1. I don’t want to get on soapbox, but …

This, everyone, is the best thing that could’ve happened to the SEC.

Years from now, we’ll look back at Tennessee’s win over Alabama as the turning point for a conference that had gotten fat and stale in its elite largess.

“This thing is just beginning,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said.

Those simple words may as well be a mission statement for the 11 SEC teams not named Alabama, Georgia and now Tennessee. The best conference in college football has too long rested on the mighty shoulders of Alabama and most recently Georgia — and a brief, burning comet pass from LSU — at the expense of the rest of the league.

The SEC built this run of dominance from the early 2000s, when 4 programs — LSU (2003, 2007), Florida (2006, 2008), Auburn (2010) and Alabama (2009, 2011-12) — won national championships in 8 of 10 years.

A few years later and after Auburn played for it all in 2013 and Alabama won it all again in 2015, Kirby Smart left Alabama to coach his alma mater and the SEC quickly became a 2-team conference dominated by the best coach in the game (Nick Saban) and his protege (Smart).

This, of course, was at the expense of SEC blue-bloods LSU (not including the aforementioned comet season), Florida (which couldn’t recruit its own state as well as Alabama and Georgia), Auburn (which wilted in the shadow of Saban), and even newcomer Texas A&M (which couldn’t capitalize on a comet season in 2012).

Then there was Tennessee, lost in the SEC hinterlands for the better part of 2 decades and stumbling over itself with multiple poor coaching hires, catching fire the old fashioned way: from the bottom up.

The university 2 years ago finally pushed out the old guard administration and hired fresh ideas with AD Danny White. On that very day, White reached out to Heupel, his coach at UCF, and the spark that has become a full inferno was ignited.

Think about this: 19 games later, Tennessee — 1 of the 3 most disappointing Power 5 programs since the turn of the century — has a strong case to be the No. 1 team in the nation after the win over Alabama.

This sudden and drastic evolution is everything for the SEC, which had quietly become the Big 2 and the Little 12 while everyone in the league was beating its collective chest about winning national titles.

Tennessee’s quick change is a direct shot across the bow to the rest of the SEC, which has complained for years about inherent recruiting advantages for Alabama and Georgia squeezing out the remainder of the league. You know, best players = best teams.

That doesn’t float anymore.

How many Tennessee players could start for Alabama or Georgia right now? Wideout Jalin Hyatt — who prior to this year was a player still finding his way — would be the best receiver on either team. So would injured WR Cedric Tillman.

Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker wouldn’t start at Alabama, and more than likely wouldn’t start at Georgia because, you know, Kirby and quarterbacks.

Other than that, maybe WR Bru McCoy and OTs Darnell Wright and Gerald Mincey — Mincey couldn’t get on the field at Florida the past 2 seasons — could win jobs. Maybe.

This Vols team, this ragtag group that stuck it out before Heupel’s first season in 2021 when more than 30 players left for the transfer portal (at least 10-12 starters or projected starters), whose quarterback was benched a year earlier at Virginia Tech, whose staff is recruiting with potential NCAA sanctions looming from the previous P.E. Coach in charge, is now the most dangerous team in all of college football.

Alabama is on notice, and so is Georgia — which plays host to the Vols next month in a game that could once again change everything.

Blue-bloods Florida, LSU, Auburn and Texas A&M — and every other SEC program, including new additions Texas and Oklahoma — can see it all in front of them, too. With NIL and the transfer portal, there are no more excuses and there are no more boogeymen sucking the oxygen (and the recruits) from the room.

The right coach, the right quarterback, the right system, just beat the best players and coach in the SEC.

And it’s the best thing that could’ve happened — even if it did expose a few warts.

2. The ugly truth

It has to be said and can no longer be denied: Alabama, right now, is a poorly coached team.

While those words may seem blasphemous to lay on a coach who has won 6 national titles in 15 seasons and 7 overall, Saban has done a poor job not only getting Alabama prepared for big games but with mid-game adjustments.

After his first loss to Tennessee in 16 years, after the most points given up by an Alabama team in more than a century, Saban said players need to, “Have more respect for playing with discipline so we don’t get penalties, we don’t help the other team, we don’t make mental errors that help the other team.”

Players?

A game of this magnitude, where the Alabama staff had 5 Tennessee games to pour over and find flaws, and it’s about players having more respect to play with discipline?

Add that to the list of Saban excuses after every Alabama loss in his time at Tuscaloosa.

It wasn’t players who decided to use a soft shell coverage on the last 2 plays of the game, allowing the most accurate thrower in the SEC — who had already torched the Alabama secondary for 59 minutes — to complete 2 easy throws to set up the game-winning field goal.

It wasn’t the players who refused to give Tide cornerbacks help with Hyatt. Heupel kept calling plays designed to get Hyatt free release at the line, and Alabama never adjusted.

Never played bump-and-run coverage. Never got a jam at the line of scrimmage. Never used a safety in bracket coverage.

