Nick Saban has won so many Southeastern Conference football championship games that you can break them up by school or by era.
Saban guided LSU to SEC titles in 2001 and 2003, which were in the fledgling years of the Bowl Championship Series serving as the model for determining a national champion. He then led Alabama to league crowns in 2009 and 2012, when the BCS was about to give way to a four-team playoff.
In the 10 seasons of the four-team playoff that began in 2014 and will end in a few weeks, Saban’s Crimson Tide have hoisted six SEC trophies with a chance at a seventh this week against Georgia, which has resoundingly replaced Florida as Alabama’s most familiar foe in Atlanta.
College football will move to a 12-team playoff next year, so will the 2024 SEC championship game have the same meaning as this one? The importance of Saturday afternoon’s showdown (4 on CBS) between the No. 1 Bulldogs (12-0) and No. 8 Tide (11-1) inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium can’t be overstated, but SEC title contests moving forward could be as much or more about seeding in the 12-team event as the confetti falling from the ceiling of Atlanta’s $1.6 billion structure.
“I think winning the SEC is always a big thing,” Saban said Sunday afternoon. “When the playoffs weren’t the significant outcome that it is right now, it was something special to win the SEC. It means a lot to me, and I think it means a lot to our players, and I think it will mean a lot in the future as well.
“Whether there are four teams in the playoffs or 12 teams in the playoffs, there is a significance to playing in the SEC championship game.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart was asked about the league’s future scheduling model at the SEC spring meetings this year and said “the better topic for me” was whether somebody could have an edge by not going to the SEC championship game but making the expanded playoff. Smart has led the Bulldogs to consecutive national titles, winning the 2021 crown after losing to Alabama in Atlanta.
“I would think other conferences will have championship games that will impact the 12-team playoff in terms of a team winning and jumping into the 12, or a team losing and falling out of the 12,” Smart said. “If you look over the history of the SEC, it might not impact the 12, but it might impact who has to play when or who gets byes. You could be playing for a bye. You could be playing for a home game, or you could be playing to get in, but none of that matters to me as much as the SEC championship does.
“I think that’s lost on everybody. Nobody cares. All they want to know is who’s the national champion and not the conference champion, and maybe that has lessened in value to the outside world, but it hasn’t lessened in value to the coaching world or to the men in our room. We’ve won as many SEC championships as we have national championships around here. They’re hard to win, and you better appreciate them.”
The Bulldogs opened Sunday as 4.5-point favorites but have more injury concerns with tight end Brock Bowers, guard Tate Ratledge, and receivers Ladd McConkey and Rara Thomas having missed Saturday night’s 31-23 win at Georgia Tech. Smart said Bowers would have been the “closest to being able to go of those guys,” with Ratledge next.
Saban said running back Jase McClellan tweaked an old foot injury in Saturday’s 27-24 triumph at Auburn and will be day to day this week.
After losing his Iron Bowl debut on a fourth-and-31 touchdown pass from Jalen Milroe to Isaiah Bond, what could Auburn coach Hugh Freeze possibly say to such a stunned locker room?
“I don’t think any coach has the words,” Freeze said. “You tell them you love them and that we’ll learn from it and get through it, but it’s going to hurt. There is no way around it, and you’ve got to walk through the hurt.”
Two years ago, 13 of the 14 SEC schools qualified for bowl games, with only Vanderbilt missing out.
This season, five league teams — Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vandy — failed to attain the necessary six victories. The Razorbacks and Commodores entered Thanksgiving week having already been eliminated from the postseason picture, while the Gators, Bulldogs and Gamecocks entered their state rivalry games with 5-6 records only to come up short.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer posted 7-6 and 8-5 records his first two years, so this will be the first time he has missed out on some holiday fun.
“When you look at statistics nationally, we’re one of the worst teams in the country at protecting the quarterback,” Beamer said in a news conference that followed a 16-7 loss to Clemson. “That’s not all on the offensive line. We had one tonight that was a missed blitz pickup.
“When we’ve been really good on offense, we’ve been able to protect the passer.”
Beamer also lamented his Gamecocks failing to create a turnover the entire month of October.
The second season of Billy Napier at Florida showed September promise with the 29-16 upset of Tennessee, but the Gators had their 5-2 start erased by five straight season-ending setbacks. Napier is 11-14 through two seasons in Gainesville.
“We’ve been in the fourth quarter with some really good football teams here in the last couple of weeks,” Napier said after Saturday’s 24-15 loss to Florida State, a game the Gators led 12-0. “We’ve got to learn how to finish these games, there is no question about it. We’ve got to coach better and play better.”
Florida’s 2024 schedule is a complete monster, containing 10 Power Five programs who will be coming off postseason trips: Georgia, Florida State, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and UCF.
Tennessee is not lacking for players who could be spokesmen for the Josh Heupel era, whether cornerback Alontae Taylor after the 2021 season, quarterback Hendon Hooker last year, or quarterback Joe Milton III and tight end Jacob Warren this season.
Yet tight end McCallan Castles, a sixth-year senior just like Milton and Warren, had a message to share after Saturday’s 48-24 downing of Vanderbilt that was every bit as powerful. Castles, who spent his first two seasons at California and his next three at UC Davis before transferring to Knoxville, is third on the Volunteers with 21 receptions for 265 yards.
“I came here for the football, but I’ll always remember the people,” Castles said. It’s been the best college football experience I’ve ever been a part of. I never felt like I belong more in a college football space than here, and I’ve made multiple stops.
“I think it just speaks to the culture these guys have built here with Coach Heupel. It’s a great place. Tennessee is where you want to be to play football.”
Vanderbilt qualified for five bowl games in an eight-year stretch from 2011-18, but the Commodores went 0-9 in Derek Mason’s last season in 2020 and are 9-27 through the first three seasons under Clark Lea, which includes a 2-22 mark in SEC games.
“I think we are going to reflect back on this year, and we are going to see some things that we want to build on,” Lea said. “It is not going to be all bad, but the results are obviously not where we want them to be. It will be about setting a course and adjusting our process to aim towards those results.
“That includes evaluating all our systems and developing the roster we have and looking to supplement the roster we have with people who can help us be in a position to compete and win, and none of that is going to happen overnight.”
Alex Golesh, the Tennessee offensive coordinator during Heupel’s first two seasons leading the Vols, has his first South Florida team bowl eligible at 6-6. Golesh has led the Bulls to more wins this season than the previous three combined, when they went an abysmal 4-29.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.