It’s early. I know. If we make too many sweeping declarations during the first weekend of September, that’s only going to come back to bite us.
That’s not what we’ll do today. Probably.
It might’ve been a lighter slate of headliner games in Week 2 than we saw in Week 1, but make no mistake. There were plenty of meaningful takeaways in the SEC.
Here are the top ones from Week 2:
Welcome (back) to the big time, Oklahoma
It turns out, Brent Venables against a true freshman quarterback in Week 2 was an overwhelming force. Bryce Underwood felt that. He completed just 9 passes for 24 yards, and Michigan was 3-for-14 on 3rd down. From start to finish, Venables had the upper hand on the true freshman. Hence, how he improved his record vs. freshmen (both true and redshirt) to 22-5.
The bigger question heading into Saturday night for Oklahoma was if John Mateer would look the part of “the dude.” By night’s end, that was confirmed.
It wasn’t necessarily the cleanest day for Mateer, but the versatility was on full display. His shiftiness fueled an otherwise quiet Oklahoma run game. His ability to keep plays alive and keep his eyes downfield proved essential, especially when Oklahoma had to have it on 3rd-and-8 in the 3rd quarter.
That’ll play. Mateer isn’t a finished product, by any means, but the familiarity in Ben Arbuckle’s system has been crucial so far. He attacks downfield and appears to have an elite connection with Deion Burks, who had a lost 2024 season after he was a decorated transfer from Purdue.
Mateer’s performance was an exhale for Oklahoma fans who remember watching Jackson Arnold crumble on that stage against Tennessee. Nearly a year after OU looked like it didn’t belong with Tennessee on that stage, it held Michigan at an arm’s length for the majority of the evening. It did that with a tenacious, veteran-laden defense. Combine that with Mateer’s playmaking ability and it’s hard not to be bullish on Oklahoma moving forward.
Venables and Co. checked a huge early box.
Oh, Billy Napier. How?
Where do we want to start? With the horrendous time management late in the game? With the wildly conservative play-calling by Napier? The spitting?!?
Yeah, let’s start with the spitting.
OK, to be fair, the Philadelphia Eagles just won a Super Bowl and their best defensive player, Jalen Carter, was ejected for spitting at the start of the game to kick off Week 1. Of course, the Eagles still won that Week 1 … and they’re months removed from a Super Bowl.
Florida isn’t months removed from a Super Bowl. It’s months removed from an 8-5 season that finished well, but still left many wondering if Billy Napier would become the first Florida coach in the post-Urban Meyer era to earn a Year 5.
Yeah … about that. That loss to USF has Napier firmly back in the place that he was in at this time last year. He’s staring at a 4-game gauntlet against 3 top-7 teams and then a roadtrip to No. 19 Texas A&M. When you can’t beat the emerging, but still lesser-talented USF, it puts everything into question. Florida doesn’t have an offensive identity. The defense played fine, but it couldn’t get stops in big moments and this coaching staff is still tasked with turning things around. Even if Florida wins one of these games that it “isn’t supposed to,” losing at home to USF will be a cloud that hangs over Napier.
According to ESPN, that was the first visiting school in Florida not named Miami or Florida State to win in The Swamp since 1938. As in, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. That’s not the type of thing you can expect to shake off in a pivotal Year 4.
Napier’s buyout is $19.4 million at the end of 2025. That might already be common knowledge in the Sunshine State.
That was awesome for Jeff Lebby
Like many, I developed a new appreciation for Jeff Lebby watching the Netflix documentary “Any Given Saturday.” He’s more personable than I’ve given him credit for during his days as a rising play-caller. With an opportunity to get a monumental win, his team showed up ready to roll. Arizona State looked like it walked into a hornet’s nest, and not the stadium where Mississippi State had lost every game to Power Conference competition since Sept. 9, 2023. Go figure that came against Arizona.
Mississippi State did everything in its power in the second half to blow that 17-0 lead, up until it got that goal-line stand to force a field goal. But a defense that was often lifeless in 2024 came up big against the defending Big 12 champs, and Brenen Thompson hauled in what was easily the biggest Mississippi State touchdown of the post-Mike Leach era.
Lebby is still searching for his first SEC win at Mississippi State, but that was an afterthought on Saturday night as the field was rushed and fans ran off with the goalposts. The Bulldogs played like a team that could take a significant jump and return Davis Wade Stadium into the hostile atmosphere that it was in the 2010s.
Ole Miss avenged that 2024 loss to Kentucky because of Kewan Lacy and the new-look ground game
Why did Ole Miss lose 3 games by a combined 13 points, including a stunning home defeat against Kentucky? It couldn’t run the ball the way Lane Kiffin teams typically have. An inability to put teams away put too much pressure on Jaxson Dart. That’s what kept an extremely talented team out of the Playoff.
