Well, I don't know if it will actually make you feel better. It was a complete and utter dismantling. However, it was weird. It's not like they gashed us all night long. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were hard football to watch and very evenly matched. Nobody could do anything. Problem was, we spotted them 21 points. Call me crazy, but I'm on the Malcom Mitchell for punt return campaign. We can't play teams that have their fastest player back there while we have Rhett McGowan. That kind of thinking got us to 6-7 in 2010. Anyway, it's not that I have much say-so on that issue.
So where do we go. We keep playing football, man. The season ain't over. And, 11-1 is a GREAT season by any measuring stick. And we're fully capable of that. Whether that gets us to Atlanta is out of our hands, but we have set the stage for a tremendous season. We avoided a hornets nest in Missouri and a meltdown vs. Tennessee because we're a pretty good team. My first born said to me yesterday, "Well, we could still go to the national championship this year because Alabama lost one last year and still made it." Bingo. And what I mean is that, bingo, the luck has to tilt our way at some point, one would think. And don't tell me you make your own luck. Bama lost the most important game on it's schedule last year to the best team for all the marbles in their division. Yes, it was a 9-6 OT loss, but they still lost it…at home. But Saban is better, right?
Of course, Saban's program is better right now. And South Carolina's is better. That's because they have, for my money, the 2 best coaches in College Football in the last 25 years. The other guy that is in the conversation thankfully doesn't coach in Gainesville anymore, but is in Columbus. So what do we do? We ain't getting Saban and Spurrier's gone after Clowney leaves, and maybe this year if he wins the SEC. Who else is going to compete with them? And do you think we can do it knowing that we WILL NOT oversign like Bama and USCe do? And you do realize that our admission policies are demonstrably more stringent than theirs. In short, there's no way Clowney gets in at UGA. No way. He might not have gotten in at Clemson, if that tells you anything.
So, I want to see us get tougher and meaner, but I'm not sure that we can guarantee that. There's a lot of teams in our league in shambles (UT, Arky, and Auburn). We're not them. I'm not sold on Muschump or Miles at LSU for the long haul. Patterson is in the Big XII and has no reason to jump ship anywhere. Chip Kelley's offense will get someone killed in the SEC…and we don't allow our kids to smoke dope, which would dramatically alter his recruiting practices (and perhaps his personal life). Petersen ain't leaving Boise. He has no reason to. He gets paid almost $2 mil. to live in a place he loves with almost no pressure and wins a lot. I'll gladly up my per game ticket prices from $40 to $75 if that's what it takes to get Jim Harbaugh, but that ain't happening. Do we really think Kirby, with no HC experience, has what it takes to win those games? Maybe he does, but he also might be Ray Goff.
So, you're left with this. Is this what we are? Well, time will tell in Jax, but we gotta afford this team that.
They’ve looked REALLY good at times. And it might still turn out great. I do believe that we're going to see a different defense the rest of the year. And we have to. That's the difference. We were pretty darn good last year because our defense played great. That was the story for SC Saturday night. Their defense won the game way more than their offense did. If we're going to be elite, it starts with an elite defense. We had one for the last 12 games last year (save for that 2nd half vs. LSU), and if we're going to be great, we've got to have the same thing.
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