Saturday Down South’s Weekend Awards: Week 8

Now that all of the cigar smoke from inside Bryant-Denny Stadium has wafted into the atmosphere, it’s time to dive into our weekly awards here at Saturday Down South, where we give some well-deserved recognition to the best and brightest of the previous weekend. Let’s dive right in!

Biggest Winner of the Weekend/Most Impressive Player I Saw This Weekend: Diego Pavia

Let’s start here: The program turnaround that Clark Lea has facilitated in Nashville has been remarkable, and by no means are the Vanderbilt Commodores a one-man show, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the Diego Pavia hype, isn’t it? Pavia seems to be catnip for the college football media, and on Saturday afternoon against the visiting LSU Tigers, the 24-year-old who began his career at the New Mexico Military Institute turned in a Heisman-worthy performance, and capping it off with the most famous pose in all of sports late in the game.

Pavia completed 14-of-22 passes for 160 yards and a score, plus he added 86 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground in Vanderbilt’s 31-24 win over LSU. Now the Commodores have cracked the Top 10 in the AP Poll for the first time since 1937, and this Saturday, Vandy will be hosting College GameDay with the 1-loss Missouri Tigers coming to town. If Pavia delivers again, the hype will begin to border on hysteria, and you know what, I’m here for it!

Biggest Loser of the Weekend: Billy Napier 

Poor Billy Napier, huh? The guy is just 3 weeks removed from beating the preseason No. 1 team in the country, and just hours removed from earning another hard-fought SEC win, and then he gets the axe? That’s cold-blooded right there, though I can’t sit here and pretend it probably isn’t the right decision for the school.

For the record, I’m not even thinking about how Florida is going to do in 2 weeks when it faces Georgia, and how they finish out the rest of the 2025 season. This is a program that has been out of the spotlight for far too long, and this coaching hire could dictate if they return to the spotlight any time in the next 3 years.

The university went the G5 route when they hired Napier, and that didn’t yield positive results. This time around, I’d expect Florida to make a big swing. James Franklin (formerly Penn State, now unemployed), Rhett Lashlee (SMU), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) and Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri) to all end up in the mix as candidates.

Overreaction of the Week: Texas A&M is the best team in the SEC!

I know that that Aggies are the last remaining undefeated team in the SEC, and sure, they earned an impressive win over the surging Notre Dame Fighting Irish down in South Bend last month, but let’s all just take a sip of settle down juice, okay? A&M hasn’t played any of the heavy hitters in the SEC yet, and the Aggies will avoid Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma this season. But visits to Baton Rouge (this Saturday) and Columbia, South Carolina (November 8) over the next 3 weeks will test the Aggies mettle, and maybe even show us that despite the 7-0 start, there are levels in the SEC and A&M isn’t at the top just yet.

Biggest News Outside of the SEC

A new addition to the weekend awards column, because as we get deeper and deeper into the season, it’s becoming more and more important to keep an eye on things happening outside of SEC country. Let’s roll through some of the biggest headlines outside of the Southeastern Conference. 

• Miami loses at home as a double-digit favorite for the fourth time under Mario Cristobal, the most in the FBS since 2022. Do I feel a little foolish for advising that you bet the over on 11.5 wins for Hurricanes just 2 weeks ago? I do, but fortunately, that might not even crack the top 10 of my worst college football predictions this year. 
• Thanks to Miami’s loss, Indiana moves up to No. 2, the highest ranking in program history. And don’t look now, but the Hoosiers don’t have another ranked opponent on the schedule, meaning Curt Cignetti’s squad could be just a little over a month away from taking an undefeated record into the Big Ten Championship Game, and who knows, the Hoosiers might be going head-to-head with the top-ranked undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes. Absolutely remarkable.  
• I don’t want to get ahead of myself, because there’s a whole lot of football left to play and this season is proving to be exceptionally wonky, but we’re just 8 combined wins from the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Georgia Bulldogs away from the first edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate where the Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs are ranked in the Top 10 since 1966. I wasn’t alive yet, and chances are, neither were you. Especially after last year’s 8OT classic, I say we spend the rest of the season rooting for this to happen.
• We’ve covered 4 undefeated teams already — Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech — which leaves the BYU Cougars, ranked 11th in the country after a Holy War victory over Utah, as the only team without mention. Remember, the Cougars started last year 9-0 and were ranked 7th in the country when they were stunned by the unranked Kansas Jayhawks in Provo. I don’t necessarily have a great feel for what to expect from BYU moving forward, but I can tell you this… I’m rooting for Bear Bachmeier and the Cougars. You give me a quarterback named Bear who dons No. 47 on his jersey, and that’s a guy I can get behind.

Play of the Weekend: “THERE’S A BEAR ON THE LOOSE!”

I know this isn’t an SEC game, but what an absolute gem of a call from the announce booth on this 22-yard game-sealing touchdown run from Bear Bachmeier.

SEC Player of the Year Ballot

With all due respect to every talented skill position player shining in the SEC this season, it does feel like after Week 8, there are 5 quarterbacks levitating above the rest of the conference.

1. Ty Simpson (QB, Alabama) – 1,931 passing yards, 18 passing touchdowns, 1 interception, 70.2% completion, 2 rushing touchdowns
2. Diego Pavia (QB, Vanderbilt) – 1,569 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 70.5% completion, 438 rushing yards, 4 rushing touchdowns, 1 Heisman pose
3. Marcel Reed (QB, Texas A&M) – 1,770 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, 4 interceptions, 61.9% completion, 241 rushing yards, 4 rushing touchdowns
4. Gunner Stockton (QB, Georgia) – 1,553 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, 1 interception, 70.5% completion, 279 rushing yards, 7 rushing touchdowns
5. Trinidad Chambliss (QB, Ole Miss) – 1,549 passing yards, 8 passing touchdowns, 1 interception, 62.7% completion, 323 rushing yards, 5 rushing touchdowns

SEC Power Poll of the Week 

1. Alabama 

2. Georgia

3. Texas A&M

4. Ole Miss 

5. Vanderbilt 

6. Texas 

7. Oklahoma 

8. LSU

9. Missouri 

10. Tennessee 

One Big Question Heading Into Week 9: Is Hugh Freeze the next coach to be fired?

The Auburn Tigers are in a free-fall, and now that the Florida Gators have broken the seal and canned Billy Napier, it might mean that Hugh Freeze is next. Auburn will be without starting center Connor Lew for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, and the schedule ahead is just as unforgiving as that injury diagnosis was. A tricky road test in Fayetteville awaits, and then a game Kentucky Wildcats squad that nearly toppled the Texas Longhorns late on Saturday night will come to town. That’s followed by a road game against Diego Pavia and the Commodores on November 8th, and then the 90th annual Iron Bowl closes out the season.

I don’t think Hugh Freeze makes it to the Iron Bowl, but if he does, I doubt he lasts another 24 hours as the team’s head coach at the conclusion of the game. And of course, this raises 2 more big questions… who replaces him, and will the pool of candidates differ all that much from who the Florida Gators are going to consider?

Sonny Giuliano