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SEC Races Take Wild Turn

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By JOEY JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2007

After Halloween, college football's conference races turn serious.

Sure enough, in the SEC, the storylines are scary good.

Beginning with Saturday afternoon's showdown in the SEC West - LSU (7-1, 4-1) at Alabama (6-2, 4-1) - better known as the Nick Saban Bowl.

Saban, the first-year Alabama coach, spent five seasons at LSU, winning a share of the national title in 2003 before bolting for an ill-fated stay in the NFL. He fled the Miami Dolphins after just two years, becoming the highest-paid coach ($5 million per year) in college football.

And although Saban produced the ultimate for LSU fans, there are bitter feelings about him turning up as coach of the Tigers' SEC West rival.

Nick Satan.

That was inscribed on dozens of purple-and-gold T-shirts circulating last month on LSU's campus. Although the Tigers were preparing for a game against Florida, the fans already had circled Nov. 3.

'We want him,' LSU fan Carl Batchelor said. 'We want him bad.'

But look for the Saban angle to be downplayed by the Tigers and the Crimson Tide.

'That's for people outside the program,' said Alabama junior defensive back Javier Arenas, a Robinson High graduate who is one of the nation's top return men. 'We're not talking about that at all. It will have no factor in how this game is played. Zero.

'It's for the fans, I guess. Have fun with it.'

Expect Saban to avoid the subject like it was a rattlesnake.

Even LSU coach Les Miles, who talked up the Saban/Alabama rivalry to LSU booster clubs in the offseason, is taking a low-key approach, even though he admittedly loves the luster of a big game.

'This game is not about, in my opinion, anything other than two storied traditions,' Miles said last week. 'Who doesn't know the history of Alabama football? Nobody in football doesn't know.

'I think our guys have a pretty comfortable feeling with this game and who they are and who we are and how we're going to play and what our intent is.'

Overall, the 12-team SEC could wind up with an unthinkable 11 bowl-eligible programs (sorry, Ole Miss).

The SEC East could end up as a train wreck of teams with three losses in the division (although Tennessee, once thought to be finished, is now shockingly in control). And the SEC West's direction, of course, will spring from LSU-Alabama.

It's going to be an interesting November. Storylines? They're so good, they're scary.

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353

or jjohnston@tampatrib.com.

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