SEC Week 5 report cards: Kentucky, Florida thrive with Alabama, LSU
By Joe Cox
Published:
Aside from the dominance of Alabama, this season is starting to look like it could showcase the re-emergence of the East. Sure, Alabama and LSU headed our list of high achievers for Week 5, but so did Kentucky and Florida. Anyway, September ends today, and it’s report card time. We grade every team and single out a couple for special honors or, er, attention. Here you go:
SEC West
LSU: A
It isn’t surprising that they took control and dominated against Mississippi. But it’s the complete game that had eluded them before. They held a potent Rebels offense to 328 yards and put up 573 of their own in a balanced fashion — 292 in the air, 281 on the ground. Consider us impressed.
Alabama: A-
The late touchdowns don’t mean a thing. Alabama could have picked its margin, just like so many times before. The only negative here is wondering what will happen when (if?) this team is challenged. Probably, they’ll be fine … but if the rest of the SEC is attacking the Death Star, that might be the flaw they’ll shoot for.
Auburn: B-
It was a win, and it’s not surprising that it was an ugly win considering the massive delay in the middle of the game. But the offense is still broken, as 2.7 yards per carry against a Conference USA defense proves. They took their sweet time wrapping up this game, and they may not wrap up a ton more.
Arkansas: B-
The Razorbacks are getting by on fight and a defense that is playing like it will knock somebody off down the stretch. The offense is awful, the outlook isn’t good, but fighting on in the face of adversity means something to us. Thus this grade, for losing by a touchdown in a game in which they were a three-score underdog.
Texas A&M: B-
Wait, how can the team that won and the team that lost get the same grade? We were disappointed by the Aggies, really for the first time all season. They were good enough to win but threw a pair of interceptions, rushed for a humble 3.8 yards per carry and generally seemed to be looking past this game.
Mississippi: C
The Rebels did move the ball with some success on LSU, but their sieve-like defense continued, and they hurt their own cause by racking up an astounding 17 penalties for 167 back-breaking yards.
Mississippi State: D+
This is for D plus not much else. State came off a tough 201-yard offensive performance at Kentucky by hosting Florida and putting up … 202 yards. Their defense is plenty good enough, but unless they’re going to win 3-0, it’s not helping much right now.
East
Kentucky: A-
Another week, another “underdog” victory — although admittedly, this UK/USC game flip-flopped in Vegas all week. Kentucky played nasty defense, and while Benny Snell grabs the headlines, Josh Allen might be the most important player on this team.
Florida: B+
They shut down Nick Fitzgerald and State, holding them to 202 yards. Offensively, Florida is still nowhere near where they need to be, but the effort on this night was about the defense. They also need to clean up 11 penalties for 90 yards.
Georgia: B+
Nothing to be ashamed of in dropping Tennessee by 26, but this one didn’t play out quite the same as the score. If you had told Georgia they would lead by just 12 points with 11 minutes to play, they’d have scored their performance much lower than this. The Bulldogs did close strong, but the killer instinct took a while to surface.
South Carolina: C+
Carolina isn’t bad, but the balanced team we respected sometimes just looks tedious in multiple phases of the game. The Gamecocks had 9 yards passing at halftime last night. Nine.
Tennessee: C
This team is just broken offensively and doesn’t have the kind of depth defensively that they’re used to having. That said, they scratched and dug and put themselves in this game during the fourth quarter, at least for a couple of minutes.
Vanderbilt: D+
The Commodores have gone from playing close to a top-10 team on the road to squeaking past an FCS team at home. Tennessee State had 373 yards of total offense and led at halftime. If not for a missed extra point in the first quarter, this game might well have gone to overtime.
Honor Roll
Offense
LSU
Joe Burrow had his best game yet, and the ground game churned out 281 yards.
Alabama
Sure, it was expected. But it was 608 yards, including a nice performance by Jalen Hurts in a week when he showed exactly why he’s sticking in Tuscaloosa.
Defense
Kentucky
A week after shutting down Nick Fitzgerald, Kentucky went to work on Jake Bentley. Carolina ended up passing for almost 200 yards, but they also threw three interceptions and gave up four sacks to the ‘Cats. More important, despite playing the most conservative second half in football, UK held Carolina to 10 points.
Florida
Admittedly, the Mississippi State offense has some problems. But in an emotional game for homecoming Gator coach Dan Mullen, the Gators held State to 3.3 yards per carry and less than 100 yards passing.
Special Teams
Texas A&M
They could make both lists after kicker Seth Small missed two short field goal tries, but Jashaun Corbin’s 100-yard kick return touchdown on the game’s opening play lands A&M here.
Alabama
Speaking of ending up on both lists, freshman Jaylen Waddle’s impressive punt return score earns Alabama a spot here … well, maybe everybody except the placekicker.
Summer School
Offense
Auburn
There are games the Tigers will play where 341 yards will be acceptable. Southern Mississippi is not one of them.
Texas A&M
Mere weeks after playing explosively against Clemson, A&M struggled to score against Arkansas.
Defense
Mississippi
The Rebels could have given Joe Burrow a comfy recliner he could wait in while he sat in the pocket and picked them apart. The Rebels could score 50 or give up 50 against most opponents.
Vanderbilt
Once considered one of the toughest groups in the SEC, they found themselves defending in their red zone late Saturday afternoon as an FCS team tried to take the lead in the game’s final minutes. Tennessee State QB Demry Croft had his way against this group.
Special Teams
Alabama (placekickers only)
Two more missed field goals. If they ever play a close game, this could kill them.
Vanderbilt
Two missed field goals in a four-point game could have really bit Vandy.
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.
