Weekly takeaways, trends and technicalities from the weekend’s SEC action.

In this week’s midterm edition of Monday Down South …

  • Alabama’s LT problem is not going away
  • How many players does it take to replace Brock Bowers?
  • Nick Sagan waxes rhapsodic about KJ Jefferson’s bovine posterior
  • Week 7 Superlatives and updated power rankings

… and more! But first:

Midseason Vibes check

We’ve hit the turn in the 2023 regular season: 7 Saturdays down, 7 Saturdays to go. How you feeling so far? Here’s where all 14 SEC teams stand at the halfway point according to the official Monday Down South Vibes Index:

Cruising at altitude

⬌Georgia. No doubt Kirby Smart can elucidate a long list of his team’s flaws and concerns — even before Brock Bowers’ injury. Georgia fans probably can, too. Zero in the loss column notwithstanding, the defending champs have been far from perfect against an underwhelming schedule. Three of their 4 conference games have been competitive well into the 4th quarter, a rarity the past 2 years. But they’ve been themselves, too, extending their school-record winning steak to 24 games and counting with a minimum of drama.

The defense ranks among the nation’s best across the board; Carson Beck’s output to date has barely wavered from the pace that made Stetson Bennett IV an improbable Heisman finalist in 2022; the Dawgs’ reserved seat atop the major polls remains secure in their 17th consecutive week at No. 1. As long as the prevailing question in their bid for a 3-peat is “Georgia vs. the field,” life is good.

The water starts getting deeper on the other side of an open date: Florida’s on deck in Week 9, followed 3 straight games against currently ranked teams (Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee) in November. Maybe all without Bowers, too, who is set for ankle surgery. Historically speaking, that’s the kind of gauntlet in which good-not-great legacy contenders tend to get exposed. We won’t really have a good idea of how this version of Georgia stacks up until it’s safely on the other side with championship ambitions intact. In the meantime, it’s enough to know that it will register as a shockwave across the sport if they aren’t.

Enjoying the view (while it lasts) …

⬆Ole Miss. Getting smacked down by Alabama in Week 4 should have disabused the Rebels of any notions of a dark-horse run to Atlanta, especially with a trip to Georgia still on the schedule. Still, their wild, field-storming win over LSU only a week later was a season-defining moment, and with the rest of the West in various states of disarray, there’s no reason they shouldn’t finish with 10 wins and a New Year’s 6 bowl invite for the 2nd time in 3 years.

Let’s wait until they get past Auburn and Texas A&M before we start thinking too big about the implications of a potential upset in Athens — after all, we’re talking about an outfit last seen narrowly escaping an upset bid from Arkansas on its home field — but with each passing week the opportunity figures to loom a little bit larger.

⬆Missouri. At 6-1, the Tigers are also looking ahead to November dates against UGA and Tennessee that will play a big part in deciding the East. First, though, a little perspective is in order: Missouri hasn’t eclipsed 6 wins in a full season since 2018, behind senior QB Drew Lock. Hitting that mark with plenty of room to spare Saturday in a come-from-behind, 38-21 win at Kentucky was reason enough to mark the occasion.

Whatever they have to look forward to, Mizzou is the only team in the conference that has clearly exceeded expectations to this point, extinguishing the bonfire beneath Eli Drinkwitz’s seat in the process. (In the preseason SEC media picked the Tigers to finish 6th in the East.)

Drink’s biggest recruiting win, Luther Burden III, is paying off in spades, as is his decision to stick with Brady Cook as his starting quarterback coming off a marginal turn as QB1 in 2022. People have even (mostly) stopped complaining about the $2 million raise the university gave Drinkwitz last year for no apparent reason other than they didn’t know how else to spend it. Depending on how things shake out over the next few weeks, he might have another one coming.

Figuring it out

⬌Alabama. At this point, it’s probably time to accept that the 2023 Crimson Tide aren’t on the verge of emerging from the woods. They live in the woods. In fact, they’re beginning to look increasingly at home there.