Ole Miss might not be a Playoff team in 2025, but it won’t be from a lack of a ground attack. Lacy will make sure of it. He made sure on Saturday that it wasn’t a repeat of last year. In Austin Simmons’ first career road start, Lacy’s presence was needed. His ability to move the chains allowed Kiffin’s squad to shake off a pair of early interceptions by Simmons. When Simmons got banged up late, he ripped off a 33-yard run to get into the red zone that ultimately allowed Ole Miss to make it a 2-score game.
Lacy finished the day with 28 carries while no other Ole Miss back had more than 3. He’s already got 44 carries through 2 weeks and looking every bit like the bell-cow back that Kiffin hoped he’d be after he transferred from Mizzou.
Speaking of Mizzou …
Let’s put some respect on the Mizzou offense
It was an easy thing to overlook because neither Kansas nor Mizzou entered as a top-25 team, but how about that performance from Beau Pribula and the Tigers offense? It wasn’t just the 42 points, or even the 261-3 rushing advantage. A new-look group of playmakers put up 595 yards of offense with 14-for-24 conversions on 3rd/4th down. All the questions about Beau Pribula’s passing were an afterthought by day’s end.
Pribula didn’t look like someone who was in his first career start vs. Power Conference competition. Dare I say, the former Penn State transfer looked even better than advertised. His connection with Kevin Coleman Jr. is obvious, and Brett Norfleet is establishing himself as his safety blanket, which we saw on that gutsy 4th down call that resulted in the go-ahead touchdown.
Saturday showed why Mizzou was so willing to make a play for Pribula. Can Mizzou sneak into the Playoff conversation with an apparently forgiving schedule?
If Pribula gives Mizzou balance like he did on Saturday, that’s not a crazy thought.
A legacy-defining performance? Hardly, but Arch Manning needed that
By “that,” I mean an exhale game. After a disappointing showing in his QB1 debut at Ohio State, Manning’s name was the subject of plenty of criticism, and understandably so. The way-too-early No. 1 overall pick/future Heisman Trophy winner didn’t look the part. So in a favorable matchup vs. San Jose State in Week 2, the question was about whether he’d look confident and poised.
It wasn’t a perfect showing from Manning — the interception at the end of the first half was a rough decision and he still had some accuracy issues — but he definitely checked that box. He shook off a troubling first 2 drives with a long touchdown pass to emerging go-to target Parker Livingstone, and when Texas picked off San Jose State on the next play, the ABC cameras showed Manning letting out a rare burst of emotion.
Say what you want about the Manning hype train, which slowed down a bit last week at Ohio State. What’s undeniable is that Manning hadn’t had a start he could feel good about in 11 months, which was capped off with a nifty touchdown run that forced him to tip the sideline. There’s plenty to clean up with his game, specifically the mechanical issues that are at the root of his off-target throws. And ideally, Steve Sarkisian doesn’t need to keep his decorated quarterback in the game in the middle of the 4th quarter.
But for at least an afternoon, Manning got to feel good again.
It’s a new year, but Vandy is still going to be a headache for 60 minutes
Diego Pavia led Vanderbilt into Lane Stadium, fell behind by double digits and then cleared that crowd out by the middle of the 4th quarter because it outscored Virginia Tech 34-0 in the second half. Remarkable. This isn’t your dad’s Vanderbilt team. It’s not even your older brother’s Vanderbilt team. It’s the Vanderbilt team that believed in 2024 that it could beat anyone that it stepped on the field with, and then backed it up more times than not.
Obviously, Pavia is a big part of that. That swagger is evident, especially when he’s getting out on misdirection plays as the lead blocker. His ability to improvise within a play is special, as is Tim Beck’s ability to scheme guys open.
But let’s also give credit to a Vandy team that has shown that it can compete in the trenches on both sides of the ball. There were massive running lanes created, and in the second half of that game, Kyron Drones couldn’t do anything against the Vandy pass rush. New Vandy defensive coordinator Steven Gregory had Virginia Tech’s offense completely in over its head.
If there was a hope that Vandy would turn back into a pumpkin this fall, Saturday night’s beatdown of Virginia Tech, who hung tough with preseason top-15 South Carolina, should’ve served as a reminder that Pavia and the Dores aren’t going anywhere.
The SEC is dead? The SEC is 8-2 vs. Power Conference teams in nonconference play
It needs to be said. The lone blemishes were Texas losing at Ohio State and Alabama getting waxed at Florida State. Besides that? The SEC earned wins over last year’s ACC and Big 12 champs, and it has 3 wins vs. top-15 teams including No. 18 Oklahoma’s victory against No. 15 Michigan.
Remember that because in 2 months, some will argue that SEC bias is playing into the selection committee’s process with the Playoff rankings. Many will argue that the conference has fallen off while failing to acknowledge that there’s clearly still depth.
One can ignore nonconference results and cherrypick anything that fits an anti-SEC narrative, or one can acknowledge that it’s been a solid start for the conference.
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.
