2012 SEC Football: Rearview Mirror

History will have the final say, but 2012 should go down as one of the SEC’s greatest, landmark seasons. 1966 Heisman Trophy Winner Steve Spurrier became South Carolina’s winningest coach. Coaching anomaly Hugh Freeze, by the hardest, led Ole Miss from misery to bowl eligibility. Vanderbilt, under the league’s third African-American head coach, James Franklin, won eight games for the first time since 1982. A little-known expansion team redshirt freshman quarterback, an Italian nicknamed “Johnny Football,” shattered every significant all-purpose yardage statistic the league office kept, en route to winning an unprecedented Heisman Trophy by a first-year player; bringing much-needed luster to its claim.

Most notably, the league expanded to 14 teams, adding Texas A&M in the West and Missouri in the East, and in doing so saw ten of its fourteen teams become bowl eligible. Further, for a record, seventh-straight year an SEC team will play for a BCS National Title, a conference championship crown it has consecutively defended, forging one of the true conference dynasties in modern American college athletics. This year’s sacrificial lamb, media darling Notre Dame, awaits its presumable fate as an also-ran. At the height of its reign, the SEC is in no mood or disposition to relinquish its death grip on American College Football. Its coaching and its politics are simply too good to allow it.

In this exclusive, one-of-a-kind column, we will recollect many surprising season highs and lows while taking our regular armchair quarterback tour across the Paragon of American College Football…The Nation’s Most Important, Most Dominating and Most Lucrative Athletic League, the unchallenged, undisputed, almighty, Southeastern Conference.

We’ll also look at Les Miles’ 85-20 (.815) record to this point in time; and importantly, we will consider what “The Hat” really means to this LSU program, as well as preview the SEC Championship Game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Under the Hat

Miles is no longer tagged an “idiot” by his media detractors. Idiots cannot win more than four out of every five games they coach at an SEC school. Unfortunately, Miles coaches in the nation’s toughest sub-conference, where his arch-enemy and fiercest coaching competitor is Nick Saban, the vaunted, quintessential harbinger of sorrow for opposing football coaches and fans. Saban is just one of several alpha males gunning annually for the elusive SEC Championship. With Sumlin and Freeze the SEC West got tougher.

Aside from Miles’ occasional penchant for the goofy and the awkward, he excels in his role as molder of young men, as his team is second to only Vanderbilt in graduation rate. Vanderbilt graduated 85 percent of its eligible players a year ago. LSU graduated 77 percent.

In seven years Miles has five times won ten games or more. The other two he won eight and nine. He is on track to surpass Charles McClendon’s all-time school win record, in another six seasons.

While Miles is 1 for 2 in national championship games, he has demonstrated an ability to consistently prepare his team to play at a high level for four quarters. Miles’ men never quit, are rarely blown out, and most often--they win. Further, they are usually in the hunt for a championship. This fact, over time, means that Miles and his Tigers will get additional conference and national championship game opportunities. For Miles, the economist, it comes down to perseverance, statistics, and a little luck. For LSU fans, patience is required. The mold is already cast.

If Miles were to leave LSU the school would be unable to replace him with a coach of similar caliber. Miles has won more games than Saban did at LSU. Finding someone who can succeed two consecutive legends will be an almost insurmountable task. Also, consider the prospect of Joe Alleva hiring the next LSU football coach. Do you trust he is capable of delivering the necessary goods? Anyone remember the Duke Lacrosse Scandal? Better yet—does anyone remember Curley Hallman?

Rewind the tape. Go back to 2005. Les Miles was hired by the man with the Midas touch, Stanley “Skip” Bertman, the King of College Baseball. Everyone wondered what Skip was thinking. Miles was an unknown commodity; a virtual nobody—one who had to follow King Nick Saban, the Louisiana legend. Skip’s intuition was accurate. Les, in retrospect, was a great hire. He obviously saw something. Les Miles was a great hire who has made all the difference for the mighty LSU athletic department. Skip Bertman deserves credit for that.

Five SEC Schools are currently looking to hire a football coach. Football ticket sales and merchandising are of paramount importance to the overall financial success of an athletic department, and it’s tough to sell tickets and merchandise without a winning football program. In order to have a winning football program, you need a winning football coach.

Football ticket sales and merchandising also define a university’s approach to facility development and how well athletes and coaches travel on the road. Athletic directors at Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Mizzou and Tennessee know this; and it assuredly guides their respective searches. Without the large revenue stream successful football season ticket sales generate, programs suffer. That’s why hiring a successful football coach is the most important personnel decision a big-time athletic director can make.

If Les Miles took another job at this juncture it would be difficult for Joe Alleva to find a suitable replacement. An inadequate hire could spawn a situation similar to the aforementioned schools; or, unthinkably, one that it is even worse. Think of Auburn the past four months.


Great Coaching and Great Politics

While the national media enjoys its insidious infatuation with Nick Saban and the peculiar idiosyncrasies of the Alabama fan base (Updyke &Downing), few in the elite cabal recall he was hired at LSU by then LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert—the current NCAA President. Nick Saban is not only a great football coach, he has great regional and national politics.

At the top of the food chain Nick Saban has a tremendous ally in NCAA President Mark Emmert. However, inside the board rooms of the Birmingham conference offices, the university he works for has equally strong political ties.

In the new and improved 14-team SEC, Alabama, with the help of undesignated assistants within the conference office hierarchy, appears to have pulled a fast one on its Western Division competitors. Alabama’s regular SEC Eastern Division opponents pale in comparison to LSU’s (Florida) and Auburn’s (Georgia). Further, Alabama and Georgia—the two teams with the easiest cross-divisional schedules, are in the championship game. Permanent cross-divisional opponents should be done away with for a fairer, more democratic, rotating schedule. As a playoff approaches, all competitive factors should be made equal. This should include the rotation of the SEC Championship venue to include Texas Stadium in Dallas and the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

One thing I find most surprising regarding the national media is that there has been little said about the NCAA’s refusal to fully investigate the outright sale of Cam Newton by his father to the highest bidder. If you recall, had the NCAA investigated Auburn in-depth and officially found wrongdoing, the SEC would have likely ended its brilliant run at four straight national championships by virtue of Auburn’s imminent forfeiture. One can only wonder what conversations at this juncture occurred between Mike Slive and Mark Emmert; and of course, between Emmert and Nick Saban, his old friend from LSU