ESPN analyst Matt Stinchcomb talks 2016 SEC Championship Game
By John Buhler
ESPN SEC football analyst Matt Stinchcomb took the time to discuss the upcoming 2016 SEC Championship Game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators.
The 2016 SEC Championship Game between the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 15 Florida Gators will take place on Saturday, Dec. 4. Kickoff from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta will be at 4:00 p.m. ET and CBS will have the telecast.
On behalf of Allstate, former Georgia Bulldogs All-American offensive tackle and current ESPN SEC football analyst Matt Stinchcomb took the time to discuss the upcoming 2016 SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Florida.
Stinchcomb was a two-time member of the Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team from his time at Georgia. He has been a panelist for the team the last several years and was a part of the SEC Good Works Day this past Thursday before the 2016 SEC Championship.
He and several SEC legends like David Greene, D.J. Shockley, Jon Stinchcomb and Tim Tebow helped volunteers build a football field from scratch in Gresham Park, as well as put on a football clinic for fourth graders at Barack H. Obama Magnet School in Atlanta.
John Buhler: Matt, what can you tell me about the SEC Good Works Day and the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team?
Matt Stinchcomb: This is the ninth year we’ve been a part of this thing. Today is a manifestation of what this team is all about. We are actually going to be giving back to one of the local communities here in the Atlanta area, at the footprint of the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta near the Georgia Dome.
We’re going to build a football field for the kids that go to Barack H. Obama Magnet School here in the Atlanta; we’ve done this quite a bit. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate what the Good Works Team is really all about. It’s about giving back and how we can use our opportunities to leverage sports with the interest folks have in them for the greater good. That’s what we’re looking to accomplish here today.
JB: That’s exciting. A lot of kids want to play football being right next to the Georgia Dome and all.
Moving on to the SEC Championship Game Saturday between Alabama and Florida, the Georgia Dome usually plays fast and high-scoring. Obviously, this would favor Lane Kiffin and the Alabama offense. Does playing inside help Florida in any fashion or would they have had to play Alabama in the mud to win this game?
MS: (Laughs) Even if Florida played Alabama in the mud — they could play Alabama underwater and I don’t think it would matter much. Although you would like to think the Gators would be more comfortable in water than an elephant.
Mascots aside, there really isn’t an environment that would give Florida an offensive advantage versus this Alabama defense. When you look at it, not only are they faster this season, they are so much smaller, but I think that they are more aggressive than any Alabama defense I have seen before.
Part of that might be an indictment of the offenses that they’re facing, and Florida would be among those; they’re just not the most prolific attack that Alabama will have seen all season. They don’t score a ton of points and they are not particularly great in one phase of the game offensively. It’s just a distinct disadvantage when you’re facing a team as talented as Alabama is defensively.
JB: Yeah, you’ve got to move the ball some way against that front-seven, and Florida just may not be able to do that. Let’s just assume that Florida somehow stuns Alabama, would the Tide still be the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff, even if they don’t beat Florida?
MS: Man, I don’t know. That’s an interesting premise. I haven’t spent a lot of time contemplating it but you could maybe say that. That would mean Alabama would have lost to a Florida team that is ranked lower than what could potentially be an Ohio State team that lost to Penn State.
Penn State would be a Big Ten Champion, Florida would be an SEC Champion, but among those two, Ohio State would have lost to the higher-ranked team. From there, you talk about who has the prettier loss, so to speak. Is it fair that Alabama had additional jeopardy by playing a 13th game? I don’t know. I’d think they’d stay in the top four. They might slide, but they won’t slide past four.
JB: I’d think they make the top four. It would be a challenge with an Ohio State, maybe a Washington if they win the Pac-12 but let’s just say that Alabama takes care of business and beats Florida. That would give every team in the SEC but Alabama four losses on the year. Someone’s got to play in the Sugar Bowl out of the SEC, so who would that team be exactly?
MS: I think it should be Florida. You look at Florida and obviously they have that loss versus Arkansas, and that’s not a very good one. You lose to Tennessee earlier where they obviously let off the gas and looked almost disinterested in the second half defensively. But, you know, this is a team that has as good of a victory as a team that would be in contention from a ranking standpoint, which is Auburn.
They both beat LSU, except Florida did it on the road and later in the season after the quarterback change had been made and the transition at the head coaching position as well for LSU. I would lend more weight towards Florida as being the more impressive of the two teams between the Gators and the Auburn Tigers.
I think it really came down to how the rankings shook out for this week any way, based on Auburn’s loss in Week 1 to Clemson being more favorably viewed than the Week 12 loss by Florida to the [Florida State] Seminoles.
