A nagging concern I have about every SEC team
No more cupcakes. Well, unless you’re playing … never mind.
Week 7 brings cooler temperatures and almost an entire slate of SEC games. Only Vanderbilt is venturing outside the SEC and, frankly, who could blame the Dores if they didn’t come back until baseball season?
There are 4 unbeaten teams, 4 more already making bowl plans and at least a couple others still holding out hope.
We’ve seen a lot, but we haven’t seen it all. Because of that, there is still a nagging concern I have about every SEC team, though not necessarily tied to Saturday’s opponent.
Alabama: Can the Tide slow down LSU’s offense?
If the Tide get to Atlanta, dealing with Georgia’s dominant rushing attack is going to be a major challenge, certainly the strangest for a Nick Saban team.
But getting to Atlanta means taking care of a new-look LSU team that is going to challenge Bama’s secondary in a way we’ve never seen from a Tigers team.
LSU kept Bama’s receivers relatively in check last year. Expect more of the same this year. The key will be: Can Bama’s secondary slow down Joe Burrow and Co.? I’m not so sure it can.
In that regard, maybe Kellen Mond and the Aggies serve as a good test on Saturday.
Arkansas: Can the Hogs get Rakeem Boyd 25 carries a game?
It’s clear Arkansas’ offense remains a work-in-progress. Here’s a thought: Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with squares and rectangles, how about just pound the rock the rest of the season? Coaches have to be able to adjust. It’s past time to adjust. Lean on Boyd and the lessons learned from the A&M game. Especially Saturday at Kentucky, which ranks 13th against the run after giving up 241 and 247 yards and 6 combined rushing TDs in consecutive SEC games.
Auburn: Are you really sure Joey Gatewood isn’t a more capable QB?
I wrote this during the Oregon opener and wondered aloud about it a few weeks later. Bo Nix just isn’t an accurate passer. He might be a play-maker, but he’s not an accurate passer. Games like Florida are going to happen again. Accuracy is one of the most difficult skills to improve. Sure, schemes can hide some of the flaws and make the numbers appear better than the mechanics suggest, but Auburn’s receivers were open Saturday. Nix just repeatedly missed them. At any rate, Gatewood deserves a shot.
Florida: Can this offense score 3 TDs vs. LSU or Georgia?
I’m still not sold. Y’all saw nearly 400 yards of total offense. I saw 2 huge plays that accounted for nearly 150 of those yards and 2 TDs, both of which should have been stopped for short gains.
It worked Saturday against Auburn. Is that really a reliable recipe to KO LSU on Saturday night and eventually win the East? Yes, the Gators’ defense is playing unbelievably well, but Joe Burrow and Jake Fromm are light years better than Nix. How this offense can consistently score enough is my biggest concern about going all in on the Gators’ bid to reach Atlanta.
Georgia: Has the trophy case been polished recently?
Really, the more I watch these Dawgs dominate the line of scrimmage and impose their will late in games, the more I think Kirby Smart finally has the team to take down Alabama in the SEC title game.
There are no glaring holes. The receivers make plays when the Dawgs need them. D’Andre Swift is the ultimate bail out option. The defense is pressuring the quarterback without exposing the secondary. And when they need to flip the switch and score, they do just that.
This feels like the year.
Kentucky: Can the Wildcats survive October?
It won’t be easy. They’re 2-3, 0-3 in the SEC. That has to be more than a bit deflating, especially after all of the talking about not getting any respect. Yes, they lost Terry Wilson, but they’re not the only SEC East team to turn to a backup QB. What happens if they enter November 3-5? Can they pull it together in time to make a bowl game? Mark Stoops isn’t in any kind of danger, but how the Cats respond to this month will determine how long it’ll take the program to get back to 9 or 10 wins. It’s a build, build, rebuild cycle with teams like Kentucky.
LSU: Can the Tigers handle the rising expectations?
Schematically, I trust everything I’m seeing from Joe Burrow and the offense. The defense has had a few issues, but I trust LSU is going to be LSU. There’s too much NFL talent not to be.
