re: NFL.com's Top 10 College Football Teams of the 2000s

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Auburn only led Tennessee by a touchdown at the start of the 4th quarter. It's pretty stupid to let off the gas when you're only up by 14 at halftime.

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Agreed, but we had completely dominated them at the half. Outgained them 300+ yards to like 30something. Their only score came after a botched punt snap gave them the ball on our 2 (and only an interception in the end zone kept us from being up 28 or 24 to 7 at half). The players got cocky and let off the gas and then a fumble deep in our territory and a long 80 yard run got them back in the game 21-21 and our team had to wake the hell up.

But letting off the gas early was a consistent problem with Tubervile anyway, one of his biggest weaknesses as a head coach was his tendency to go into the Tubershell slowdown offense when he got a lead, he did it against Virginia Tech as well that year.

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There's a reason why Auburn didn't get into the BCS National Championship Game in 2004. It's because the SEC was perceived as weak. Auburn was a great team in 2004 but, like the SEC in 1992, the league only consisted of one great team and a couple of good ones.

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While I would agree that 2004 was somewhat similar to 1992 with the teams inside the SEC, how the SEC was perceived had nothing to do with us not getting into the championship game. If #1 and #2 don't lose, it doesn't matter how the people behind them are perceived. We weren't going to jump Okie unless we were just beating everyone we played by 30+, and even then it would have been iffy.

1992 isn't really a comparison there because FSU had a loss and Bama was ahead of A&M from early in the season (and A&M played one ranked team the entire year, their first game). And neither team started at #2. It's a completely different ball game when #1 and #2 from the beginning of the year don't lose.