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Overreacting to everything I saw.
College Football

10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 13 in the SEC

Chris Wright

By Chris Wright

Published:

Ghosts?

After the craziest Saturday of the craziest season in college football history, I need a ghostwriter.

Seriously, 1,000 words — Pulitzer quality, I promise — vanished faster than Indiana, Ole Miss and Alabama’s Playoff hopes Saturday night.

It’s just before midnight, and I’m starting from scratch. Just like Billy Napier.

That’s just some of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 13 in and around the SEC.

10. Sorry, Alabama, it’s over …

A 9-3 team might/probably will make the College Football Playoff, but it most certainly will not be Alabama.

Not after that eFFort Saturday night at Oklahoma — emphasis on the 2 Fs in “effort.”

Just when you think Jalen Milroe might actually be great enough to overcome all of Bama’s obvious issues this season, the tackle and tight end miss their assignment and he RPOs into concussion protocol. Or a decoy wideout in a jumbo package misses his block and sets up a pick-6.

Honestly, I can’t remember a worse Alabama offensive line or a weaker backfield. I can’t remember a defense pointing more fingers at one another than getting said fingers on footballs, quarterbacks and running backs.

We’ve gone from Brother Routes that produced touchdowns and titles to, “Bruh, what was that?”

Maybe Kalen DeBoer fixes this. Probably he doesn’t.

But it feels like I’ve spent every other week jumping on and off this rolling Tide of inconsistency.

No more. The 2024 season ended Saturday. It’s time to move on.

9. Indiana, that was your Playoff game …

If only the rest of the world applied the same standard of underachievement, right?

Instead of rightly burying Indiana’s Playoff chances — DOD, 3:47 PM, Columbus, Ohio, 11/23/2024 — we’re about to be greeted with an avalanche of excuses.

Cue the caveats and, please, keep promoting irrelevant stats compiled against the weakest schedule in Power 4 to tell us how explosive Indiana’s offense is.

The scoreboard wasn’t broken 2 weeks ago against Michigan, and it didn’t lie Saturday, either: Ohio State 38, Indiana 15.

Even that’s being generous. Ohio State left 14 points on the board, and both of IU’s TDs were aided by questionable pass interference calls. Even with the gifts, IU set season-lows for points, passing yards (68), total yards (151) and probably a few other less interesting categories.

None of it was surprising — unless you only listen to pot-stirrers like Danny Kanell, Tim Brando and Co. pumping nonstop nonsense. My advice? Don’t.

As I wrote 2 weeks ago, a below-average Michigan team exposed Indiana’s offense as a paper champion after allowing just 20 points, 2 TDs and 246 yards.

I told you Ohio State would make the Hoosiers look even more impotent.

They did.

For weeks I’ve said forget IU’s record, this team doesn’t have enough NFL-ready talent and isn’t physical enough to play with Playoff teams.

Saturday, Ohio State punctuated that sentiment with an exclamation point.

Indiana finally played a worthy Playoff opponent it was a first-round TKO.

Curt Cignetti specializes in acting indignant, so it was no surprise that he essentially called everybody who doubts IU’s Playoff bona fides a bumbling idiot.

“So obvious,” he said, before shutting down the questioner.

Oh, it’s obvious all right …

I guess an SEC team should be happy, though. Getting to host Indiana in a first-round game would be the next best thing to earning a bye.

8. Is Texas the SEC’s Indiana?

Relax. We’re only discussing 2024, and more specifically, we’re only discussing strength of schedule.

Whatever formula the SEC used to create the 2024 conference schedule, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the computer, program and programmer all were official property of the University of Texas — Austin.

Friendly is probably the nicest way to describe Texas’ slate.

The Longhorns have faced exactly 1 test — and promptly flunked it. They tried to give away Saturday’s game against Kentucky, too.

Others are starting to catch on Texas’ potential schedule problem — the Horns can render it moot by beating Texas A&M next week, by the way.

I’ve been back and forth Texas all season.

Sure, they beat Michigan, and that win in Ann Arbor was far more impressive than Indiana surviving the visiting, stumbling Wolverines by 5 points in Week 11.

The biggest hindrance to Texas making the Playoff without beating A&M next week is the fact that the SEC has 4 other qualified candidates.

This is where the Texas-IU comp ends, though. Abruptly.

Indiana faces no such hurdle. The B1G is so weak teams 5 through 18, that the Hoosiers will remain its 4th-best team. The only way IU misses the Playoff — and, for the record, I think they should after losing to Ohio State by 23 — is if the selection committee only chooses 3 Big Ten teams.

7. Is there such a thing as Comeback Coach of the Year?

Has anybody gone from hottest seat to hero faster than Billy Napier?

The guy almost didn’t make it to Year 3, then almost didn’t make it past Week 3 of Year 3.

Now? He’s going to a bowl after taking down ranked opponents in back-to-back weeks to finish 4-4 in the SEC against one of the most challenging league slates in league history.

Napier outclassed Brian Kelly and Lane Kiffin along the way, too.

Who saw any of this happening? I certainly didn’t.

The Gators have a chance to win 8 games and carry that momentum into 2025, which they’ll enter with the no-doubt best QB in the conference.

Credit Napier for having the foresight to save DJ Lagway’s Heisman ability for the stretch run, right?

6. Don’t feel bad for conference runners-up now

For the first 100 years of this sport’s life, nobody cared about conference champions. The 4-team Playoff didn’t even care enough to include all 5 Power conference champions. Every year, it left out at least 1 Power 5 conference champion, and 6 times in 10 years, it left out 2.

Now we’re suddenly concerned about the loser of a conference championship game?

I’m not saying it’s ideal that a team that doesn’t qualify for a conference championship takes a Playoff spot from a team that loses its conference title game, but it’s not apples to apples, either.

