Category Archives: SEC

SEC vs. SEC, No apologies, I loved it!

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Travis Normand
January 8, 2018

Final (OT), Alabama 26 and Georgia 23. This post is not a national championship game re-cap, it’s not completely about Nick Saban, and it’s not a 2017 season in review. If anything, it might be a little bit of all of the above, as well as my immediate reaction to the Alabama vs. Georgia championship game. I consider this my farewell message to the 2017 college football season and my contemplations after tonight’s championship game. 

Tonight the Crimson Tide picked up their fifth national championship in nine seasons, their 17th overall (depending on who you ask), and Nick Saban’s sixth (five at Alabama and one at LSU; tie-ing Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant for the most national championships during the poll era, or post 1936).

Over the past week, ever since Alabama won the Sugar Bowl and Georgia won the Rose Bowl, there has been a lot of talk about whether it is “good” for the game of college football to have an all-SEC national championship game. If you know me, you know that I am not the biggest advocate of using a playoff to determine the national champion of college football. This puts me in the minority, as most people favor a playoff. Further, most people grew tired of the old system where “we” selected the national champion (especially under the BCS system where “we” tried to manipulate which teams would get selected to play for a national championship).

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Texas A&M: Slow and unexciting start to home schedule (2014)

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by Travis Normand

Texas A&M’s home schedule this season is horrible, and it is a shame that A&M had to play Arkansas in Arlington, Texas (as opposed to Kyle Field).  As it stands, A&M has six home games, only three of which are SEC opponents.

Further, alumni, students, and fans have had to wait until now (Oct. 11) to finally get a SEC opponent at home.  While this weekend’s game against Ole Miss should be a good one, there are only two more conference games (at home) before the season is over.

2014 Texas A&M Football Schedule

  • Thurs., Aug. 28 at *South Carolina
  • Sat., Sept. 6 vs. Lamar, Kyle Field
  • Sat., Sept. 13 vs. Rice, Kyle Field
  • Sat., Sept. 20 at SMU
  • Sat., Sept. 27 vs. *Arkansas (Arlington, TX)
  • Sat., Oct. 4 at *Miss. St.
  • Sat., Oct. 11 vs. *Ole Miss, Kyle Field
  • Sat., Oct. 18 at *Alabama
  • Sat., Nov. 1 vs. Louisiana-Monroe, Kyle Field
  • Sat., Nov. 8 at *Auburn
  • Sat., Nov. 15 vs. *Missouri, Kyle Field
  • Thurs., Nov. 27 vs. *LSU, Kyle Field

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[Press Release] Texas A&M is FWAA National Team of the Week

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[Parts of this release have been deleted and/or edited.  To see entire release, click HERE!]

DALLAS (FWAA) – The Texas A&M Aggies rolled to a 52-28 win at then-No. 9 South Carolina to earn the season’s first Football Writers Association of America National Team of the Week honor. The announcement came exclusively on SiriusXM Radio’s “College Sports Today,” hosted by Mark Packer and Eddie George.

Sophomore quarterback Kenny Hill had a record-setting debut at the helm of the Texas A&M offense. In his first career start, Hill broke Johnny Manziel’s school record with 511 passing yards to go with three touchdown passes.

Texas A&M (1-0) snapped South Carolina’s 18-game home winning streak, which was the nation’s longest, and won its first conference opener since 2007 and first as an SEC member. Hill torched South Carolina early as A&M bolted to a 31-14 lead at the half. Hill finished with the most passing yards allowed in Steve Spurrier’s 10 seasons as the head coach of Gamecocks. Tra Carson ran for three touchdowns, and Malcome Kennedy had 14 catches for 137 yards as the Aggies racked up 680 total yards.

“That (A&M) team was so much better than us, it wasn’t funny,” Spurrier said after the game.

College and SEC Bucket List (per ESPN)

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by Travis Normand

If I have said it once, I have said it 100 times.

It is the culture, history, and environment surrounding the sport of college football that makes it so fantastic.  This is what distinguishes college football, more than anything else, from other sports (most especially the NFL / professional football).

From the ESPN.com SEC bucket list:

The pageantry that comes with college sports makes it that much more enduring to fans. The sports are great, but it’s the environment around them that add a little more flavor and excitement.

 

List of SEC head coaching salaries

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by Travis Normand

Ole Miss seems to be getting the most value for what they are paying considering the job Hugh Freeze has done.  One could also argue that Kentucky is getting great value as well considering how well Mark Stoops has done on the recruiting trail.

In terms of “least value,” I would argue that Arkansas is over-paying for Bret Bielema.  He is the fourth highest paid coach in the league, and had better start producing wins right away to justify that pay check.

The following salaries are as of July 26, 2013.

*Franklin’s $3 million is estimated due to the fact that Vanderbilt is a private school.

[H/T: SaturdayDownSouth.com and SportingNews.com]

Ole Miss – 2013 Spring Football Info

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by Travis Normand

I got this a while back and wanted to say thanks to Ole Miss for providing them to me.

This is a tri-fold brochure (8.5 x 11) with everything one would need to know about Ole Miss football during the spring of 2013.  The brochure included a spring roster, coach information, stats from 2012, and a position-by-position break-down of the entire team.

This was a pretty useful tool and I appreciate Ole Miss sending it out.  I am always shocked that more programs don’t do stuff like this.

Ole MIss 2013 - Spring Football 1
Ole MIss 2013 - Spring Football 2