SEC football is getting even tougher, and it's not because of Oklahoma | Opinion

Give Brian Kelly credit.

The guy is a heel. A cad. Dishonorable. As fake as his "fam-uh-lee" accent.

But Kelly can coach football. Doesn’t matter if he's at Grand Valley State or Cincinnati; whether he's amid Notre Dame's golden dome or Louisiana State's Cajun culture. Kelly can coach.

Anyone who had forgotten suddenly realized it Saturday night, about the time LSU freshman tight end Mason Taylor caught a two-point conversion pass in overtime to knock out Alabama 32-31.

LSU football is great again, and this time, the Tigers aren't coached by a guy who got his job because of the way he talks.

Bayou-bred Ed Orgeron coached LSU to the 2019 national title with one of the best teams in college football history, but he was fired less than two years later, because his hold on the program was precarious and that's the way they do things in Baton Rouge.

Kelly doesn’t have a team for the ages, but LSU is headed for the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, and he's got the pedigree that shows he's not a boom-or-bust coach. At Cincinnati (back-to-back major bowls, producing the foundation for the Bearcats' current success) and Notre Dame (three playoff appearances in a nine-year stretch), Kelly showed he's a big-time winner. Even if he unconscionably left Notre Dame for LSU when the Fighting Irish still had a chance to make the 2021 playoff.

And while the Cajuns celebrated in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night, a sinking feeling had to be settling in 599 miles to the northwest. Oklahoma Sooners of every ilk were realizing that their SEC adventure was getting more and more harrowing.

Think about it. In summer 2021, when news broke that Oklahoma and Texas were jumping the Big 12 for the SEC, the Sooners' attitude was that the Land of Cotton would be the Land of Milk & Honey. Untold riches, exposure galore, a fighting chance to step into the void when Nick Saban finally relinquished his Alabama scepter.

That’s not the landscape 16 months later.

Oh, sure. The money still will be stacked as high as the Devon Tower.

The ESPN hype will be in overdrive. Heck, even the reign of Nick the Terrible is 16 months closer to conclusion, and indeed, Alabama has some scars. The Crimson Tide have fallen all the way to 7-2 this season, losing on a walk-off field goal at Tennessee and the aforementioned overtime at LSU.

But just in those 16 months, SEC football has grown even more fangs, if that’s possible.

First, Georgia became what everyone feared: the new Alabama. Not a boom-and-bust LSU. Not a boom-and-bust Florida. Not a boom-and-bust Auburn.

A boom-and-kaboom Georgia. A program thick with the bounty of the burgeoning recruiting talent in Georgia, and a home-bred coach in Kirby Smart with Saban characteristics. The Bulldogs look like they’re here to stay as an annual autumn terror.

OK, thought the Sooners. Some SEC team always is rising up to challenge Bama. Might as well be Georgia every year.

Except here comes LSU, with a coach with staying power, and Georgia still stands tall.

All in the wake of Josh Heupel resurrecting Tennessee.

It takes a few gray hairs to even remember the Volunteers as a football force. They’ve spent the past 15 years being the Smoky Mountain version of Texas Tech.

But Heupel unleashed a frightening offense in his second year on Rocky Top, and Tennessee’s 52-49 victory over Bama on Oct. 15 was one of the best college football spectacles in decades.

Tennessee is good again. Some of us thought we’d never see the day. Who knows how long Heupel’s magic can last? The Volunteers are not Georgia. This is not the 1990s. Football has changed, and some of the advantages Tennessee had for decades have spread to other ports.

Still, the Vols have a grand tradition and all kinds of resources, and now an offensive identity. They aren’t likely to go back to Texas Tech status anytime soon.

Add it up. In 16 months, Oklahoma's SEC road has gotten much tougher. Heck, it's gotten a lot tougher for everyone in the SEC. Florida. Auburn. Ole Miss. Texas A&M. Arkansas. All have to deal with what Oklahoma must deal with.

Another Alabama, with Smart’s Bulldogs. A permanent Doberman in LSU. A revived Tennessee.

Oh, by the way, Oklahoma isn't its old selves, either.

After seven seasons of winning the Big 12 and/or contending for a College Football Playoff berth, Lincoln Riley went all Horace Greeley and took his quarterback whisperer reputation out West.

Brent Venables was hired not to replicate Riley’s success, but to forge a new identity. Defense, rock-'em-sock-'em football, built to last in the SEC.

And maybe Venables will get it done. Way too early to cast judgment.

But the transition figures to be anything but smooth. Alabama, Georgia and LSU are the least of Oklahoma's problems. The Sooners (5-4) on Saturday will have to huff and puff just to beat the Big 12's last-place West Virginia in the Allegheny Mountains and become bowl eligible.

At least with Riley, Oklahoma would have gone to the SEC with the terrible swift sword of offense. Now Venables is in a fight for his life to get the Sooners defense restored by 2025, since the quarterback lifejacket Oklahoma football has been wearing since Baker Mayfield is gone.

The SEC long has been rugged. It's getting even more rugged, and not because Oklahoma is headed that way.

Berry Tramel can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: SEC football getting stronger, but Oklahoma's move isn't the reason