This is an opinion column.
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Hot trash.
It’s not just the final score or the lack of rushing yards or inconsistent play by quarterback Ty Simpson. An entire generation of college football fans have never seen Alabama play with less energy or pride.
In a sport dictated by public perception, that’s going to be hard to overcome.
Georgia 28, Alabama 7 was so much worse than the Tide’s dud against Florida State to begin the season. I had a headache by the second quarter. In the third quarter, pretty much everyone in the press box temporarily went blind.
Most fans back in Alabama probably turned the game off after that. Trust me, it didn’t get any better.
At one point, Alabama went for it on fourth-and 2-from its own 12-yard line and failed miserably when Simpson overthrew his target. Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer tossed his hands in the air and then rested them against the top of his head in that universal cobra pose of crushing defeat.
So much for those fuzzy feelings from fourth-and-2 against Auburn.
I was beginning to like this team again. Now what?
We’re supposed to watch Alabama snot all over itself again in the College Football Playoff?
Alabama’s expulsion of nuclear waste was the Chernobyl-case scenario for the College Football Playoff selection committee. It’s total meltdown time for college football. The system failed. The drinking water is contaminated.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey thinks seven teams from the SEC should get into the playoff. Sorry, Greg, but not after that collapse.
Never mind Miami getting in the playoff over Alabama. BYU looked better than Alabama, too.
The College Football Playoff’s Wizards of Oz needed Alabama to at least play competitive football to keep their grand illusion alive. Alabama instead looked like a broken team, and a reckoning is now here for college football’s postseason.
The playoff selection committee rigged its rankings last week to help out Alabama by moving the Tide to No.9 ahead of No.10 Notre Dame. Clearly, though, Notre Dame could make the case that it is better than Alabama.
Is the committee now going to move Notre Dame back ahead of Alabama without the Irish even playing? What a mess. What a joke.
With the way Alabama played in Atlanta on Saturday, Selection Sunday could determine a lot more for the sport of college football than the latest 12-team playoff.
There is going to be strong and loud support for the College Football Playoff selection committee to leave Alabama out of the field after watching the Tide bathe itself in garbage juice on national television. If that happens, then Sankey can go ahead and kill the SEC championship game.
What’s the point of playing it if the No.1 team in the league plays itself out of the postseason with a game that shouldn’t even matter?
But Alabama looked so incredibly terrible in the SEC championship game that an unprecedented snub might be justifiable.
Last season, SMU wasn’t punished for losing in the ACC championship game, but go back and look at that score. The Ponies only lost to Clemson 34-31. SMU outgained Clemson in offensive yards and at least made the scoreline respectable in the end.
Alabama was pathetic from buzzer to buzzer.
The Tide couldn’t catch and the Tide couldn’t throw. Twice passes hit either the hands or chest of Alabama receivers Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard in the end zone. They dropped both would-be touchdowns.
As for rushing yards, Alabama somehow ended up with less than zero. That’s not an exaggeration either. Officially, Alabama went backwards for negative-three yards when attempting to run the ball.
Kalen DeBoer, what did you do all week other than get fitted for the ugliest pregame suit in the history of fashion.
When DeBoer showed up to the set of ESPN College GameDay dressed like a circus clown, that’s when I knew that Alabama was in serious trouble in the SEC championship game. Who dresses this man, the Ghost of Don King?
Could somebody please, please, please hire a fashion consultant for Alabama’s football coach? Oh, and a running-game coordinator, too.
No one thought it was possible, but the Tide somehow failed the eye test before the SEC championship game even started. Thank goodness the College Football Playoff selection committee is more corrupt than a Russian wartime election.
Bring on the playoffs, and now I’m suddenly hoping that Alabama gets paired with Ole Miss.
Did Lane Kiffin sign that contract already? I think I’ve figured out a way for him to coach in the postseason after all.
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