It’s a relatively light slate of games for the SEC this week, with 5 schools on a bye, 5 conference matchups, and what should be a shellacking when The Citadel visits Ole Miss.
But fret not friends and football fans. There’s still more than enough to be intrigued by to put together a tasty-looking parlay that will hopefully win us some money.
To be fair though, I have included 1 non-SEC game in this week’s parlay, but since I nailed Ohio State over Penn State last week, I figured nobody would have a problem with it if I took a trip to the Big 12 to include a line that I love this weekend.
As always, all odds are via BetMGM Sportsbook:
Leg 1: BYU +10 (-115) over Texas Tech
I know that history tells us that early to mid-November is generally when BYU’s hot start to the season begins to run cold, but I continue to feel like the Cougars are being disrespected and overlooked in the midst of their second-consecutive 8-0 start. Now this isn’t to say that BYU is going to win outright on Saturday afternoon. The Red Raiders have been impressive all season long and they’re 19-5 playing in Lubbock under fourth-year head coach Joey McGuire.
But Tech is still getting Behren Morton back into rhythm after the fifth-year senior missed a pair of starts with a leg injury. He returned to action last Saturday against Kansas State, but the Red Raiders’ run game did most of the heavy lifting in a 43-20 win against the Wildcats. Even though they’ve given up at least 20 points in their last 5 games, the Cougars defense will make the Texas Tech offense work harder than anyone else has this season, and if BYU’s ground game is rolling, it could take a frenzied crowd out of the game.
Leg 2: Mississippi State +9 (-105) over Georgia
These aren’t your older brother’s Georgia Bulldogs, friends. Kirby Smart‘s squad hasn’t been waxing opponents like they were in 2022 and 2023. They’ve had to grind out wins over the likes of Florida (24-20) and Auburn (20-10) over the last couple of weeks, and Starkville can be a very unkind place to play. Combine that with a noon ET kickoff and it feels like this is a game that Georgia might be asleep for at kickoff. Plus, with the Texas Longhorns coming to Athens next Saturday, this matchup has trap game potential.
Legs 3 and 4: Vanderbilt money line (-250) over Auburn / Alabama money line (-375) over LSU
New coach bump be damned, I don’t think Auburn or LSU could rightfully be expected to go on the road and pull off an upset over a ranked SEC opponent this week. Both of these lines did scare me a little bit — Vanderbilt is -6.5 and Alabama is -10.5 — so just to avoid the potential backdoor cover, I’m opting to take the moneyline in each of these games.
Total: +547
Hey, since we’re cutting this week’s parlay column slightly short, I wanted to use this space to share my thoughts on the 3 most recent head coaching openings in the SEC — sorry Arkansas, y’all are old news at this point. Now let me be clear, I have no insider knowledge whatsoever on who will end up getting the head coaching jobs at Auburn, LSU, or Florida, but I do have a hunch of what we might be able to expect from each of these schools.
Auburn – Interim coach DJ Durkin is going to get a long look at retaining the job on a full-time basis, especially since he does have 2 years of head coaching experience at Maryland. But ultimately, I’m not sure the job will end up being his. It makes sense that the Tigers would make a pass at Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham. Dillingham turned Arizona State into a contender overnight and he was on the Auburn coaching staff in 2019. But Dillingham is an Arizona State alum and he’s called coaching his alma mater his dream job. Whether that’s truthful remains to be seen, and it will likely be put to the test this winter.
I would expect there to be some James Franklin noise here, since the former Penn State coach got his head coaching start at Vanderbilt. But if we’re playing the coaching carousel guessing game, I think the Pennsylvania native stays a little closer to home and ends up getting the Virginia Tech job.
In the end, I’m going to take a stab at predicting someone for Auburn who isn’t a household name… Georgia Bulldogs defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, Kirby Smart’s right hand man and a former Nick Saban protégée at Alabama. He has a decade’s-worth of experience in the SEC and he’s only 35 years old. It could be his time.
LSU – There are going to be plenty of names thrown out for the LSU job, as it may be the most enticing of all openings this offseason. In the end, I think this will come down to 2 guys… former LSU offensive coordinator and current Buffalo Bills OC Joe Brady, and Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall. I’d consider Brady the favorite, though the timing may be difficult considering how late the Bills may play into the postseason this year. If Buffalo makes a Super Bowl run, Brady would be tied up until mid-February, though there’s the possibility he could choose to leave early if the opening intrigued him that much.
Sumrall isn’t the biggest name, but considering he’s had early success with Tulane and he’s from the region, it seems like he’d be a natural fit for LSU. And if the Tigers don’t want to go the Brian Kelly route — big name coach from a big name program — Sumrall could be the best option.
Florida – The Florida Gators to me seem like the safest to try to make a splashy hire since Billy Napier and Jim McElwain had such little success after being poached from outside of the Power Four. I think if Lane Kiffin ends up leaving Ole Miss, it’s probably for the Florida job, and over the last 24 hours, there seems to be some momentum building for this move.
If Kiffin decides to stay put in Oxford, I expect that Florida will shift it’s focus to a pair of other SEC head coaches… Eli Drinkwitz and Clark Lea. Lea is from Nashville and went to Vandy, so he may be content with staying at home and continuing to try to build the Commodores into a consistent SEC contender. Drinkwitz has no real allegiance to Missouri other than a 6-year tenure that has been reasonably successful.
My gut is telling me that Kiffin ends up heading to Gainesville. Florida will be ready to shell out some serious cash, and it’s possible that Kiffin has squeezed all of the potential he possibly could out of Ole Miss.
