Despite the Injury to Tua, Alabama Should Remain in the CFP Discussion
What We Learned about SEC football after Week 12:
**--Despite the season-ending injury to Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama should remain in the College Football Playoff discussion. But the path to the playoffs is now even more difficult for the Crimson Tide.
On the Heartbreak Scale, the injury to Tua was right at the very top. This guy was a transformational player for all of college football. We can only hope that he can come back and someday play again.
Now that Mac Jones is Alabama’s starting quarterback, it shouldn’t mean that the Crimson Tide is automatically out of the running for a playoff spot. If they can win at Auburn on Nov. 30 and finish 11-1, they would have beaten the team (Auburn) that beat Oregon on Aug. 31. Alabama would have done it on the road AND with their backup quarterback.
Let’s put it this way: If the SEC champ (Georgia or LSU), the Big Ten champ (probably Ohio State), and the ACC champ (definitely Clemson) are in, the argument over that No. 4 spot is going to be epic.
Alabama may not get that spot, but you have to play the games.
**--A lot of people are overreacting to LSU’s game at Ole Miss:
As sure as the sun rises in the East, you knew that LSU would not play a pretty game at Ole Miss. They expended too much emotional energy in beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa the week before.
Yes, the LSU defense gave up 402 yards rushing, with John Rhys-Plumlee doing most of the damage. But the LSU offense rolled up over 700 yards and won the game (58-37) by 21 POINTS!
“You know things have changed at LSU when you have 700 yards of total offense and everybody’s upset in the locker room,” said quarterback Joe Burrow, the Heisman leader, who threw for a career-high 489 yards and five touchdowns (two interceptions).
I’ll be stunned if LSU (10-0), which has games remaining with Arkansas, Texas A&M, and the SEC Championship game against Georgia, isn’t still No. 1 when the new CFP rankings are released on Tuesday.
**--This is one of the best Georgia defenses we have seen in a while:
On Saturday someone Tweeted out that this was the best Georgia defense of all time. That's a bit much but let’s look at some facts:
Georgia came into the game as the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense, giving up only 10.1 points per game. Georgia shut out Auburn for three quarters, giving them 27 scoreless quarters on the season. Georgia’s defense was on the field for 86 plays, the most in the Kirby Smart era. Auburn scored 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Georgia did give up its first rushing touchdown of the season and Auburn did finally find its rhythm on offense to cut Georgia’s lead to 21-14. Auburn got two more possessions with a chance to tie and eventually gave up the ball on downs both times.
Auburn’s last drive was stopped on a sack by freshman defensive end Trayvon Walker. There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores on that depth chart.
Georgia has three shutouts this season and has given up more than 17 points in a game only once—the 20-17 double-overtime loss to South Carolina.
Watching this defense against LSU in the SEC championship game will be interesting.
**--Will Muschamp should get another year at South Carolina. But I don’t know that he will with Clemson coming to Columbia on Nov. 30:
When South Carolina went to Athens and upset Georgia on Oct. 12, I thought the conversation about Muschamp’s future in Columbia was over.
It clearly is not.
You can't ignore the numbers.
The Gamecocks, who fell 30-6 to Texas A&M Saturday night in College Station, have lost four of five games since beating the Bulldogs. The Gamecocks (4-7) will not be going to a bowl, which is something that seemed certain this summer.
Muschamp felt strongly that this was his most talented team and it probably is. But injuries, starting with senior quarterback Jake Bentley in the first game, have just ravaged this team. South Carolina played Texas A&M without a number of its offensive weapons, including receiver Bryan Edwards (knee), who was ruled out of action just before the game, and running back Tavien Feaster.
South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner said earlier this week that he was standing by Muschamp. But the school has a new president. Robert Caslen, who said that Muschamp would be the coach through this season and then be evaluated. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
South Carolina has this week off before No. 3 Clemson, which has won two of the last three national championships, comes to Williams-Brice Stadium.
**--Kentucky has a chance to go 7-5 with a Lynn Bowden, a wide receiver, playing quarterback.It has been a combination of great playing and great coaching.
Five games ago Kentucky moved Bowden to quarterback out of necessity. The Wildcats had lost their starting quarterback, Terry Wilson, and his backup, Sawyer Smith, to injury.
Offensive coordinator Eddie Gran designed an offense to take advantage of Bowden’s extraordinary skills.
Since then Kentucky is 3-2. The losses were 17-13 to Tennessee, a game the 'Cats led 13-3, and 21-0 to Georgia in a driving rainstorm.
Smith is now healthy again but Kentucky has stuck with Bowden because it gives the Wildcats their best chance to win.
Saturday night against Vanderbilt Bowden ran for 110 yards and completed 8 of 10 passes 104 yards and a touchdown.
If Kentucky can beat UT Martin and Louisville it will finish 7-5 and go to a bowl, which would be a good follow-up to the 10-3 record of last season.