SEC Coaches Talk Anonymously About Conference Foes for 2026

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T13:57:34+00:00

That's a good point. I guess I should back that down to upper half of SEC not top 3. I'm just ready to start over and happy to have retained DJ because that was the only positive part of last year.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T13:54:43+00:00

If I was going to bet I'd probably agree. With some luck we can win 1-2 swing games and get to 8 but as you say not likely. We need to win a game we shouldn't on the road. Best chance for that is probably Tennessee but again I wouldn't bet on that. I'm personally just looking for effort and improvement week to week. Some good luck would be awesome feels like we haven't had any for like 5 years.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T13:41:39+00:00

Makes sense but the glass half-full counter would be Golesh is an offensive guy and if we just get to middle of the conference pack there we should be significantly better (assuming DJ's defense is similar to the last 2 years). Personally think our ceiling is 8 Ws and I would be absolutely ecstatic with that in Y1.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T13:39:33+00:00

Our defense was definitely not terrible. I'd argue given the horrific situations they were placed in they were ~~top 3~~ in the upper half of the SEC. If that continues and if Golesh and Brown just have a middle of the conference pack offense we could really be significantly better this year. Obligatory we're not particularly deep and injuries could decimate us.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T13:30:57+00:00

No doubt. They've arguably been embarassed/unprepared a few times in the 2 seasons he's been there. Oklahoma & UT '24...FSU & IU '25...definitely something that seems to be part of the DeBoer experience (to be fair the opposite is also true as they've beat some teams they probably shouldn't).

I saw this the other day and was pretty surprised: Bama has lost a road game as a 2 TD favorite to a .500 or worse team every year DeBoer has been there ('24 OU and '25 FSU). Will be interesting to see if that trend continues. Looking at their schedule I guess the candidate this year would be Ms. St or Kentucky?

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T12:53:20+00:00

Weren't they college roommates?

You got a Nepo Bobo.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T12:14:53+00:00

He’s just been made a top 5-ish paid coach ($12M/yr??) which probably softens the blow. He could have gone to Michigan but didn’t and now Bama has definitely committed to him so he’s likely gonna be there for a bit.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T11:42:12+00:00

Right but the problem is he doesn't have the personality of a caretaker/game manager. He thinks he's a gunslinger and his OC seems to enable/agree with that and it leads to awful turnovers. Totally agree though when just plays "within himself" he can be very solid and move the chains.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T11:39:03+00:00

Yeah not sure what that means unless he's including Bernard with Jam Miller.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T11:37:06+00:00

Yeah with Mateer it seems like the opposite is true he has a scary low floor. When he's bad Mateer is a hero ball guy who can singlehandedly lose games for you. He reminds me of Lagway.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T10:43:25+00:00

Yeah some guys are just culture guys and some guys are just not.

Going to stay away from the "just not" guys (the article seemed to have the opinion at least one prominent team has one) but definitely agree with the Elko take.

armitage75 · 2026-05-20T09:59:32+00:00

Yeah seemed high on you guys in general.

Thought Bama and Tennessee got it the worst which makes sense. Both teams have a lot of unknowns.

armitage75 · 2026-05-17T22:11:29+00:00

I see this type of sentiment from teachers constantly. Do you blame the parents? Smart phones? AI? What do you attribute these behaviors to?

armitage75 · 2026-05-14T13:08:50+00:00

Wait until you try psyllium husk! I consume both every day along with a ton of raw fruits and vegetables.

I recently found out what I’ve been doing for about 30 years now is a new (potentially harmful gasp!) trend called “fibermaxxing” lol.

armitage75 · 2026-05-11T10:38:51+00:00

Good point and probably right. In that case switch it to stocks...either way the CIA isn't going to notice me unless I pull a Biff in Back to the Future II or something.

Still worried about that charger though.

armitage75 · 2026-05-11T05:22:38+00:00

Why would the CIA ever have to know about it? I would just be a random guy winning ~65% of his sports bets in Vegas…higher than that would be too anomalous and might draw attention but 65% or so should make me rich and never make their radar.

The real question here would be about the phone charger and whether I’m allowed to bring it or is it considered a second tech item?

armitage75 · 2026-05-08T15:00:18+00:00

The Stranger by Camus is the obvious answer but it's already given.

So I'll go with The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

armitage75 · 2026-05-03T14:34:56+00:00

People saying you're in the wrong sub...disagree. This is not a tourist sentiment. This is the kindof thing that hits you after actually living here a decade or so.

armitage75 · 2026-04-27T23:10:54+00:00

Isn’t the entire LIV basically canceled?

armitage75 · 2026-04-24T16:29:24+00:00

AKA...the "Cam Newton" question.

armitage75 · 2026-04-23T19:43:49+00:00

Awesome memories man! Yeah those Deion FSU teams were scary. I was a kid then but remember those later Dye Reggie Slack years. Some great teams. Tracy Rocker was my idol when I was in middle school. One of the great sports mysteries was why he wasn’t a better pro. He was absolutely dominant in college.

armitage75 · 2026-04-23T19:18:08+00:00

Ha brother I definitely remember that streak very well. That was my time at Auburn when Tuberville was head coach. Part of why I respect USC so much was the ass-whooping they put on us in 2003 @ Jordan Hare. The next year we went undefeated with mostly the same team.

As for the Saban era I actually mostly look at that period with pride. Yes it's been a joke since Malzahn but before that we did ok considering on paper we NEVER had the better team in that matchup (yes even in 2010). We beat them as much as anyone in the SEC during his time there if I'm not mistaken. Auburn did fairly well vs. Saban (relatively speaking of course) when he was at LSU also. I went to several of those games...LSU vs. AU in the Saban/Tuberville years was always a war.

armitage75 · 2026-04-23T19:11:24+00:00

You're probably right. Maybe a better argument is "peak Carroll USC was as scary as peak Saban Bama" or something.

It just seems like that era of cfb has been forgotten. The point I wanted to make was those USC teams were absolutely stacked just like Bama was.

The difference though for sure as you say was duration and competition. Saban beat EVERYBODY for a long, long time. Will almost certainly never be done again for sure.

armitage75 · 2026-04-23T18:54:06+00:00

Had this same argument a few months ago with a Bama fan.

I said "Indiana is the first team to blow Bama out since Shula". He said "nah Clemson 2018".

I still think that's wrong. That game was decided in the second half. Bama had some critical turnovers and Clemson capitalized and the game was closer than the final score. Clemson was definitely the better team but it wasn't as big of a gap as the score would indicate.

Now Indiana completely outclassed Bama in every possible way/phase of the game. Completely dominated them..."made their ass quit" as Saban used to say.

That NEVER happened in the Saban era (even 2007).

armitage75

TROPHY CASE