The stakes are rising, dramatically, starting with Saturday’s home date with Florida. The expectations are now championship or bust. LSU fans, finally, honestly believe they have a team that can whip Alabama. I’m right there with them.
The caveat: These are the moments where previous LSU teams have stumbled.
Mississippi State: Did Joe Moorhead figure out the offense during the bye week?
The Bulldogs have been all over the place offensively. They’ve changed quarterbacks. They’ve given Kylin Hill the ball a lot … and then not enough. Much like Arkansas, at some point, you just have to decide who you are and commit to it, knowing it might not be how you drew it up in July.
Saturday’s game at Tennessee isn’t high stakes, but it is intriguing. Tennessee gained confidence in its loss to Georgia and seemed to find its quarterback. The Vols also gave up 238 yards rushing. It seems like the ideal setting for Hill to get at least 25 carries.
Missouri: Which run defense is the real run defense?
Obviously Kelly Bryant’s knee is worth monitoring. If he’s not at full strength or has to miss some time, that puts even more pressure on the defense to keep delivering.
The Tigers gave up 297 yards rushing in the strange season opening loss at Wyoming.
They’ve allowed 147 rushing yards combined in the 4 games since.
Now comes Ole Miss, which just discovered it has the most dangerous running QB in the conference. John Rhys Plumlee had 165 of the Rebels’ 413 rushing yards against Vanderbilt. You could say, oh, that’s Vanderbilt, but Plumlee ran for 109 yards a week earlier against Alabama. These are designed runs. Will Missouri be able to stop them, especially now that its best defender Cale Garrett is gone for the season?
Ole Miss: Can John Rhys Plumlee last carrying it 20+ times a game?
Nick Fitzgerald, Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, those guys were built to withstand hits.
Plumlee is 6-0, 192. He’s built like a center fielder, which is what he’ll play in the spring for the Rebels.
He’s so fast and athletic, nobody has managed to barrel him up yet. You don’t want to go away from his strengths — he makes the Rebels’ RPO game electric — but preserving his health has to be a concern and priority.
South Carolina: Can the Gamecocks handle the adversity that’s about to hit?
With a true freshman at quarterback, it’s a fair question. The next 2 weeks — at Georgia, vs. Florida — figure to bring more pain than satisfaction. It’s highly likely that they are 2-5 heading to Tennessee. Pack it in, or continue to fight?
Here’s the thing: Unless a key player is lost to injury in the next 2 games, this stretch won’t really impact the Gamecocks’ bowl bid. There still are 4 winnable games on the schedule.
Tennessee: Will Vols do enough to warrant a Year 3 for Jeremy Pruitt?
Vols fans likely envisioned being 3-2 at this point, not 1-4. The early nonconference losses were crushing.
But I liked Brian Maurer’s performance and the way the Vols kept fighting against Georgia, especially given the off-field turmoil that followed the 31-point loss to Florida.
Teams that quit on their head coach don’t show that kind of fight.
Say what you want about Jeremy Pruitt, but the Vols play hard for him.
Do the Vols have a midseason miracle in them? ESPN’s FPI only sees 2 more wins, with Vanderbilt being the only SEC breakthrough. If they finish 3-9, 1-7 in the SEC, will that really be enough to justify bringing Pruitt back?
There’s no wrong time to make the right decision, but giving up after 2 seasons would seem like the ultimate sign of a panic move.
Texas A&M: Is it the schedule? The coach? The QB?
Beginning to think maybe, just maybe, it’s just life in the SEC West and as much as we keep labeling Texas A&M the sleeping giant of college football, the reality is there still are 3 historically great programs ahead of the Aggies in their own division.
Maybe 9-3, an occasional 10-2 really is their ceiling.
Vanderbilt: Will Derek Mason be back?
It’s a fair question. Everybody likes Mason’s passion, and he has generally recruited quality kids who haven’t embarrassed the university on Friday nights. That’s important and hardly a given.
