A great weekend of football in the SEC reinforced the emerging storylines of the maturing season. In many ways, it was many of the same storylines from the early portion of the season. The SEC West provided a dramatic game highlighted by two potent offenses. It also saw two teams possibly looking ahead to big games. The SEC East continued its schizophrenic play with teams being up one week and down the next. As we do every Monday let’s look at what happened, what people are saying, and what it really means.
SEC Week 5 Reality Check: Same Ol’ SEC
Game of the Week:
Texas A&M 35, Arkansas 28 (OT)
The Reaction: Texas A&M survives upset bid with late rally.
The Reality: Arkansas is a quality team and A&M is playoff caliber; both are a year away though.
An instant classic in Dallas, highlighted by a punter running for a touchdown, brought these two teams into focus for the nation. The common theme here is that both teams are still a year away from where they want to be. Texas A&M is certainly a playoff caliber team on offense but Arkansas exposed the A&M defense against the run. A&M made some adjustments at the half and played a solid second half on defense. The A&M offense struggled (by their standards) until late in the fourth quarter. Arkansas, on the other hand, with close loses to A&M and Auburn, might be the best 2-loss team in the nation (West Virginia, Clemson). And while they are a quality team and will have an impact on the SEC West this year, they are still a year away – both systematically and talent wise – from competing for the West championship. In the end, A&M were able to wear down and outlast a young and not-as-deep Razorback team in front of hosting alumnus Jerry Jones.
Georgia 35, Tennessee 32
The Reaction: Georgia also survives upset bid, possibly not as good as initially expected.
The Reality: This is the future of the key regular season SEC East championship match.
Todd Gurley is the best player in college football, period. Georgia and Tennessee hosted another typical SEC game between the hedges and gave us a preview of the two SEC powers for the next few years. Georgia relied on its experience and its stable of running backs, including Todd Gurley and freshman Nick Chubb, to wear down and outlast a talented, but young Tennessee team. Tennessee, for its part, had opportunities. The Vols fumbled away the ball in their own endzone giving Georgia a defensive score; and were unable to move the ball when starting quarterback Justin Worley missed several series in the second half due to injury. Make no mistake, however, that these two teams expect to be involved in this year’s SEC East race with it being as wide open as it is. They also expect to be the best two teams in the years to come as well.
Missouri 21, South Carolina 20
The Reaction: South Carolina blows late lead and chance at SEC East crown.
The Reality: South Carolina refuses to win an SEC East crown.
This is the epitome of the SEC East this year: Missouri loses to Indiana, at home, and then goes into Columbia and beats South Carolina. South Carolina gets blown out by Texas A&M, comes back and beats a great Georgia team, and then coughs up a late lead against Missouri at home. It just seems like whatever they do, South Carolina does not want to win the SEC East division. The Gamecocks now have two division loses and are now three games behind Missouri in a head-to-head tiebreak. Missouri, for its part, still has no SEC losses and get Georgia at home after a bye week. They do draw both Texas A&M and Arkansas out of the West this year, neither of which is a good match-up for the Tigers. If Missouri can find their rhythm and improve their defense, they still have a great shot at winning the East.
Kentucky 17, Vanderbilt 7
The Reaction: Kentucky outlasts Vandy in a messy affair.
The Reality: Kentucky has come back down to reality and Vandy is very bad.
Vanderbilt had 139 yards of total offense. Kentucky had two fumbles and a pick-6. We knew Vanderbilt was this bad after having more turnovers than points against Temple. The real story here is Kentucky. The Wildcat fans were excited after some early season offense and a missed call induced overtime loss to Florida in Gainesville. If this game had been in Nashville I would give Kentucky a pass. But it was a home game in Lexington and it was the SEC Network’s noon showcase. Kentucky can’t expect to play this way and survive against South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee. Kentucky fans have to wondering if their early season success was just a mirage and their high hopes for improvement this year are unfounded, or if this team is just looking ahead to the tough part of their schedule.
Auburn 45, Louisiana Tech 17
The Reaction: Auburn keeps rolling ahead of the meat of their schedule.
The Reality: Auburn looks sluggish for three quarters, then wakes up.
This game was 24-10 for Auburn going into the fourth quarter. That’s two games in a row where the Auburn offense has been sluggish for more than half a game. Auburn better get whatever is slowing them down fixed because starting this week they have six games with five teams in the top 15 (although I don’t think LSU is a legit top 15 team) and the other being agains South Carolina. They will not survive that stretch playing a quarter or two of good football each game.
Ole Miss 24, Memphis 3
The Reaction: Ole Miss gears up for Alabama with win over Memphis.
The Reality: Ole Miss was looking ahead to Alabama.
This game was 7-3 going into the fourth quarter and not decided until there was less than 10 minutes to play. Here’s two stats for you: Ole Miss had 10 penalties for 117 yards and four turnovers (two interceptions, two fumbles). Ole Miss played very similar to their opening win against Boise State with a great defensive effort and sloppy play from the offensive. That’s good enough to beat mediocre teams like Boise State and Memphis, but not any of the other teams in the SEC West. With ESPN setting up shop in The Grove this Saturday, Ole Miss will need to again fix those penalties and turnovers or their Top 10 ranking will quickly be a thing of the past. And with the SEC West as competitive as it is, Ole Miss can’t afford to play like this against any of their future opponents.
LSU 63, New Mexico State 7
The Reaction: LSU gets back on track with romp against New Mexico State.
The Reality: LSU is in trouble.
Well, at least we know one thing coming out of Baton Rouge from this weekend: Brandon Harris is the starter for LSU. Harris had an impressive stat line (11/17/178/3/0) after being inserted for Brandon Jennings who threw two interceptions. Harris ought to be the starter going forward for LSU. And freshman running back Leonard Fournette (122 yards, 2 TD) continues to improve. But make no mistake, New Mexico State is a terrible team. Their two wins were against Cal Poly and Georgia State. There are 112th in the NCAA in defensive points allowed. Putting up 63 against New Mexico State tells us nothing. What’ll really tell us something is when LSU goes on the road to Auburn this Saturday. How will this young team fare against an Auburn team trying to make its way into the new playoffs? Look for LSU to take another one on the chin this weekend on the Plains.
Overall SEC Analysis:
The conference had another great weekend. The SEC West continues to dominate college football and the East, while not as good, is shaping up to be a tight and dramatic race for the Division Championship. The most intriguing storyline thus far has been the emergence of some non-traditional powers with quality football teams: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Arkansas. Auburn and LSU are traditional powers that are trying to stay at the top of the league by fighting off the upstarts. Texas A&M and Missouri are trying to work themselves into the “traditional power” team category. Alabama continues to roll along and we still aren’t sure what to make of the East teams. Is Tennessee a legitimate division contender? How far away is Florida? Which South Carolina team will show up week-in and week-out? Can Georgia survive the loss to the Gamecocks? Next week will be the beginning of the separation of the contenders from the pretenders. As the season carries on, we will get to know more than the reaction – we will learn the reality.
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