SEC Football

Alabama head coach Nick Saban says he supports the planned expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams given the decreased player participation in bowl games.

Saban discussed the topic on HBO's Back on the Record with Bob Costas (via Brett McMurphy of Action Network) in an episode that will air Friday night.

"Bowl games are not something players want to play in. ... Now players opt out of that if it's not part of the playoff," he said. "Therefore, I'm for expanding the playoffs."

A trend has emerged in recent years where players, most of whom are getting ready to make the NFL jump, opt out of bowl games, usually to focus on the draft process.

Saban isn't the first coach to discuss the lack of participation from key contributors. In December, Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach called the idea that players couldn't take part in one more college game "ridiculous."

"You've got an obligation to the place that helped build and develop you and finish it out in the bowl," Leach told reporters. "That's part of it. You owe it to your team, you owe it to your fans, you owe it to your coaches, and it's the most bizarre thing in the world to me."

On the flip side, players who may be selected in the early rounds of the NFL draft risk suffering an injury that could greatly affect their status by playing in a game of little consequence.

Kyle Hamilton, a Notre Dame safety taken No. 14 overall in the 2022 draft by the Baltimore Ravens, skipped the Fighting Irish's bowl game last season.

He said on the Inside the Garage podcast (via Inside ND Sports' Tyler Horka) that his decision would have been different if the team made the CFP.

"It's not that I don't want to play," Hamilton said. "If we're in the playoff right now—I've told you guys, I've told all the coaches—if we're in the playoff, I'm going to go. I want to go win a national championship. I'm going to suit up. I'm going to play."

His comments lend to Saban's point about giving more programs a shot at the national title, which should ensure greater player involvement for the final games.

Expanding the playoff only helps to an extent, though. A lot of standard bowl games will remain, and players will opt to sit out if they feel there's too much risk, and rightfully so.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was feeling good following his team's 49-3 victory over No. 11 Oregon in Saturday's season opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Smart took a little dig at Oregon's roster while complimenting head coach Dan Lanning.

"He's gonna do a really good job at Oregon," Smart said of his former defensive coordinator. "He's relentless. They'll bounce back from this, and he knows we have better players. He'll never say that, but he knows we've got better players."

It was likely meant as a playful comment, as Lanning worked on Smart's staff with the Bulldogs for four seasons before getting the Oregon job in December.

One of the most-hyped games on the Week 1 schedule, Georgia had no issues in its first test as the reigning national champion. The offense scored touchdowns on each of their first seven drives and racked up 571 yards of total offense, including a career-high 368 through the air from Stetson Bennett.

Any concern that losing a record 15 players to the NFL draft would put a dent in the Bulldogs' talent pool was quickly dispelled.

Senior running back Kenny McIntosh, who ranked sixth on the team with 242 receiving yards last year, is nearly halfway to that total after one game in 2022 (117).

The defense held Oregon quarterback Bo Nix, making his first start after transferring from Auburn, to 173 passing yards on 37 attempts. He threw interceptions on consecutive possessions in the first half.

About the only positive takeaway for the Ducks is they did have success running the ball with 140 yards on 31 carries.

There was never any doubt Georgia was the more talented team coming into the game. Smart and his staff do a fantastic job recruiting every year. They have had multiple years to build up this program with star players and depth.

Lanning is in his first season with the Ducks. They will likely be fine the rest of the year when they aren't playing arguably the best team in the country.

In a story straight out of a potential college comedy movie, Ole Miss found itself a new punter at a party inside a fraternity house.

Head coach Lane Kiffin spoke to reporters about the team's new punter, Charlie Pollock:

"I don't know a whole lot about him," he said. "I think he was down at the frat house, like at a keg party or something, where they got him from. So, we have condition work to do with my guy. But we just said, 'Hey, someone go find a punter around campus,' so we found one that actually used to punt in Division I. So, you never know."

Pollock is listed at 6'1" and 250 pounds on Ole Miss' official website.

He was the No. 13 overall punter in the 2020 recruiting class, per the 247Sports composite rankings, and went to Nevada. However, he announced he was entering the transfer portal in December 2020.

Now he might just be punting in marquee SEC games because he was at the right place at the right time when he was partying.

The Alabama Crimson Tide won two national championships during Najee Harris' collegiate career, but it wasn't always smooth sailing for the running back.

During a discussion on The Pivot Podcast with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor (h/t TMZ Sports), Harris explained that he and head coach Nick Saban "did not get along at first" and consistently "bumped heads."

