With another National Crown and a terrific Bowlseason to cap the 2008-09 season, it would seemingly go down as yetanother year of SEC dominance.
But before you dub the SEC as the biggest, fastest and strongest in the land, one glaring problem still lingers.
How did no name, non-BCS Utah, with its 2-starrecruits, under-sized defensive line and weak schedule expose themighty Crimson Tide and the SEC as an over-hyped, overrated and overconfident prima donna?
The answer will surprise you.
November 6th
Set the stageback to the first week of November. Utah had just beaten 11th-rankedTCU in an ugly, defense oriented (SEC-like) struggle.
The Utes had emerged as one of the few remainingunbeatens in a tough conference, with two particularly impressive winsover top-15 TCU and the current first place team in the Pac-10 (OregonState).
Yet the nation was still unimpressed. Pundits and BCS fans were dismissive and presumptuous of Utah's success.
Dozens suggested that Utah wouldn't belong on thesame field as BCS powerhouse teams like USC, Penn State, Alabama andTexas Tech.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, commenting on the Arkansasvictory over then-unbeaten Tulsa, went as far as to say that a bottomtier SEC West team would probably beat Utah. Insightful journalism orjust wishful thinking?
So how did CFB nation justify these phantom claims to superiority when on-the-field performance proved otherwise?
Many would argue that larger programs simply hadstronger recruiting classes, better depth, richer traditions and morefinancial resources. All reasonable factors.
Yet none of them seem to have a direct impact onthe field of play. Recruiting is a good indicator but far from an exactscience. We needn't look further than this year's Notre Dame, Michigan,and Tennessee to gather that.
Why so little emphasis placed on game plan and execution?
Wyoming 13, Tennessee 7
Then something really strange happened. MWC bottom dweller Wyomingdefeated Tennessee in Knoxville. Wasn't this a huge blow to SEC and theBCS brass?
Many blew it off as a lame-duck Tennessee teamthat had surrendered the season. But didn't Tennessee go on to beatKentucky and Vandy in the ensuing weeks? Both of whom went on to winbig bowl games. Could it be implied that Wyoming and the bottom tier ofthe MWC were on par with these teams?
How else could Wyoming win as many games againstthe SEC (1-0) in one try as they did against the entire MWC (1-7)? SECHubris led to denial.
Allstate Sugar Bowl
The 2009Sugar Bowl was pronounced all but over long before opening kickoff.Talking heads, Tide fans and SEC supporters around the country far tooeagerly predicted a Georgia-Hawaii-like outcome.
Alabama represented SEC football at its finest andclearly would be too big, too strong and too fast. “Utah wouldn’t knowwhat hit ‘em.”
I challenge any reader to Google "Sugar Bowlpredictions." It’s laughable. Very few gave Utah a chance. I’d say over80% predicted a blowout win for Alabama. Even after Andre Smith’ssuspension.
But these two teams were pretty even.
Like Alabama, Utah had won several close games butalways seemed to come up big in the clutch. Utah’s O-line was actuallybigger than the much heralded Alabama O-line and compensated their lackof size on the defensive front with exceptional speed.
How was this supposed to be a blowout? What led to these irrational assumptions? Well, it comes down to assumed superiority.
As a result I found myself being reminded over and over again by SEC supporters that this was SEC football and Utah would be overwhelmed by Alabama’s physicality.
This hype and overconfidence is exactly why Utahcame in and sucker-punched a team that went undefeated in SECConference play and nearly defeated National Champion Florida.
If Alabama ‘s simple defend-well,run-the-ball-down-their-throat and set up the play-action game planworked well in the vaunted SEC, Utah wouldn’t have a chance.
What Alabama learned quickly was that Utah,despite overwhelming conventional thinking, was better and faster thanany of the SEC teams Alabama had disposed of. This game plan simply didnot work against a superior team.
Thus, Alabama’s overestimation of their SECcounterparts is ultimately what led to their ill-preparation againstUtah. This point is well-illustrated by Saban's comment after the UFloss that his was the only undefeated team in the regular season from a"real' BCS Conference.
Utah on the other hand was more battle tested.Much more than people thought.
Through its close victories over OregonState and TCU, Utah discovered something very critical to the SugarBowl matchup. No defense, no matter how good, could stop Utah’s nohuddle, precision passing game in the 5 wide receiver set.
Especiallyif they didn't know it was coming.
For now, the vaunted SEC has to live with being 0-2 against the MWC and making up the excuses that inherently follow.
Ironically, some of these were the same excuses used to justify superiority earlier.
Alabama wanted to be in the National Title game, not the Sugar Bowl
I find it hard to believe the Tide wasn’t up for its first Sugar Bowlsince 1993 and first BCS Bowl in nearly a decade?. If the SEC brand issuch tough, hard-nosed football, why weren’t they ready to play whenthe moment they suited up? I think Utah’s “anytime, anywhere” mentalityis much more "SEC" like.
Alabama wasn’t up for the game. They had nothing to gain.
ButGeorgia showed up against Hawaii? All that did was put UGA as thepreseason No. 1. A very heralded position. Face it, Alabama had nobackup game plan. They thought they would roll through Utah based onwhat they were able to do in the SEC.
Andre Smith was suspended and Mike Johnson was hurt
Ithought the BCS superiority was all about depth. I even had severalfans and pundits inform me the SEC backups would likely beAll-Conference in a non-BCS. So much for that. But the Tide was stillbeat on both sides of the ball. Utah was also starting two of theirbackups at LB and on the Defensive Line.
The reality is that 5-star recruits bring talent but they also bring their own agenda. Sometimes there can be consequences.
Summary
The SEC hype can be its own worst enemy. It's clearly the best Conference in football. No one can argue that.
But there is no excuse for overlooking andunderestimating an opponent as poorly as Nick Saban did. Assumingsuperiority because of geography or conference affiliation is nonsense.
The Crimson Tide had a great team. Nick Saban is aterrific coach, but their own hubris and false sense of superiority setthemselves up for a surprising and bitter disappointment on Jan. 2.
Unfortunately, their enormous fan base and the many talking heads around the country were equally as naive.
In reality, it never should have been adisappointment at all. The facts were there. Utah was just as good,probably better than Alabama all year long.
