5 SEC football storylines Finebaum callers will be ranting about after Week 14

DeVonta Smith torching LSU, South Carolina’s new football coach and the top SEC football storylines Finebaum callers will be ranting about this week.

It is the season to be jolly, but it is also The Paul Finebaum Show late in the football season.

The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators punched their tickets to the SEC Championship game with wins over the LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers, respectively. Another team in the SEC is still alive for the College Football Playoff in the Texas A&M Aggies, while the Georgia Bulldogs could make it four SEC teams who get a New Year’s Six bowl invitation this December.

Here is what The Paul Finebaum Show callers will be talking about Monday

5. Does Texas A&M even have a chance to make the College Football Playoff?

Texas A&M was able to survive on the road vs. an unranked Auburn Tigers team. The Aggies improved to 7-1 on the season, winning six games in a row for the first time since 2016. They are expected to retain their spot as the No. 5 team in the country and be the first team out in the upcoming College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday evening. Do they have any shot to get in?

For Texas A&M to crash the playoff party, the Aggies need Alabama to beat Florida, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to beat the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship game and will need to win out to get to 9-1 on the season with their lone loss being to the Crimson Tide earlier in the campaign. It is quite the parlay, but it is not out of the realm of possibility the Aggies do get in.

4. Alabama may have already clinched a College Football Playoff berth.

By crushing LSU’s soul in primetime, Alabama improved to 9-0 on the season and clinched a berth in the SEC Championship game. The Crimson Tide still have a 10th conference game on the schedule vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks. Regardless of if they win that divisional game or not, Alabama can make the College Football Playoff with a win over Florida in Atlanta.

As for if Alabama has already clinched a playoff berth like undefeated Notre Dame did in the ACC on Saturday, this really comes down to how much you believe the Crimson Tide will beat the Hogs. Admittedly, they probably will, but Sam Pittman’s team is incredibly feisty and will give the Crimson Tide a run for their money in their Super Bowl. Alabama is close, but not quite in just yet.

3. Well, apparently Florida cannot run the ball?!

What will get lost in Florida clinching its first SEC East title since 2016 by defeating the Vols in Knoxville on Saturday was how pitiful the Gators were at running the football. While Heisman Trophy candidate Kyle Trask has no issues moving the sticks with tight end Kyle Pitts and wide receiver Kadarius Toney having big games, Florida had a grand total of 19 yards on the ground.

Though Florida will likely be 9-1 when the Gators face Alabama in the SEC Championship game, being this one-dimensional offensively will ultimately cost the team from getting into the College Football Playoff. Florida will be New Year’s Six bound for the third year in a row under Dan Mullen, but an improved Alabama defense will shut down a Florida offense that cannot run the dang ball.

2. So Shane Beamer is the new South Carolina football head coach?

We had a feeling this head-coaching vacancy was going to be filled soon, but not on the day of the Gamecocks’ final game of the season. Shortly after falling to 2-8 on a dreadful 2020 campaign, South Carolina decided former assistant coach and Oklahoma Sooners assistant coach Shane Beamer was the right guy for the job. Is this the hire South Carolina needed or is it a Plan C hire?

Beamer was on Steve Spurrier‘s coaching staff in Columbia from 2007 to 2015 before rejoining his father Frank Beamer’s staff on the Virginia Tech Hokies. This will be the younger Beamer’s first time in the big chair. South Carolina notoriously hires retread after retread. While he is not Jamey Chadwell, Billy Napier or Scott Satterfield, maybe Beamer can get South Carolina back to good?

1. DeVonta Smith should give the Alabama Crimson Tide two Heisman Trophy finalists.

Saturday night told us a ton about the remaining weeks of the 2020 college football season. Alabama is the best team because it is the most complete team, thoroughly dominating a hapless LSU squad. Though Mac Jones may be the new favorite again to win the Heisman Trophy, you better believe wide receiver DeVonta Smith has done enough to be named a finalist for 2020.

He had over 200 yards and three touchdowns in the first half vs. the Bayou Bengals. It may be a shortened season, but Smith will run away with the Biletnikoff at the end of the season. He should be a unanimous First-Team All-American, as well as a top-five finisher for the Heisman Trophy race. If the Heisman field gets to five finalists, then Smith absolutely needs an e-vite for it.

So what ties all five Finebaum caller talking points together after Week 14? It is about moving forward and only forward as a football program. Whether a team is preparing for a conference championship, a potential College Football Playoff berth or a new era under a new coaching regime entirely, all four of these teams mentioned here are looking forward to their futures.

What do you think will resonate the most on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday afternoon?

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