That old familiar feeling in the SEC

As usual, league's top dogs are Florida and alabama

By John Clay / Herald-Leader Sports Columnist

John Clay

OK, OK, the SEC football season is now complete.

What's that? You say there are games still left to play.

Well, it might as well be complete. Florida clinched the SEC East title last Saturday by gouging poor Georgia. Alabama clinched the SEC West title this past Saturday by knocking off Louisiana State.

For the second straight year, and the seventh year since division play began in 1992, the Gators and the Crimson Tide will meet in the SEC Championship game.

The more things change, the more the stay the same.

Florida always wins the East. Or so it seems. Parity, shmarity. The Gators have captured the division 10 times in the 18 seasons since the SEC decided a dozen teams would be just dandy. Tennessee has won the East five times. Georgia has won it three.

Unless Notre Dame convinces Urban Meyer that too much sunshine and too much winning is bad for your health, that doesn't seem likely to change. The state has too many advantages. And when the Gators have a coach as skilled and focused as Meyer, game over.

If any program is going to challenge Florida, it's Tennessee. Give the devil his due: Lane Kiffin, the man with the runaway mouth, has improved the Big Orange as the season has progressed.

Jonathan Crompton, the Tennessee quarterback who was once a punchline, is now a playmaker. The Vols are on the fast track toward 8-4. We might need ear plugs. They're shouting from Rocky Top.

The rest of the division is same ol', same ol'. Georgia fans are tired of having their cute little Bulldog noses rubbed in it — not to mention eyes gouged out — by Florida, so Mark Richt is occupying a suddenly warmer seat. At South Carolina, Steve Spurrier is experiencing his annual late-season Columbia collapse. Can we now agree that the Ol' Ball Coach's best days are behind him?

Kentucky's big-bowl hopes have been reduced to bowl-eligible hopes. After achieving a post-season taste last year, Vanderbilt is back to its more familiar role of trying to keep Kentucky out of a bowl.

On the Western side, Nick Saban is throwing headsets and winning football games. Saban is to Alabama football as John Calipari is now to Kentucky basketball. He's big enough, shrewd enough and talented enough to handle the job. With the Nicktator in charge, Bama is going to continue to be Bama.

LSU's Les Miles is a good coach, but he's no Nick, much to the chagrin of Tiger fans. Gene Chizik has done some good at Auburn, but he operates in Saban's shadow. Two coaches after Mississippi ran David Cutcliffe out of Oxford, the Rebels are back to where they were — pretty good, but not good enough to topple the Tide.

Mississippi State has shown signs of life under first-year coach Dan Mullen. He knows how to put points on the board, the kind of thing that enlivens a fan base.

As Arthur Blank and Tom Jurich will tell you, Arkansas' Bobby Petrino has some major commitment issues. But when he's not too busy mailing resumes, Petrino might be the best quarterback coach in the land. Two more years of Ryan Mallet behind center scares defensive coordinators.

But we digress. There are still games to play. Saturday, Florida has another Spurrier spanking to mark off its to-do list. Nov. 27, Saban has to show Auburn's new coach who rules Sweet Home Alabama.

Then Dec. 5, the Gators and Tide can square off in the Georgia Dome for a conference crown and a BCS title berth

Same as it ever was.

Reach John Clay at (859) 231-3226 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3226, or jclay@herald-leader.com. Read his blog at Kentucky.com.