It was a monumental week in the SEC.
You could say that for most Saturdays in the SEC, but the fact that we had juicy matchups stacked all day made that a fair statement. Shoot, we had a top-15 matchup at 11 a.m. local time, which was something Mizzou hadn’t hosted since the Jimmy Carter administration (1979).
Week 7 felt more like “separation Saturday” in the SEC. Naturally, there were some pretty big takeaways.
Here were the top things that stood out from Saturday:
Texas is back … to being a competent team
After spending all week as the national punching bag with Penn State, Texas punched back in the biggest possible way against Oklahoma. A 17-point win was the byproduct of Texas finally showing some fight, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. After the Texas defense flustered John Mateer in his return from thumb surgery with a 6-3 first half, the Longhorns got their ground game going. Tre Wisner ran through contact in ways that he hadn’t all season and a maligned offensive line created running lanes.
Of course, Arch Manning also stepped up both with his arm and his legs. His mobility was on full display, and he looked much more comfortable than he did a week ago at Florida. That first drive out of halftime was everything. A 14-play, 75-yard drive with a trio of 3rd down conversions showcased everything we thought we were getting with the new-look Texas offense. Go figure that it took until Week 7 against one of the best defenses in the country for it to come out in a meaningful game.
Let’s also not dismiss how dominant the Texas defense was. Mateer was completely overwhelmed for the vast majority of the day, and the OU offense was held to 88 yards of offense in the second half. It felt like the Longhorns should’ve had 6-7 turnovers instead of just 3. They were a step ahead of the Ben Arbuckle offense all day.
if that’s who Texas is going to be moving forward, Steve Sarkisian might not have been so crazy to point out after last week that it was just an 0-1 start to SEC play, and that everything was still in front of the Longhorns. He’s right. The Longhorns don’t have a great margin for error with 2 losses, but beating Oklahoma that convincingly showcased Playoff upside that had been nonexistent until Saturday.
It’s fair to have legitimate concerns about Oklahoma’s path to the Playoff
As much as I’d love to sit here and praise the grittiness that we saw from Mateer in that game just to be out there, we need to ask some questions about this Oklahoma team moving forward because of the gauntlet that awaits. A trip to South Carolina, who destroyed OU in Norman last year, is the only remaining matchup vs. an unranked foe. Well, Saturday was a matchup vs. an unranked foe and it brought out the worst version of this team.
We saw Mateer be careless with the football, we saw the non-Mateer rushing options fail to do much of anything behind an offensive line that struggled, we saw Brent Venables have horrendous clock management late in the 1st half and we saw a loaded defense continue its struggles getting takeaways while allowing a lost Texas offense to find its identity in the second half. Perhaps those things will all stay in Dallas and none of those issues will be as obvious moving forward, but this was also a bit of the lingering fear with OU’s start. They also haven’t faced a Power Conference foe in a true road game yet, which isn’t to say that the No. 6 ranking was fraudulent.
But if you were searching for reasons to temper optimism about the Sooners’ 2025 outlook, they all surfaced in the Cotton Bowl.
Georgia is more comfortable playing from behind than anyone in America (especially Auburn)
And by “playing from behind,” I mean falling behind by 2 scores. Lord knows that falling behind by 3 scores and rallying back on a weekly basis is darn near impossible, which is why that “fumble” on the goal line was, um, massive. Yes, Auburn looked like it got a raw deal from SEC officials yet again and Jackson Arnold appeared to cross the plane of the goal line. What else is new?
At the same time, though, Georgia completely flipped the script after it had just 12 plays for 20 yards to that point. The Dawgs got a miracle to be down 1 score going into halftime, but there was no denying who the better team was in the second half. That’s really been Georgia’s identity all year. For the 3rd time in 4 SEC games, the Dawgs fell behind by double digits in the first half. They’re 2-1 in those games, and if a true freshman hauls in a touchdown pass in the 4th quarter against Alabama, maybe they’re 3-0. Gunner Stockton made clutch plays, and that UGA defense pitched a second-half shutout for the second time in SEC play.
As for Auburn … woof. That finish felt all too familiar after it looked clinical in the first half. Everything was in rhythm and Arnold looked confident without pressure constantly in his face, which allowed the Tigers to convert more 3rd downs (4) on the first drive than they had in their first 2 SEC games. All was clicking until … you know. Auburn was held to 40 yards on 23 plays in the second half. Once that fumble at the goal line happened, there was zero response from that Auburn offense. And while SEC officials didn’t exactly earn any pats on the back, it didn’t help that Auburn had 11 penalties for 90 yards. That’s the first SEC team to commit 10+ penalties in 3 consecutive games in 7 years.
We’ve seen Auburn within 1 score late in all 3 of its SEC games so far, and yet, it cannot find the right offensive combination to get that breakthrough drive late. An elite defense is being wasted once again. Time is ticking for Hugh Freeze to figure things out on The Plains.
