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College Football

The Throwback: Separating the real from the rest in the SEC

Corey Long

By Corey Long

Published:

The countdown is still on … albeit much abbreviated this week.

On to the hot takes!

WHO’S LEGIT? EXAMINING THE 2-0 SEC TEAMS

There are six SEC undefeated teams and there’s been enough inconsistencies across the board to wonder which will actually hang around in the long run. So let’s quickly run through these six and see who has a legitimate shot at making some noise.

Alabama (100% legit): Who am I to question the Crimson Tide’s legitimacy? Their resume speaks for itself, right? That being said, this week Alabama travels to Ole Miss and will try to snap a two-game slump against the Rebels. Ole Miss is always a dangerous opponent for the Tide but maybe even more so this season because the Rebels have already loss and will be playing as a live home underdog without an undefeated record to protect. Until then, let’s make fun of Lane Kiffin getting a “chewing” from Papa Nick.

Texas A&M (85% legit): It’s the defense that has me excited about the Aggies. Forget about the Prairie View A&M game, the only question there was if they would cover a point spread in the low-mid 50s (they did). In the UCLA game, the defense had five sacks and four turnovers. The Bruins rallied behind Josh Rosen but Rosen is probably the best QB the Aggies will face this season. Trevor Knight is a much steadier hand under center and this team is playing with something to prove.

Arkansas (80% legit): The Razorbacks are almost certain to beat Texas State on Saturday and start the season 3-0 for the first time since 2013 — Bret Bielema’s first season at Arkansas. That year the Razorbacks lost their final nine games. Not happening this year. The fun starts with a game against Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium the following weekend and then a stretch of games that includes Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn, Florida and LSU in succession starting Oct. 8. But I’m buying the Razorbacks as a legit contender.

Tennessee (70% legit): Maybe the Volunteers’ struggles against Appalachian State were opening day jitters. And in the final three quarters against Virginia Tech we saw the Volunteer team that’s expected to compete for the SEC this year. But the passing game is horrible and teams will continue to dare Josh Dobbs to throw the ball down field until he proves he can do it. The defense caused five turnovers and that’s where the team’s strength is.

Georgia (60% legit): A two-point victory over Nicholls (no more State) is definitely concerning and Jacob Eason is going to have more freshman moments this year. The SEC East is a three-team race right now with Georgia, Tennessee and Florida clearly at the top and Kentucky, Vandy and South Carolina at the bottom. Missouri seems to be the gateway between the top and bottom. That means the Bulldogs’ road trip to Faurot Field next week could be interesting.

Florida (60% legit): The Gators have one more “preseason” game left – against North Texas on Saturday and then the schedule begins. I love their defense, it might be better than I expected because Alex Anzalone gives them above-average play at linebacker. But I’m still not all in on the offense. The Gators put up 564 yards Saturday against Kentucky, but that told me more about the dumpster fire that is Kentucky football than it did about Florida’s capabilities this season. As most of us expected, Florida is an unknown commodity until their season starts on September 24 at Tennessee.

THE POLLS ARE STRANGE

Having eight SEC teams in the polls isn’t strange or even a big deal. But the early part of the season has these rankings all over the place.

With the AP Poll there’s Alabama at 1 (duh) and not another conference team until Tennessee at 15. Georgia went from 18th in the preseason to ninth after the win over North Carolina back to 16th after struggling with Nicholls.

Texas A&M (17), Ole Miss (19), LSU (20), Florida (23) and Arkansas (24) are all in that “wait and see” area. Texas A&M, in particular, could be in line for a move up with a road win against Auburn on Saturday.

The coaches’ poll is similar with the exception of Georgia being three spots higher. Tennessee is 15th in both polls but the Volunteers moved up two places on the AP side and actually moved DOWN a spot on the coaches side.

LSU STILL HASN’T FOUND WHAT IT’S LOOKING FOR

Apologies too all, but I’m not ready to call Danny Etling the savior at quarterback that LSU fans hope he is despite this sweet throw.

I can’t get excited about a 6-of-14, 100 yard-performance against FCS opposition. Ealing threw that touchdown, ran for another and generally seemed like a composed guy under center. But he didn’t complete a pass in the second half, so was he really any good?

