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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday’s college football schedule revealed “another leg of the journey.”
For fans and hungry analysts, it was college football’s first real nibble in what has been a diet of fat-free opinions and speculation leading up to fall. Now they have something to do and to feast on.
It didn’t take long for the college football analyst to get on the schedule.
Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN “GameDay” analyst, who joined the SEC show, pointed out what struck him at first glance.
“What stood out to me is that (Alabama coach) Nick Saban would have a lot of former assistant coaches,” he said. “He’s got four back to back. (October 3, Texas A & M’s Jimbo Fisher, October 10 at Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, October 17 Georgia’s Kirby Smart, October 24 at Jeremy Pruitt in Tennessee).
“Alabama doesn’t necessarily have an easy road to the championship. “
Meanwhile, the league – he says – has done Dan Mullen no favors.
“I don’t know who organized this, but what about the Florida Gators?” Herbstreit asked. “On paper, Florida are a team that you can make a strong case for that they have a team that can compete with Georgia. They pick up LSU and Texas A&M in the West along with everyone else they play in the East, so it gets even more intimidating for Dan Mullen and the Gators.
For Rece Davis, it all depends on how the season begins and ends.
“Bookends are the things that jumped out at me,” Davis said on the SEC Network show. “First, new coaches are getting baptized into the league. (Eli from Missouri) Drinkwitz receives the tide, Sam Pittman (Arkansas) receives the Dawgs (Georgia). (Mike from Mississippi State) Leach is going to visit LSU. (Ole Miss’) Lane (Kiffin) goes looking for Gators, although at home.
“Then if you go to the end of the schedule a lot of people are going to see Alabama-Auburn as the penultimate week, but if you look at the next week you have a lot of implications for wins and losses. . Alabama and LSU have games in the West that they can handle, but Auburn and Texas A&M have each other. It will be a much more difficult way to finish if they are in the middle. “
SEC analyst and former Alabama defensive back Roman Harper called Week 1 a “warm-up.”
Harper said Alabama’s Week 4 games against Georgia and Week 6 against Mississippi State are potential issues.
Originally, he said, he didn’t think Georgia would be ready for the tide in what was supposed to be a Week 2 game. “But now playing them in Week 4, the Georgia’s attack with Jamie Newman will figure out who they are offensively in terms of personality. Defensively Georgia is going to be tough and I think they’re going to give Alabama all kinds of problems.
“I think this will be the scariest game on the calendar for Alabama, especially when they play them and how they play them.”
He also believes the state of Mississippi “will be one of the biggest tests for high school in Alabama.”
Meanwhile, SEC analyst and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy highlights the Week 7 game between Florida and Georgia on November 7.
“We know how important this game is for Georgia and Florida,” he said. “The two teams bring back a lot of talent.” He added that the game would likely decide the SEC East again.
Yet despite the schedule, Herbstreit predicted some familiar faces in the SEC Championship game.
“I think Bama would be the West team,” he said. “I love LSU and Coach (Ed) O (Orgeron), but I think they lost a lot there. I would prefer Bama even though this schedule seems difficult.
“I sneakily wanted to pick Florida with all the Georgia hype. The program makes me nervous. I have Georgia and Bama with Bama winning and winning the SEC.
Here are some of the other reactions to the calendar news:
Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.
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