"I'm not the type of dude to just sit back and just let somebody talk to me in a way and not expect me to say something," he said. "I can take coaching, but, like, it's just a certain type of line when you cross, it's like 'All right, bro, I'm a man, you ain't gon' f--king talk to me like that.'"

He also added that he felt "belittled" at times and even left campus following an incident that happened ahead of his final season.

"Last incident happened and I left school," Harris said. "... I left school for like two weeks—people didn't know that. I left school for like two weeks and then Saban sat me in his office."

That meeting was apparently a turning point in their relationship, with the running back saying "ever since that day, we was rock solid."

Harris appeared in 13 games for the Crimson Tide in 2020 and finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting with 1,466 rushing yards, 425 receiving yards and 30 total touchdowns. His teammate, DeVonta Smith, won the Heisman, and Alabama went on to defeat Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national championship game.

The Crimson Tide also won the title when Harris was a freshman in 2017 and lost to Clemson in the title game to end his sophomore campaign.

Saban is arguably the greatest coach in college football history and has a 183-25 record in 15 seasons with Alabama. He also has six national championships and has coached a number of players who have made their mark in the NFL, including Harris.

The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Harris with a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, and he tallied 1,200 rushing yards, 467 receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns as a rookie.

While Harris chases a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh, Saban's Alabama squad is once again well-positioned to pursue a title at No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

The LSU Tigers and head coach Brian Kelly announced Monday that quarterback Myles Brennan is leaving the team and ending his college football career.

Brennan had been battling Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier for the starting quarterback gig this summer.

In 18 games across five seasons, the sixth-year senior threw for 1,712 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions, completing 60.2 percent of his passes.

Injuries have limited Brennan in the last two seasons. He suffered torn abdomen muscles in 2020—he won the starting job that season after Joe Burrow left for the NFL following LSU's 2019 national championship—and broke his arm in a fishing accident in 2021.

According to ESPN's Alex Scarborough, Brennan considered leaving LSU via transfer last season, but incoming head coach Brian Kelly convinced him to stay. Last year's starter, Max Johnson, transferred to Texas A&M in December, but Daniels joined the Tigers from Arizona State in the offseason, and Kelly said it was about "upgrading the competition on this roster across the board."

Last week, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock told reporters the quarterback competition between Brennan, Daniels and Nussmeier wasn't close to being settled.

"There comes a line of demarcation of we've got to get ready to win game one and who gives us the best opportunity to do that," he said. "We're not, as you know, anywhere close to that yet, but those decisions will be made by Coach Kelly, obviously, when that cutoff happens. And, hopefully, it's an easy decision."

There have been conflicting reports about whether Brennan was informed he was no longer in the running for the starting gig:

Either way, only Daniels and Nussmeier are left to battle for the job.

Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops doesn't believe the program is the little brother to Wildcats men's basketball anymore.

Stoops pushed back against the idea expressed by men's basketball coach John Calipari that Kentucky is a "basketball school":

In an interview with The Athletic's Kyle Tucker, Calipari campaigned for facility upgrades and argued his case by pointing toward how important basketball is toward UK's identity:

And the reason is, this is a basketball school. It’s always been that. Alabama is a football school. So is Georgia. I mean, they are. No disrespect to our football team. I hope they win 10 games and go to bowls. At the end of the day, that makes my job easier and it makes the job of all of us easier. But this is a basketball school. And so we need to keep moving in that direction and keep doing what we’re doing.

Stoops' rejoinder is understandable and reflects the relative success he has helped deliver on the gridiron. Kentucky is coming off its second 10-win season under his nine-year watch, and its streak of four straight years with a bowl victory is the longest in school history.

When laying out its budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, the university also reported higher revenues for football ($40 million) than men's basketball ($29.6 million). Football had a higher percentage of expenses as well.

Football is big business for the University of Kentucky.

Having said that, Calipari's position still reflects the reality of the situation to a large degree, and Stoops' recent contract extension is a perfect illustration.

Stoops signed a new deal last December, one that will pay him $6.75 million starting with the 2022 season. The 55-year-old is basically bulletproof in Lexington right now despite delivering zero national titles and zero New Year's Six bowl bids.

Calipari, by contrast, has guided Kentucky to one national title and four Final Four appearances. His 365 wins are second only to Adolph Rupp in school history.

Still, the immediate reactions to the Wildcats' first-round upset to St. Peter's in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament is a testament to how past achievements—no matter how significant—only counts for so much in the eyes of fans.

