When the previous decade ended, the Mississippi State Bulldogs were coming off of a ten-win season and a Peach Bowl win under established head coach Jackie Sherrill.

The dawn of the new decade brought continued promise, as the Bulldogs managed to go 8-4 in 2000, including a 4-4 record in the SEC and win over Texas A&M in the Independence Bowl.

But then things took a decidedly southward turn. Over the next six years, the Bulldogs won just 17 games, hitting a nadir in Sherrill's final year, 2003, winning just twice.

During that six-year stretch, the Bulldogs were outscored in every season by at least 88 points.

But a lone bright spot shone in the midst of futility. After Sherrill, the school hired Sylvester Croom, a former NFL coach who played at Alabama for Bear Bryant. Hell, he was such a good pupil of Bryant's that they named an award after him there: The Sylvester Croom Commitment to Excellence Award.

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Nick's Numbers:

• Record at LSU: 48-16 Overall, 28-12 SEC
• Record at Alabama: 32-8 Overall, 20-4 SEC
• Decade Record: 80-24 (.769), 48-16 (.750) SEC
• Bowl wins: 2000 Peach, 2002 Sugar, 2004 Sugar, 2007 Independence
• Titles: SEC West: 2001, 2003, 2008, 2009  SEC: 2001, 2003, 2009. BCS: 2003

There has been no greater coaching power this decade than Nick Saban. But perhaps the greatest testimony to the power of a decade span is the rise of Nick Saban.

In contrast to the rather large and central place he now occupies in the SEC coaching matrix, ten years ago he was nothing more than an up-and-coming young coach who had decent, but not overwhelming success at Michigan State.

But then, the SEC was where up-and-comers came to get squashed, and several of them had died on the shores of the bayou before him: Mike Archer, Curley Hallman, and Gerry DiNiardo.

Who knew Saban would be any different? Despite Skip Bertman's confidence, LSU fans were skeptical—after all, Saban's Michigan State team lost to DiNardo's Tigers 45-26 in 1995, and his other seasons were inconsistent.

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They didn't know it at the time, but when Auburn and Mississippi State gathered to play a game on September 13, 2008, they were about to build a monument to the ultimate in football incompetence.

First the scoring. Auburn mustered a 35-yard Wes Byrum field goal in the second quarter to take an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

The Bulldogs closed within one when an Auburn penalty in their own end zone awarded them a safety.

And that's it.

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TUESDAY: What a Decade It's Been; Mike Price's Trip to Pensacola WEDNESDAY: The Zook Experiment; Georgia Hires Mark Richt EARLIER TODAY: The Best Game; Auburn's Rise and Fall

A word should be said before we even begin to discuss the LSU-Florida matchup. It's not a rivalry in the purest sense. There is no special enmity between the two schools, no particular regional antipathy that gives special grist to the mill of hate.

Within the SEC, several other rivalries are more traditional and more heated: Alabama-Auburn of course, but also Alabama-Tennessee, Auburn-Georgia, Mississippi State-Ole Miss, South Carolina-Georgia, Florida-Tennessee, Florida-Georgia.

But as far as a pure, throw-out-the-records rivalry? Not this one.

No, what makes this the Rivalry of the Decade is that these two schools have been the SEC's best for the decade. They are the only two schools in the BCS era to win two titles, all in this decade.

And as much as it means in the national scene, it means even more in the SEC title race. Since the SEC schedule makers decided to make these two teams each other's permanent opponent from the other division, this interdivisional matchup has meant more than any other.

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One of the choruses already being sung by the college football choir about this weekend's SEC Title game is that Florida is favored because of the man under center.

Tim Tebow, his will, his drive, and his abilities are well known commodities. Greg McElroy, on the other hand, is a relative unknown. I say relative because though there has been plenty of stuff written on McElroy, it pales in comparison to the volunious literature on Timmay, both positive and negative.

But will a quarterback's play decide the SEC title game? The obvious answer is yes.

And history backs that up. Since 2000, every SEC title game except one, the quarterback with the better numbers has left the field a victor.

But that exception tells an interesting story.

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With this week's big showdown in Tuscaloosa looming, there will certainly be a lot of stories about how much LSU fans detest Nick Saban. But I want more people to know that hate is limited to a loud few, and does not characterize a large proportion of fans.

I know I don't hate the Nicktator. I love the guy. I would be an idiot not to be grateful for what he did for LSU, lifting it to heights it hadn't seen in a near half-century.

In addition, I thought the mental approach that Nick Saban taught to his players was the perfect way to approach football: a very literal one-play-at-a-time mentality. That's why it wasn't unusual to see Nick exploding in rage over some third-string defensive lineman's missed assignment in a 40-10 blowout. 

For Nick, that play was the most important play right then. But when it was over, it was over. You forgot about it, and moved to the next play.

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As LSU's offense has regressed this season, rumblings about the safety of Les Miles have been heard.

For instance, on October 11—the day after the Florida loss—long-time Tiger obsessor Dandydon wrote: 

LSU was not able to generate any kind of consistency on offense because of poor execution at the quarterback position and a very poor job of game management by Les Miles and Gary Crowton. It was very plain to see early in the game that Jordan Jefferson was struggling throwing the football, and instead of throwing the football away Jefferson was sacked six times in the game. It does not make any sense that Les Miles did not play Russell Shepard for one single play when he said before the game that Shepard would play eight or 10 snaps, and it is unbelievable that Miles did not play not Jarrett Lee for a couple of series in the game. It is also unbelievable that wide receiver Rueben Randle did not see any action.

But the criticism is not limited to just the bloggers. Gary Laney at the Baton Rouge Advocate claimed in this column that the Tigers were good at everything except offense.

So is there a problem at LSU?

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It has taken 17 years, but it is finally time to put the Bear to rest.

I don't mean for Bama fans-that will never happen-but for the rest of the Southeastern Conference. For many years, it was the legendary, hound's-tooth-hat wearing old man who not only carried the standard of excellence for his school, but for the whole conference.

Other teams had short runs of excellence: Ole Miss in the late fifties and late sixties, LSU in the late fifties and late sixties, and others.

But no team in the SEC consistently dominated the competition and was at the forefront of the conference's pursuit of football excellence.

The numbers don't lie: six national championships and 13 conference championships in 25 years in Tuscaloosa.

As a young LSU fan, I can remember resenting the Crimson Tide and Bryant because they were just so good.

But now the mantle has been passed. While no one has matched the Bear's run over a quarter century, Florida is now the team that carries the mantle of SEC Paradigm of Excellence.

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Thanks to the wonders of pulled back muscles and then joys of hydrocodone taken legally and with a prescription, I am getting to this post a couple of days after I would like to. But here is the SEC rookie coach ranking after two weeks.

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So I am the new guy around here, but you don't really care about me. All you need to know is that I grew up in Baton Rouge, live in Lousiana now, love crawfish, the Tigers, I like Les, and I don't hate Nick Saban. So let's get to some football content.

This past weekend marked the debut of three new coaches in the SEC. Two of the three made their college head coaching debuts as well, and like everybody else in the conference, they got wins.

Well, except for UGA, who saw their defense eviscerated and their offense collapse quicker than a Kennedy marriage at spring break.

But eleven teams got wins, including the three newbies. In fact, the fewest points scored by the rooks was 37 by Auburn, who was playing the most difficult opponent of the three, a game many considered a trap game. Mississippi State and Tennessee both flexed their SEC muscle by destroying weaker sisters.

So let's review each of them*:

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