Best Price: $49.95Coach of the Year
There should be a lot of debate on which coach in the South Eastern Conference has done the best job so far. Of course, you have Gene Chizik who has taken Auburn to an 8-0 start and has the Tigers at the number one spot in the BCS Standings. But I think if you have Cam Newton on your team playing the way he has this year, any coach could be in the same spot Chizik is.
Then you have Nick Saban, who even though his Alabama Crimson Tide team lost early in the year to South Carolina, still has a shot to get to the BCS National Championship Game. Saban’s Crimson Tide team looked a little rough for a few weeks but over the last few games have started playing with more fight and is starting to look like the Alabama team that everyone was scared of before the season started.
Now you have to look at Bobby Petrino and the Arkansas Razorbacks who are off to the best start since Petrino took over for Houston Nutt. The Razorbacks are sitting at a 5-2 record with the two losses coming from the teams above late in the fourth quarter of each game. The Razorbacks still have a shot of a 10 win season and a major bowl bid if they can hold on to their leads. They have 3 ranked opponents left which can help them tremendously in the BCS standings.
We can’t forget about the Mad Hatter and Les Miles down in the Bayou Country either. LSU is #12 in the country with only one loss to an Auburn team that is playing better than anyone else in the country right now. Les Miles has done some crazy things this year, but in the end a win is a win. He has a shot to redeem himself when the Tigers play host to Alabama on Nov. 6, before finishing the year off at Arkansas in Little Rock.
Last but not least is Dan “The Man” Mullen over at Mississippi State University. He has taken a non-bowl team and turned them around in less than two years. The fans have supported him from day one and so far it has proven to be right. He has the bulldogs ranked for the first time in 9 years and bowl eligible in 8 games so far. His only loses have come against Auburn and LSU. Mullen and the Bulldogs have their toughest challenge ahead playing Kentucky, at Alabama, Arkansas, and finishing up at Ole Miss. If Mullen can win just two of the four games in the stretch, his name will be hard to not say for the Coach of the Year.
There is still a lot of football left to play in a conference that has been all shaken up from week one. With controversy around every corner, who knows what we are in store for as we prepare for the second half of the year.
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What a year in the South Eastern Conference!
All summer long, it looked like Alabama would be the team to beat, but who knew that it would be the two Tigers that were the top dogs. That’s right Auburn and LSU. The SEC has always had its two powerhouse teams, but this year all has changed. The SEC West has 5 out of the 6 teams ranked in the Top 25, while the East is only boasting in one with South Carolina.
It’s still a guess who will end up in Atlanta on December 4th to play for the SEC championship. With Auburn, Alabama, and LSU still having to play each other this year, things are still bound to get shaken up. Auburn and LSU face on Oct 23, which will give the West a little room. Then LSU and Alabama face off on Nov.6, before Bama faces Auburn on Nov 26. That’s just in the West. The Eastern Division is still anyone’s game through midseason.
It is just a mess in the East, with Florida losing three straight conference games; they could still end up in Atlanta playing for a conference championship. If they can beat Georgia in Jacksonville on Oct. 30, Vanderbilt on the road on Nov. 6 and South Carolina at home on Nov. 13. There has not been a three-loss champion represent the division in Atlanta since divisional play started in 1992.
Who knows where the conference will stand this year, but one thing for sure is if the SEC wants to send a team to the BCS National Championship for a 5th straight year, a hard road lies ahead. Auburn is sitting at No. 4 in the first BCS standings, but LSU isn’t far behind at No. 6. Alabama is the highest one-loss team nationally at No. 8.
The SEC is still going to have some work cut out for them if both Oklahoma and Oregon remain undefeated. The past does show that if an SEC team goes unbeaten through the regular season, the voters have rewarded them. Florida jumped up to the top two spots in 2008 and in 2006 after being 10th and 6th in the first BCS Standings.
The Auburn Tigers look like they are the team to beat from this point forward. Cam Newton is a machine and has been racking up the yards and the touchdowns on every team they have faced so far. If LSU or Alabama have a say in it, they will have to shut down Newton.
From record setting scores, to major upsets, the SEC has been full of a ton of surprises. The crazy thing is we are only half way through the season. There is no telling what is in store for college football fans as we embark on the second half of the year. Will the SEC send a team to the BCS National Championship game, or will a new conference take over as this year’s best? Only time will tell, but one thing for certain is that it will be entertaining.
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