Good…Bad: SEC Championship Edition

Good…LSU fans are the #1 tailgaters in the nation. I know I am biased and my experiences are limited to campuses and schools in the south, but had you seen the party outside the Georgia Dome you would understand my thoughts. It was wild and crazy as the music blared and girls simultaneously funneled from a purple and gold keg specially mounted to a 6 foot stand. The Georgia fans I stayed with for the weekend were amazed…and impressed.

Bad…One particular young lady won our “trashy freak” award. Wearing an LSU t-shirt and Ohio State hat, I can only describe her as dirty-nasty-drinking-machine. On the flip side, many of the fellas there seemed quite enamored with her.

Good…Georgia fans. We stayed with some great folks in Thomaston, Georgia on Thursday and Friday and tailgated with them on Saturday. You couldn’t find a nicer person than Chris “Big Chic” Smith who was our host for the weekend.

Bad…Chic BBQ’d these great ribs at the game and I probably should have eaten a few more.

Good…The rain held out before the game.

Bad…It was COLD out there!! That is not tailgating weather!

Good…We had pretty good seats to view the game in the LSU section.

Bad…The idiots around us. Exhibit #1: the guy on our left looked TERRIBLE. Barely conscious and head in hands, he didn’t look very good. Sure enough, he puked right there at his feet 2 minutes into the game. NASTY!! His buddy hauled him off and we didn’t see those dudes again. Exhibit #2: Sitting right next to me was a moronic, drunken buffoon of an LSU fan. He was a 6’3, 250 pound tub of goo. He almost fell into the seats in front of him crushing one guy. The upside of the crappy game was the LSU section started clearing out so I could move to safer ground.

Good…Props to Bobby Bowden and the Noles. Huge win over Frank Beamer.

Bad…Va Tech. Weren’t you guys favored by double digits?

Good…The media and BCS got what they wanted, USC versus Texas. Let the Hype Machine begin.

Bad…The “big” regular season finales for these teams ended with a combined score of 136-22. The 70-3 beat down of Colorado was flat out embarrassing. I love the Championship games, but the Big 12 has got to step it up.

The BEST…As ambassadors of LSU football, Grant and I were able to spread the goodwill of Tiger fans to a number of folks in Georgia. The games are more fun when you can make friends on the other side, and continue to be friends after the game is over.

The WORST…Driving all the way to Atlanta and watch LSU play like Dawg S---!! The trip was great up until the game. We were so pissed we hopped in the car and drove back right after the game, finally getting into Baton Rouge at 5 am Sunday morning. I’ve got bad mojo in Georgia, the last two road trips into the state have been losses at the hands of the Bulldogs. The only saving grace was the 1996 Peach Bowl win over Clemson.

At Least we Won the Tailgate

The downside of a conference championship is that one team goes home on a big down note after a highly successful season. This season, after winning 10 games and garnering a #3 ranking in the polls, LSU fell on its face in the biggest game of the season. LSU was dominated on offense, defense and special teams.

To a small extent, Georgia out coached LSU, but the biggest failure was in execution. Georgia’s first two scores were directly due to failures in the Tiger secondary and great throws by Shockley. The blocked punt probably falls on Jackson. As the Georgia outside blocker moved in, Jackson had 2 choices, either call a timeout or throw to the uncovered gunner. Instead he tries to punt and gets blocked. This is simply a failure to quickly and correctly make the correct decision based on what the opposition is doing.

Offensively, the Tigers flat out stunk. For all the progress he has made, JaMarcus has a long way to go to be the quarterback able to bring LSU another championship. This is not meant to be a criticism of Russell, only an acknowledgement that without a strong running game, he can’t carry the Tigers offensively, at least not yet.

What happened?

1. All of LSU’s old bugaboos reared their heads: turnovers, penalties and missed opportunities on big plays.

2. LSU’s offensive line was average at best all season. These guys never really jelled and were never dominant. This put more and more pressure on Russell to try and make plays in long distance situations. LSU struggled to run the ball and it only got worse as the season progressed. Which leads us to…

3. LSU started its 4th string RB in the SEC Title game. I assume Addai and Vincent were nicked up thus explaining the extensive playing time given to Carey.

4. The Tigers just ran out of gas. After all the early season turmoil and the rescheduling of two games, the Tigers were running on fumes. LSU was playing its 11th straight week and it showed against a VERY talented and well coached team.

5. Georgia was just better that day. It happens, despite all your preparation and practice, the other team just rises to the occasion and plays better than you. And finally…

6. Of the 11 SEC Champs since 1995, over half were led by senior QB’s (Wuerffel in ‘96, Manning in ‘97, Martin in ‘98, Davey in ’01, Campbell in ’04 and Shockley in ‘05). The trend is toward success for upper class QB’s in the title game and that held true Saturday as Georgia’s 5th year Sr. D.J. Shockley brought home a Championship.


I am sure a lot of folks will be pointing fingers at coaches and players about this poor showing. Fans need to accept the fact that it happens. Don’t forget that in 2003, the Tigers beat Georgia in the SEC Championship in a similar way. That was an excellent Georgia team that just ran into a Tiger team marching toward a national championship. Let’s be grateful for 10 wins and look forward to what year two has in store.