Curse the SEC

I love Tuesdays. In the news world it is usually the most boring day of the week. Now, being as my Monday and Tuesdays are more like Saturdays and Sundays, I had nothing better to do last Tuesday than listen to some good music, clean my room- and discover. The cover.

With voodoo dolls and a "Curse the SEC" proclamation, ESPN magazine's college football preview is asking, "can someone please take down college football's most dominant conference?"

Less than a month till kick off, and this is what finally does it. And by "it" I mean this gets the blood pumping, the adrenaline flowing and I realize ladies and gentleman- it's here. Every reason why I love college football is right here.

After several rants, in my head, on social media and once more in my head, I realized I couldn't be happier that ESPN did this. Curse the SEC? Well, you can certainly try. In fact I wouldn't be a part of the SEC if I didn't chuckle at this. For years the SEC has already faced the brunt of anti-SECism. But now, instead of being confined to just conversations, back of the internet blogs and young 20-something frat guys bickering in bars or Skip Bayless needlessly speaking when he takes a break from Tebow- this sentiment has gone "mainstream" finally gracing the cover of ESPN Magazine. AND- my favorite- it's complete with the statement at the bottom "We're talking to you, Trojans"... 

Gag me now.

ESPN officially does not care about transparency.

Every year, fans and media go off intangibles to try to define a season ahead. But without hesitation, before the first whistle even blew I already bet that USC will not make it to a National Championship this year. Sorry to disappoint, ESPN, or any of the other college football fans who are insulted by my confidence. A confidence that has only a little to do with where I come from and everything to do with going against what Alabama Football's fearless leader believes. (I'm sorry Nick Saban, my distaste for Lane Kiffin was overpowering).

We don't know who will get hurt in the season, we don't know who is going to pull a jackass moment and get caught with drugs [at the time of this writing Tyrone Mathieu had not been dismissed- but it goes to show you], DUI's or heaven forbid another sex scandal. Or for those of you who like the glass half-full mentality, we don't know if a break-out star will just unleash come November. We just don't know.

Right now, all we have is that the SEC still has the top two teams in preseason rankings, but Nick Saban will tell you why that doesn't matter worth a shit.

"All these predictions that you all make, they hijack the game,"he said the morning of UA's 2012 Fan Day.

Yes, Saban was talking to the media and maybe for the love of the lord ESPN is taking notes. Especially when he added, "All anybody worries about in college football is the BCS, who's going to be in the final game. We have a lot of great games.... Michigan is going to be a great game, The Arkansas game, Tennessee game, LSU, Auburn. I could go through every game on our schedule and say how exciting a game this is going to be."

Which brings me to my next point.

Time and time again, despite intangibles, there are things we can count on to impact seasons in their entirety. Defense wins championships, and strength of schedule still significantly matters in a system where hundreds of schools are competing for one prize. If you don't compete against the best, then what makes you feel like you deserve to be the best?

And that's why the SEC still gets the win in my mind. Depth is at one of its greatest strengths at Alabama this year. At LSU? Well, their returners are potent with talent that has already taken them through a strong season last year. And they're hungry.

Alabama has a strong pulse of energy to be defined as anything but complacent, and even after winning a National Championship last year, the tone of the season rests on who-ever steps up in leadership positions and reminds them they are not the team of the past and Tuscaloosa wants to make history in 2013. It also rests on the return of a more mature QB, and an O-line that haunts nightmares. (If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "Good lord Fluker's huge" at Fan day...)
 

There goes some of the reasons people hate SEC fans, and if you're one of those haters, please I beg you just try to finish reading (although I know finishing is hard for some of you). Welp, probably lost a few readers there, but in all seriousness I realize I am a lucky son of a you-know-what to go to school where I go to school, when I go to school. (Roll Tide) I also realize what its like to be on the other side of this argument of passion. I am a Red Sox fan and yes, the Yankees a lot of time are just better. But keep your Alabama, Yankee comparisons to purely win-loss comparison. (Class and respect are things the Yankees don't have and Alabama and the SEC does).

Each conference is full of teams that can boast characteristics making their place to play football, "the best". Ralphie's run on the field is still a source of pride for CU fans- as it should be, and hook em horns (gah it hurts to type) will always be a hand gesture embodying the Texas spirit. There are traditions that make ESPNU's "Never Graduate" hit home at every college campus and the SEC is no different. Yet, every college football fan that comes to an SEC game at Alabama makes the same comment. "I've never seen anything like this." And its usually followed by deeply appreciated moments of silence as the person takes in as much as they can from the scene.

