Let us begin in Tuscaloosa, where civilized society briefly ceased to exist on Saturday night.
No. 2 Georgia came into Bryant-Denny and left with a 20-17 win over No. 6 Alabama, which is genuinely impressive. Less impressive: what some Alabama fans did immediately afterward. When the final seconds ticked away, a portion of the home crowd decided the appropriate response to a football loss was to shower Georgia players with cans, cups, and drinks as they left the field. Just the classic behavior of a mature fanbase processing disappointment. Very normal. Completely fine.
But honestly, the Crimson Tide sideline was already doing its own version of chaos before the fans got involved. Cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. picked up a costly personal foul late in the game that proved decisive, and coach Kalen DeBoer — a man usually as publicly composed as a Scandinavian librarian — was caught on camera screaming at his own sophomore, 'You just cost us the damn game!' Sports journalist Alex Byington noted that Alabama fans would probably love the fire. Sure. Love the fire. Fire directed at a college kid. On national television. In the waning seconds of a loss. Just leadership things.
To DeBoer's credit, or maybe to his detriment, he is correct — the personal foul was catastrophic. Alabama's offense, featuring freshman QB Keelon Russell in a rain-soaked duel against veteran Gunner Stockton, could not generate enough juice to absorb the penalty. Greg McElroy credited Stockton's 'outrageous' performance on Sunday, which is going to live rent-free in Alabama fans' heads as they process the ESPN FPI somehow leapfrogging Georgia despite Georgia winning the game. The algorithm giveth, the algorithm taketh away, the fanbase logs onto Twitter and never comes back down.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Red River Rivalry decided to become unhinged on its own terms. Oklahoma entered the Cotton Bowl at 2-2, had already lost at Michigan and gotten blown out at Georgia, and was a significant underdog against the top-ranked Texas Longhorns. Then Arch Manning threw a pick-six to Peyton Bowen, Oklahoma blocked a punt for a touchdown, and Tate Sandell walked off with a 47-yard field goal as the final punctuation on a 27-24 Sooner upset. Brent Venables immediately released an emotional locker room speech to social media — titled 'Every play has magnitude' — which is the move of a coach who absolutely needed everyone to see that speech.
Venables said afterward: 'We ain't that bad. When we put it all together and get out of our own way, take care of the football, good things happen.' He is three wins above .500 in the SEC. He has fought for this podium. Let him have it.
And somewhere in the background of all this, Lane Kiffin is preparing to return to Ole Miss this Saturday for the first time since he bolted for LSU while the Rebels were gearing up for the College Football Playoff. The ESPN deep-dive published earlier this season confirmed that during Kiffin's legal standoff with the SEC over rostering former NFL players, he spent weeks texting screenshots of ChatGPT responses to an actual attorney friend to counter legitimate legal advice. The attorney eventually told him that 'a guy with a $91 million contract ought to have a top-notch lawyer on speed dial and not be using ChatGPT for legal advice.' Lane Kiffin, walking into Oxford, having nearly gotten LSU kicked out of the conference because he argued with a lawyer using a chatbot. If that man doesn't get a standing ovation from Ole Miss fans specifically for the audacity, this sport has lost its soul.
