Matt Hayes

Jul 18, 2024 | saturdaydownsouth.com | Matt Hayes

DALLAS — In another time, and in now what seems like another strange dimension, Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban spent the spring of 2022 dismantling a relationship of nearly 3 decades. About, of all things, who cheated more. Now here we are, as the SEC enters a new era with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, and the drama that engulfed the conference and college football in the offseason of 2022 is barely recognizable only 2 years later.

Jul 18, 2024 | saturdaydownsouth.com | Matt Hayes

DALLAS — The SEC is still working through tiebreaker scenarios with a new single division format, but one thing is certain: The College Football Playoff poll will not be part of the process, multiple sources told Saturday Down South. The selection committee for the CFP poll will choose teams for the new 12-team format, but its final poll is after conference championship games. Therefore, the incomplete selection process can’t factor into what has become a growing formula in the SEC, sources said.

Jul 17, 2024 | saturdaydownsouth.com | Matt Hayes

DALLAS — Let’s get this out of the way from the jump: Jalen Milroe has work to do. “I’m not a finished product,” Alabama’s quarterback said Wednesday during SEC Media Days. That, more than anything, should be a sweet symphony to the ears of new coach Kalen DeBoer, every Alabama fan from Orange Beach to Muscle Shoals and all points between. Milroe wants to work.

Jul 16, 2024 | saturdaydownsouth.com | Matt Hayes

DALLAS — The longer Florida State’s planned exit from the ACC drags on this offseason, the more problematic it becomes. When asked Tuesday if Florida State’s process of leaving the ACC would end with a spot in the Big Ten, a Big Ten source told Saturday Down South, “I don’t know who’s advising (FSU) right now, but they’re doing them a disservice.” Action Network’s Brett McMurphy reported Tuesday that Florida State’s only road to the Big Ten is a complete dismantling of the ACC.

Jul 16, 2024 | saturdaydownsouth.com | Matt Hayes

DALLAS — He sat there in a baby blue suit, trimmed neatly with a white turtleneck, a fat gold chain and a diamond-studded watch worth more than the annual salary of just about every non-football coach in the joint. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce the value of patience. And persistence. Carson Beck could’ve done what so many college football quarterbacks in the age of free player movement have.