If the SEC Wants to Beat Alabama, It Should Stop Trying to Be Alabama

Among Alabama coach Nick Saban's many accomplishments, perhaps the most impressive is that through the end of the 2015 regular season, he has effectively convinced the rest of the Southeastern Conference that it needs to copy him.

Of course, this is a fool's errand. Nobody is ever going to be as good at being Nick Saban as Saban, which means that any school trying to be Alabama will never be anything more than Alabama Lite. Nevertheless, two of the Crimson Tide's biggest conference threats have either fired coaches or tried to fire coaches specifically because they aren't Saban.

LSU boosters raised $15 million to help buy out coach Les Miles, reportedly because he wasn't "contending for championships." Of course, that's not actually true: he guided LSU to the national championship game and a SEC title in 2011, and led the Tigers to the BCS title in 2007. Moreover, Miles has a better winning percentage at LSU (.776) than Saban, his predecessor with the Tigers, had there (.75).

No matter. Since Miles hasn't been quite as successful at LSU as Saban has been at Alabama, some people wanted him gone.

While Miles was saved by great fan support, Georgia coach Mark Richt wasn't so lucky. Richt consistently steered the Bulldogs to 10-win seasons and was arguably the most successful coach in school history, despite dealing with some bad injury luck in the past two years. As SB Nation's Bill Connelly pointed out, Georgia finished in the top 15 of the F/+ ratings in each of the past four years. The only other team to do that was Alabama.

In an effort to be the next Alabama, Georgia reportedly is expected to hire Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart. South Carolina, meanwhile, reportedly is considering hiring Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, who not coincidentally is a former Saban assistant at Alabama. Last year, Florida hired former Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, who at least had some success as a head coach at Colorado State (with some Alabama help, naturally).

Look, there's no reason those coaches can't be successful. Florida has already had a nice season under McElwain and will be a consistent SEC East contender, as a program of its caliber should be. Georgia is located in one of the nation's most fertile recruiting areas, and enjoys the benefit of no in-state SEC competition. Richt had a top five recruiting class coming in, including No. 2 quarterback Jacob Eason. If the next Georgia coach can take advantage, they should be able to contend, just as Richt already had been doing. Similarly, there's no reason for LSU not to be a powerhouse in the future, with or without Miles—not when the school enjoys a bevy of institutional advantages and sports the sixth-richest athletic department in the country.

In the here and now, however, some LSU boosters seem to want more. Georgia certainly wants more. That desire, in itself, is understandable—to want to try something different, hoping that you can change the game when you play Alabama. Other successful programs have done that. Oklahoma, which is playing better than anyone in the country, brought in Air Raid offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley and has a chance to really test to Saban's smothering defense in a potential Playoff matchup. Clemson combines a spread offense with a risk-taking defense that could flummox Alabama the way Ole Miss has the past two years.

Speaking of Ole Miss, the Rebels have put together a realistic blueprint for beating Alabama: roll out a different kind of offense, play aggressive defense, and recruit your area hard and well. That's something other SEC schools ought to emulate.

The key, ultimately, isn't just following a realistic blueprint; it's having realistic expectations. Just like Georgia and LSU, a number of SEC schools have the potential to contend for national championships every few years—just not quite as often as Alabama does. And that's perfectly fine. In fact, that's better than fine. It's really, really good. Great, even. Problems crop up when schools and their fan bases expect nothing less than being the absolute best program in the country. That's ridiculous, and it leads to athletic departments potentially setting their teams back by making multiple, unnecessary coaching changes.

Beating Alabama and contending for the Playoff on a semi-regular basis is a worthwhile and attainable goal. Being Alabama is impossible, and in the end probably plays into Saban's hands.