Here are 10 random thoughts after watching every SEC game this weekend:

  1. LSU’s Leonard Fournette probably is the best RB in the SEC right now. Everyone laughed when I suggested in February that LSU RB Leonard Fournette would be better than Georgia RB Nick Chubb in 2015. Most fans even said my rankings were “a complete joke.” But, just as I said then, Fournette is going to be scary when he taps into his balance, speed and agility. In 2014, he seemed determined to grab the ball and immediately run into — and over — the first person he saw. Now he’s mixing his skills without thinking, and it looks so natural. Chubb was much further into that progression in ’14. Now that Fournette is there as well, it’s a real argument as to which player is the SEC’s best back.
  2. Auburn’s front seven without Carl Lawson is atrocious. As if we didn’t learn this lesson in 2014, LSU hammered it home for us Saturday. All due respect to Fournette, but any middle-aged, semi-athletic intramural scrub could’ve gained yards in chunks against Auburn with the gaping caverns that the LSU offensive line was creating. If Lawson is out for the year, I can’t foresee that defense being good enough to keep the team in ball games against top teams.
  3. The days of winning championships with defense are over — or at least gone until further notice. Alabama used to win by smashing offenses with big, hulking defenders and then bludgeoning defenses with a power running game. That formula isn’t all that effective any more, even with the SEC’s best talent. We saw that in Saturday’s 43-37 win by Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa. The Tide wanted to run the football, but were forced to turn to a relative weakness in the passing game because turnovers, and eventually the Ole Miss offense, but the Tide in a hole. Also, did anyone catch the Florida-Kentucky fiasco? If so, did you come away impressed with the defenses, or thinking neither team has any shot at winning the SEC East? The formula also isn’t working well for Arkansas. Even Georgia looked good in part because of a ridiculous completion percentage for Greyson Lambert.
  4. Texas A&M’s defense hasn’t reinvented itself just yet. There are reasons for optimism. John Chavis has simplified the defense and made it more aggressive. The addition of Daylon Mack already is providing dividends. The linebackers are making incremental progress. Thus far, Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall have an argument for best pass-rush tandem in the SEC. Saturday’s performance wasn’t as glaring as the 481 yards the Aggies allowed in a seemingly innocuous 38-10 win against Rice in 2014. But, coupled with Arizona State’s continued struggles on offense since A&M thrashed that unit to open the season, the occasionally lax defense against Nevada in Week 3 portends some soft spots that still should be exploitable by good offenses. But hurry much like those dipped cones with the butterscotch syrup, they’re hardening fast.
  5. The SEC is top heavy this year. Look at the SEC’s non-conference performance against the spread in Weeks 2 and 3 (4-10 combined). Or look at the slip from 10 to six teams in the Associated Press Top 25. Or look at the SEC East, seemingly no closer to the West Division than it was last year. Right now there are five strong teams in the SEC (Georgia, Ole Miss, LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M), and then nine tenuous others. But, once bowl season ends, isn’t that what matters? Who won the national championship, and which conferences advanced in the College Football Playoffs rather than how many bowl bids a particular league claimed? It may be a good thing for the SEC, which just one month ago looked nearly unnavigable.
  6. Dak Prescott vs. Jeremy Johnson isn’t what it seemed. Before the season, I was among those trumpeting Johnson as a quarterback who could potentially challenge Prescott for All-SEC status. I admitted the folly of that assertion prior to Week 3, but still felt like Johnson’s play could stabilize once he settled into the role. Maybe the close call against Jacksonville State was what he needed, I rationalized. Nope. Instead, coach Gus Malzahn is left to seriously contemplate pulling Johnson in favor of Sean White, who is still fermenting within the Auburn system. This Saturday’s quarterback matchup in the Mississippi State-Auburn game? Not so marquee.
  7. Teams with impact freshmen have a significant advantage. Not too long ago, most 18-year-old kids needed a year or two in a college strength program, plus their first real dose of high-level coaching, before they were ready to leverage NFL type athleticism into SEC production. Those days are gone. Just like teams can get hammered by losing elite talent to the NFL draft through early entry, or NFL teams can take advantage of great quarterbacks still on rookie contracts, SEC teams who can turn true freshmen into assets have an exploitable edge. Despite an abundance of talent, Alabama has struggled to do that, left tackle Cam Robinson aside. But Texas A&M — with Myles Garrett, Speedy Noil and Kyle Allen last year and Christian Kirk and Daylon Mack this year — has infused ready-made prep talent with a layer of veterans.
  8. Georgia isn’t going to excite you often, but the Bulldogs are built to win. Bulldogs coordinator Brian Schottenheimer lived on the margins in the NFL, a good fit only for coaches like Rex Ryan and Jeff Fisher who love to play physical, hard-nosed, risk-averse football. But while that style doesn’t play well in today’s NFL, it suits Georgia — with a built-in talent advantage at the line of scrimmage most weeks — just fine. Sure, Chubb will dazzle us at times. I realize Lambert just completed nearly two-dozen consecutive passes. But UGA doesn’t have to delve deep into the playbook and go wild each week. Expect a lot of controlled, methodical games that some fans and media take out of context, questioning whether Georgia is a good team. Don’t buy it. The Bulldogs are good.
  9. Missouri is in better shape than last season. OK, so the Tigers can’t run the ball when Russell Hansbrough (ankle) is hurt. Quarterback Maty Mauk, a grizzled veteran by SEC standards, may not be better than the baby-faced true freshman Drew Lock. The team’s receivers are greener than a square mile of Amazon jungle. Arguably the team’s best defensive player exiting spring, Harold Brantley (car accident), will not play football in 2015. But with a defense good enough to smother the likes of Southeast Missouri State and Connecticut, it hasn’t mattered. Mizzou is 3-0, one win better than at this time last year, when the Tigers secured consecutive East Division titles. And the schedule won’t get all that much harder. Expect another year with a mound of wins.
  10. There’s a real chance we just witnessed Vanderbilt’s only win of 2015. The Commodores — and at least some SEC fans — would like to think that Vandy is good enough to beat the likes of Houston and Middle Tennessee State. But right now, the Commodores have a 44.4 percent chance of beating the Cougars and a 30.9 percent chance of beating the Blue Raiders, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index. Perhaps Vandy can bring the ‘A’ game against Missouri, South Carolina and Kentucky and come out with at least one win. But the possibility for 1-11 is there.