The SEC starts to take shape
After a busy weekend, we’re finally starting to get some notion of the SEC’s pecking order. It was hyped up as a special weekend in the SEC, with four games featuring ranked v. ranked teams, a defensive battle in Athens, and an expected shootout in Tuscaloosa. But instead, we got five blowouts, and the only game that lived up to its billing was hardly a well-played or crisp effort by either Mizzou or Mississippi State.
But we did learn a lot. Here is where teams stand entering October, the traditional start of the SEC’s hellish gauntlet.
The Contenders
1. Georgia (LW1): This looks to be the SEC’s only complete team. That said, Oklahoma’s offense was hardly a test for the Dawgs defense, and the next-best team UGA has played was…Arkansas. Before the DWAGS head to Tuscaloosa, they don’t get a true peer-level workout either, not hosting Vandy this week. What a gross schedule.
2. Texas (LW 2): Arch is so damn maddening. He’ll make an on-platform NFL throw, then be cheeks for the next two drives. The running game also suddenly has serious questions, as well as injury concerns. It may not matter with that defense though. The secondary is outstanding, and the defensive line is almost good enough to win a natty by themselves. Steve Sarkisian: Defensive guru, just like we all predicted.
3. Alabama (LW 4): Sure, the secondary doesn’t come to play one week, and the defensive line the next, the coaching staff pulls the air out of the ball way too early, and Alabama is still trying to find a complete game, but it may not matter with that offense. Put this group with Texas’s defense, and you may have an all-time GOAT college squad by the end of the season. But the training wheels come off now: the Tide face five straight against ranked teams, so this young group has some growing up to do…fast.
4. Florida (LW 5): We all knew Jadan Baugh was the nation’s best running back. We all knew Sumrall was going to be a marked improvement over Billy Football, but this team has a killer instinct most squads would die for, and the hyper-efficient, hyper-acccurate Aaron Philo means teams can’t just crowd the line either. They’re content to nickel-and-dime you. This is a damn good team that never lacked the talent, and a sleeping giant has awoken in Gainesville, I fear…no matter how bad that secondary is, and it is bad.
It may not matter with Baby Bijian and Duke Clark forming the nation’s most ferocious RB tandem. This team is suddenly a contender, and I am eternally glad Auburn botched that hire. LOL.
5. Mississippi State (LW 6): We have to put them here, right? Especially with wins over 3-1 Minnesota, 3-1 Mizzou, and a road W over Sakerlina, right? The defense has a ton of question marks that are showing up with each passing week, but (deserved) Heisman candidate Kamario Taylor is good for at least 30 on the scoreboard every week. He and Russell are going to feed families next week in the battle of SEC QB supremacy. Their defense is ripe for some plucking though, and Alabama will be the first good (and perhaps best) passing attack they face all season.
The Middle Class
6. LSU (LW 7): When the best team that money can buy meets a motivated coaching staff, LSU can be scary-good in many ways. But you still don’t trust Sam Leavitt when the defense is having problems in the secondary (and they do), and the ground game isn’t getting it done. Injuries are starting to pile up as well, with the Tiger losing their best safety, and Will Weeks is gone for the season. The schedule is difficult too. There’s some more losing on the horizon for LSU, I suspect.
7. Ole Miss (LW 4): The Rebels instantly suffer a demotion based on two things. 1. That defensive line is a sieve. Baugh is the nation’s best, and Duke is a superb backup, but Jesus, have some pride. The secondary doesn’t come up to help and the linebackers are non-entities. It already wasn’t a great defense vs. the run; it has turned into a dreadful one. 2. This team flat-out quits. Where LSU may get down 17-0 and battle back, based on what we saw yesterday, the Rebels don’t have that dog in them. Speaking of dogs, with Trinidad Chambliss under center, and the Rebs’ defensive issues, this team is looking sneakily like their archrivals in Starkvegas.
8. Tennessee (LW 8): They showed us something yesterday, and most of it was not good: That running game was illusory; they have a QB that the staff either do not trust or who is afraid of throwing the ball; the defensive line is damn good, and so is the secondary; but the offensive line is miserable; and outside of Staley, none of the wideouts can get separation on their routes, compounding the problem of surrendering pressure on Faizon Brandon. Yeah, the Horns defense is going to make a lot of teams look bad. But no OL should look that bad. Even UTSA played better up front. Still, there is a lot of talent here, and the Bama game is in Knoxville, so it always concerns you.
9. Kentucky (LW 9): Getting your shit pushed in for a half by South Alabama doesn’t imbue one with confidence; for about an hour, Wildcats fans had to be thinking, “same ole’ Kentucky.” But the second half response, and their ability to adjust out of the locker room, was superb. This is one of the best staffs in the SEC in terms of in-game diagnosis and response…at least with everyone not named “Alabama” that is. That funky offense and stout DL are going to pose problems to almost everyone who’s not seen the former and underestimates the latter.
