SEC Report

Wommack says done as a coach

Arkansas State defensive coordinator Dave Wommack watches warmups prior to a game against Central Arkansas on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2011, in Jonesboro.
Arkansas State defensive coordinator Dave Wommack watches warmups prior to a game against Central Arkansas on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2011, in Jonesboro.

Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack, who held the same position at Arkansas and Arkansas State, is retiring from coaching. His final game was Mississippi State's 55-20 victory over the Rebels.

Wommack, 60, told reporters after the game that he and his wife, Leslie, had planned for him to retire after the 2014 season. The Rebels finishing 9-4 that season changed their minds.

"We thought, 'Shoot man, we're having fun, let's keep going,' " Wommack said. "Then last summer for sure we solidified that's what we wanted to do."

If Wommack had any second thoughts about retiring, the Rebels' defensive struggles stopped him from changing his mind again.

The Rebels -- ranked No. 11 in The Associated Press preseason poll after going 10-3 in 2015 -- finished 5-7 and are 110th in total defense (461.3 yards per game) and 100th in scoring defense (34.0 points).

"It was a tough year, but hopefully I was able to teach these kids some lessons," Wommack said. "I hope I showed them integrity and character and being steady throughout how I coached."

Wommack said it was hard to explain why the Rebels played so poorly on defense.

"You can sit here and look at this guy at this position or look at an injury here or there," he said. "You can look at losing some leadership that was very important.

"But ultimately, I think God puts adversity in our life and it makes you better in the long run. I won't get another chance in football, but I can look back on my career and be extremely proud of the things that I've accomplished."

Wommack, who played at Missouri Southern, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Arkansas in 1979 and 1980 for Lou Holtz. He returned to Arkansas as defensive backs coach in 2001 and was defensive coordinator from 2002-04.

After being out of coaching for a year, Wommack returned to be Hugh Freeze's defensive coordinator at Arkansas State in 2011 and then followed Freeze to Ole Miss the next season.

Saban makes it tough

Florida Coach Jim McElwain, who was Nick Saban's offensive coordinator at Alabama for four seasons from 2008-11, will try to become the first of Saban's former assistants to beat the master in a matchup as head coaches when the Gators play the Crimson Tide on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game.

Coaches who were Saban assistants are 0-9 against him, including an 0-2 record for McElwain.

Saban's Tide beat McElwain's Gators 29-15 in last year's SEC Championship Game. McElwain also lost at Alabama 31-6 in 2013 when he was Colorado State's coach.

Other former Saban assistants who have lost against him are Derek Dooley (0-3 at Tennessee), Will Muschamp (0-2 at Florida) and Mark Dantonio (0-2 at Michigan State).

None of them have come close to beating Saban, either.

Saban has beaten his former assistants by a combined score of 359-80 with the closest margin being the Tide's 14-point victory over Florida last season.

Aggies fade again

Texas A&M was No. 4 in this season's first College Football Playoff rankings.

When the latest rankings were announced Tuesday night, the Aggies were nowhere to be found.

The Aggies started this year 6-0, only to end the regular season 8-4.

LSU handed the Aggies their fourth consecutive SEC loss, 54-39, Thanksgiving night at Kyle Field.

"It's frustrating," Aggies Coach Kevin Sumlin. "Everybody's frustrated."

Texas A&M's fans are especially frustrated because this is the third consecutive season the Aggies have faded after a promising start.

The Aggies finished 8-5 in 2014 and 2015 after starting each season 5-0.

"You have to go out and play four quarters for all 12 games of the season," Texas A&M sophomore receiver Christian Kirk said. "When you don't in the SEC West, things like this happen."

Media daze

If Alabama beats Florida, it will be only the sixth time in 25 tries that the media has accurately predicted the winner of the SEC Championship Game since the conference divided into divisions in 1992 with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina.

According to past polls at SEC media days, the only times media members people picked the championship game winners are Florida in 1994 and 1995, LSU in 2007, Florida in 2008 and Alabama in 2014.

The biggest whiff by the media came last season, when Auburn was the preseason pick to win the SEC and the Tigers finished seventh in the West.

Media members at least went with Alabama to win the West.

Tennessee -- the choice to win the East -- finished in a three-way tie for second with Georgia and Kentucky behind Florida.

