The SEC West Is Fairly Awesome This Year

Discussion in 'Sports' started by kidbourbon, Sep 15, 2014.

  1. kidbourbon

    kidbourbon Well-Known Member

    Barn: the best team in the conference last year now has their coach in year 2 (when things normally begin to click for coaches), is better on defense than they were last year, and hasn't skipped a beat on offense. I'm glad Tennessee doesn't play these guys. It's really too early to know for sure, but I suspect that this might be the best team in the land.

    Bama: they struggled a little bit against WVU, but one should note that they struggled a bit in 2009 in a neutral field first game against Virginia Tech (winning 34-24), so I'm not inclined to read too much into the score of that game. And I don't take anything away from that game in terms of defense as WVU cribbed a kickoff a return, meaning the Bama D only allowed 16 points, which is far from red flag material against a solid offense. They haven't played anybody worth a shit since then, but I suspect they'll work over dogshit Florida pretty good next week, and indeed I look forward to that happening (I hate Florida more than you've hated anything). I like the hire of Kiffin at OC, and I think the offense will improve as the season goes along -- they have a ton to work with in Cooper, Henry and his advanced hairline, and Yeldon. And I'll believe that Bama is anything other than solid on D when I see it.

    TAMU: after working over South Carolina's D in week 1 like they were going against a mediocre JV high school team, they destroyed a team that any decent team would destroy -- thus communicating nothing of note about their aptitude -- and actually struggled a decent bit this week against Rice. They gave up a troublesome amount of yardage and got off to a slow start on offense. The team is fallible, but there's a lot to like about the combo of Kevin Sumlin and Kenny Trill. We're not going to learn anything further about this team next week as they can be fairly expected to beat SMU by about 90. The week after that they get Coach BERT in College Station.

    Piss: I like this team way more than most, and I'm sticking to my guns on that. This is a solid team defensively. There's a boatload of talent on that defense, which is in many ways similar to what Tennessee's D will resemble next year. On offense, they don't have any backs who frighten you, but they do have a man who can write a prescription for an average running game: Dr. Bo.

    LSU: this team lost 3 games last year in the SEC and then lost their QB, the best receiving corps in the country, and then five other guys (besides Mett and the three receivers) to the draft. It's tough to make a reasonable argument that this team is as good as they were last year. And last year's team lost 3 games in the SEC. The win against Wisconsin, where they struggled for 2.5 quarters, is only impressive if Wisconsin is far and away the best in that shitty shitty shitty conference of theirs. Did I mention the B1G was pure dogshit? Anyway, this is a good team -- it's still very much a "Les Miles team" -- but being a good team this year doesn't mean you aren't the fourth best team in the subdivision of your conference.

    Cowbells: this team was not particularly impressive against UAB and I was not pleased in their inability to cover that spread (and it wasn't even close). They did reward my decision to jump back on the Cowbell Train this past Saturday by covering against South Alabama, but I honestly wasn't terribly impressed by what I saw from them (though it should be noted that they turned it on after I flipped over to watch something else). This is still a solid team, but one that I think will struggle quite a bit in the crucible that is the 2014 SEC-W.

    Coach BERT: they have a pulse this year. I'm honestly not sure that they'll win a game in the Western portion of their schedule, but I wouldn't rule that out.


    All in all, the SEC West is just really really good this year. I can't recall the East ever being this much worse than the West. In fact, I'm almost certain that the West minus East subtraction operation has never resulted in a positive number of such magnitude. I'm very much okay with that, to be clear.
     
  2. NorrisAlan

    NorrisAlan Founder of the Mike Honcho Fan Club

    The SEC has 7 of the top 15 in the AP poll this week.
     
  3. InVolNerable

    InVolNerable Fark Master Flex

    SEC west has 5 in the top 10. Pretty impressive.
     
  4. NorrisAlan

    NorrisAlan Founder of the Mike Honcho Fan Club

    Just not sure any of them can make it through unscathed, or even with just one loss. That is one hell of a gauntlet if you are in the West.
     
  5. RockyHill

    RockyHill Loves Auburn more than Tennessee.

    Auburn draws UGA and USCe from the East. No matter how good they may be, I think they'll have a bad day.
     
  6. justingroves

    justingroves supermod

    They'll lose a few just to keep order in the universe. You don't win games like UGA and Bama in 2013 and not have sold your soul.
     
  7. bigpapavol

    bigpapavol Chieftain

    Teams that can run it at you have far fewer bad days. Malzahns genius is in the running game.
     
  8. bigpapavol

    bigpapavol Chieftain

    East is ridiculously bad. West is fantastic.
     
  9. 615 Vol

    615 Vol Chieftain

    Do you guys think it just goes in cycles and the east will be strong soon or will the west be better for a really long time?
     
  10. justingroves

    justingroves supermod

    Yes. The east was stacked in the late 90's early 2000's.

    It's a coaching arms race. The best coaches reside in the west for now.
     
  11. smokysbark

    smokysbark Chieftain

    Yep ... we can still reminisce about the Shula/Orgeron/Ford days of the SEC West.
     
  12. warhammer

    warhammer Chieftain

    Are things cyclic? There was a time an argument could have been made for Houston Nutt being the best coach in the west...
     
  13. NorrisAlan

    NorrisAlan Founder of the Mike Honcho Fan Club

    The east was never as stacked as the west is right now, though. In the 90's it was Spurrier->Fulmer->garbage in the East. The west was a wasteland of equally bad coaches.

    That said, yes, it is cyclic. I think the East is on the rise now, and once Muschamp and Richt are replaced, I think it can catch up to the West. And Saban/Miles will retire or move on at some point in the near future.
     
  14. Beechervol

    Beechervol Super Moderator

    .
     

Share This Page