Jumbo Package: Alabama wins over LSU, loses Josh Ford for season

Happy Monday, everyone. The women’s basketball team had a tougher than expected outing against Tulane yesterday, but managed to escape with a 68-63 victory. Needless to say, they will have to play much better to compete in an always brutal SEC. The men are in action tonight against Oakland. The game tips off at 6:30CT and will be available streaming on SEC Network+.

We will have a game thread for you, but there will be no preview as the Golden Grizzlies are 0-3 and lost by 23 last time out to UC Santa Barbara. This is a Q4 game and it will be quite disappointing if Alabama doesn’t take care of business. The Tide got a commitment from four-star 2027 big Yohane Kobongo over the weekend.

We got some bad news on the football front, as Josh Ford is out for the season with a knee injury. There was hope that it wasn’t that bad since he managed to walk off the field, but the Tide will be without him. Josh has been huge in the run game and brings an attitude to the game that will be missed. Jay Lindsey and Danny Lewis will now get more run in what is thankfully the deepest position on the roster. There is no doubt that Ford will be on the sideline inspiring his teammates.

Alabama is now sitting pretty for the College Football Playoff, but they can’t afford to drop a game considering what’s left on the schedule.

Alabama was No. 5 in the CFP rankings heading into Baton Rouge, and with the victory, the Crimson Tide might even move up in the rankings this week.

A playoff spot is not locked up, though. Alabama can’t hit cruise control from here. Alabama, with a 9-3 record that included a loss to LSU, could have made the field. But a Crimson Tide team that’s 9-3 with a loss to either Vanderbilt or Auburn could easily get left out of the playoff.

So, Alabama adds a signature victory to its resume already with wins over ranked squads in Kentucky and South Carolina. The Crimson Tide must keep its foot on the pedal, though.

There is no sugarcoating that Vanderbilt is a bad football team. As far as Auburn goes, well…

Auburn can go 7-5 if they can beat Samford and a Kamario-less Mississippi State, but they were drubbed by both LSU and Ole Miss recently. Kalen DeBoer’s squads have had a bit of history of playing down to opponents. Let’s not, OK?

As far as the SEC Championship Game goes, Alabama’s hopes are pinned to LSU, as the Tigers host Texas this week then travel to Tennessee next week. Alabama will not win a tiebreaker against either of those teams, whether a two team or otherwise. If the tie is a four-way of the current two-loss teams or a three-way between Texas, Kentucky, and Alabama, the Longhorns will go because Tennessee will be the best conference win of the bunch. Texas would best Alabama with the same criteria in a two-team tiebreaker. If the tie is Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama then the Vols will go because they are 2-0 in the Round Robin.

So, Alabama’s only path to making it to Atlanta is winning out and having LSU knock off both Texas and Tennessee. That seems quite unlikely.

LSU fans are already having some buyer’s remorse after watching Lane roll out an entourage before taking a home asswhipping to put their playoff hopes on life support. Scott Van Pelt got a dig in.

Lane Kiffin arrived at LSU with high expectations after leaving Ole Miss, but his first season so far has not gone according to plan. Following a disappointing 31-13 loss to Alabama, questions are growing about whether the Tigers made the right decision in pursuing the head coach. ESPN analyst Scott Van Pelt has questioned the hype and investment the team made on Kiffin.

During an appearance on ‘SVPod,’ Van Pelt pointed to LSU’s three losses and suggested the program’s pursuit of Kiffin was driven by expectations that have yet to translate into results on the field.

“You guys were chasing him like he was Nick Saban. They’ve already got three losses, man,” Van Pelt said.

And, Brandon Marcello piled on.

USC’s Lincoln Riley is the sole coach whose underwhelming results match Kiffin’s massive salary. Despite making $11.5 million as the sixth-highest-paid coach in college football, Riley remains stuck on the playoff bubble. And how in the world is Kiffin convincing Hollywood elite like Kevin Costner to usher him into the stadium when Riley is posted up in LA? Maybe The Postman mistakenly thought the “LA” abbreviation referred to Kiffin’s old Los Angeles address.

Texas A&M’s Mike Elko is not far behind at $10.8 million, ranking ninth. His Aggies have five losses, big production costs and terrible box office returns.

Kiffin’s entire career has been all flash. At some point, being handed the nation’s most talented roster will result in a postseason run for Kiffin, but the slow burn to that marker — and his defection from Ole Miss and previous late-season meltdowns — continue to be a troubling trend for the Bayou Barker.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

LSU’s players have taken on the class of their head coach.

Afterward, one of Alabama’s opponents didn’t make it sound like he was especially impressed by the Crimson Tide’s offense, even after the scoring drives.

“Keep it so real, that’s on us,” Safety Ty Benefield said of the second half. “They didn’t do anything. That was on us. That’s our errors. If you watch football and you know football, you’ll see that. But if you don’t, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Last, one Alabama fan became a legend in Baton Rouge.

Yes, he’s that fan. The one in the white hat, crimson polo with the script A and black shorts and sunglasses, seen celebrating in a viral photo a few feet away from Ryan Coleman-Williams, who’d just scored the first touchdown of the game for Alabama in what eventually turned into a 31-13 victory for the Crimson Tide.

Morgan stood up, double-fisting the two beers. He yelled and celebrated the score in a sea of LSU fans, most of whom were wearing looks of frustration and disgust.

“I love it,” Morgan said. “But that’s kind of been the story of my life. It’s a ‘me-against-the-world’ kind of mentality.”

We don’t have permission to post the photo, but it’s at the link. Enjoy the 15 minutes, Nick.

That’s about it for today. Have a great week.

Roll Tide.