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A big statement by the best student in our class, and some bumbling and stumbling below — this was the story of Week 10 in the SEC. Some people are getting ready for bowl games, some are getting ready for a long, long winter. We’ll sort it all out soon.
But first, let’s line everybody up and give them all a grade for their Week 10 efforts.
As usual we’ll also pick a couple of teams for hall passes (good work) or detention (bad work) on offense, defense, special teams, and coaching.
Overall grades
SEC West
Mississippi State: A
Everybody who thought a 3-5 Bulldogs team would save their season by upsetting No. 4 Texas A&M, please raise your hands. Me, either. Super impressive win for Dan Mullen.
Alabama: A-
They are who we thought they were. Actually, there were a little underwhelming on offense, although the defense did its thing as usual. Still on top, still the team to chase.
Arkansas: A-
This game was almost as much of a statement game as the Hogs’ horrible loss in their previous game. They lose a little credit because Florida is awful right now, but it’s still a quality sixth win.
Auburn: B
“B” is for barely good enough. After boat-racing Arkansas and crushing Ole Miss, the Tigers outgained Vandy by a humble 386-341 margin. Not a season-crushing loss, but too close.
Ole Miss: C+
Still the most disappointing team in the SEC. Winning by 10 against Georgia Southern does nothing to change that.
LSU: C+
The LSU defense actually backed up some of its trash talk. Unfortunately, Bama continues to own Leonard Fournette, and without his spark, LSU was hobbled from the opening kickoff.
Texas A&M: F
The Aggies ruined their season in one game. A&M had consistently looked like the second best team in the SEC. No longer. No shot at the playoff, probably a 9-3 team.
SEC East
South Carolina: B+
Many folks were skeptical of Will Muschamp’s decision to pull the redshirt off QB Jake Bentley. A 5-4 Gamecocks team is a win over Western Carolina in two weeks from a bowl game.
Georgia: B+
The Bulldogs looked like they had quit on their season against Florida, but rebounded for a determined road win at Kentucky, which will also end up salvaging UGA’s bowl chances.
Tennessee: B+
What can you learn about beating Tennessee Tech 55-0? Well, you can learn that it’s a lot better than losing. UT still has a reasonable shot to win the East, but for some reason, that feels unlikely.
Vanderbilt: B-
The Commodores lost, but they made it a lot tougher on Auburn than was expected. If they can win at Mizzou, they could still make a bowl with a home win against either a slumping Ole Miss team or a beat-to-death UT team.
Kentucky: C+
Given the chance to be a division contender in November for the first time in program history, Kentucky instead picked up a tough loss to Georgia. Still ahead of the chains for this season.
Missouri: C-
The Tigers’ seventh loss ensures no bowl appearance — well, almost ensures it. Who knows with 87 bowl games or whatever? Worst team in the league.
Florida: D+
The Gators have a tough D, plus absolutely nothing else right now. Florida could have gotten a grasp on the East, but instead left things open for another week.
Offense
Hall Pass
Mississippi State: 365 rushing yards, 574 total yards? Dan Mullen is still an offensive wizard.
Arkansas: 466 total yards against Florida is no small thing. Got to love the balance to — 243 in the air, 223 on the ground.
Detention
Florida: 14 carries for 12 yards? That’s what Florida has done to opponents, but they handed out an offensive egg this week.
LSU: Sure, we all understand them not scoring a lot of points. But holding Alabama to 10 points was a big gift from the defense. And the offense wasted it with zero points and just six first downs.
Defense
Hall Pass
Alabama: Two sides of the same coin. Sure, the LSU offense underachieved. But holding Fournette, Guice and Co. to 33 yards on 27 rushing attempts is an accomplishment.
Arkansas: Filling up the Razorbacks’ trophy case this week. Florida is awful offensively, but holding anybody to 9 percent on third down conversions should be honored.
Detention
Texas A&M: When A&M couldn’t beat Jalen Hurts, we understood. But Nick Fitzgerald? More late-season Kevin Sumlin shenanigans.
Missouri: Jake Bentley is tough. But look at the touchdown off the back of a Mizzou linebacker and see if you can figure out how Carolina put up 31 points.
Special Teams
Hall Pass
Georgia: Rodrigo Blankenship nailed four field goals, including the game-winner, on a day when UGA suddenly looked much better on special teams.
Detention
Missouri: Mizzou missed two field goals and did nothing special in the return game on a day when they lost by 10 points.
Coaching
Hall Pass
Mississippi State: Kudos to Dan Mullen for the upset of the year in the conference.
South Carolina: Likewise to Will Muschamp for coaxing some points out of what looked to be the league’s worst offense.
Detention
Texas A&M: Kevin Sumlin struggling late. Again.
LSU: Ed Orgeron’s magic comes to an end, as it turns out that he can look clueless on offense just as well as Les Miles.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
