While Saturday’s Georgia-Tennessee game was the biggest in the history of that game and the de facto headline for Week 10, it was the SEC rivalry that defined the conference for most of this century. once again stole the limelight. In his first time leading LSU against Alabama, coach Brian Kelly got his revenge on the third try against Nick Saban.
In their first two meetings with Tide, Kelly’s team was 73-28 ahead, and the Fighting Irish never had a chance to win. One could argue that although the meetings are held in a neutral location, the playing field is never level.
That was not the case at Tiger Stadium on Saturday when Jayden Daniels, Kayshon Boutte and Co. – with the help of a home crowd – look like they belong on any pitch with any team.
However, we know that if you want to put an end to Bama’s pursuit of another College Soccer Round and another national title, you will have to KO them. And that’s exactly the kind of spin Kelly does at the end of the first and last extra time.
Tired of watching Bryce Young wiggle out of the encirclement of the oncoming Tigers and into the red zone, Kelly decided to leave the field after Daniels reacted to Tide TD on his team’s first offensive play in OT.
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In real time, it felt like the LSU coach was outsmarting himself with a gamble worthy of Les Miles, a desperate man rolling the dice against a superior adversary. I thought whatever play he called was going to fall hilariously flat, and well, then this happened.
Of course, the fans rushed the field because they were in a state of euphoria and probably blacked out. But also because this was the first time they witnessed winning Bama in Death Valley since 2010.
The Bayou Bengals have always been a recruiting season without the type of player to fit any school in college football. The problem is always the coach. Kelly deserves everything he gets for skipping Notre Dame, filming TikToks with teenage rookies, and faking a Southern accent.
He’s also pretty shrewd when it comes to recognizing the limitations of South Bend and going to one of college football’s top three programs when given the chance to pick up a pickup bed full of money. LSU is now an Arkansas and Texas A&M win from the conference title game. No two-loss team has ever won a playoff spot, but also no SEC champion has ever been eliminated.
While I’m not sure how smart Georgia’s proactive attention-seeking is, LSU has it – and the opportunity throws the CFP selection process into further turmoil.
Vols lost but caught a few breaks
Tennessee’s visit to Georgia did not go well. Hendon Hooker never found his rhythm, the defensive aggressive approach backfired, and even the Dawgs special teams played better than their opponents.
On Friday, I wrote that The loser of this game will need a lot of help to get to the knockouts. I guess “write and you’ll get it,” as not only was the SEC’s most important threat to the second bid lost, but so was Clemson.
Dabo Swinney’s Tigers entered South Bend and was scrapped. The 35-14 win saved Marcus Freeman’s first season in charge of Notre Dame, while also showing a team that many pundits don’t appreciate.
The loser of the Ohio State-Michigan game will be in the same position as Tennessee, and they will have to keep the contest close because neither the Buckeyes nor the Wolverines have the same backgrounds as UT.
We’ll see how the rankings shake up after three of the top six are lost, but, as the experts like to point out, a lot of these rankings will take care of themselves in the coming weeks. The Volunteer’s magic season had turned into a large, rotting, orange pumpkin, but within hours it was still alive and looking for a glass slipper to fit.