10. Mizzou (LW 10): Last night showed us a bit about the Tigers. 1. They miss Ahmad Hardy in the worst possible way; 2. The passing game is going to have to bail them out of a lot of games this year, and I don’t know that it can; 3. The defense isn’t as good as recent Mizzou vintage, particularly the back end. Everything about this team screams “7-5.” And yet, they still could have won a night game in Starkville.
11. South Carolina (LW 15): Hard to believe looking at the final score, but the Gamecocks outplayed ‘Bama in the first quarter, and with a QB who could hit the broad side of a barn, had a real shot at putting 17-21 points on the board. The running game is outstanding and deep, and there isn’t an ounce of quit or lack of fire on the squad. That said, where it’s bad, it’s really bad: looking at you, LaNorris Sellers and an entire secondary. The inner turmoil may be what dooms them most. Dylan Stewart tanked his draft stock last night and may very well get kicked off the team, and Shane Beamer is at real risk of losing this locker room. Hard to think of an SEC team more in a need of a win than the Gamecocks. This season can rebound into respectability or take a quick death spiral into Beamer Buyout territory.
The Dregs
12. Oklahoma (LW 11): I don’t think I’ve clapped eyes on a worse offense in the last two decades than what Brent Venables is trotting out this season. It’s beyond Shula-bad…it’s Croom-bad. BV is wasting a world of Top 10 defensive talent. It’s going to get him fired too. And it’s not like you can solely blame John Mateer either, although I will gladly entertain arguments that he’s the worst the SEC has under center.
13. Auburn (LW 14): All the Vandy game proved is that the Tigers at home are slightly less shitty than the Commodores. And that doesn’t say a whole lot at the end of the day.
14. Texas A&M (LW 12): I say this in all honesty: I think Auburn could beat this team on a neutral field. Awful quarterbacking, a coach who thinks he’s the most clever man in the room, a defensive line that can’t stop a toddler from running with scissors, and a secondary that is shaping up to be one of the SEC’s worst, and certainly its most disappointing.
15. Vanderbilt (LW 14): Only by the grace of God is this team not .500 entering October. We knew it was going to be a rebuilding season, but I don’t know that this group makes it to a bowl game. That said, being disappointed that Vandy is rebuilding misses a bowl is a helluva’ lot different than VU historically has been, and that’s a testament to Clark Lea. They get a lot of very little and very inexperienced talent.
16. Arkansas (LW 16): They still put down horses that break a leg, right? Don’t let the Tulsa score fool you: this team can lose 10 games this year, and very well may. There’s not another win on the schedule.
Alrighty, there’s our Power Poll for Week 4. How do you have the top stacked? Who’s the better bet: The Horns or the Bulldogs?
I disagree on the quit in South Carolina. I saw a whole lot of quit in Stewart. The wild part is SC fans are blaming Beamer for how he played and sulked on the sidelines.
I blame the refs for not ejecting his ass after the first punch was thrown. I believe he threw two more during the game but I didn’t witness it.
One star losing his shit isn’t an indictment of the whole team though.
Look at their final offensive drive, mixing up run/pass and moving the chains. Still ringing up TFL and pressuring Russell defensively on his last drive.
Stewart may have given up, that team didn’t
aTm is no longer ranked, so as of now it’s four ranked opponents in five games.
On another note, MSU’s next game after Bama is @LSU. But I just noticed they have a bye week in between. Nice to see the corndogs getting stuck with an opponent off an unreciprocated bye for once. I thing Clanga has a real shot to pull that upset. Would be awesome to see Lane go 0-fer-Mississippi his first year on the bayou. I continue to maintain he may not see year 2 if things go sufficiently sour, especially after he dragged them into that courtroom circus.
From your mouth to God’s ears, brother.
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but there’s a decent chance ‘Barn could be ranked in the Arn Bow. The Ags have a pretty decent chance of winning their next four straight too. Could be T25 again by the time ‘Bama plays them at the end of the month. But for now, yeah, as of today’s polls the Aggies fell out of the rankings.
LSU can’t afford to fire Lane. They’d have to find some way to fire him for cause because there is no way they can pay his buyout on top of Kelly’s and go hire a new coach.
They Paid Lane Kiffin $90 million, and are paying Bryan Kelly $54 million. Their roster cost allegedly $50 million. That is almost a quarter of a billion. And we’re not even talking assistants yet.
They don’t have any money to get rid of anyone. And they certainly don’t have the money to piss off the SEC like they are doing.
Excellent point. Of course, if someone asked you to name the coach most likely to provide a good reason to invoke the “for cause” provision, Joey Freshwater would be a solid choice.