The media did have Arkansas pegged accurately, picking the Razorbacks to finish fifth in the West, tying with Mississippi State.

East rises late

The SEC East started 1-9 against the West this season, but won the last four cross-division games to finish 5-9.

It was a marked improvement over last season when the West went 12-2 against the East.

Closing victories for the East included Georgia beating Auburn, Florida beating LSU, Vanderbilt beating Ole Miss and Missouri beating Arkansas.

Going long

Kentucky junior quarterback Stephen Johnson had touchdown passes of 75 and 63 yards to Garrett Johnson in the Wildcats' 41-38 victory over Louisville.

Those plays gave Johnson seven touchdown passes of 40 yards or more in the final nine games since he became the starter because of Drew Barker's season-ending back injury.

"He has really mastered to get the angle of the receiver and then be able to throw it to a spot and understand where the intersection point is," Kentucky quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw said of Johnson's accuracy. "That is the key to throwing the ball deep. A lot of quarterbacks can't figure that out."

Johnson, a junior college transfer, completed 16 of 27 passes for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns against Louisville and rushed 8 times for 83 yards. For the season he's passed for 1,862 yards and 12 touchdowns and rushed for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Dominating SEC

Nick Saban's first game as a head coach against an SEC opponent was in the 1995 Independence Bowl when LSU beat his Michigan State Spartans, 45-26.

Things have gone a lot better for Saban against SEC teams since then.

Saban is a combined 103-25 in SEC games at LSU and Alabama with his teams outscoring their conference opponents 3,400 to 1,312 -- an average of 39.5 points to 15.3.

Saban was 30-12 against SEC teams at LSU and is 73-13 at Alabama.

McElwain on the defensive

Florida has won SEC East titles in each of Jim McElwain's two seasons as the Gators' coach, but problems on offense had him defending the program when he met with the media earlier this week.

The Gators lost their final three games in 2015 -- to Florida State, Alabama and Michigan -- to finish 10-4 and were 112th in total offense (334.0 yards per game) and they're again are struggling to move the ball this season

Florida, which lost 31-13 at Florida State last week to fall to 8-3 and failed to score an offensive touchdown against the Seminoles for the second consecutive year, ranks 114th in total offense (352.7 yards).

The Gators at least are nearly 20 yards ahead of last season's pace.

"I'll step back and evaluate it as you do every year," McElwain said of improving the offense. "There were some big disappointments and have been already. But I really think it's what you learn from those more than it is anything.

"One thing I do know is I believe we're in the SEC Championship again for the second straight year. Maybe not the way people want it, but ultimately, the idea is to figure out how to win a ballgame and how to win the East.

"Now the next step is how to win the whole SEC. And that's part of building it."

Bulldogs going bowling

Mississippi State is 5-7, but the Bulldogs will play in a bowl game for the seventh consecutive season.

There aren't enough teams with at least six victories to fill all 80 bowl slots, so Mississippi State will going bowling thanks to winning five games and having a high enough Academic Progress Rate score.

According to the Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi State's most likely destinations are the Armed Services Bowl in Fort Worth, the Las Vegas Bowl or the Cactus Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.

Two-minute drill

• Auburn opponents went 521 minutes, 54 seconds of game time between rushing touchdowns. When Alabama's Jalen Hurts' 4-yard run last week with 5:02 left in the third quarter was the first rushing touchdown allowed by Auburn since Texas A&M's Trayveon Williams' 89-yarder with 6:32 left in the fourth quarter on Sept. 17.

• Tennessee junior defensive end Derek Barnett got his 32nd career sack against Vanderbilt to tie Reggie White for the Volunteers' all-time record. Barnett has an SEC-leading 12 sacks this season.

• Vanderbilt's 45-34 victory over Tennessee were the most points the Commodores had scored against the Vols since beating them 51-7 in 1923.

• South Carolina's 56-7 loss at Clemson was the most-lopsided defeat ever for an SEC team against an ACC team, surpassing Clemson's 63-17 victory over the Gamecocks in 2003.