Saturdays continue to be a problem, however.
The way the Dores are playing, it’s hard to find an SEC win. Mason insists they’re better than their 1-4 record. I’ve made enough excuses about the difficult schedule creating the 0-3 start. Saturday’s loss to Ole Miss was a mind-changer.
It’s puzzling. Mason has averaged almost 5 wins per season and reached 2 bowls, which is well above the norm in Nashville. But this team can’t tackle anybody. They’re allowing 500 yards per game. Not only is that last in the SEC and 125th nationally, but it’s 100 yards more than anybody else in the SEC.
It might be hard to justify bringing Mason back if his 6th year ends up being his worst year.
Nice write up. I believe Mason will get another year cuz who are they gonna get? I also think Muschamp, Pruitt, and Morehead will be on very hot seat in 2020. So think about this: Lanning is a rising star. Say he gets a head coach gig after 2020. Say Muschamp is fired after 2020, Would Kirby bring in Muschamp ?
Yes, I’m afraid he would. The only issue would be paying him; Georgia would have to pay him a couple million.
Muschamp has a huge buyout. It probably has an offset, so he could sign his next contract for $1 a year and make the same if the contract said two million.
That said, Muschamp is the best coach South Carolina can hire because of his recruiting ability. Firing him would be a mistake.
It’s about winning, not recruiting. Muschamp isn’t winning. A better coach may be able to win with Muschamp’s recruits. That’s what happened at Ole Miss when Orgeron left.
Yeah but the better coach is not available every year. This is a fit thing. The candidate has to be able to recruit from x,y,z to Columbia, South Carolina. And it’s not just knowing all the coaches and talent pools. It’s also being able to bring a staff from x,y,z to Columbia, South Carolina in a very short window of time. You can put a want ad in the ‘NCAA news’ for some things but not for all this. Another misconception is that throwing money at these program restarts works. No it’s the other way around, first you have to be able to find the candidates, then you have to be able to pay them. You can solve some easy puzzles with young upwardlys but oh the problems that come with inexperience. Every available experienced candidate is available for a reason, most of the time you don’t like that reason all that much.
That’s exactly what happen to Florida after Muschamp left too.
GoodGodafreshman, That could get interesting, when Lanning gets a HC job.
I’m not sure that Muschamp wouldn’t get another HC offer.
I wonder if Mason might be a more likely option? I think Mason is a fine DC. He and Smart seem to have a good relationship. Also, Mason is my favorite SEC coach, outside of Smart. He seems like he would be a recruiting ace at a place like Georgia.
I think Mason is headed to FSU before Lanning leaves UGA. Paying Muschamp $2 million is no problem if he wants to come but the buyout if he decides to leave needs to be huge
Bigger than his $18 million buyout after this season?
I don’t think Muschamp is leaving USC anytime soon. He was offered an extension (5 year normal) and more money. The AD likes him along with a block of the fan base and the purse strings at USC. He wants a HC job. I think UGA would be the top of the last resort if he was released from USC.
Additionally, I don’t see it happening as long as Tanner is there at AD.
I would rather have Derek Mason.
It has been reported from people really close to the team that out of fall camp said the race between Nix and Gatewood wasn’t even close and that Nix was the most accurate between the two. To me it’s not about accuracy, it is about decision making.
Nix’ accuracy is just fine. He just needs experience recognizing coverages. And knowing when to cut his losses.
Exactly.. the 22 yard run around sack is a good example and 2 of the 3 picks he stared down last weekend.
I think Nix is going to be a good QB prospect.
I just wonder if he has the skill set to take Malzahn’s offense to it’s limits.
I know he’s supposed to be like the 3rd fastest on the offense, etc, but does he really fit the Newton- Tebow, or Nick Marshall type mold?
So far, he looks like a great Pro-style offense type prospect that has the skills to escape when necessary. Passing (despite his struggles) seems to be his strength.