And thats why, when I heard what ESPN Soccernet's Susie Schaaf posted in her blog, I couldn't help but apply it to the SEC.

"Mia san Mia. It's a Bavarian phrase used by Bayern that translates as "We are who we are". It's somewhat akin to the Manc phrase I've seen on banners this year, "Not arrogant. Just better." We are two, insanely proud, universally loved by their fans - and hated by everyone else, clubs with long, storied traditions."

Don't get jealous, get even, and to do that you're going to need a lot more than a pass spread offense with a less than moral-driven coach and a California quarterback.

I'm not saying there won't be a time when the SEC isn't on top. But that time isn't now, and if you ask any serious fan in Dixie, they'll tell you they hope to never see the day when the SEC is overtaken. But the beautiful thing I hope I can speak on behalf of all SEC fans in saying, is when that time does come, if an opponent meets an SEC team on the gridiron, the only way we will accept defeat is to a worthy opponent whose performance is as respectful as ours, both to the game, to the fans and to the legacy of college football which is so proudly protected under southern skies.

Until then, we're not arrogant. Just better, and its literally a fact.

When you produce running backs in a time honored brotherhood whose unspoken traits are consistently; perseverance, physicality, pugnacious fervor to take something head on, and the undeniably SEC will to never be denied....

When your stadium erupts when linebacker's names come across the jumbotron...

When your fans have nothing else to live and breathe for than football- or so it seems every Saturday....

When being a part of your program, even as a fan isn't all glitz but sometimes its a craziness you must accept. When you have fans who show up to a public practice over 72 hours early and camp out for the chance to be first in the stadium for the past five Fan Days...

When your schools never rush the field after a win, because winning is what you came to do and acting like you've never won before says more than the score does... and that's when the southerners say, "Oh bless their heart, they're rushin the field."

When ladies wear dresses, pearls and full make up and curls, and the men wear slacks, polos or even suits to games like its time to go to church. Because football is a religion that doesn't discriminate based on anything but color of jersey and because the respect for this game is more than just cheering, its a tradition that stems from something much bigger than seeing one year in the winner's circle.

You might find my prose dripping with everything that makes the SEC despicable to you. But when your school does all that I just mentioned, then you may know what it means to be in the SEC and what it feels like to have a mantra that is often mistaken for arrogance. To have fans who are often mistaken for elitists. What you are really seeing is a pride that comes from respecting what sacrifice is, and while every team this season comes from adversity, has it's troubles, and makes it's compromises no matter their conference- SEC teams are filling their fall camps with the mentality that nothing is born out of being good, but everything is born in the sacrifice to be great.

Here's what I say to all SEC fans insulted by the lack of professional journalism ESPN showed in their recent magazine cover. Targets on SEC backs are not new and ESPN's love affair with the Trojans isn't either. So why am I so happy about this cover? Because any smart college football fan knows, never piss off an SEC team.

The SEC welcomes the chance every year to be denied. Because in those challenges that threaten to dethrone them, the conference proves time and time again just why they belong on top.

Thanks for the fuel ESPN. Let the season begin, and we'll show you what being a part of the SEC is all about- and it has nothing to do with cursing the opponent and everything to do with a shut-up and play grit that has carried this conference to dominance for six straight years.

A Little Air of Optimism

Surviving Preseason Predictions might be the toughest fight for the Game Cocks. Well that, and their wonderfully outspoken quarter back Stephen Garcia- who don’t worry, doesn’t have a guaranteed job yet.

 

Last year South Carolina thought they were a little bit of a big deal and that’s because they did a lot of big things for the first time ever. Beating a No. 1 team, Alabama, won their first game ever in the Swamp, won the Eastern Division for the first time and made it to Atlanta.

            Of course we all know they lost there, but still they seem to be pretty proud even if head coach Steve Spurrier tries to keep them in reality. He particular mentions that the team needs to realize that Florida, Tennessee and Georgia all had down years last year and that helped them a great deal.

            “It was a good year. It wasn’t a great year,” he said. “We stretched our dimensions a little bit, but we’ve not hit where we believe we can go yet.”

            That being said, Spurrier has declared this a “new time” for the USC program. There are a lot of things he worries about but if you were to ask him what freshman he’s most excited about be prepared for his exuberant smile and ecstatic answer.