JB: I look at Florida’s loss to Arkansas as being really the only negative blemish on their resume. The other losses were okay, in my opinion. Looking at Florida, I feel like if they are going to upset Alabama, they’re going to need three players to play outstanding. I think Teez Tabor and Jordan Scarlett seem like two obvious ones. Who would that third player be for Florida?
MS: Ooh man. If you can get your quarterback to play out of his mind, that always comes in handy. Eventually a quarterback is going to have to make a play; you’re not going to win on first and second down against Alabama very much. So if that’s the case, you’re eventually going to have to do something in third-and-obvious passing situations.
Austin Appleby is somewhat of a mobile quarterback. He’s a guy that can make things happen with his legs. If he can play out of his mind, better than we have ever seen him play, extend plays, pick up some fortuitous yards in the scramble game, then obviously that’s advantage Florida. I think its really hard to contort your expectations to arrive at a scenario that will allow for that.
JB: I think he’s going to look like [LSU Tigers’] Danny Etling back there, which is probably not good for Florida.
MS: I think that’s a fair comparison and a likely outcome.
JB: Fair enough. Overall, it has been a down year for the SEC. Seemingly the only guy that has a shot of getting to the Heisman Trophy presentation would be Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts. Does he get the invite and where do you think he’d finish in the Heisman voting?
MS: Man, I don’t know where he finishes. The Heisman voting is something I’m largely disinterested in, but I will say that it is interesting that a true freshman is the most likely candidate.
I don’t know, I guess it depends on how the voting shakes out and how many folks get the invitation out there. Does he warrant the attention? A true freshman to be performing as well as he has on the big stages with the expectations being as outsized as they are, being the quarterback at Alabama there is a lot of pressure to begin with.
To be at the helm of a No. 1 team that will likely go wire-to-wire in the CFP Rankings in that position knowing that it’s such a key role for just about any team in impressive. You would have to think that an undefeated team as dominant as Alabama has been with a true freshman at quarterback that is more than just a caretaker — he’s had to make plays, largely with his legs, but at times as a passer. How does he not get considered among some of the best players in the country?
Given the way that the award has shaken out in the past, I’d kind of be surprised if he doesn’t get the invite up there.
JB: I figure he’d be one of the five that would get there, but I don’t think he’s going to finish better than third.
MS: No, I don’t think so either. You’ve got other guys that are more accomplished at his position that would probably finish one-two.
JB: Okay, let’s just assume that Alabama takes care of business. Who do you think would be the Crimson Tide’s toughest matchup in the Playoff?
MS: I would have to say it’s either Ohio State or Clemson, and maybe I lean more towards Ohio State. We talked about the quarterback position and maybe it’s advantage Ohio State or Clemson, certainly with J.T. Barrett and Deshaun Watson.
If Deshaun Watson is doing a better job of taking care of the football, he is certainly one of the more dynamic playmakers in the country. Clemson is really talented at receiver, certainly with Mike Williams. Wayne Gallman is starting to get things going in the ground game. They are not great up front offensively, but they’ve got some really good defensive tackles on the other side of the football. Ohio State, J.T. Barrett and by far and away their best player Curtis Samuel adds a complement to him.
Are they good enough all-around? None of them are. They would all have to play their best game to maybe have Alabama not play their best game for them to have a chance at it. Those would be the two primary candidates. It’s largely because of the quarterback position and a head coach that has been on this stage before against Alabama in similar scenarios.
JB: Yeah, usually the teams that play Alabama well have good coaches, and maybe more importantly a solid, dual-threat quarterback.
Last question for you, Matt: Looking forward to 2017, let’s just take Florida and Alabama out of the equation. Is there a team in either SEC division you think can win the SEC next year and maybe make the Playoff?
MS: (Laughs). That’s a great question, man. People will say LSU every year because of the talent. It’s just that the shelves are stocked almost all the time. I don’t know what it looks like with a full season under Ed Orgeron, but you give them a shot I suppose.
You would have said [Texas A&M] a few weeks ago, but I’m not so sure about that anymore, especially with how they play defensively. They’ll be without Trevor Knight now and he was a big catalyst for their success this year. Then you are kind of really hard-pressed to find anybody outside of those two football teams.
Tennessee will have been largely scuffled because of graduation and guys leaving the program. South Carolina seems to be on the upswing, Kentucky overachieved this year, as did Vanderbilt. Maybe a Georgia program, but the problem is that they have to replace a ton of talent — likely their two best players in Sony Michel and Nick Chubb.
So there aren’t any really obvious candidates to unseat either one of these teams in their respective divisions.
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JB: So it seems like we’ll be having a three-peat for an SEC Championship next season between Alabama and Florida?
MS: I hope not because it gets boring that way, doesn’t it?
JB: Yeah, it does. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with FanSided, Matt.
MS: No, thank you for talking to me and pushing the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team and the SEC Good Works Day.