It may no longer have a great on-field product, but damn if the SEC isn't the most entertaining, dramatic conference in the country when it comes to coaching drama.
Outside of Alabama and Georgia -- and Auburn, some weeks -- the SEC is a big pile of hot garbage. But the coaching melodrama -- it's right up there with the Young and The Restless.
Check this out -- you have a coach who was left for dead (Ed Orgeron) after losing at home to Troy, and all he has done since is win. LSU looks a lot more like the team fans expected it to be, utilizing coordinator Matt Canada's motion elements and passing game, with excellent results.
You have a coach who is basically a dead man walking (Butch Jones), but for some reason his school won't let him go. Tennessee just lost to Kentucky -- Kentucky! -- for the second time in 33 years, and scored its first offensive touchdowns in nearly a month. That's how inept things are in Knoxville. It's anyone's guess as to why the administration hasn't shown Jones the door yet, but it has to be right around the corner. Tennessee claims to have expecatations, but the longer it employs Jones -- who is obviously a bad fit and just isn't working out -- the more it alienates fans. Social media has already seen a slew of UT fans say they are done with the Vols, that they are turning in their orange, what have you. Jones was an outside the box hire when he was brought in after a nice stint making Cincinnati relevant, but it has not gone well.
The Vols are just 33-26 since his hiring in 2013, which is not acceptable in Knoxville. He hasn't been particularly charismatic at the mic, either, which sometimes can give coaches a pass if they are going through a rough patch. No, Jones just has not connected, on any level, really, with the Volunteers fan base, yet the school keeps moving forward with him.
And then you have Jim McElwain, who had the aura of a winner when he was introduced as Florida's head coach three seasons ago after doing wonders for the offense at Colorado State. Seen as a quarterbacks guru, McElwain was a radical change from defensive minded Will Muschamp, whose biggest crime is that he wasn't Steve Spurrier or Urban Meyer. Muschamp's teams were bad, they were just boring. And boring doesn't work in Gainesville.
Enter McElwain, who won two SEC East titles in his first two seasons. Sure, there were some issues at quarterback after Will Grier was popped for PEDs, but those would no doubt be fixed because -- well, McElwain. Only they weren't fixed, and the Gators came into this season with the same issues under center, as well as mass suspensions stemming from players stealing school issued credit cards and making purchases, including iPads and laptops that were bought at discounted prices through the school. The players -- most notably star receiver Antonio Callaway and running back Jordan Scarlett -- later admitted to selling electronics.
The suspensions hampered the Gators from the jump, and they were just 3-2 heading into their rivalry game with Georgia on Saturday. The fact that the Bulldogs bludgeoned Florida 42-7 wasn't the worst thing that happened to McElwain, though -- that came on Sunday, when he and the school parted ways. Some may see this as a football problem, and that definitely exists, but this is more of a culture problem. McElwain opened the week by hinting that he and his coaching staff had received death threats, yet when school administrators asked for specifics or elaboration, he provided none.
Athletic director Scott Stricklin said, "This was more than just wins and losses, and I'll leave it at that."
McElwain's buyout is a hefty $12.75 million, though the school is looking into whether it can fire him without cause, hoping to see the buyout greatly reduced. McElwain has spoken out publicly about initiatives in the athletic department that must occur, and that didn't make him many friends in the department.
McElwain has a championship pedigree, working at Alabama in 2009 as coordinator on an offense that featured Mark Ingram, Julio Jones and A.J. McCarron. So when Florida opened the season 6-0 in 2015, it looked like the fun had returned. But then Grier was caught using PEDs, and later said that McElwain told him it would be better for all parties if they parted ways. Grier didn't want to leave, and had he not there's no telling how much more productive the Gators would be right now.
Randy Shannon -- yes, THAT Randy Shannon -- will take over the balance of the season while the administration starts searching for a successor. If they don't have former Florida assistant Dan Mullen on speed dial, then they're knuckleheads. He would be a perfect fit, has a fertile offensive mind and has won pretty regularly in Starkville -- not exactly a hotbed for recruiting talent. If he decides to stay at Mississippi State -- the Bulldogs are very young this year and could be a real contender next season. That could leave Chip Kelly, who would definitely kickstart the offense, and possibly UCF coach Scott Frost, though many in Nebraska are pining for him to take over from Mike Riley, who is as good as gone at the end of this season.
Did we mention that all of this coaching hubbub kicked off just before the season when Ole Miss let go Hugh Freeze after it was found he called escort services without anyone's knowledge?
Yup, never a dull moment in the SEC.
It's Finally Time
The long-awaited unveiling of the initial College Football Playoff rankings happens on Tuesday night, and everyone has weighed in with what they believe it will be, or their top four.
For the record, I have Georgia, Alabama, Notre Dame and Oklahoma, in that order, with Ohio State and Clemson just outside. Overall body of work is important, and even though I believe the Buckeyes are the better team right now, they weren't better than the Sooners when they played in mid-September. So for now they are behind Oklahoma. But that can certainly change, even if both end up with conference titles and one loss.
You can bet that even though these rankings don't count, everyone will be on social media blasting the committee. They'll wonder why a team -- probably theirs -- wasn't included, and will compare wins with a team ranked higher. Folks, save your breath -- this ranking doesn't matter. In fact, none matter until December, when the final ranking is released.
There is a lot of intriguing football yet to be played, and elimination games will happen each week from now until the end of the season. There are just five unbeatens left, and a handful of others that control their own destiny:
ACC -- Clemson, Miami, Virginia Tech
Big 12 -- Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU
B1G -- Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
Pac 12 -- Washington
SEC -- Alabama, Georgia
Independent -- Notre Dame
So 13 teams vying for four spots. Anyone from the Power 5 that finishes unbeaten will make it, but it will get interesting if you have four league champions with one loss apiece to fill the three other spots -- or maybe even two, since Notre Dame is a lock to be in if it runs the table from here.
Would Washington be left out due its mediocre schedule? What about defending national champ Clemson, which would have a great resume but the worst loss of the group? Ohio State lost to Oklahoma, so would that automatically have the Buckeyes on the outside looking in?
All kinds of scenario are possible, but the best thing to do is let everything work itself out -- because it always does.
That's college football.
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