SEC TOP TO BOTTOM

Rank;(previous);record;comment

1;(1)Alabama;12-0;Going for third consecutive SEC title

2;(2);Auburn;8-4;Headed to Sugar Bowl if Bama beats Gators

3;(3);Florida;8-3;Back-to-back East division titles

4;(6);LSU;7-4;Coach O sticking around to lead Tigers

5;(4);Tennessee;8-4;Defenseless at Vanderbilt

6;(5)Texas A&M;8-4;Another November not to remember

7;(7);Arkansas;7-5;Second half meltdown at Mizzou

8;(10);Kentucky;7-5;Beating Petrino was extra sweet

9;(8);Georgia;7-5;Blows 4th-quarter lead and loses to Georgia Tech

10;(11);Vanderbilt;6-6;Earns way to bowl by beating Vols

11;(13);Mississippi State;5-7;Wins Egg Bowl over Rebels

12;(9);South Carolina;6-6;Better than expected season

13;(12)Ole Miss;5-7;Ranked No. 11 in AP preseason poll

14;(14);Missouri;4-8;Goes into offseason with some hope

PLAYER TO WATCH

ALABAMA SENIOR DEFENSIVE END JONATHAN ALLEN

Allen, 6-3 and 290 pounds, has a been a dominating force up front for a Crimson Tide defense that leads the nation in fewest yards (246.8) and points (11.4) allowed per game.

Florida figures to have its hands full trying to block Allen, who this season has 11 1/2 tackles for loss totaling 64 yards -- including 7 sacks -- and 13 quarterback hurries. He has 40 1/2 career tackles for lost yards with 25 sacks.

In addition to helping Alabama hold opponents to 13 touchdowns, Allen has scored twice, returning fumbles for 75 yards against Ole Miss and 30 yards against Texas A&M.

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 15 Florida

WHEN 3 p.m. Saturday (CBS)

WHERE Georgia Dome, Atlanta

RECORDS Alabama 12-0, 8-0 SEC; Florida 8-3, 6-2

LINE Alabama by 24

Alabama and Florida will meet for the ninth time in the 25th SEC Championship Game.

The teams are 4-4 in previous conference title matchups, including the Crimson Tide's 29-15 victory last season.

Five times since 1992 has the Alabama-Florida winner gone on to win the national championship and the Tide will look to make it six.

Alabama won national titles in 1992, 2009 and 2015 and Florida in 1996 and 2008.

The Crimson Tide likely can still be in the four-team playoff even if they lose to Florida, but Coach Nick Saban doesn't want to hear any of that talk.

It doesn't figure to be an issue.

Florida is so depleted by injuries on defense and ineffective on offense that the Gators shouldn't be able to put up too much resistance as Alabama looks to extend its winning streak to 24 games.

BY THE NUMBERS

0 for 12 -- Florida on third-down conversions in a 31-13 loss at Florida State.

3,231 -- Career rushing yards for Vanderbilt junior Ralph Webb, who broke Zac Stacy's school record with 114 yards in the Commodores' 45-34 victory over Tennessee. Stacy rushed for 3,143 yards from 2009- 2012. Webb has 1,172 rushing yards this season and is 21 yards shy of Stacy's school single-season record set in 2011.

1915 -- Only season Mississippi State scored more points against Ole Miss than the Bulldogs did in their 55-20 victory last Saturday. The Bulldogs beat the Rebels 65-0 in 1915.

3-6 -- SEC teams against the ACC this season.

12 -- Non-offensive touchdown returns scored by Alabama this season (5 fumble, 4 interception, 3 punt).

2008 -- The last time an East team won the SEC championship. No. 2 Florida beat No. 1 Alabama 31-20.

OVERHEARD

"They've got a bunch of creatures. Here's the other thing I think that probably helps their creatures play at a high level consistently, is they've got a creature behind him, which is competition at positions. They know if they don't, someone will."

-- Florida Coach Jim McElwain on why Alabama's defense is so good.

"That's bragging rights. For 365 days, we own Tennessee, until they do something about it."

-- Vanderbilt defensive tackle Adam Butler after the Commodores beat the Vols 45-34.

"I don't know anything about that. He hasn't come to me about it, and I'm sure he would."

-- Alabama Coach Nick Saban asked about speculation Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin will take the same position at LSU.

"It's tough, it hurts a lot. Hopefully these young guys will remember this pain."

-- Georgia senior center Brandon Kublanow after Georgia Tech rallied to beat the Bulldogs 28-27 after trailing 27-14 in the fourth quarter.

Sports on 12/01/2016

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