SEC coaches face heat on, off field from every which way

This feature originally appeared in CBS SportsLine’s 2007 College Football Preview. Click here to order your copy today!

Part I Monday: Best Ever
Part II Tuesday: The Legacy
Part III Wednesday: Moving Past Bear's Shadow

College football IS the South. It can be argued that the game wouldn't be as popular as it is today if it hadn't sprung from the South's bosom. The game's apostles carry the gospel in their hearts and playbooks to far-flung outposts. At the center of Southern football for the past 75 years has been SEC, annually the game's strongest conference. CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd is spending the next three days detailing how 2007 might be the high point of Southern football and the SEC.

The night of January 8 was the tipping point for Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. A few days after watching Ohio State's offensive tackles get wind burn from being blown past by Florida defenders that night, he sat down and pecked out a manifesto for the Big Ten website.

Now, Delany is a reasonable man, a powerful man. He was named by CBSSports.com in 2004 as the most relevant man in college football.

Even a coach as successful as Phil Fulmer has to put up with criticism. (US Presswire)

But he snapped when he tried to compare the SEC to the Big Ten.

The "open letter" took on a snarky tone noting that, "there are appropriate balances when mixing academics and athletics ... winning our way requires some discipline and restraint with the recruitment process."

Our way? A high-ranking SEC official said he was "shocked" that Delany got down in the goo. Delany's shot reinforced the stereotype that the SEC is a renegade league that sacrifices academics at the altar of football. It certainly solidified the Big Ten as Midwest elitists while touching SEC sensitivities.

"I know how they get in at Michigan," said Florida president Bernie Machen, a former Michigan provost. "Don't talk to me about the Nobel laureates at Michigan."

Stanford coach and Michigan alum Jim Harbaugh fired his own missile, unprovoked, saying Michigan players were steered toward easy majors.

It's personal, it's on and it's great.

"I love the Big Ten," Delany said. "I have been with the Big Ten for 19 years. My hope is that 2008 is less public than 2007."

That's up to you, Jim. Here's the other side of the story: Florida and Michigan compare favorably in football and academics. South Carolina recently rejected two high-profile NCAA-qualified recruits -- much to the disgust of Steve Spurrier -- because they didn't meet school academic standards.

Commissioner Mike Slive is only eight months away from achieving his goal of having all SEC schools off probation for the first time in 26 years.

Of course, there's a reason all those schools have been on probation. There isn't a conference that can produce as much annual excellence or that forces Depends to be part of a coach's daily apparel. Four of the SEC's Super Six schools (Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, LSU) have won national championships since 1992. At least one of the Super Six have won at least a share of every SEC title since 1964.

Three of the top five active winningest coaches are at those schools: Urban Meyer (No. 2), Mark Richt (No. 4) and Phil Fulmer (No. 5). The SEC leads the country this season with four national championship coaches -- Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Phil Fulmer and Urban Meyer.

Pressure is inherent.

Fulmer should have a lifetime exemption from the heat in Knoxville. Instead, critics point to his recent record (18-12 since November 2004) -- and the fact that he hasn't won a national championship since 1998. Lose Saturday in the season opener at Cal (Tennessee was a 17-point winner in Knoxville last season) and the critics will be ready to pounce again.

Les Miles has won 22 games in his first two seasons at LSU, and is favored by many to win the league in '07. His loudest critics say he is winning with Saban's players. The answer from about 100 other I-A coaches around the country would be: "So what? Give me those players."

Georgia's Mark Richt last won an SEC title in 2005 but feels the heat every day.

"We're like looking in the mirror," he said. "We all recruit the same guys. We all have great venues, great passionate fans. We all have outstanding coaches. Everybody's got resources. Then you go play each other.

"That's the beauty of this league. If you're No. 1 in this league -- everybody knows you've accomplished something special.

"Not winning the national championship doesn't devalue the SEC championship. That game, next to the national championship, is a humdinger, man."

Meyer has not had that relaxing deep breath since winning the BCS title game in January.

"You want to turn around and make sure it's still there," Meyer said, glancing back at the crystal football trophy in his office. "To be honest, we have not had that moment."

For Meyer, it was celebration, recruiting, spring practice, recruiting, maybe a small vacation and a growing expectation this summer that he must do it all over again.

"It is different in the South," said former Alabama coach Bill Curry, the De facto conscience for the sport, who played for Vince Lombardi and Bobby Dodd before coaching at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky.

"For the Southern male, Reconstruction was devastating. Then came the Depression and image of the South as redneck ne'er-do-wells. Along comes Civil Rights and suddenly there was this thing called television. The whole nation could see the fire hoses and dogs and Bull Connor.

"The only thing that people had to hook their wagon to is, 'Our little bitty skinny boys can whip your big Yankee boys on the football field.'"

That mindset was cultivated by the legacy left by Bear Bryant.

But it would be trite to suggest that Bear was/is the total embodiment of SEC pride. As Curry said, Southern pride started long ago and far away from the football field.

"When he had 6-5 seasons in the late '60s, they spit on him too," Curry said of Bryant. "The only reason I know that is because he told me."

The Bear is why everyone chased Alabama all those years. When the great coach died, Alabama began chasing its tail. 'Bama paid for some of its screw-ups and mismanagement over the years, but a magical thing tied it all together. Each one of the coaches who has followed Bryant (except Mike Price, who never saw the field) has won 10 games in a season.

"It's the players," Curry said. "You can take an ordinary athlete and put that Crimson shirt on him and he turns into Superman on Saturday afternoon. It doesn't matter if they're from New York City or Sylacauga. They will fight their guts out.

"Whenever it became obsessive, historians can write about that until the cows come home. But then it went from obsessive to psychotic. ... It takes on all the trappings of a major religion. That's the most shocking part."

Part III of Dennis Dodd's SEC breakdown will come out on Wednesday.