SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on Monday publicly called the college football schedule “another step in the journey.”
For only starving fans and analysts, it was the first real knockout of college football in what has been a fat-free diet of opinion and speculation until the fall. Now, they have something to sink their teeth into and feast on.
It did not take long for university football analyst to dive into schedule.
ESPN “GameDay” analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who participated in the SEC broadcast, pointed out what struck him at first glance.
“The thing that stood out to me was (Alabama coach) Nick Saban would have a lot of former assistant coaches,” he said. ‘He has four of them back-to-back-to-back. (Oct. 3, Texas A & M’s Jimbo Fisher, Oct. 10 at Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Oct. 17. Kirby Smart of Georgia, Oct. 24 at Jeremy Pruitt of Tennessee).
“Alabama does not necessarily have an easy way to get to the championship. “
Meanwhile, the league – he said – Dan Mullen has not shown any advantages.
“I do not know who set this up, but what about the Florida Gators?” Frege Herbstreit. “On paper, Florida is a team that can make a strong argument that they have a team that can compete with Georgia. They pick up LSU and Texas A&M in the West with everyone else playing in the East, so it’s getting more daunting for Dan Mullen and the Gators. ”
For Rece Davis, it’s all about how the season starts and ends.
“The bookends were the things that jumped out at me,” Davis said in a SEC Network broadcast. “First, new coaches are baptized in the league. (Missouri’s Eli) Drinkwitz gets the Tide, (Arkansas’) Sam Pittman gets the (Georgia) Dawgs. (Mike from Mississippi State) Leach will visit LSU. (Ole Miss’) Lane (Kiffin) gets Gators, though at home.
“Then, if you go to the end of the schedule, a lot of people will look at Alabama-Auburn like last week, but if you look at next week, you have a lot of consequences for win and loss. Alabama and LSU have games in the West that they can manage, but Auburn and Texas A&M have each other. That will be a much harder way to complete once they are in it. “
SEC analyst and former Alabama defensive back Roman Harper called Week 1 “warm-ups.”
Harper said the Alabama games in Week 4 against Georgia and Week 6 against Mississippi State are potential problems.
Originally, he said, he did not think Georgia would be ready for the Tide in what should be a Week 2 matchup. ‘But now that they’re playing in Week 4, Georgia’s offense with Jamie Newman will understand who they are offensively. Defensively, Georgia will be naughty, and I think they’ll give Alabama all kinds of trouble.
“I think this is going to be the scariest game on the schedule for Alabama, especially when they play it and how they play it.”
He also believes Mississippi State “will be one of the biggest tests for the continuation of Alabama.”
Meanwhile, SEC analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy points to the Week 7 matchup between Florida and Georgia on Nov. 7.
“We know how important this game is to both Georgia and Florida,” he said. “Both teams bring back an awful lot of talent.” He added that the game is likely to be decided by the SEC East.
Still, despite the scheme, Herbstreit predicts some familiar faces in the SEC Championship Game.
“I feel like Bama would be the team in the West,” he said. I love LSU and coach (Ed) O (Orgeron), but I think they lost a lot there. I would favor Bama even though that scheme looks difficult.
‘I was angry and wanted to pick Florida with all the Georgia hype. The scheme makes me nervous. I have Georgia and Bama with Bama who dominate and win the SEC. ”
Here is some of the other reaction to the schedule news:
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
