Behind The Scoreboard - Claude Vinson


Thursday, January 6, 2011
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Behind The Scoreboard
By Claude Vinson

Jan. 1 bowls

Well, Mr. and Mrs. Sports Fans and all the ships at sea, here’s wishing that all of your holiday endeavors turned out in your favor and left you with bountiful blessings.

Now don’t go beating yourselves up over the little (?) things like putting on a few extra pounds or betting on the wrong teams, just think of them as an opportunity to make some redeeming resolutions. Along with all the other delicacies and delectables, most of us had a steady diet of football at both levels. And if one did decide to favor teams running through the BCS championship series with a few green tangibles, one could hardy have gone wrong by sticking to the SEC ticket.

It had been intimated earlier that three of the games on New Year’s Day, namely the Outback, Capital One and Gator bowls, would carry a certain significance for all of us die-hard SEC watchers. These bowls pitted prominent members of the Big Ten against some prominent (and not so prominent), members of the SEC. Two of the SEC teams were recent BCS champions.

There has been a lot already said about the Crimson Tide and the way it just literally “bum rushed” the Michigan State Spartans. The 49-7 stomping was the most lopsided win in Capital One Bowl history. Most assessments stated that if the Tide had played three of its interim games as they did the Capital One, they would be in the BCS Championship Game. You are probably not going to find many who disagree with that.

The Bullies of Mississippi State had the Wolverines wondering how a group of recovering canines could become so rabid in a couple of years’ time. MS State set a new Gator Bowl record for scoring when they wiped out Michigan 52-14. The coach, players and fans were all trying to put the monumental win in perspective. How it will relate to future progress in a program which has floundered for decades remains to be seen, but they can always say, “back on the first day of a new decade, we defeated a powerhouse Big Ten team by a wide margin.”

And, of course, the Florida Gators can do their share of bragging about their part of destroying the Big Ten on a single day. They gave their coach Urban Meyer a delightful going away gift with a victory over Penn State and the legendary Joe Paterno.

Now all that is left for a complete decimation (maybe dismantling would be a kinder term), of the Big Ten will be Arkansas’ defeat of Ohio State on January 4 in the Sugar Bowl.

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