College football will be fine.
Courtroom drama, eligibility debates, the insanity of thinking Congress, of all things, can save us, NIL, revenue sharing, $54 million coach buyouts. None of it will steal college football’s soul because the fans, the passion for the game, the special Saturday nights across the SEC and elsewhere, they are extraordinary.
That’s the largest takeaway from Week 3, punctuated by Ole Miss vanquishing LSU and Lane Kiffin in a stranger than southern gothic fiction quenching of bloodthirst at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Kentucky’s stunning upset of Texas A&M at Kyle Field has earned Will Stein national praise, and rightly so, while also demonstrating how little we know at this point in the college football season.
It’s only Week 4, and for all the modern analytics and data and recruiting and portal rankings that make us think we know how things will play out, the greatest quantity of data available right now is unplayed games.
On the other hand, we’re a quarter of the way through the regular season, and even if Kirby Smart doesn’t think Georgia has played anybody, we know certain things already, right? Georgia’s good, Trinidad Chambliss is the Heisman frontrunner, Oklahoma’s offense is about as fun as a colonoscopy, it’s hard to tackle Jadan Baugh, and Lane Kiffin faces his first “must-win” as the head coach at LSU. (Message board madness and full blown panic in September! That’s the job you left hot yoga in Oxford for, Lane.)
Here at “The List,” there’s plenty we’re still trying to figure out.
Will Trinidad Chambliss go wire to wire? Will a defender finish in the top 3 again, extending the 7-year run of at least one defensive player landing on the “List” podium? There are a plethora of good wide receivers in the SEC. Who separates themselves as great?
So many questions. So many games left to play.
That’s the magic of college football season. Just when we think what we rambled on about during what legendary Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier called “talking season,” we get a fourth quarter like Arch Manning and Texas played against Ohio State or a lightly recruited linebacker like Sam Greene dominates a Playoff-contending Texas A&M on the road.
We just don’t know what we don’t know, to borrow an old expression well loved by my dad.
As usual, we do honorable mentions first, limited to 2 per school.
If your favorite player from your favorite team didn’t make it this week, it’s because they should play better or I hate your team and like all the other ones. There’s no other logical explanation.
Honorable Mentions: Alabama: Luke Metz, LB; Yhonzae Pierre, Edge. Auburn: Elijah Melendez, LB; Chas Nimrod, WR. Arkansas: Kavion Broussard, OT; Chris Marshall, WR. Florida: Vernell Brown III, WR/Return; Myles Graham, LB. Georgia: Drew Bobo, C; Raylen Wilson, LB. Kentucky: Jordan Castell, DB; Sam Greene, LB. LSU: Trey’Dez Green, TE*; Jordan Seaton, OT. Mississippi State: Canon Boone, C; Anthony Evans III, WR. Missouri: Cayden Green, OL; Cayden Lee, WR. Oklahoma: Peyton Bowen, S; David Stone, DT. Ole Miss: Deuce Alexander, WR; Terez Davis, OT. South Carolina: Justin Okoronkwo, LB; Vicari Swain, DB/Return. Tennessee: Jordan Norman, Edge; David Sanders Jr., OT. Texas: Cam Coleman, WR; Colin Simmons, Edge. Texas A&M: Mario Craver, WR; Mark Nabou Jr., C. Vanderbilt: CJ Heard, S; Nick Rinaldi, LB.
* – injured players removed from list after missing 2 weeks or more
10. Daeden Hopkins, Edge (Missouri)
Hopkins has 14 pressures and 9 hurries this season, tying Princewill Umanmielen in those categories and ranking second among SEC linemen in havoc rate. His 7 tackles and 2 tackles for loss helped Mizzou hold off a game Troy 27-17 on a Saturday evening when the Tigers’ offense struggled to move the football. Bigger challenges lie ahead, but the answer to the “Who replaces Zion Young and Damon Wilson IIII?” talking season questions is emphatically Hopkins, who is putting together an All-SEC-caliber September.
9. Arion Carter, LB (Tennessee)
After serving a preposterous suspension, Carter’s been sensational for the Volunteers, collecting 12 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, a sack, and a pass breakup in 2 games this season. The All-SEC linebacker is also exemplary off the field, donating portions of his NIL earnings and on-field talents to raise money for cancer research and continuing his long history of service to pediatric cancer patients at Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital in Knoxville. The world needs more Arion Carters — and the Vols will need him at his best to fell Texas at Neyland Stadium on Saturday.
