This is an opinion column.

The short week of Thanksgiving is here and we have questions about the Iron Bowl, Alabama’s offense and, of course, Miss Terry and Lane Kiffin.

Oh, and could someone please teach Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb how to properly pronounce the word “pecan”?

To the mailbag …

Dan writes …

I really don’t like Kalen DeBoer and wasn’t at all surprised by what happened in the Oklahoma game. Alabama is unrecognizable with a pedestrian defense and an offense that can’t run the ball. Auburn is a lot better than their record indicates and they were robbed in their game against Oklahoma, which was on the road in Norman. I can see Auburn winning the Iron Bowl this weekend.

While I would love to see DeBoer go to Penn State and Kiffin get hired, I think Alabama would still be selling themselves short. Why not go after Jon Gruden?

John C. writes …

You are an idiot. Oklahoma was dominated by Alabama’s trick pony. The trick was getting Alabama to turn the ball over and make short field goals. Even with Oklahoma getting 17 points off of turnovers, if Bama had a kicker they still would have won.

Auburn isn’t going to beat Alabama. They’re still digging themselves out of Isiah Bond’s burial of their Tiger. Auburn will find a way to blow it just like they have with every hire they’ve made at head coach.

Auburn will end some other talented coaches’ careers as they have the last five they saddled by giving them the job, a job that nobody wants … hence the reason they hired a pro golfer the last time.

Burt writes …

Ole Miss had one of the easiest schedules in college football, and the SEC. Give Ole Miss a tougher schedule and he would look far less attractive. Be careful what you wish for….you may get it.

Calvin in Shreveport, La., writes …

Lane makes $9 million a year with millions to buy players, has Ole Miss in the thick of the national title hunt and refuses to commit to his team for the future. Why doesn’t he grow a pair and try to make Ole Miss into the next Alabama or LSU? Florida has fallen off the cliff and will never get up.

Richard writes …

I think part of Lane’s maturation process was that he ascended to the heights of college football before he crashed and burned. Then when he was being reformed in the crucible fire by Coach Saban, he also got a chance to observe Coach Saban with Miss Terry. That partnership, which you’ve also had a chance to observe, has been so transformative, in so many ways, it had to provide some “food for thought” for someone who’d also lost his family.

ANSWER: There’s no doubt in my mind that Miss Terry is the real reason that Lane Kiffin rehabilitated his career. Of all the SEC X-files, this is the conspiracy theory that actually makes the most sense.

Miss Terry whipped Kiffin into shape while he was at Alabama. Now if we could just get Miss Terry in the same room with Alabama’s running game, the Crimson Tide might have a chance in the Iron Bowl.

Perhaps it was Miss Terry who ordered Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb out of the booth for the Iron Bowl and to the sidelines.

Grubb coached from the sidelines against Eastern Illinois, but it had nothing to do with last week’s FCS opponent. DeBoer wants Grubb to be on the sidelines for the Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and Eastern Illinois was the practice game. But will Grubb being on the sidelines actually help Alabama’s offensive line block against Auburn’s mighty defensive front?

It could be the change needed to save Alabama’s season. If so, DeBoer will go down as a genius for shaking things up in time to make the College Football Playoff. If not, well, we’ll have to wonder if altering the Tide’s game-day routine this late in the schedule was a byproduct of DeBoer overthinking things after the loss to Oklahoma.

It’s also possible that Miss Terry and husband Nick Saban convinced DeBoer that Jordan-Hare Stadium is haunted and that the ghosts of Iron Bowls past can sometimes interfere with the headphones at the most important times of games.

The reader who reminded me that I’m an idiot will no doubt agree.

Alabama didn’t “dominate” Oklahoma, though. The Tide just gave the Sooners great field position throughout the game, and the Sooners offense didn’t have to do much to win it.

Perhaps that loss is the thing Alabama needed to win the Iron Bowl, though. Miss Terry can only hope.

But if Alabama loses to a backup quarterback who didn’t even play last week for a team that’s 1-6 in the SEC, then, no, the Tide will not be making the playoffs.

Alabama is only a 5.5-point favorite, which is the mathematical equivalent of Las Vegas throwing up its hands and saying, “Who knows? Good luck.”

DeBoer is standing on the cliff of another unacceptable season. If he loses the Iron Bowl, then the angry grumblings in these emails will become mandates to fire the coach and everyone involved with Alabama missing a 12-team playoff for the second year in a row.

With so much speculation surrounding Kiffin, I have to wonder what Joey Freshwater would have done had he been hired at Alabama instead of DeBoer. Would Alabama have won the national championship last season with Jalen Milroe?

My big question isn’t whether or not Kiffin will announce his decision to stay or leave Ole Miss before Saturday’s set of games. I want to know what’s going to happen when Kiffin calls the bluff of his athletics director and doesn’t say a word.

Ole Miss wants an answer about Kiffin’s future, but the SEC’s Sly Fox would be wise to wait and see what happens in the Iron Bowl before committing to anything.

No doubt that would be Miss Terry’s advice, too.

MAILBAG SOUND OFF

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