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Cole Cubelic broke down the best and worst parts of Week 9 for all SEC teams who played.
There were five SEC matchups on Saturday. There weren’t any upsets that rivaled the likes of Kansas snapping a huge losing streak to Oklahoma, but there were still plenty of exciting games.
Tennessee beat Kentucky in Lexington. Georgia dominated Florida in Jacksonville, and Ole Miss continued rolling against Vanderbilt.
South Carolina’s comeback against Texas A&M came up short and Auburn beat Mississippi State behind the play of Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne. Thorne had his best game in an Auburn uniform in Week 9 with 230 yards passing and 3 touchdowns.
For some teams, this season keeps getting worse. For others, things are starting to look up with just a few more games to go in the regular season.
Whether your team falls in the good, bad, or ugly department Cubelic offered his thoughts on how they played.
Here are Cube’s takes on the play of each SEC team that participated in Saturday’s action:
We do it each week…MY Sunday SEC takeaways:
AUBURN: Needed that win! QB looked totally different. Had confidence. Let go of the ball. Pushed ball down field. Left pocket a tad early. WRs actually helped some, made a few tough catches. 27 huge. Great vision/patience. Made some…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
FLORIDA: Game got to the point that they couldn’t lean on the run. Had the stretch going a little bit at times. 2 was good. 1 made plays. 22 helped. Couldn’t protect the QB. Rough day for the RT. Not sure about the compressed sets. Not much space in the quick game. 1 showed up on…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
GEORGIA: Won the line of scrimmage. The new faces up front on def were impressive. 52, 35, 93, 29…11 was great in pass rush. 10 caused problems on pressures, fit run well. 23 best game in GA uniform, batted balls, played run, even set the edge! 7 nice as well. Compressed the…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
KENTUCKY: Tough loss. QB had it going. Good/decisive leaving pocket. Legs helped. Good job with using 1 in different ways. Defense sold out to stop the run. Took freebies. Missed some of the add on defenders. WRs better. 6 made some tough grabs. 85 & TEs played well. 0 disrupted…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
MISSISSIPPI STATE: Rough one. Mostly played hard. Thought they were a bit too aggressive on def. Allows for some chunk plays. Misdirection was a struggle. 14 was great, lot of A gap pressures that were effective, won vs C. Got good reps with 10 playing edge. Too much double A gap…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
OLE MISS: Solid conf win. 4 got going early. Altered how the pull backside tackle in run game again. 24 going to be a big help down the stretch. Spread the reps out on off a little more. Getting close to 100% & that got most guys back to normal spots. 19 dynamic. QB off on a few.…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
SOUTH CAROLINA: Started out ok & just couldn’t last. So beat up it’s gotta be tough. OL can’t take many more hits. 24 sees the zone stuff well. Just not much space. 8 showed signs but also showed the consistency issues. 1 gave good effort. QB starting bailing a bit early but…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
TENNESSEE: Great win. Leaned on run game & it worked. Gap scheme was beautiful. Altered the TE inserts & assignments. Backs ran hard. 0 was excellent. Added Q runs & took free grass. They had number count & didn’t get greedy. 76 good effort. They struggled in pass pro. Had the 1…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
TEXAS A&M: DL dominant again but 45 is playing out of his mind. Been really fun to watch & that was up there with his best performances. 1 made some plays. 10 was a problem up front. Made life difficult on the opposing QB. Limited flags & won 3rd down. Offense took a bit to get…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
VANDERBILT: Not sure about the QB situation. I know they want A GUY at that spot. Protection did not allow for much. Attention on 14 should have opened up more. 2 has big ability & potential but that playbook was too limited. I thought 28 needed more touches & 6 not in backfield…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) October 30, 2023
Grant Bricker was a former freelancer for The News TN in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. He now freelances for Saturday Football. Follow on Twitter @GrantBricker.
