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College Football

Sad fans are sad: Week 5 – 2021

Jim Tomlin

By Jim Tomlin

Published:

Week 5 was when some programs solidified their claims to be SEC title contenders (Alabama, Georgia) or at least candidates for the Citrus Bowl (Kentucky, Auburn).

For others, the heartache of 2021 is already setting in.

Ole Miss and Arkansas fell from the ranks of the unbeaten, though losses on the road to the Crimson Tide and Dawgs, respectively, are certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The Rebels and Razorbacks would have hoped to keep their games closer, though.

The mood for Ole Miss fans turned sour quickly:

https://twitter.com/RedditCFB/status/1444407941017202691?s=20

Hopes that the Rebels had of duplicating their upset wins over Bama in 2014 and 2015 evaporated before halftime:

As for Florida and Texas A&M, both suffered upset losses. Worse still, it was the second conference loss for each, putting them way behind already in their respective division races. The Aggies lost at home to Mississippi State, totally putting to bed any CFP hopes they might have had. And defeat at Kentucky (the first for Florida since 1986) made at least one Gator fan want to shut out the world, or at least the college football world:

A good old #SurrenderCobra sighting popped up during the tense Auburn-LSU game:

This Missouri fan seems really determined to make our Sad Fans roster for the week. But considering how badly the Tigers lost at home to Tennessee, we’ll give the fella the attention he seeks:

And as for Vanderbilt … well, the Commodores did win. In the final second. Against a Connecticut team that’s arguably the worst in FBS. It wasn’t exactly a high-demand game in Nashville; a dish of hot chicken might have set you back more than this not-so-hot ticket:

Looking around the nation, it’s fair to wonder why fans give the “Horns down” gesture to express distaste for future SEC member Texas — in a game where the Longhorns are not even playing. Of course, posts like this from the school’s football Twitter account, while clever, won’t win the burnt orange any new friends:

Getting back to the Surrender Cobra, one keen observer asks an interesting question:

Our take: No hands over the head, preferably clasped around the neck, no cobra. Though if you want to interpret this as the gesture that bats would give if they tried to do the pose (and, you know, if they cared about college football), we won’t argue.

Meanwhile, the Pac-12 had a case of upset fever when Stanford knocked off No. 3 Oregon in overtime. So, basically, the league made itself irrelevant earlier this year than it did last year, when none of the teams had even played this early:

The Shula Bowl (between Florida Atlantic and Florida International, two schools about 60 miles apart) won’t draw much national attention, but it has unique south Florida intensity:

But intensity was not the same everywhere, or at least not for this UAB fan:

One lesson from Week 5: Don’t sleep on any SEC opponent, or you might wind up making your fans really sad.

Jim Tomlin

Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.

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