LSU doesn’t need great quarterback play to win. Heck no program has won more games with subpar (at best) quarterback play than LSU over the past 10 years. But they need better than under 50 percent completion against an FCS opponent right?

Either way Les Miles says the quarterback competition rages on and it surely will until he can render both of them useless.

ON THE OTHER SIDE …

I am usually a huge critic of Gus Malzahn and his mismanagement of quarterbacks, but credit is due for him ending the madness of Auburn’s silly three-headed monster and just naming Sean White the starter.

Is White going to get the Tigers into SEC West contention? Probably not. But he’s serviceable enough and he was on fire Saturday with 244 yards passing and three touchdowns. The Tigers did most of their damage on the ground with 462 yards rushing but 700 yards of offense is still 700 yards of offense no matter which way you slice it.

Can White escape an SEC pass rush? Hard to say, but the Tigers host Texas A&M on Saturday so we’ll find out.

IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE

Vanderbilt’s offensive explosion in a 47-24 win against Middle Tennessee State matched the team’s highest point total under Derek Mason (vs. Austin Peay last September) and set the team’s highest point total against an FBS opponent in the Mason era.

The Commodores scored 28 points in the second quarterback against MTSU, the first time they have scored 28 or more points in a quarter since a 35-point outburst against UMass on Sept. 7, 2013.

THE KIDS ARE STILL GONNA BE ALL RIGHT

Jalen Hurts and Jacob Eason made their first career starts Saturday as the true freshman revolution at quarterback is already full steam ahead.

Hurts was pretty solid numbers wise (23-36, 287, 2 TDs) and smartly decided to throw the ball early and often to Calvin Ridley, who had nine catches for 129 yards and a touchdown. Hurts couldn’t do much on the ground but neither could anyone else for Bama as Western Kentucky held the Tide to 124 yards on 39 carries.

Eason had a mixed bag, going 11-of-20 for 202 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Frankly he looked like a true freshman playing quarterback at times but his offensive line and wide receivers didn’t do much to help him out. Georgia coach Kirby Smart wouldn’t commit to Eason starting the Bulldogs’ first conference road game against Missouri, but never fear: Eason will start because he does things like this:

South Carolina’s Brandon McIlwain didn’t start, but he probably will soon because Perry Orth went from being Week 1 hero to being the Perry Orth we all knew and loved.

McIlwain came in during the second half and provided a nice spark, leading touchdown drives of 12 and 13 plays, respectively. He was 11-of-22 for 122 yards and two touchdowns so there’s still plenty of room for improvement, but he isn’t going to get there on the bench.

THE OLDER KIDS WE ARE STILL HOLDING OUT HOPE FOR

While the true freshman revolution promises to change SEC quarterbacking for years to come, last year’s true freshmen class has both the good and the bad.

Missouri’s Drew Lock still has a chance after throwing for 450 yards and five touchdowns against MAC-tion patsy Eastern Michigan in a 61-21 win. Lock’s passer rating was a ridiculous 211.6. Through two games Lock leads on SEC quarterbacks with 730 yards (Trevor Knight is second with 583). Lock was 30 yards short of setting a school passing record. This week the Tigers host Georgia and we’ll see exactly what Lock is made of.

Things didn’t go so well for the other Drew, Kentucky’s Drew Barker completed more passes to the Gators (3) than he did to his own team (2) and had the awful stat line of 2-for-10, 10 yards and three interceptions.

The former four-star prospect looked lost and whereas a team like LSU can get by with bad quarterback play, Kentucky has put all their eggs in the Barker basket and he needs to play well for this team to compete for a bowl or even a shred of respectability. So he can’t be doing this:

https://twitter.com/smartfootball/status/774714681374154752

The Wildcats host New Mexico State this week so there’s a good chance he’ll turn things around.

Mississippi State started Nick Fitzgerald and he promptly broke a school rushing record with 195 yards and started cool trick plays.

Fitzgerald also threw some nice passes and finished 19-of-29 for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Things will get considerably tougher this Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Tiger Stadium to take on LSU, but the Bulldogs are certainly worth looking at if Fitzgerald can keep up this sort of play.

Corey Long

Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.

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