Billy Napier’s turnaround potential turned into a painful reminder at Kyle Field
After Saturday night’s loss, Billy Napier is now 0-14 vs. AP Top 25 teams away from The Swamp. Sure, those wins are hard to come by. It’s also Year 4, and those wins have been nonexistent during the Napier era. Yes, having a stretch of 4 consecutive games vs. AP Top 10 teams is an absurd bit of scheduling luck, or lack thereof. In fact, nobody has had 4 consecutive regular season matchups vs. AP Top 10 teams since 1968.
Here’s the thing, though. It’s part of the job. As long as Napier is in the SEC, he’s going to be tasked with matchups like that, which felt like it was there for the taking against a Texas A&M team that was on its heels early. But Florida’s offense sputtered after the first quarter, and unlike last week against Texas, DJ Lagway ran into a team that could actually get home with Cashius Howell and Co. Mike Elko and the A&M staff made the right adjustments because, in that building, they almost always do that. He’s now 18-1 at home vs. unranked teams as an FBS head coach while Napier is 1-18 vs. AP Top 25 teams away from home in his time as an FBS head coach.
As great as last Saturday against Texas was, Florida turning its season around was going to be dependent on looking the part away from home. Instead, Napier fell to 5-16 in those spots as Florida’s head coach. Also of note, the Gators still have 2 games away from home against teams that are currently in the top 10 (Georgia and Ole Miss).
Ty Simpson is playing at a level that makes Alabama the clear SEC favorites
Masterful. That’s what Simpson has been since that Week 1 disaster at Florida State. That continued again in Columbia, where he led Alabama to its 3rd consecutive win vs. an AP Top 25 team in as many weeks. By the way, that feat happened just once in the entire 17-year Nick Saban era. Jalen Hurts was the other quarterback to accomplish that feat. Much like the poise that Hurts showed during his true freshman season, Simpson shined in the big moments, most notably on a 4th-and-8 conversion to Lotzeir Brooks that set up a touchdown to make it 27-17.
That was part of a 3-for-3 day on 4th down, and in total, he had 9 combined conversions on 3rd (6) and 4th down. The individual box score really won’t do Simpson’s performance justice. A 200-yard day with 6.5 yards per attempt didn’t tell the story. For a guy who took 4 sacks, that still looked like someone who handled pressure well and made layered throws. His second touchdown pass of the day was the type of play that’ll have next-level folks drooling.
For all the questions that Alabama faced after Week 1 after the Florida State loss, it was easy to forget that Simpson was someone who played in his first career start. All he’s done since then is win 5 consecutive games, 2 of which were road games against ranked foes. He’s firmly in the Heisman Trophy conversation as the clear QB1 in the SEC.
Perhaps of equal importance? Alabama is 3-0 having just handed 3 consecutive SEC teams their first loss. Simpson is at the heart of that, and not just because he’s got a 14-1 TD-INT ratio with a 76% completion rate the last 5 games. As long as he’s playing at that level, Alabama can play with anyone in the country.
Mizzou is no fraud, but those big moments aren’t there yet
Here’s what I mean by that. When Mizzou took over with a chance to tie it or take the lead on that final drive without any timeouts, did you trust Beau Pribula to be the hero? Nope, at least not in the way that the aforementioned Simpson could be trusted. Pribula made some impressive plays again, but as a passer in clutch moments, he isn’t on that level yet, which we saw when he threw a game-ending interception when he didn’t see a pair of open receivers.
That wasn’t the first time that Pribula and his receivers just weren’t on the same page. That made it tough sledding for the majority of a day that began with Mizzou cutting through the Alabama defense with a perfect opening drive. You wouldn’t have known that with 121 first-half rushing yards, and several reminders of why Ahmad Hardy entered Week 7 as the nation’s leading rusher.
You could argue that Hardy’s 12 carries weren’t enough, but some of that was because Alabama had the ball for 38:33. An inability to get the Alabama offense off the field kept Mizzou’s ground-heavy offense out of rhythm. Pribula only had 11 passing attempts entering the 4th quarter, so it wasn’t like Mizzou tried to reinvent itself.
The frustrating thing for Mizzou was that in its first home matchup vs. ranked teams in 46 years, there were still opportunities late. Whether it was not covering a running back in the red zone on 4th down or not being on the same page as a receiver, Mizzou just couldn’t make that key play down the stretch. A potential perception-shifting opportunity was wasted for a team with legitimate Playoff aspirations.
Close losses won’t get Bobby Petrino that job
Was it better than Notre Dame? And was it impressive that Arkansas even had a chance to beat a top-15 team who just simply doesn’t lose to non-Georgia teams at home? Yes, and yes. There’s no denying that Petrino’s squad, even with a gutted defensive staff, put forth a better effort in Knoxville than the last one against the Irish, which ultimately proved to be the end of the Sam Pittman era.
But interim coaches aren’t graded on a “exceed expectations” scale. They’re graded on whether they can truly pull a 180. Losing close games was what Pittman did. As resilient as Arkansas was at Tennessee, that felt like the same song, new verse. Petrino’s ambitions to succeed Pittman and get his old job back are dependent on him winning the games that people don’t think he can win. Period.
Fortunately for him, he’s got a top-5 A&M squad coming to town next Saturday.
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.