It wasn’t players who decided on the final drive to throw intermediate on 3 straight plays from the Tennessee 32, instead of getting the ball in space to electric RB Jahmyr Gibbs. A simple screen pass — against an aggressive Vols front — or a jet sweep, or an isolation run.

It was, however, players who rang up 49 points on the road in a wild environment against a team hell-bent to finally break through. It was, however, players who churned out 569 total yards — one of those players (QB Bryce Young) who a week earlier had trouble moving his arm because of a sprained AC joint in his right throwing shoulder.

It was a player, DE Dallas Turner, who picked up a fumble at the Tennessee 11 and scored to give Alabama the lead with 8 minutes to play — a moment that in previous seasons, with the vise grip that is a Saban defense, all but ended every big game.

Players perform how they are coached. It’s the oldest and truest axiom of coaching.

That’s why Alabama has been so dominant for so long, because Saban is the best in the business and has annually surrounded himself with the best assistant coaches. Only now, there’s too much contrary evidence to ignore.

Like the most single-game penalties in program history (17 for 130 yards) against Tennessee. This, of course, isn’t something new this season.

Alabama is last in the SEC in penalties (66) and yards (559), and the loss to Tennessee was the 3rd time this season the Tide has had double-digit penalties — the 3rd time! — in a big game. The 10 penalties against Arkansas didn’t hurt because Alabama got big plays in the second half to pull away.

The 15 penalties against Texas didn’t hurt because Longhorns QB Quinn Ewers was injured at the end of the 1st quarter, and the first 15 minutes of exposing a shaky Alabama secondary didn’t evolve into 60 minutes with backup quarterback Hudson Card.

If Ewers didn’t get hurt, we’d be talking this week about a 2nd Alabama loss in the regular season — the rarest of moments under Saban.

Coaches coach, and players play, and at the end of the day, players win games. So true to Saban’s point, the Alabama players have to tighten up and be more disciplined.

But understand this: You’re either coaching it, or you’re allowing it.

Right now, it looks like Saban and his staff are allowing it.

3. The butterfly effect, The Epilogue

There was a point in the LSU-Florida game, when neither team could stop the other, where it became clear how it go so bad, so quickly.

Meanwhile, in Oxford, Miss., it continued to come together for Ole Miss.

LSU is 3 years removed from a national title; Florida is 2 years removed from 3 straight New Year’s 6 bowls. Neither has a quarterback (yet) or a unique system to make a significant move in 2023.

But Olę Miss does — and not just in 2023. Right now, this season.

Coach Lane Kiffin and OC Charlie Weis Jr., run a near identical system as Tennessee. They’re both based on the old Baylor offense under Art Briles: receivers at the numbers to stretch a defense, with a downhill rushing game, and a quarterback with the arm strength and accuracy to throw it to the numbers and keep a defense from loading up against the run.

The idea is to force a defense to choose: stop the run between the hashes with TBs Quinshon Judkins and Zach Evans and QB Jaxson Dart, or play man outside and risk losing individual battles with limited safety help — and Dart throwing over the top for big plays.

Kiffin has Ole Miss unbeaten and ranked in the top 10. But the Rebels haven’t played a game of significance, and this week at LSU will at least be the first road test of the season.

Get through back-to-back road games against LSU and Texas A&M — not easy, but not as difficult as you’d think from an emerging program — and set up a huge home game against Alabama on Nov. 12.

And another potential seismic shift for the SEC.

4. The Bennett question

Something just isn’t right with the Georgia offense. It hasn’t mattered yet this season because the Dawgs haven’t played a defense of significance.

We’re halfway through the season, and QB Stetson Bennett has 7 TD passes and the ball isn’t going downfield (8.9 yards per attempt) like it did last season (10.0). Georgia is unbeaten and hasn’t been tested — except against the best defense it has faced this season (Missouri, No. 4 in the SEC in total defense).

Are we nitpicking with a guy who has thrown 1 interception, and has played well enough every game to keep Georgia unbeaten? Probably.

Everything looks right down the middle: Bennett is completing 71 percent of his passes on 3rd down, and 72 percent on 3rd down. He has the Georgia offense consistently ahead of the sticks, and not playing from behind.

But for how long?

“They have no one on the outside that scares you,” an NFL scout told me this weekend. “(Brock) Bowers is fantastic, but he’s not a deep threat. If Missouri had any offense, they would’ve won that game a couple of weeks ago because Georgia is predictable right now in what it does offensively.”

That hasn’t been a problem all season because Georgia hasn’t played an offense that can score on its defense, and has only played 1 defense (Missouri) ranked in the top 40 nationally.

It won’t, in fact, be a problem until at least Nov. 19 at Kentucky, which is currently the No. 14 in the nation in total defense and last weekend shut down the Mississippi State offense — which had 2 passes of more than 20 yards.

The rest of the Georgia schedule — including the Nov. 5 game against Tennessee — will be against defenses ranked no better than 65th in the nation: Florida (106th), Tennessee (104th), Mississippi State (65th) and Georgia Tech (80th).

