It might not have been a deep slate, but we had questions galore in Week 4 in the SEC.
Could Josh Heupel get the last laugh against Oklahoma in his return to Norman? Could Auburn find a quarterback? Could Florida find a … pulse?
We got answers to all of those questions and then some.
Here were the biggest SEC takeaways from Week 4:
Tennessee just doesn’t flinch, which is scary
For the first time since 2006, Tennessee beat an AP top-15 team on the road. For the first time in even longer than that, Tennessee might just have itself a complete team with national championship upside.
Scary. I know.
Tennessee put itself in that conversation because of how dominant that defense looks already. After not allowing a touchdown for the first 19 quarters of the season, Oklahoma finally ended that after a quarterback change (more on that in a second). But Tennessee kept Oklahoma at arm’s length because the Sooners’ rushing attack was non-existent and neither OU quarterback had enough time to attack downfield against a Vols’ defense that surrendered 222 total yards.
The crazy thing is that Tennessee was in control even though Nico Iamaleava didn’t have a high-volume day and the disciplined Oklahoma defense held Tennessee to 3.3 yards/carry (sack-adjusted). This was by no means a vintage Josh Heupel win. In the Heupel era, the Vols were 1-9 when scoring less than 30 points. Before Saturday, he was 1-12 as a head coach when his teams scored less than 30 points.
Needless to say, Heupel’s team has a different identity.
Oklahoma has a QB debate
Jackson Arnold was benched before halftime following 3 turnovers. In Arnold’s defense, he didn’t get much help on that offensive line and it didn’t make things any easier against that loaded Tennessee defense that he lost home-run hitting receiver Nic Anderson almost immediately after he made his return to the lineup. So far, Arnold’s lack of success in the downfield passing game and on third down has been major factors in that. Ball security issues were the bigger issue Saturday,
But yeah, the door opened wide with true freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.’s second-half performance. After a rocky start, he led a pair of touchdown drives and provided some life for an offense that has yet to find its identity in 2024. Kirk Herbstreit declared on the broadcast that Hawkins deserved to be the quarterback moving forward. Brent Venables wasn’t as committal afterward.
Either way, Oklahoma fans aren’t used to watching an offense struggle that mightily. That makes for a tricky situation moving forward for Venables.
I don’t want to hear Mizzou in the Playoff conversation anytime soon
I know, I know. Survive and advance. A win is a win.
But after needing a shanked field goal to survive Vanderbilt at home, let’s call it what it is. Nothing about Mizzou suggests it has Playoff DNA. Well, Luther Burden III does when he keeps his emotions in check. And I suppose there are some positives with guys like Nate Noel, who ran away with the starting running back job, as well as former Florida transfer Chris McClellan on the defensive line.
Still, though. That game confirmed much of what we thought the first 3 weeks. That is, Mizzou doesn’t have things clicking yet. The deep-ball issues are part of it, and averaging 72 penalty yards per game isn’t ideal for an offense that needs to stay on schedule. At least it does until it figures out that downfield passing attack.
Mizzou earned the right to start in the top 10. A team that returned that much offensive firepower after an 11-win season was worthy of preseason love. But after 4 weeks, the Tigers deserve plenty of criticism for a slow start.
Auburn doesn’t have a quarterback, and that’s a massive, massive problem
First of all, credit former Auburn linebacker/current Arkansas DC Travis Williams and that defense for the performance it delivered on Saturday. That group sent Hank Brown to the showers early after a 3-interception, scoreless first half. No, he didn’t “dominate Arkansas” because whenever he made those mistakes, Arkansas made him pay.
But mercy, what a disastrous day for Hugh Freeze’s quarterback room.
Freeze was livid on the radio going into Half. He said “I gotta find a QB that doesn’t turn the freaking ball over. We got receivers running open and we’re throwing it to the other team.”
— AUFAMILY (@AUFAMILY) September 21, 2024
He had to turn to Payton Thorne to “bail” Auburn out. While Thorne was able to connect with KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a pair of touchdowns, that was still a brutal pill to swallow. Thorne isn’t the answer, and even a comeback win wouldn’t have changed that. Instead, Freeze looks like he’s at the same spot he was at last year. That is, without an option at the game’s most important position.
That’s a daunting thought for the schedule that awaits.
