Like It Is

When it comes to SEC football, nothing's easy

Southeastern Conference (SEC) Commissioner Mike Slive speaks during SEC media days on Monday, July 14, 2014, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

Tuesday's column was an SEC football trivia quiz, and it was a tough one for almost everyone except a radio guy from Memphis who lives in Arkansas and sometimes appears on a Sunday morning radio talk show with Bill Vickery.

It was meant to be tough. Everything about the SEC is smash-mouth.

Here are the questions and their answers just in case the wife threw out Monday's sports section by accident, a barely forgivable mistake:

  1. Twice Nick Saban has finished seasons with two losses. How did his team do the next year?

Saban won the national championship at LSU in 2003 after losing the last two games and four of the last six in the 2002. After going 12-2 at Alabama in 2008, he led the Crimson Tide to a 14-0 record and BCS championship in 2009. He has four national titles.

  1. Who in the SEC once said: "We want to act like we're No. 2 and try to catch up."

SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in 2012.

  1. Which member of the SEC has never won or played for an SEC football championship?

Vanderbilt.

  1. At which SEC school did John Heisman coach, and what school did he leave it for?

Heisman coached at Auburn (1895-1899). He had a 12-4-2 overall record before leaving to coach Clemson.

  1. Who is the most powerful man in the SEC outside of Commissioner Mike Slive: Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier, Gus Malzahn or Jimmy Sexton?

Admittedly, the was a subjective question. A case could be made for Saban, who was declared the most powerful man in football by Forbes magazine a couple of years ago, or Spurrier. who has turned around programs at Duke, Florida and South Carolina. The opinion here is that it's Sexton, the super agent who has made Saban, Spurrier, Malzahn and a host of others among the highest-paid football coaches in the country.

  1. Who was the Alabama receiver known as the father of the modern pass route?

That would be Pine Bluff native Don Hutson, who led the NFL in receiving yards eight times in his 11-year career. He won a national championship at Alabama and three NFL titles.

  1. Which current SEC coach has the most victories, and which coach has the highest winning percentage?

Steve Spurrier has the most victories with 219. Gus Malzahn the highest winning percent at 80 percent, but he's been a head coach only two years so a case could be made for Nick Saban, who has won 74.3 percent of his games and has an overall record of 165-57.

  1. What three schools did Bear Bryant coach at besides Alabama?

Maryland (1945), Kentucky (1946-1953) and Texas A&M (1954-1957).

  1. Name in order the schools whose stadiums have a smaller seating capacity than Arkansas (76,000).

Kentucky (67,606), Mississippi State (61,337), Ole Miss (60,580) and Vanderbilt (40,350).

  1. Three years ago, three SEC head coaches had played for schools that are members of the SEC. Steve Spurrier is the only one who remains. Who were the other two?

Joker Phillips, who coached and played at Kentucky, and Houston Nutt, who coached at Ole Miss and played at Arkansas.

  1. What are the official school colors of Arkansas?

Cardinal and white. Just say no to anthracite.

  1. Who first labeled Arkansas as the Razorbacks?

Hugo Bezdek, a native of Prague, Czechoslovakia. He left Oregon to coach at Arkansas, but that was long before Nike.

  1. Which school's fans were so loud that the noise they made once registered as an earthquake?

LSU fans did that in 1988 in a game with Tulane, which once was the Tigers' biggest rival.

  1. The Auburn-Alabama series is know as the Iron Bowl and the Ole Miss-Mississippi State rivalry is known as the Egg Bowl. What is the other conference rivalry know as a "bowl" game?

Every year Ole Miss and LSU play in the Magnolia Bowl. The fans despise each other that week.

  1. What are Vanderbilt's official school colors.

A case could have been made for black and blue, especially the way things look for this season, but the Commodores still proudly wear black and gold.

Sports on 07/23/2014