The gulf between Kentucky football and men's basketball is certainly closing, but Stoops might want to consider how perceiving the Wildcats to be a "football school" means more scrutiny and higher expectations.

Life in the shadow of Kentucky basketball isn't all that bad when you think about it.

We all know Nick Saban loves football.

How much does the Alabama Crimson Tide head coach love the sport? Well, enough to be so focused talking about the game that he missed a robbery happening right in front of him.

Saban and the uncle of former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, whose name is also Bob Stoops, recently spoke about a time in the late 1980s they were in an Ohio bar together and were completely oblivious to their dangerous surroundings.

Stoops set the scene for Barry Tramel of The Oklahoman:

“We were in this bar,” Uncle Bob said. “Just talking football. We were moving salt shakers, anything we could grab, talking football. 

“I remember vividly, there was a guy across from us, it was a snakelike bar, and the guy gets this glass, he smashes it on the ground. 

“I happened to be looking over that way, all of a sudden, I see him smash that, and he was really mad. 

“I said, ‘Hey, buddy, is something wrong?’ 

“He said, ‘Hey, you (expletive), we just got robbed!’ 

“I’m like, ‘You’re blanking me.’ 

“He goes, ‘No, they had a shotgun pointed right at you two blank-holes.’” 

The story is a Saban favorite, as the Alabama coach has shared it on several occasions in the past—most recently last week.

“There’s not a lot of details,” Saban said on The Last Round (around the 3:07:00 mark). “We were talking football, and the guy came in and robbed the place with a shotgun. Police came about 20 minutes later and the bartender just told the police, ‘Don’t ask these two guys. They didn’t even know what happened.’ That was it.

“I guess you could say we were focused."

While it's hard to imagine anyone being able to ignore a whole robbery happening before their eyes, that level of singular focus has made Saban arguably the greatest college football coach in history.

Alabama football isn't used to losing many national titles, so the program has to come up with unique motivational tactics when it does happen.

Offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor Jr. told reporters on Friday the Crimson Tide have put up a "participation trophy" from the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship Game in the team cafeteria to motivate the players this season.

In the eight-year history of the College Football Playoff, Alabama has made the field seven times and reached the title game six times.

The 2022 Crimson Tide finished the regular season 12-1, highlighted by a 41-24 win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. They earned the No. 1 seed in the playoff and had no problems in the semifinal with a 27-6 victory over Cincinnati.

Georgia defeated Michigan 34-11 in the second semifinal to set up an SEC Championship Game rematch for the national title. It was also a rematch of the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship that was won by Alabama, 26-23, in overtime.

The Bulldogs got revenge on their conference rival with a 33-18 victory to win their first national championship since 1980.

The 15-point loss also marked the largest margin of defeat for Nick Saban's squad since a 44-16 shellacking at the hands of Clemson in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.

Alabama routinely has the most talented roster in college football. Saban and his coaching staff are among the best in the nation. It's not hard to imagine a scenario in which the team wins a national title this season.

But if the Crimson Tide need to use a second-place participation trophy as motivation to push them over the edge, no one will complain if the end result is another championship.

Auburn quarterback T.J. Finley was arrested Thursday in Auburn, Alabama, and charged with attempting to elude police.

According to WRBL, Finley was taken into custody at the Lee County Detention Facility after an interaction with the Auburn Police Department.

Additional details weren't available as of Thursday afternoon, and Auburn University has yet to release an official statement on the matter, other than to say it is aware of the situation.

The 20-year-old Finley is a Louisiana native who originally committed to LSU and started five games for the team in 2020.

Finley went 2-3 and completed 57.1 percent of his passes for 941 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions that season.

He transferred from LSU to Auburn in May 2021 and went on to appear in nine games last season, starting three of them. Finley posted an 0-3 record and completed just 54.7 percent of his passing attempts, but he threw for 827 yards with six touchdowns and just one pick.

The 6'7" signal-caller was rated as a 3-star prospect by 247Sports coming out of Ponchatoula High School, and was ranked 499th among all players and 19th among pro-style quarterbacks in the 2020 class.

On Tuesday, Finley made history by becoming the first college football player to sign a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with Amazon.

Per AL.com's Tom Green, Finley will sell customized merchandise such as "clothing, tote bags, phone cases and pop sockets" on the platform.

Finley is in a quarterback competition at Auburn, as Tigers head coach Bryan Harsin has yet to name a starter for the 2022 season.

Texas A&M transfer Zach Calzada, Oregon transfer Robby Ashford and freshman Holden Geriner are all competing with Finley for the No. 1 quarterback job.