            “You ever heard of Jadeveon Clowney?”

            Football fans may remember the frenzy the young teenager caused as he debated which school to star at and for weeks his decision hinged on South Carolina, Clemson and Alabama. Clowney is a South Carolina native, which no doubt helped in the decision but Clowney’s decision to go to the Game Cocks makes Spurrier giddy just the same.

            “Shoot five, six years ago there’s no way he would pick South Carolina,” Spurrier said. “Now he thinks, ‘hey, we could win big at South Carolina’.”

            But its not all smiles in Columbus. Drama with their quarterback Stephen Garcia has left a bad taste with Spurrier who commented on his “stupidity” several times at SEC Media Days.

            “I guess we don’t want to kick [Garcia] out for stupidity,” Spurrier said to the laughter of reporters.

            The reason, he says, for the unlimited amount of patience with Garcia’s transgressions off the field has been the faith in the type of person Garcia is.

            “Basically we do believe he’s a good kid, a good person,” Spurrier said. “With this latest incident, we told him he could go play somewhere else if he wanted to but he wants to stay here.”

            Spurrier says Garcia has made lifestyle changes after several incidents where Garcia’s behavior was called “unruly and rambunctious”. When Garcia comes back, assuming he can keep his mouth shut for that long, he will be competing with Connor Shaw for starting quarter back. 

            A lot of Spurrier’s struggle this year is just the kind of thing that Garcia embodies- over zealous confidence and thinking he is invincible. Spurrier knows that the success the team had last year doesn’t mean they’ve accomplished anything yet.

            “There’s a little air of optimism which you have to have, that’s good,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll be smart enough to know that its not going to be easy, and we’ve got to play extremely well, prepare well to give ourselves a chance to do it.”            

             Keeping tabs on that confidence will be on the agenda as long as it takes for players to buy in to the fact that this is 2011, not 2010.

            “Its one thing to be competitive and another thing to win the game,” he said. “We’ve not won a huge majority of games yet. We’ve been competitive. We got enough players to get in the action, to compete with everybody we play. But taking that next step and winning a whole bunch of games, winning the SEC, that’s what we’re trying to do. We haven’t got there yet.”

            Keeping tabs on fan’s confidence will be another Spurrier struggle.

            “[The fans] are going to tell the guys how great they are. Hopefully we’ll be smart enough to handle it and go from there. But historically we’ve not, so it will be a challenge to see if we can handle some pre-season predictions, ‘cause we’ve never had much of those before in the past.”

            A strong component you will no doubt know the name of is running back Marcus Lattimore who again is expected to star on offense. His confidence is quiet but ever-present, even as he talks about his Heisman chances, saying he has studied a lot of film and thinks he has a chance. But chance, at least right now, is all he has before taking a regular season snap even if his coaches praise his hard working mentality.

            “Marcus gets the hardest worker in the weight room award every spring,” Spurrier said.

            Another hard worker on offense is receiver Alshon Jeffrey who Spurrier says you can brag on him but doesn’t affect him at all and says now he’s “a lot faster than he’s ever been.”

            Alshon, true to form, did remain modest when he spoke to reporters at Media Days saying it doesn’t matter to him who scores, “as long as we win.” Alshon hasn't forgotten that the trip to Atlanta last year did not have a favorable outcome. 

            “We didn’t win the whole thing,” he said. “We’re not anything special.”

            Alshon says he is working on running better routes and using his quickness to work on his overall game. He says its instrumental the team learns from last year’s experiences.

            For defensive tackle Travian Robertson, this year puts a lot of pressure on defense.

            “Its tough being on the defensive line in this conference, you don’t get anything that’s free,” Robertson said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time to eliminate mistakes from last year. We know its gonna be tougher than it was last year.”

            Robertson explains that the “little air of optimism” is actually a very important characteristic to keep on this team in particular. 

            “Lack of confidence has been a problem with our program in the past,” he said. “We’ve been working on that.” 

            Confidence seems to be on a better track but Spurrier has more to worry about. He says third and one defense needs to improve along with pass protection and special teams. But talent is not the main concern- getting player’s minds ready is.

            “Our talent level is by far the best it’s been since I’ve been there,” Spurrier said. “But now we gotta go play you know? We gotta go play.”

            Spurrier knows if you can win in Atlanta you can win the National Championship and he knows that its been proven the last five times its been put to the test.

             “We’ll see if we can do it.”