that prove without a doubt the sec isnt the greatest conference. when i stated 80% of those games were at sec venues i am guessing based on the facts that of the 9 games ou has played against the sec top 6 only 1 game was in norman, neb leads lsu 5-0-1 all time and i know 4 of those games were sugar bowls so im thinking maybe 1 game in lincoln. i know its getting old to everyone that has seen the stats i have posted before but its nothing to the 35 years that i have heard nothing other than how great the sec is and how they are the greatest when in fact the documneted stats state otherwise. one day when the mouth is finally silenced by the biased illiterate know nothing media then maybe i will stop hammering everyone with the true facts. when posting these facts to espn and asking how the hell they can even think the sec is better based on the facts i never get an answer. thinking the sec is better is about like thinking 1 lb of gold is better than 5 lbs of gold. its not.
Reply
8-06-2008 @ 5:09PM
Pete Holiday said...
tl;dr
Hire an editor.
8-06-2008 @ 10:18PM
Johnny said...
Wow! That was one of the longest comments I've ever seen, CFB. Thanks for the history lesson! I still think the SEC has been by far the best conference for at least the past 10 years. I don't think national titles always tell the story. For example, when Florida St. was finishing in the top 5 every year, they were waltzing through a cupcake ACC. There's a reason no one in the SEC goes undefeated.
Reply
8-07-2008 @ 4:42PM
cfb expert said...
johnny you make a point i agree with in the fact national titles doesnt always mean a conference is the best. florida st was a good example as would be miami when they were in the big east. the acc of course is alot tougher now since the addition of the big east teams. we could debate whether the sec is the best conference the last 10 years. i of course dont agree. when i post these stats im not saying the big 12 is the greatest of all time. the big 12 has struggled with the big 10. i just get tired of every year hearing how one conference is the greatest when in fact strength of conferences changes every year. 2000 i personally think the big 12 or pac was the best. wash, oregon, oregon st all top 7 final ranking. ou won the title, neb beat the big 10 co champ by 49 in the bowl game and kansas st another 11 plus win team defeated tenn in the cotton. 2006 i felt the big 12 was the 4th toughest conf that particular year due to graduation losses from 2005. what i am trying to do is 1st educate everyone to the fact no espn isnt the authority. neither is college football datawarehouse or chris stassen. if someone wants to argue a particular year thats fine but to say every year the sec is the best every year or the greatest conf ever is wrong.