If you're the best of an only-good league, does that mean you're still underrated? Alabama is good, but the SEC's also not so hot -- and even Tide fans are having to acknowledge that they've exceeding expectations in part because of a down year.

So as the ill winds have blown through the SEC they’ve been particularly vengeful on the West and it’s mighty fortuitous that our house is the one built of bricks. As wonderful as the season has been and as powerful as we have appeared at points it’s difficult to look at this team and say it’s at the acme of its potential.

Therein, though, lies the upside for Alabama: This wasn't supposed to be the year for Alabama. And if St. Nick continues to improve his team, then the rest of the SEC West improving won't help much; everyone else will just be keeping pace.

If you were behind the South Carolina line, you'd run too. Gamecock Man takes some time to break down the South Carolina QB controversy over at Garnet and Black Attack. (They have a great contributor over there, by the way. Can't remember his name ... )

Would [Stephen] Garcia go back to playing like he did in the second half against Kentucky if [Steve] Spurrier put his confidence in the freshman told him he would let him go the distance? Part of the answer depends on whether or not you agree that the rotation system has confused Garcia, but considering the dismal offensive showing we had against the Gators, it's at the very least fair to say that the rotation system was not the best way to go.

Actually, the first mistake South Carolina made was boarding the plan for Gainesville. Everything after that just added to the problem.

On the question of whether Garcia's mobility is being crimped -- perhaps. Spurrier has at times nodded in the direction of adding more plays designed to take advantage of a mobile quarterback. He'll probably fulfill that pledge when he has a mobile quarterback that spends as much of his offseason in the video room as in Five Points.

Football isn't a way of life in Alabama; it's jihad. This might be the last example of kind words from an Alabama fan to an Auburn fan between now and ... ever, really.

Throughout the day I was subjected to classless heckle and chants that I soaked in, as I enjoyed the atmosphere of a rivalry game. That night after the game, I was subject to even more ridicule and disrespect after the game. Full grown men and elderly women were going out of their way to put six of their fingers in my face. I've never been more proud to be a citizen of this great state.

As an Alabama native, I'd have to say that's a mighty low bar. The largest county in the state is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy; it's the only place in the nation that can compete with Louisiana for the record for greatest number of governors indicted and/or convicted; and it has a bad habit of having two "official" emblems in some categories:  fish, flowers, insects. But at least it has only one official fossil.