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Saturday’s SEC action was kind to the ranked teams. All 4 ranked SEC teams in action came away with a win; only Georgia had to sweat at the end.
But for the losing teams, there was no solace in losing to Top-25 squads. And for most of the teams that fell, the results only compounded very difficult seasons.
Right, Kentucky?
The Wildcats were never expected to stay with No. 1 Alabama, and they didn’t. But a 63-3 beatdown was more than some could take.
Damn Kentucky.. Did y’all know you had a football game today?
— Chuck (@Hogwylde1) November 22, 2020
It was pointed out that this was among the most lopsided losses in UK history:
Worst losses by Kentucky
1905 Saint Louis 82-0
1994 Florida 73-7
1996 Florida 65-0
1908 Michigan 62-0
2020 Alabama 63-3— Matt Brown (@MattBrownCFB) November 22, 2020
One eagle-eyed Tweeter noticed that mighty Centre College was missing from this list:
https://twitter.com/MNiemann84/status/1330313207706243075?s=20
As for Arkansas, losing to rival LSU is tough enough, but the feeling that the officials were involved in the decision — yet again this season — led to more anger than sadness:
@GregSankey I believe the @RazorbackFB players & coaches, not the fans deserve better officiating than what was shown today. How was Jaylon Catalon targeting? How is a player handing you the ball not clear evidence of a recovery? These young men deserve better!
— Jonathan West (@realtorjwest) November 22, 2020
Heck, this Auburn fan even got in on the act with a Surrender Cobra, and the Tigers won.
Bo Nix doing Bo Nix things. Picked off in the end zone. #sadSECfans #SurrenderCobra #TENNvsAUB pic.twitter.com/QS4o2bhdl5
— sadSECfans (@sadSECfans) November 22, 2020
And that leads us to Tennessee. If any fan base can relate to Arkansas’ yearning for the increasingly distant glory days, it’s Tennessee’s. The Vols made more history in a bad way by losing to Auburn 30-17, for their historic 5th straight loss by 10 or more points.
If this score holds, it will be 5 straight losses for Tennessee football by double digits.
That's never happened in the history of their program dating back to 1891.
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) November 22, 2020
It’s enough for some to turn their sadness into resignation. What’s the old saying? The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy:
https://twitter.com/utracefan72/status/1330293518833766400?s=20
Another program that Vols fans can relate to right now is Penn State. Vols fans remember what kind of a job James Franklin did at Vanderbilt before he left for Happy Valley. If an 0-5 start at PSU leads to a coaching change, we wonder if this sentiment will spread:
Penn state if y’all wanna be dumb and fire James Franklin go ahead……@Vol_Football will gladly take him off y’all hands
— Chris James (@CoachJame5) November 22, 2020
Or maybe not:
My eleven year old is picking up on college football fandom pretty well. As the clock struck zero on our Vols, Nolan says, “It could be worse. We could be Penn State.”
— Mark Whitehead (@arbelministries) November 22, 2020
Like Tennessee, Penn State has made the worst kind of history in the past 5 games:
0-5 is the worst start in Penn State program history, which dates back to 1887. pic.twitter.com/OxkmUGDEOq
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 22, 2020
Penn State is not the only traditional power in the Big Ten off to a terrible start. Michigan needed 3 overtimes just to beat Rutgers and improve to 2-3:
Do you think that Penn State and Michigan realize there is no draft in college football? You don’t gain anything by intentionally tanking.
— Jenni (@JScheaffer) November 22, 2020
At the other end of the standings, Wisconsin and Northwestern entered Saturday’s clash unbeaten. The game had very high stakes in the B1G West Division, but what it did not have was exciting offense:
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) November 21, 2020
And Illinois won at Nebraska, leading the Illini Twitter account to thank Nebraska for its role in advocating for the Big Ten to play football in 2020 after the conference initially scrubbed the season. The Illinois athletic department’s tweet was later deleted but, hey, once something’s on the internet, it’s there to stay in some form, right?
??? pic.twitter.com/7e04zwrDHm
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 21, 2020
Finally, we hope this thought will turn your sadness into cheer: Happy Thanksgiving!
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