8. Bray Hubbard, S (Alabama)
The Crimson Tide captain iced Alabama’s win over Florida State with an interception and showed his tremendous “find the ball” instincts in run defense to help the Tide rally past the Noles last Saturday.
Alabama’s defense has 5 interceptions on the season, using big plays and takeaways to seal or seize control of football games in consecutive weeks. That’s an awesome asset as Keelon Russell continues to figure things out at quarterback.
7. Nate Frazier, RB (Georgia)
Georgia’s RB1 piled up 75 yards and added a touchdown in Georgia’s rout of Arkansas. He left with an injury but Kirby Smart expects Frazier to play on Saturday when Oklahoma’s excellent defense visits Athens. On the season, Frazier is averaging over 8 yards per carry and has scored a touchdown on every fifth touch.
6. Gunner Stockton, QB (Georgia)
All he does is produce.
Stockton has accounted for 683 yards (583 passing, 100 rushing) in 3 games this season, posting an SEC-best 94.8 quarterback rating in the process with 9 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. The quality of competition ratchets up immensely this week with the nation’s No. 2 SP+ defense coming to town in Oklahoma, but with an assortment of weapons on the perimeter and the SEC’s best 1-2 running back punch in Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens, the Georgia quarterback just has to make the simple play, not the spectacular one. The good news for Georgia fans? He’s showing a little bit of both through a month of football.
5. Princewill Umanmielen, DE (LSU)
The LSU edge leads the nation in sacks with 6, collecting another in Saturday’s loss at Ole Miss. Umanmielen added 4 tackles, 4 pressures, and 2 hurries to his totals, doing all he could to impact the football game and will LSU to a road win. The Tigers ultimately were undone by Trinidad Chambliss and their slow start, but more big stages loom, beginning Saturday night at home against Texas A&M.
4. Kamario Taylor, QB (Mississippi State)
Taylor piled up 284 yards (251 passing, 33 rushing) and 4 touchdowns in State’s 41-34 win at South Carolina.
Taylor didn’t complete a pass in the first quarter, going 0-3 with an interception early, and then led a 41-7 State run that included 7 consecutive scoring drives.
Jeff Lebby’s found something special at quarterback in Starkville, and the Bulldogs are one of the nation’s most pleasant surprises as a result.
3. Trevor Goosby, OT (Texas)
The star offensive tackle continued his run of excellence in Texas’s ho-hum 30-6 win over UTSA on Saturday, helping Texas run for 228 yards in the victory. On the season, Goosby has surrendered 0 sacks or quarterback hurries, keeping Arch Manning’s pocket clean as the top-ranked Longhorns stormed to a 3-0 start. A massive test against a Tennessee front playing great football looms this weekend.
2. Jadan Baugh, RB (Florida)
Baugh ran over, through, and around Auburn for 162 yards and 3 touchdowns in Florida’s 44-39 win on the Plains.
Baugh leads the country in missed tackles forced (30) and missed tackle avoidance rate (56.6%), per PFF.
Florida’s All-American candidate joined Emmitt Smith as the only player in Gators history to run for 800 yards or more in a 4-game stretch, dating back to last season. Any time you are in the company of the NFL’s All-Time leading rusher, you are doing things right.
Next up? A Swamp showdown with No. 4 Ole Miss, who comes into Gainesville with the worst rushing defense in the SEC.
1. Trinidad Chambliss, QB (Ole Miss)
A wire-to-wire run has never occurred in “List” history, but it feels possible, if not outright likely, this season. That’s how special Chambliss is at playing the most important position in sports. The All-American was brilliant in last Saturday’s win over LSU, delivering when the Rebels needed it most by guiding the Rebels on a tie-breaking 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, capped by this touchdown run.
Trinidad’s next challenge? The Swamp, where Jaxson Dart and Ole Miss’s playoff dreams went to die in 2024. Handling success after an emotional win is hard, but Chambliss is the guy you’d want leading your team into the Swamp (or anywhere) in that scenario.
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Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