Malzahn’s offense seems to thrive with a strong run game from the RB’s combined a run first QB who also has a strong arm.
Go back and look at some of Gus’s earlier offenses as a coordinator.
2007 Tulsa – Qb threw for over 5000 yards and ran for less than 150
2008 Tulsa- Qb threw for over 4000 yards and ran for less than 200
1st in yards in 2007 and 2008 without a running quarterback.
The author compares him to Jake Fromm but I feel like he’s more of a less polished Jarrett Stidham.
Where does he compare him to Fromm?
Kentucky didn’t just lose their starting quarterback, but their backup has been playing through injury ever since the Florida game with no real qb3. They’ve also been working with a limited secondary after last years draft, which has also seen injuries this year
Yea, let’s go with that excuse.
At Kentucky apparently its violates team rules by recruiting quarterbacks and developing them.
It’s much easier to go shopping in the JUCO ranks and avoid coaching those we chose from the high school ranks.
How comeone we had some players drafted we, after two years of no one picked, don’t have more ready to play?
Wait, I understand. That would require coaching?
Maybe we can quit recruiting and fill the roster with JUCO players.
We can save all that money designated money to give to Cal, spread a little around the football coaches, etc..
Thanks Mitch.
What juco did we pluck Josh Allen and Benny Snell from? And yeah I’ll agree that we’ve had bad luck with quarterbacks, but Stephen Johnson was a dramatic change just a couple years ago, and terry wilson showed lots of improvement over last year until he went down for the year
For some reason most plays start with the center and quarterback.
You would think the Dynamic duo of Gran and Hinshaw would work at developing a quarterback.
Or maybe that’s only at schools that wish to be competitive more than one year ever 40 years.
But the problem,apparently according to Miracle Mitch is to hand out raises every year, and maintain our junior membership in the MidAmerican Conference.
Do you know our version of Stoops is 15-0 against non power 5 schools?
Raises all around.
And he is 17 -53 in the SEC.
Double raises all around!
Did Josh or Benny play quarterback?
Which games?
Try to keep up.
Good article. More likely Mason goes to UGA than coach Boom. I think him and Stoops are kind of set. Jimbo however better produce next year or those oil men will wonder what the he hell they invested in. Morris. I don’t know what to make of him. Seems like good group of 5 coach somewhere but not in SEC west. Gus is Gus. Auburn knows what they have after all it’s been a while. They will decide soon. Plumlee is good. Wished he would have stuck with us but glad to see him doing well.
Maybe Kirby could get Kiffin too. Kirby Champ and Kiffin. That would be hilarious but a devasting combo.
So. You’re taking it for granted KY beats AR. Good.. I hope KY takes that for granted as well… I dub the contest betwixt AR-KY this weekend the “Who Sux More Than Tennessee Bowl”.
The only thing the Big Blue Nation can take for granted is that our coach and staff will be back next year.
Our AD ain’t got the ‘hanger downs’ to fire him.
I think we are in that same boat with ya in that particular regard, paris. At least your coach does produce a winner on occasion. Ours has yet to do that.
You got me on that one.
Don’t agree with UGA section. Trophy case polished? More like has it been dusted.
Yes they had to make room for that SEC championship Wayyyyy back in 2017. And that Rose Bowl trophy. Be a jerk for a different team.
Welcome Ark fan. We don’t see those that often.
Not sure how A&M is a good test of a team’s readiness for LSU.
Not sure why there is concern about a team that scored 3 TDs against Auburn being able to do so against anyone else.
Not sure how any team could be seen as having no concerns.
Yup. Mizzou has two main worries: THE KNEE, and the D without Garrett. Lightning struck twice in the same game — one strike was chance, the other was with malice aforethought.
Will Ole Mess mess with KB’s knee? Hello, refs?
They closed the play book when Taylor Powell replaced KB for the second half of the Troy game. What can he do with the play book opened up? Maybe we’ll find out.