5. The Weekly 5

Five picks against the spread, brought to you by our good friends at FanDuel:

  • Ole Miss (-2.5) at LSU
  • Mississippi State at Alabama (-18)
  • Vanderbilt at Missouri (-8.5)
  • Texas A&M (-3) at South Carolina
  • UT-Martin at Tennessee (-51)

Last week: 4-1.

Season: 21-14.

6. Your tape is your résumé

An NFL scout analyzes a draft-eligible SEC player. This week: Tennessee OT Darnell Wright (6-6, 335).

“Big, strong guy who has good feet and reach. He’s not a left tackle, and he has problems at times with speed edge guys. He’ll play on the right side, and he has a strong base to absorb the bull rush guys.

“He has definitely improved in pass block this season. I really like him in the run game. He’s aggressively getting to the second level and getting blocks. He can move, and when you get that size of a man moving, that’s going to be a problem for just about everyone. He could be a late second-day pick.”

7. Powered Up

This week’s Power Poll, and one big thing: 1 game to change the 2nd half of the season.

1. Georgia: Nov. 19, at Kentucky. A wild road environment, a defense that can cause problems for the Georgia offense.

2. Tennessee: Nov. 5, at Georgia. The Vols have slayed two historical dragons already (Florida, Alabama); is Georgia next?

3. Alabama: Nov. 12, at Ole Miss. The Rebels don’t throw the ball as well as Tennessee, but they run it with more efficiency.

4. Ole Miss: Oct. 22. at LSU. You don’t get to Alabama without 2 tough road tests first: LSU and Texas A&M. Both winnable, but both difficult.

5. Kentucky: Oct. 29, at Tennessee. Defense that has given up 4 TD passes (and has 6 INTs) will have 2 weeks to prepare for a prolific offense.

6. LSU: Nov. 5, Alabama. The measurement game for every LSU coach. Brian Kelly will be no different, and he will get 2 weeks to figure out how his pass defense — the most consistent area on the team — can slow down Bryce Young.

7. Mississippi State: Nov. 12, Georgia. A loud environment, a defense that can pressure the quarterback and cover.

8. Texas A&M: Oct. 29, Ole Miss. Aggies are 115th in the nation against the run. Rebels are No. 3 in the nation in rushing. Easy math.

9. Arkansas: Nov. 12, LSU. The rivalry is important, but it’s also the first of 2 straight home games (Ole Miss, Nov. 19) that could translate to another 9-win season.

10. South Carolina: Nov. 26, at Clemson. Gamecocks haven’t beaten Clemson since 2013. Winning and potentially knocking the Tigers from Playoff hunt would be the biggest win in series history.

11. Florida: Nov. 12, South Carolina. Gators need 2 wins for bowl eligibility. There are likely 2 left: South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

12. Missouri: Nov. 5, Kentucky. Yes, Missouri still has bowl hopes. But coach Eli Drinkwitz may need this one — against a ranked team — to keep his job.

13. Auburn: Nov. 12, Texas A&M. Looking for another SEC win? This is it, against an Aggies team that can’t stop the run and hasn’t won on the road this season.

14. Vanderbilt: Nov. 19, Florida. If things unfold as they could — wins at Missouri and vs. South Carolina — this would be for bowl eligibility.

8. Ask and you shall receive

Matt: I can’t figure out my Wildcats. Should have beat Ole Miss, somehow lost to South Carolina, beat Mississippi State like a drum. Explain please. — Mike Walters, Cincinnati.

Mike:

Once you get past Georgia, Alabama and now Tennessee, teams 3 through 13 are a crapshoot. There’s not that much difference, and that includes Ole Miss and Kentucky — which are the next level after the elite of the league.

Kentucky’s issue is the health of QB Will Levis. The Wildcats don’t lose to South Carolina if Levis is healthy and playing, but that can’t be used as an excuse. South Carolina won multiple SEC games last year playing 2nd and 3rd-string quarterbacks.

Kentucky prepared all week knowing Levis wouldn’t play, and the Wildcats’ elite defense (because it is elite) gave up 179 yards rushing. UK giving up a blocked punt didn’t help, either.

This is still a dangerous team in the second half of the season, a team that — if it plays its best ball — can beat both Tennessee and Georgia. The defense is active and disruptive in the front seven, and the offense (when healthy) is more balanced than it has ever been under Stoops with receivers who can win consistently on the outside.

9. Numbers

10.7. Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker has 671 deep passing yards off play-action, the highest in college football. He’s averaging 10.7 yards per attempt, which is No. 2 in the nation.

That number has increased a full yard (9.7) from 2021, and the ability to throw accurately deep continues to open other areas in the pass game — and the run game.

Tennessee leads the nation in long scrimmage plays of 40+ yards with 16.

10. Quote to note

LSU coach Brian Kelly on the development of QB Jayden Daniels: “We were hoping that he was going to be more assertive with the football, push it down the field. He was seeing things a lot better. The offense is coming to him. It’s a new offense that he’s in, and it’s slowing down for him.”