The Harold Perkins knee injury put a damper on the second half, but maybe the schedule sets up well
It’s too bad that Perkins got banged up late on Saturday because after a slow start, LSU’s defense showed much more discipline in the second half against a previously lost UCLA team. But in fitting LSU defense fashion, the star linebacker limped to the locker room after he tried to make an open-field tackle. At first, it looked like Perkins suffered a shoulder injury, but a knee injury was the diagnosis.
The good news for LSU is that the upcoming schedule could possibly be conservative with Perkins, depending on the severity of the injury. Next week is South Alabama, albeit an offense that put up a combined 135 points the last 2 weeks. LSU will get a bye week after that before the Ole Miss game.
The bad news is LSU’s most impactful defensive player needs to be right in order for this group to find some more consistency. In Year 1 with Blake Baker, it’s been a bit more quarter-to-quarter than week to week both with personnel shuffling and results. Ethan Garbers found that out when he picked apart LSU’s secondary in the first half to earn a tie at the break as a 24-touchdown underdog.
Fingers crossed that Perkins avoided a serious injury.
I was more discouraged by Florida’s run defense than I was encouraged by Florida’s offense
Two things were worth remembering this week. One was that Toledo went into Starkville and put up 41 points with 454 yards of offense. The other is that Mississippi State averaged 45 rushing yards on 1.67 yards/carry in its 2 games vs. FBS competition this year … which included the likes of an Arizona State team that was picked to finish last in the Big 12 and a MAC team that ranked bottom 15 in FBS in percentage of returning production.
So, forgive me for saying this, but yeah, it was alarming that Mississippi State ran the ball for 255 yards (that’s sack-adjusted). Like, really alarming. More alarming than allowing a team with a backup QB in his first career start to enter The Swamp and run for 310 yards en route to its first road game in 3 years. Jeff Lebby elected to run the ball twice as much as he threw it, which is telling for a game that Mississippi State never led.
The good news for Florida is that it finally got a favorable matchup for the 2-quarterback system. Mississippi State didn’t have an answer for Graham Mertz or DJ Lagway, both of whom got whatever they wanted.
The bad news is that Florida’s run defense is one of the worst in the country and it hasn’t even been through the SEC gauntlet yet.
The loser in Starkville (Mississippi State) just missed its best chance to win an SEC game in 2024
To be fair, this was a take I had entering the day. It wasn’t particularly bold considering that these teams were 1-13 in their previous 14 combined games vs. FBS competition with the lone win being Mississippi State’s win against Southern Miss last year (it was a 1-score game in the middle of the 4th quarter). And based on what we’ve seen from these 2 teams against FBS competition so far, yeah, it’s safe to say their remaining SEC schedules are all sorts of daunting.
For Mississippi State, 5 of those 7 remaining SEC games are against top-10 teams in the AP Poll while Florida’s got top-10 foes in 4 of those 6 matchups … with the other 2 being against Kentucky and LSU, both of whom have won at least 3 in a row against Florida.
You get what I’m saying. By losing that game and losing Blake Shapen to a season-ending shoulder injury, Mississippi State is in a ton of trouble, especially when you realize that defense will face the likes of Quinn Ewers/Arch Manning, Carson Beck, Nico Iamaleava, Brady Cook and Jaxson Dart.
Woof.
Arch Manning’s first career start was a major win for Texas
Multiple interceptions aren’t what you’d like to see from someone in his first career start, but this situation was a bit different. For starters, Manning could’ve thrown 5 interceptions and still been in position to earn a win against Louisiana-Monroe. Fortunately for Texas, that didn’t happen. Also fortunately for Texas, Manning didn’t have a confidence-killing outing by any means even though he had 2 picks.
His confidence to let it rip was on display with a bomb to Isaiah Bond. That was important because it was after that interception on his first drive. Steve Sarkisian gave Manning plenty of opportunities to throw on the move, which already looks like it’s a strength of the redshirt freshman. With a week of prep, Manning showed he could make a variety of throws and run an offense that’s prepared to face him.
Leading up to Manning’s first start — that came 56 years to the day after grandpa Archie’s first career start at Ole Miss — Sarkisian squashed any wild notion that he’d steal Quinn Ewers’ job. The better question is whether Manning will start off SEC play for the Longhorns next week against Mississippi State. That’ll depend on Ewers’ status as he returns from the oblique strain (Texas has a bye the following week).
Either way, Manning is officially on the board as a college starter.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
