Warner: A Realistic Assessment

While undefeated Alabama and Florida work hard to complete their unblemished seasons, the overall race for the Southeastern Conference championship remains wide-open, as there are still many key stretch games to be played. Moreover, teams like LSU, with only one conference loss to the nation's top-ranked team, still control their own destiny in terms of playing in Atlanta and potentially for the national championship at year's end, as the BCS computer polls perennially love the strength of the nation's toughest conference.

In this exclusive piece for TigerDroppings.com, the cyberspace gift from God to die-hard SEC Fans, we'll assess winners and losers at this season midway point, taking particular stock in postseason expectations. Furthermore, we'll take our regular armchair quarterback tour of the conference and speak frankly on the developing LSU Tiger Football situation and its direction under Les Miles.

Winners

Tim Tebow, the Florida Gators and Alabama are the big SEC winners at this point. Tebow is on track to win a miraculous third national title and second Heisman Trophy, as well as the inside track at a future run for Governor of Florida, his own reality show and the U.S. Presidency.

The Gators are on the nation's longest win streak and have a reasonably doable schedule remaining until the SEC Championship Game. Only South Carolina looms predictably large on the horizon for the Gators, who should be undefeated in their SEC Championship defense in Atlanta.

The Crimson Tide is winning with defense and a surprisingly solid running game, led by sophomore running back Mark Ingram, who ran for 250 yards against South Carolina in a 20-6 victory. Tide fans are frustrated that lukewarm quarterback Greg McElroy cannot get the ball to Julio Jones, their stud sophomore wide receiver. But when you're running with the effectiveness they've lately demonstrated, who cares about the passing game, right?

Losers

Lane Kiffin, Urban Myer and Houston Nutt are the big SEC losers at this point. While Kiffin regained a little swagger with the thrashing of Georgia, he's still yet to live up to anywhere near the hype he created coming into being Tennessee's head football coach. Despite the improvement, a bowl game is still as uncertain as Kiffin's long-term future, for the 3-3 (1-2) Vols.

Urban Myer is a big loser because of the butterfly/Eskimo kiss he placed on Tebow's facemask in Tiger Stadium a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those surreal, indelible, certainly vintage college football moments. It was one, in retrospect, that I could have done without. I have watched the clip repeatedly, and I really do not know what to say about it. After watching it three or four times I felt I needed another opinion. I called my wife over and we watched the DVR recording in super slow motion. She aptly described it, "downright creepy." I agree. I hope what I think about him and Tim is not true.

Houston Nutt has gone from hero to apparent zero in Oxford, his snake oil no longer selling as well as it once did when he had bona fide first-rounders starting on both lines and a quarterback that was ready for the Wheaties box as a first-year SEC starter. This year Ole Miss doesn't push people around-they are getting pushed around-by the SEC big boys, and Jevan Snead looks like the Waterboy instead of the poster boy.

Expectations

Before the season I predicted two regular-season losses for the Tigers, and spoke of a possible third loss to Florida in the SECCG. While the biggest unfortunate surprise has been the poor play of the offensive line, Jordan Jefferson's lack of big-game experience coupled with a poorly-devised and executed offensive scheme against the Gators resulted in the Tigers losing an epic defensive struggle against arguably the greatest college football player in SEC history and certainly one of the most decorated. So while playing the nation's number-one ranked team and number-one ranked defense and the nation's best field general in Tim Tebow, LSU fell short. Things could be much worse.

The Russell Shepard Factor

Oddly, Shepard was heralded a year ago as the next Tim Tebow. However, the Lone Star freshman has yet to yield the playing time or results that the Heisman leader did as a first-year player when he helped the Gators in a secondary quarterback role behind Chris Leak, en route to a national championship. For whatever reason, Shepard has not yet fully arrived. Tiger fans have to wonder how heated the competition really is between Shepard and Jefferson, and if Miles or Crowton have intentions of eventually making Shepard the starter. Realistically, at this point, it is difficult seeing Jefferson as the lone starter for the remainder of his eligibility, with total respect going to Russell Shepard for that thought.

It was revealed only within the last few news days that Shepard was suffering from the flu during the Florida game. Prior to that revelation by the LSU staff, it appeared that Coach Crowton and Coach Miles had little faith in the upstart freshman phenom, whose rare talents many have duly noted. To his detriment, Shepard has put the ball on the ground, and has at times noticeably struggled with his offensive command. Nevertheless, he remains, like Tim Tebow, one of the highest touted Parade All-Americans LSU has landed in years. He is a phenomenal talent, and must be used by the staff. Russell Shepard must see the field for the Tigers to reach their full potential. With all due respect to Jordan Jefferson, I believe his forthcoming time as LSU's "full-time" quarterback is limited. From this point forward the Tigers will be forced to only increase Shepard's snaps, as his yard-per-touch average fully warrants it and it is also fairly easy to see that LSU has a quarterback problem. Shepard or even Jarrett Lee, are the only possible answers at this juncture. My guess is the staff will go with superior talent.

In fairness to Jordan Jefferson, he has played well enough for the Tigers to win in all games except one. He is not a failure. However, one has to wonder his future as the starting Tiger quarterback with the lively Shepard nipping at his heels. Moreover, one has to wonder of Shepard's ultimate and true role within the Tiger offense, and whether or not he really is the avowed "future" of the LSU offense.

Gary Crowton

The Florida defense that held LSU to 3 points returned eleven starters from a national championship team. As many as eight players on the Gator team have been tagged as NFL locks. Some of these guys don't even start for the Gators, which is clear evidence of their unfair depth. Nevertheless, when LSU struggled to move the ball effectively on this group everyone deplored Crowton and his alleged micromanager, Les Miles. It had to be their fault. It had to be somebody's fault, other than the players, that is. That is because everyone that listens to talk radio believes that LSU has more talent than anyone and everyone on their schedule and that the Tigers should win every game by three or more touchdowns. If not, Gary Crowton's head deserves to roll-especially after a three-point outing against the number one defense in America.

It is obvious that LSU's offense has not yet put it all together and played a complete game. Offensive line problems probably outweigh any other except for maybe quarterback, but coaching is certainly a concern given the lack of flow and rhythm in the play calling and the execution of those called plays. One of Crowton's bigger problems is the many options he has given the plethora of skilled talent at his disposal. The embarrassment of riches in talent he possesses appears to have him befudd