Rankings don’t determine who plays in conference title games. Your schedule does. So, yes, it’s entirely possible, even likely, that the 2 teams advancing to the SEC Championship won’t be the 2 highest ranked teams in the Playoff poll.

Part of that is because of how tightly bunched the SEC teams are.

Georgia clinched a spot in the SEC title game Saturday, not because of what it did, but because of what Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss didn’t do.

The Dawgs, remember, were ranked behind Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss in the 3rd set of Playoff rankings. Texas A&M was the 6th-highest ranked SEC team.

Georgia will play the winner of next week’s Texas-Texas A&M game for the SEC title and automatic Playoff bid. (Via tiebreakers, Tennessee has been eliminated.)

Georgia could finish with 3 losses. Done. Texas A&M could finish with 4. Not even worth discussing. Even Texas, should it advance and lose again to Georgia, would have 2 losses.

The ACC and Big 12 most likely are 1-bid leagues, earned by the conference champion. Their runner-up almost certainly won’t be included.

Already, that’s 2 Power 4 leagues whose runner-up won’t be part of the Playoff field.

Depending on how next week unfolds, there’s certainly a world in which the SEC runner-up doesn’t go, either — but only because there are 3 more deserving SEC teams that will.

6b. Want real chaos? Root for Notre Dame to lose …

Notre Dame is a lock to secure an at-large Playoff spot if it finishes 11-1.

The Irish also are a lock to miss the Playoff if they finish 10-2.

If that happens, an extra at-large bid opens up, and that will bring a 5th SEC team into the mix, battling probably a 2nd ACC team and 2nd Big 12 team for the final at-large spot.

The Irish end the season next week at USC. Even if it’s more fun to jeer Lincoln Riley than cheer, now’s the time if you’re a fan of a fringe team.

5. Predicting the 5 conference champions

Saturday complicated the Big 12 picture and brought clarity to the B1G picture.

ACC: Miami (or Clemson). SMU clinched a spot in the ACC title game, but I don’t see the Mustangs beating Miami or Clemson. Miami clinches with a win next week at Syracuse; Clemson needs Miami to lose.

Big Ten: Ohio State. I’ve had Oregon all season, but Will Howard finally looked the part Saturday.

Big 12: Arizona State. Why not? The Sun Devils are the 1-year makeover team nobody is talking about. They were ranked No. 21 in the Playoff poll. They’ll move up, ahead of Tulane, which is key.

SEC: Georgia. Kirby it Atlanta … without Nick on the other sideline? This season has been crazy, but it hasn’t been that crazy.

Group of 5: Boise State (as long as Ashton Jeanty is healthy).

4. Predicting the SEC’s 4 Playoff teams

1. Georgia, 2. Tennessee, 3. Texas A&M, 4. Texas

I get it. Y’all like Texas more than I do. AP voters like Texas more than I do. Even the always-despised Playoff committee does, too.

Nick Saban warned Texas A&M that Jordan-Hare was haunted, and dang it if the Aggies didn’t see ghosts.

Bygones. Let’s reconvene next Saturday night — after Texas A&M wins, shall we?

3. Are we sure South Carolina isn’t Playoff worthy?

I know most of you can’t embrace the concept of a 3-loss team competing for a national championship.

But what if the Gamecocks go into Death Valley next week and hammer Clemson by double digits?

Would that change your mind?

That would be the Gamecocks’ 3rd victory over a ranked team, which, you know, would be 3 more than Indiana has.

If there’s going to be a 3-loss SEC team in the Playoff, why not the hottest 3-loss team in America?

2. Mack Brown just lost his right to control how this ends

Mack Brown is a Hall of Famer and greatest football coach in UNC’s slightly above-average history.

But we’re nearing the end of Year 6 of his 2nd stint, and the Tar Heels still haven’t won 10 games once. If you think that benchmark is too high, remember, Brown won 10 games 3 times at UNC before jumping to Texas.

And he did that with 1 fewer game on the schedule and no NFL-caliber QBs.

Everybody celebrated his return in 2019. Rightfully so. But the good will well has run dry.

I was adamant earlier this season, and even more so after Tylee Craft’s death, that he shouldn’t step away midseason, that he wasn’t going to step away midseason, that he felt a sense of responsibility to stand by his football family and see this season to the end.

But that should be it. Build the statue. Rename the field. But it’s time to move on. This isn’t an overreaction to Saturday’s 20-point loss at Boston College, either.

He turns 74 in August. No matter. Wednesday, Brown said he’s returning to coach in 2025. Announcing that clearly was an attempt to quiet whispers and keep recruits. He still has time to reconsider.

He should, too. Agree to a soft landing — before UNC makes the decision for him. Nobody wants to see that, but that’s where this is heading.

Bottom line: College sports stopped being sentimental decades ago. UNC can’t continue to accept 8-win seasons as a ceiling. Not in a winnable ACC. Not when SMU jumps from the American Athletic Conference to the top of the ACC standings in 1 year.

1. Can you blame him? Bring on Texas A&M-Texas …

Technically, it was “Auburn Week” for the Texas A&M Aggies, but let’s be real: It’s always Texas Hate Week in College Station.

It showed, too.

Before his team lost to Auburn in 4 overtimes, Aggies coach Mike Elko was asked about the dangers of looking ahead.

Even he couldn’t help himself …

It’s OK, coach. We get it.

These hated rivals haven’t played since 2011 — so long ago that Johnny Manziel didn’t even play in the rivalry.

Losing at Auburn wasn’t ideal, but ultimately, it didn’t change anything.

Next Saturday they’ll meet with a spot in the SEC Championship — and a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff at stake.

This? This absolutely will mean more than more. It will mean everything.

Chris Wright
Chris Wright

Managing Editor

A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.

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