Apologies for no rankings last week. I couldn't find it in my heart to do it. But 12 outta 13 ain't bad. With that, the final rankings for the 2022 season. 1. Georgia - prayers for LSU next week. 2. Tennessee - I'm still processing how part of me is disappointed over a 10 win season after the last 2 decades, but here we are. Pride is a weird thing. 3. Bama - they ain't the same Bama. The invincibility is gone. 4. LSU - my wife laughed at me earlier today when I told her I thought they would lose tonight. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, HONEY? 5. South Carolina - do I think they are great? No. But they are on fire. 6. State - I didn't realize that Leach had lost 8 rivalry games in a row before Thursday. And I still don't know how you can overturn a play that was deemed not to happen. 7. Ole Miss - The only thing more absurd than Kiffin making $9M per year is..... 8. Kentucky - .....a Stoops brother not named Bob making $9M per year. 9. Missouri - I really have nothing to say but I'm typing this while watching the Apple Cup and this is a really fun rivalry. 10. Florida - I'm not sure what it says about FSU that Richardson threw 11 incompletions in a row and they managed to stay in the game. 11. Arkansas - yall remember when they were top 10? 12. A&M - did yall know that they are still in the mix for a bowl? Not enough bowl eligible teams so they would be the last team in due to APR at the moment. It's almost more comical if this season ends with a bowl game. 13. [uck fay] Auburn - I sincerely hope Cadillac coached his way into a G5 job next year. He was really fun to watch on the sidelines. And how does it feel to watch your new coach get hammered by New Mexico State? 14. Vandy - if I had to summarize Vandy football in one play, it would be the fumble on the fake punt.
Feel you on still internally reeling from the South Carolina debacle. I'll never fully understand that L. With that said considering where this program was on November 27th, 2020 vs. where we are at on November 27th, 2022: our season overall kicked ass. Huepel somehow saved Tennessee football from never mattering again. Beat Florida and Alabama (both of those alone make the season worthwhile), 10-2 and a BCS caliber Bowl for the first time this century, recruiting momentum, ect, ect.
That SC loss goes in the same bin for me as the LSU loss (we all know the one), Purdue loss in basketball, and the 1996 World Series. Things causing real pain that I (unsuccessfully) attempt to never bring to the light of consciousness again.
I'm not so much disappointed anymore. I'm relieved that we got to 10, tbh. Silver lining is that there is something that all offseason we'll be holding on to. We'll likely finish 6th or something after next week and that stain could create a hunger in these guys that will hopefully give them an edge, because we're losing a lot of that with graduation. Hopefully Baron, Milton, Big O and Spraggins/Mincey step up and carry that mantle. And hopefully we continue to get better on the OL because we could have a really nice backfield the next few years. DL will once again be the bell cow on defense next year.
Unless TCU and USC lose this weekend, it wasn't going to matter anyway, and it may still not have mattered. That's my solace. When one of those lose this weekend and bammer jumps in, that's when I'll be pissed.
THIS RIGHT HERE. They have really been pounding USC the past 3 weeks in the media. It was coming. USC with a Pac 12 title was 100% going to KO us out of the playoffs. Losing to USCjr still sucks but it's "almost" better IMO to have lost to them than get shafted out of a playoff berth for a shitty USCw program. Or maybe that's my defense mechanism talking. But I honestly do feel that USCw was going to jump us. Because the sports media wants them to be so bad they are literally slobbering all over Lincoln Riley. I hope that condescending asshole gets trucked in the PAC 12 title game. And subsequently goes on to lose the bowl and not win another friggin game. I can't stand him. I hate OSU with a passion but I'd even cheer for them over Riley at USC.
We had the 2nd longest active drought in the SEC without a 10 win season until last night. The only school with a longer drought was Vandy, who has never had one.
