Nov. 29 - Football's BLUE MOON SATURDAY, as SEC falls to ACC

Can Clemson keep its assistants? SC had
THE WORST defense in the nation, among big D-1
schools. Clemson had a good D for an ACC-level program. 

So rare is it for so many ACC wins over the SEC in one day, Nov. 29, 2014, should be called Blue Moon Saturday.

Losing to the ACC is about as low as an SEC team can get. But it happened to Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, Saturday.

The last time all three of those teams lost to their ACC rivals was the year 2000.

The teams that lost need to put it in perceptive, and realize it is just a very rare occurrence. Things will look a lot better after the embarrassment wears off.
South Carolina can get back to its rightful place of beating Clemson – like it has for consecutive  five years - by firing its defensive coaching staff, and bringing in some competent assistants.

Clemson scored 35 points on the Gamecocks. That put South Carolina's defense in a category with UNC and Wake Forest, the worst of the ACC. The Gamecocks can never compete in the SEC with that poor of a defense.

South Carolina has one of the WORST defense in the country in 2014. It either gets fixed, or seasons like 2014 will be the norm at SC.

The Gamecocks' fortunes versus Clemson will likely be enhanced by the fact that Clemson's million-dollar assistant coaching staff is being broken up, with OC Chad Morris leaving to take a job at SMU.

Tiger DC, Brent Venables could be gone, too, but that is less likely. Much of his talent will be gone with the departure of DL Vic Beasley.

Florida, which lost to Florida State Saturday, has already addressed its problem, and the reason for losing to the ACC. The Gators fired Head Coach Will Muschamp three weeks ago. That's a sign the UF administration knows there is a problem, and is moving to correct it. Hopefully Steve Spurrier will do the same, in releasing his whole defensive staff.

The more complicated dilemma is for Georgia. Bulldog Head Coach Mark Richt wins just enough to give his faithful hope of bigger things, but then his teams lose inexplicable games, like losing to Georgia Tech in Athens, Saturday.

There are no clear cut answers for Georgia. The Bulldogs will be ravaged by the media if Richt is fired, because its a lot easier for the media to champion losses like Georgia's than it is for fans who put their heart and soul into their team.

And what if Richt is fired, and his successor is a total flop? If a new coach is hired, and cannot win nine or ten games a year, and tease fans with championship hopes like Richt, the program looks really bad for dumping him.

At any rate, the Blue Moon triggered a lot of speculation about job security in the SEC. Losing to the ACC looks bad, and the fans of those SEC programs have grown spoiled and not used to accepting it.

Blue Moon Saturday will lead to a Black Monday firing binge – of sorts - for many SEC coaches, even if the terminations don't take place on Monday after the game. Changes must, and will be, made.