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A few weeks ago, he was the toast of the town with his best player a sure bet to win the Heisman Trophy and his team seemingly primed to make a run at the College Football Playoff.
Now the job of LSU coach Les Miles is allegedly in jeopardy, according to some media reports, following consecutive ugly losses to Alabama and Ole Miss.
It just goes to show that fortunes have a quick way of changing in the volatile SEC, where cannibalizing your own is a sport in itself.
Here’s a look at 10 other burning questions around the SEC as Week 12 approaches.
1. Can Missouri sustain the high emotion on which it played last week and beat Tennessee in the first game back in Columbia since the campus arrest began? The Tigers endured a surreal week last week with the racially charged campus protests and the subsequent bombshell that coach Gary Pinkel would be stepping down at the end of the season for health reasons, but they responded with what was likely their best game of the year in beating BYU. Playing at that same feverish pitch is unlikely, but it will be an emotional game nonetheless as it will be Senior Day and Pinkel’s last home game. The Vols had best beware.
2. How will Kenyan Drake’s loss affect Alabama? It will be a significant blow, but coach Nick Saban’s team is deep enough and talented enough to withstand it. The speedy Drake, who will be out a few weeks with a fractured arm, provided an excellent change of pace to the bruising running style of Derrick Henry and was an excellent pass catcher out of the backfield. Freshmen Damien Harris and Bo Scarbrough will get more touches in Drake’s absence, but neither can do as much as Drake.
3. Why would Georgia RB Keith Marshall leave Athens for the NFL after this year when he still has a year of eligibility left? The tough-luck fourth-year junior has battled a string of serious injuries since coming to Georgia as a five-star recruit and will graduate from the Terry School of Business in December. The writing for Marshall has been on the wall for a while now as he’s seen limited action this year, even with the loss of Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in October. The addition of several hot-shot recruits like Elijah Holyfield next year, and the return of both Chubb and Sony Michel, probably made his choice a relatively easy one.
4. Can Jim McElwain get Florida’s struggling passing game on track enough against Florida Atlantic this week before facing Florida State the following week and possibly Alabama in the SEC Championship Game? McElwain has proven he knows how to coach offense, but even his magic has its limits and he can only play the cards he’s been dealt. Sophomore quarterback Treon Harris is not going to make anybody forget about Will Grier anytime soon, but McElwain can make some adjustments that would do better to capitalize on Harris’ skills. Expect to see more zone read calls and quicker-developing, high-percentage plays that require less of Harris. The Owls will provide a good warm-up this weekend, but it’s going to be tough for Florida to beat either the Seminoles or Crimson Tide with no real threat of a vertical passing game.
5. Will the change at quarterback be enough for Kentucky to snap a five-game losing streak and still somehow qualify for a bowl game? Redshirt freshman Drew Barker will get the starting nod in place of Patrick Towles against Charlotte on Saturday, but the Wildcats’ problems run considerably deeper than who’s lining up under center. A sieve UK defense that has surrendered an average of 34.5 points per game during the five-game losing streak and ranks last in the SEC in scoring defense at 28.1 points per game is the real culprit.
6. What has happened to the LSU offensive line? A unit that was supposed to have been among the team’s strongest has disappeared in recent weeks, failing to either open holes for tailback Leonard Fournette or protect quarterback Brandon Harris. Arkansas entered last week with just 8 sacks for the whole season, but managed 5 sacks of Harris in a 31-14 upset in Baton Rouge. The Tigers simply must do better up front.
7. Who will start at quarterback for Texas A&M this week? Not even coach Kevin Sumlin knows for sure at this point – or at least he’s not saying anyway – as he re-opened the quarterback competition this week. Freshman Kyler Murray has started the last three weeks but has thrown 5 interceptions in the past two games and is lucky not to have tossed more. Murray will battle with sophomore Kyle Allen, the former starter, and third-year sophomore Jake Hubenak for the job. Sumlin says he just wants more consistency from the position as the Aggies prepare to play at Vanderbilt on Saturday.
8. Is the recent Tennessee surge for real? The Volunteers have won three consecutive games, but beating Kentucky, South Carolina and North Texas is hardly the stuff of which legends are made. Coach Butch Jones’ team figures to get a more accurate assessment of how far it has come during Saturday night’s game at Missouri. It will be the Tigers’ first campus game since the protests began, as well as Senior Day and the final home game for coach Gary Pinkel. Mizzou will be geeked up, so the Vols can expect to get their best shot. We’ll know more about UT’s progress then.
9. Vanderbilt appears to be making big strides as of late. Can the Commodores knock off Texas A&M? It’s certainly a possibility as Vandy boasts one of the SEC’s stingiest defenses, and the mistake-prone Aggies are struggling with turnovers as they head to Nashville.
10. Is there a hotter team in the nation right now than Arkansas? Alabama might be the only team hotter right now than the Razorbacks, who have now won four consecutive games after losing four of their first six and nearly losing their way. A balanced offense buoyed by tailback Alex Collins, quarterback Brandon Allen and a strong offensive line has been on a tear as of late, averaging better than 50 points per game over the last four contests. Mississippi State will have its hands full in trying to slow down the Hogs Express on Saturday evening.
John Hollis is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Georgia and Florida.