Last word is that KB is wearing a knee brace. As Dave Matter pointed out, Odom has a history of suggesting that an injured player will play, but then doesn’t play him. Odom has said that KB will be “fully active” in practice, but he has not said that he will start vs. Mississippi, and he has said nothing about reps for Powell in practice, as far as I know.
Meanwhile, Vegas still has Mizzou 9:2 and winning by about 34-21.
Florida isn’t perfect, but they’re ahead of schedule. Mac left them high and dry and a competitive game against LSU and a win against Georgia will surpass most Gator fan’s expectations. Georgia thinks that having the talent alone will win them a NC. Hasn’t happened yet. LSU will be a tough game and the defense better play lights out for the maximum chance to win in Death Valley at night (them drunk Cajuns will be loud). But if we can outlast LSU, I’m not as worried about UGAy. Looking forward to Jacksonville regardless of what happens in BR.
You should be worried about GA no matter what, their D is much better than what LSU will bring..
I think georgia is a very good team and this is the year they beat bama if they are ever going to, but you could find no flaws?? How about can Kirby win the big game? I mean it is the one flaw that seems to be holding that program back. Or, if Fromm goes down, this team becomes very beatable? Oh well, the next month will show us a lot.. Oh yeah, don’t get excited about a Rose Bowl trophy. That is not a good look.
The only been game the dawgs have played this year, they have won. So I’m confused as why BASED ON WHAT THEY’VE SEEN THIS SEASON, which is what the article is about, why THAT would be a concern?
If Burrow goes down LSU is very beatable, If Justin Fields goes down, if Jalen Hurts goes down..I never got the point of someone saying “hey what happens if this STAR QUARTERBACK” goes down. It can usually be said about most teams. Just so happens for Florida seems like y’all got better.
Also beating LSU will not tell you how you will fare against Georgia to the OP. Losing to LSU will NOT tell you how you will fare against Georgia. That’s not how matchups work. I almost feel like you just wanted to take a shot at Georgia.
The only big*** DArn lack of edit button.
If Fromm gets injured we can throw the season in the toilet. The most glaring weaknesses to me is the short-yardage struggles, open-field tackling, and penalties.
The “mailman” looks serviceable. All is not lost if we lose Fromm, but a NC will be almost impossible without Fromm. Our season will not go down the toilet, just may not reach the goal we have our eye on.
“I’m not as worried about UGAy” You should be, we have been beating you like a drum lately. Loose to UGA and your done…we have the tie breaker (and we ain’t losing two).
Copious amounts of rat poison for UGA.
Bama has that mean slant passing attack that matches up well with UGA.
this is the year smart must win——-there is no jake next year —he only comes along once every 10 years——–watched the tennessee game on youtube and far too many passes completed to make smart confident he can control burrow or tua so this will take some magic
Eh the QB looked decent early in that game but still finished completing just 50% of his passes. Also when JG came in he went just 1/5. I mean it’s Tennessee so I wouldn’t expect a world class performance from their QB but if opposing QBs are only completing 50% of their passes I don’t think it would be cause for concern to a defense.
I wouldn’t completely count out Jake returning next year.
No, I think the home-state factor weighs very heavily on his mind.
Fair assessment, Chris.
Missouri’s D improvement since the Wyoming game has been mostly as a result of the linebackers. With Garrett out, Mizzou is going to have to find that chemistry again. The knock on Mizzou isn’t usually that they don’t have the quality players to compete, it’s that they don’t have the depth when injuries strike.
Who agrees with this playoff picture. I believe Alabama is good, but they still have not proven themselves. Their best win so far has been against a basketball college (Duke). So until they get a decent win this is what my playoff picture is right now.
1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Clemson
4. Oklahoma
Maybe, but OSU is in the same boat as Bama…they really don’t have a quality win. Mich St. does not do it for me, about the same talent as SC. Talk to me after Wis. and Penn St.
You tried hard to get the UGA fans to jump on your side by putting them number 1… It looks like it didn’t work…
LMAO
Rat poison.