Inside the SEC: THREE THINGS WE THINK …

1. Alabama is taking Easy Street to the Georgia Dome.

At least it looks that way with the Crimson Tide (8-0, 5-0 SEC) undefeated and every other team in the West saddled with two losses. The Tide get to recharge their batteries Saturday against Arkansas State before heading into the stretch run of LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn. Of course, that’s not the way coach Nick Saban is looking at it. “They run the ball as well as anybody, and they can throw it and make big plays,” Saban bellowed at his Monday news conference. “So this is a good team. I know sometimes people don’t have the proper respect for these teams, but this team certainly has done enough this season in terms of what they’ve accomplished week in and week out to garner everyone’s respect.”

2. Spurrier-Fulmer rivalry is not what it used to be.

Either Phillip Fulmer or Steve Spurrier was on the sideline for the first 10 SEC title games. Both coaches won national championships in the 1990s. But Spurrier is at South Carolina, and Fulmer’s Tennessee program (3-5) is a shadow of what it once was. The Vols absolutely have to win in Columbia on Saturday or risk missing a bowl game for the second time in the past four seasons. Spurrier, Fulmer’s longtime nemesis, resisted the opportunity to pile on. “I got my own problems here,” he told reporters this week. “I don’t need to get into anybody else’s.”

3. Vanderbilt will come up short again.

Earlier this month in an interview with the AJC, a Vanderbilt player said the Commodores weren’t satisfied with just becoming bowl-eligible. They were aiming to win every game. Vanderbilt was 5-0 then. Since then it has lost to Mississippi State, Georgia and, the killer, Duke. Mercifully, the ‘Dores have this week off. They’ll need it to get ready for a home stretch of Florida, at Kentucky, Tennessee and Wake Forest. And suddenly breaking that 26-year bowl drought doesn’t look so promising. “I think we’re still very confident that we can do some great things with this season,” coach Bobby Johnson said. “Obviously, everybody’s human around here. You do have some doubts. But … we’re going to work at it very hard.”