Dooley Noted: SEC has reverted to pre-Spurrier style

The haters are everywhere.

Either they are hating the SEC for being overrated or hating Florida for not blowing people out or hating Tim Tebow for being compared to Herschel Walker.

This is what happens when a team comes into the season with such high expectations put on it by the media and the fans. They want to see failure.

And to the Gator fans out there who are personally insulted that their team would win the last three games by a combined 23 points, there are enough people out there who hate your coach and your football team. Don't hate yourselves.

But I will say this. The college football season as a whole has been hard to watch this year at times and especially in the SEC. It's almost like the league has reverted back to the pre-Steve Spurrier days when everybody tried to win by running the ball, throwing safe passes and playing great defense.

Even Spurrier.

It does crack me up when a writer or a fan or a blogger rips the SEC because of performances by conference schools against teams within the conference. The haters don't get the competitive level of the SEC.

But here's why the SEC is still the best conference. Go pick out the 10th best program in any conference in America. Got it? OK, good. Now let me tell you how electric the atmosphere was in Starkville last Saturday night. How does it compare with, say, Maryland? Or Indiana? Or Washington State?

The SEC may or not have the best conference on the field and may or may not have the best team. But it definitely has the best passion. Sometimes it's misguided which is why we have all of this controversy this year. But it blows away every other conference.

LOST SCORES: Speaking of the Tebow-Herschel debate that naturally is coming up this week as Tebow goes for the Georgia tailback's SEC record, I can't consider it legitimate until Timmy gets to 55.

When the NCAA passed a rule to allow bowl statistics in college football I screamed from the highest mountain that it had to be retroactive. How hard would it have been to have each school simply go through the bowl records and add stats to existing marks? But the next time my voice is heard by any of the dolts who make these kinds of decisions will be the first.

Tebow and Walker are each at 49 touchdowns, but five more of Walker's don't count because they came in bowl games. (For the record, Tebow has two touchdowns from bowl games which, of course, count).

Georgia fans are quick to point out Walker did it in three seasons vs. four for Tebow. I counter that Tebow is a QUARTERBACK!

REF DEBATE: Wow, where do I start? First of all, it's easy to make fun of the SEC officials right now, but it has to be pointed out that even though it looked like Dustin Doe fumbled before crossing the goal line there was not irrefutable proof for the replay official. I suspect it should have been ruled a fumble but I don't know it.

And even if the officials had flagged Terrence Cody for taking his helmet off, it still would have been Alabama ball by rule.

Not that Lane Kiffin has ever let rules get in the way of a good news conference.

I have great respect for the commissioner of this league and find him to be the smartest man in the room almost every time he's in it. But I believe he should have suspended Kiffin.

With his comment — “I’m sure we’ll get one of those letters that mean nothing, that Bobby (Pe­trino) got last week, but Florida and Alabama live on.” — Kiffin disrespected Mike Slive and insinuated there is a conspiracy to get Florida and Alabama to the SEC title game. To me, when you attack the credibility of the league and the head of the league, you've crossed the line big time.

There are no guidelines for punishment for these types of infractions and spanking seems to be out of the question. But I'm sure Kiffin doesn't care and will say something that will eventually get him suspended.

And you know what? He won't care.

He'll use it as a tool to rally his players, and he knows they aren't going anywhere this season anyway. And he'll point to it as publicity and go on every sports talk show that will have him.

Slive has a lot going for him, but there is one thing I have over the SEC commissioner — Lane Kiffin is not my problem.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHT: Huge, massive, ginormous soccer match Friday night in Gainesville. Florida plays host to South Carolina at 6 p.m.

Not much riding on it except the SEC title.

I'll be interested to see how big the crowd is for this one. They have all kinds of promotions going including a costume contest, free T-shirts and a treasure hunt.

But what is really important is that the winner walks away with a trophy. Well, not really. They'll mail that later. The winner does win the SEC regular-season championship. And winning SEC titles is still what it's all about at UF.

ANOTHER GATOR: There will be another former Florida golfer to follow on the PGA Tour next season.

Former Gator golfer Matt Every used a putting tip from his former coach, Buddy Alexander, to win the final Nationwide Tour event in Charleston. That win vaulted Every from out of the top 25 to No. 10 on the money list and secured him a spot on the big boys' tour next year.

"I may play in one more event later this year but I most likely won't play again until after football season," Every said. "I'm looking forward to playing on the PGA Tour next year. It's hard to watch your college buddies play on Tour and the Presidents Cup. You start to think, 'Are these guys really that much better than me?' And I know the answer to that question, deep down I do."

PAT-POURRI: Hmm, Andre Agassi used to do crystal meth. What is really surprising is that he wore a Mohawk toupee. ... I get on people for making snap judgments after one game of a season, but didn't the Cavs look slow with Shaq in the lineup? ... You don't need my World Series pick. I already said everybody is playing for second behind the Yankees. ... In case you were wondering, Florida's inductees into the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame this week are Rex Grossman and Lawrence Wright. How Judd Davis is not in is beyond me. ... Georgia players are saying Urban Meyer's timeouts in last year's game motivated them in the offseason to work harder. So why have they lost three games already this year? ... Be safe.

Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at dooleyp@gvillesun.com and follow at http://Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.