Tide May Change in SEC, but It Won't Be A&M on Top
It has been entertaining the past couple of weeks to watch people predicting the fall of Alabama.
Arkansas fans will live to see it happen sooner or later, but the guess here is all of that will come after a retirement party.
Right now there is no heir apparent but it won't be down at Texas A&M, despite the waxing poetic about their top-ranked recruiting class this year.
The Aggies will find a way to screw it up. That's just how things go down there. Even when Alabama has slipped, A&M hasn't been able to win even the SEC West.
Yes, they have a recruiting class for 2022 that is ranked at the top of the 247Sports composite rankings. People are speculating that's somehow going to spell doom-and-gloom.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher is trying to round up enough recruits to challenge for a title.
Maria Lysaker / USA TODAY Sports
Really, we're just going through the cycle where everybody is jumping on the prediction of doom for Alabama. The Crimson Tide are currently second behind the Aggies with a higher per-player ranking than the Aggies (A&M has 28 on the list while the Tide have 24).
Younger folks won't know this but that's been going on for close to 60 years.
Even in the 1960's, folks were predicting that when the Crimson Tide went on a little downturn with a variety of issues and won just six games two years in a row, they won 107 games over the next 10 seasons.
Now they've been on an unprecedented run since 2008. Coaches at other schools come and go, but they haven't been able to get the better of Nick Saban and probably won't, either.
Nick Saban shares a laugh with Rece Davis of ESPN at College Football Playoff press conference Sunday morning.
Crimson Tide Photos
Saban doesn't particularly like the direction the game has gone, but he doesn't sit around and whine about it. He's gone about quietly taking advantage of whatever changes are made to keep the championships coming in.
That isn't going to change when he steps down, either.
Texas A&M somehow wanted everyone to believe that out of 120 players on a team they couldn't field enough players for the Gator Bowl a couple of weeks ago.
Jimbo Fisher, who is pretty good at making excuses for failure to win apparently discovered it's also good for just not playing a game.
In the new world of Name, Image, Likeness, the Aggies are going to be big-time players. A school that size with their vastly deep resources can play in the deep water with anybody.
Getting the players to College Station has never been an issue. They've fired a whole string of hot-name coaches with highly-ranked classes that couldn't win a championship.
Oh, they win a big game here and there. They even beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa with Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman Trophy ... and the Crimson Tide won the national championship.
When the powers that be at Texas A&M run out of excuses for failure ... they fire the coach. Like most of the schools in the SEC, they just WANT to win.
Alabama coach Nick Saban isn't going anywhere soon and nothing will change in SEC.
Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports
At Alabama they HAVE to win. It's an attitude that goes from the top all the way down to the folks that empty the trash cans.
In a couple of years, the Aggies' big brother will be playing them again every year. Add Oklahoma in there, too.
Texas and the Sooners are already planning things for the SEC. Recruiting has already changed where they are looking at players for an SEC schedule.
Don't look for the Tide to change anytime soon in the SEC.
And the Aggies will continue trying to get where they can beat Alabama in December instead of a meaningless game in October after they've already lost to Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Hope will continue to spring eternal in College Station.
But no championships as long as Saban is in Tuscaloosa.
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