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There was a lot of great football in Week 11, particularly if you like underdogs. But there are two sides to every coin, and the other side was that some highly rated teams were pitiful. We’ll break it all down in our look around Week 11, focusing mainly on the SEC.
Forget the highlights, here’s the worst of the worst in Week 11.
Worst job holding onto CFP Playoff spot: Clemson, Michigan, Washington (tie)
This wasn’t a tough looking week for the four CFP leaders. Sure, Michigan has Ohio State coming up, Clemson would have to win the ACC championship, and Washington had to play Washington State. But whoops, they all decided to have a fall apart Saturday.
A previously 5-4 Pitt team that had lost that lost to Miami by 23 the week before toppled Clemson. A 5-4 Iowa team that lost to an FCS opponent and dropped its previous game to Penn State by 27 knocked off Michigan. And a 6-3 USC team that lost to Utah and Stanford beat Washington. What a week.
Worst job keeping CFP Playoff hopes alive, SEC Edition: Texas A&M and Auburn
The SEC got with the feeling too, as the two non-Alabama teams that possibly had a shot at a Playoff spot both shot themselves in the foot. A&M burned through a 21-6 lead to lose to Ole Miss and true frosh QB Shea Patterson. Auburn looked like an offense from the 1880s in falling to Georgia by a 13-7 count. Whoever gets into the CFP, it’s Alabama alone from the SEC.
Worst supporting work by a defense: Kentucky
It’s loss 16 in a row for Kentucky at Tennessee, so it’s not surprising. But the manner was. All week long, SEC insiders said Kentucky had to use its punishing ground game to beat UT. So the Wildcats did — they rushed for 443 yards, setting a school record for an SEC game, and missing the overall school record by 3 yards.
And they still lost badly, because for every play the UK offense made, the defense gave up a corresponding big play. The teams combined for 1,234 total yards, with 819 yards on the ground. But the stat that mattered was 49-36, UT.
Worst trick play: Georgia
Sure, the Bulldogs won, but Jim Chaney picked a terrible time to look like a kid playing Madden on his Xbox.
https://twitter.com/SEConCBS/status/797547012728066048
As Gary Danielson is confusedly explaining in the video, it’s hard to complete a pass with no receiver in the area — especially with a receiver throwing it.
Worst imitation of a quarterback: Auburn
Sean White was awful. Sure, he’s banged up. But the bottom line is that White has been inconsistent. While he was the SEC’s top ranked QB heading into the Georgia game (he fell to second), he is also running this stat line in Auburn’s three losses: 34-for-68, 293 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs. This Georgia game was the true dumpster fire. The pick-six to Maurice Smith that lost the game was returned for more yardage than White passed for the rest of the day, which was 27 yards.
Worst kicking: Missouri
Mizzou is 5-for-12 on field goals this year and has missed an astounding five extra points. Saturday’s nine-point win included kicker Tucker McCann missing two extra points and a 21-yard field goal, as well as a long field goal try. At home.
If Missouri had used a walk-on soccer player instead of McCann,
they would have blown out Vandy. This has to be especially discouraging for Mizzou because McCann was one of the top kicking prospects in the nation.
Worst social media timing: Florida’s Daniel McMillian
https://twitter.com/GoldManDan_13/status/797549516404748288
Venting on social media about not getting enough PT and perceived mistreatment should be second nature by now. But not on Senior Day. Especially your own Senior Day. But McMillian, who has 40 career tackles in four years at Florida, felt like sounding off. I’m sure McMillian’s observations will be noted by his coaching staff.
Wally Pipp Award (worst burying of a talented prospect): Leonard Fournette and Chad Kelly
This one is tongue-in-cheek, but when two All-SEC studs went down this season, their backups stepped up and made us all say, “Leonard and Chad who?”
Fournette was outperformed Saturday by Derrius Guice, who has rushed for 881 yards, nine touchdowns, and a smooth 8.7 yards per carry, and has picked up much of the slack from Fournette’s uneven season.
After Kelly suffered a season-ending injury, Ole Miss took the redshirt off Shea Patterson, who led a comeback win past No. 8 Texas A&M with 338 passing yards and two touchdowns. That was an Ole Miss freshman record for passing yards. Way to put a glass ceiling in front of some young talent, guys.
Worst Jekyll and Hyde performance: Arkansas
Will the real Razorbacks please stand up? Is it the team that rolled Florida and beat Ole Miss and TCU back when that meant something? The team that at least put up some point on Alabama and made Nick Saban very, very angry.
Or the team that folded like a cheap taco this weekend against LSU and was even worse against Auburn? Arkansas could do into a bowl and steam-roll another P5 team, or they could lose by 40. Neither would be surprising.
Worst mini-controversy: Nick Saban election issues
I don’t even want to go there, but it mattered, so Nick Saban had to speak twice about the Presidential election this week. The ultimate result: he acknowledges that he did vote.
Personally, I hope he wrote himself in. He apparently wasn’t the only one.
https://twitter.com/amy_goolsby/status/788447443713220608
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.