Every entry in their 5-game winning streak has been an ugly, defensively-driven affair that, with the exception of a 40-17 win at Mississippi State in Week 5, has featured some genuinely harrowing moments. Alabama trailed at halftime against Ole Miss and Texas A&M, and was reduced to sweating out a 3-point win Saturday against Arkansas — a 3-touchdown underdog on a bee line to the basement — in a game the Tide led 24-6 late in the 3rd quarter. At no point since the opener have they resembled the domineering Bama teams that we’ve come to take granted over the past 15 years.

But then, all angst is relative. Even the least dominant outfit of the Saban era still finds itself 4-0 in SEC play, in sole possession of first place in the West, and very much in control of its fate in the Playoff race if it manages to win out through the SEC Championship Game. The Tide are forging an on-the-fly identity behind the defense, which since the Week 2 loss to Texas has played like a vintage unit from the first half of Saban’s tenure, and a big-play streak that has redeemed an otherwise maddeningly inconsistent offense.

So far, they’ve been just explosive enough to keep all of their goals on the table as they grope toward some semblance of stability. Their next 2 games, home dates against Tennessee and LSU, are the ones that will settle whether this team still belongs on the continuum of perennial Bama contenders or points the way toward decline.

⬌Tennessee. The Vols, too, are recalibrating their formerly high-flying identity to suit a team that is clearly further along on defense than on offense, and that is clearly better suited to establishing the run than airing it out at maximum tempo.

Saturday’s 20-13 win over Texas A&M felt like the moment Tennessee accepted (if not quite embraced) its fate as a slugfest-ready team that actually heeds archaic concepts like field position and time of possession. If they’d come to that conclusion a month earlier, their Week 3 flop at Florida might have turned out differently. As it stands, this weekend’s trip to Tuscaloosa will either thrust the Vols onto the Playoff radar heading into the home stretch or put them on the fast track to the ReliaQuest Bowl.

⬌LSU. The Tigers have apparently made peace with who they are, as well: A score-first, ask-questions-later squad resigned to shootout logic against any opposing offense with a pulse. In Jayden Daniels, they have arguably the only quarterback in the conference at the moment who gives them a chance to win the sprint to 40 points on a weekly basis. At 5-2, it’s a stretch to cast LSU as a serious CFP threat without a perfect storm of factors outside of their control breaking their way across the country. But as for what they do control, running the table with wins over Alabama on the road and (presumably) Georgia in the SEC Championship Game would certainly force the issue.

Could be worse …

⬌Kentucky. Historically speaking, 5-2 with a lopsided win over Florida is a perfectly cromulent midseason résumé for Kentucky. Coming off back-to-back losses to Georgia and Missouri, though, this season is starting to feel a lot like the last one, when a 4-0 start (including a convincing win over the Gators) unraveled in an eventual 7-6 finish. Transfer QB Devin Leary is on the bust track following a miserable start in SEC play. Mark Stoops’ job is as safe as they come, but the upward trajectory that has defined much of his tenure is on the verge of giving way to a palpable sense of stagnation.

⬌Florida. The Gators remained technically alive in the East in Saturday’s come-from-behind, 41-39 win at South Carolina, ensuring their Week 9 date with Georgia will arrive with tangible stakes for both teams — great news for the advance hype, anyway, in spite of the reality that Florida is no closer to challenging the Dawgs at the top of the East than it’s been the past 2 years. The comeback in Carolina was crucial in one sense: It kept the Gators from doom-spiraling into this weekend’s open date with UGA, LSU, Missouri and Florida State looming on the other side. Instead, a win over reeling Arkansas on Nov. 4 would secure bowl eligibility, putting a winning record within reach with an upset in any of the last 3. Nothing to write home about in the long run, but if nothing else it would represent a step forward from last year’s 6-7 finish in Billy Napier’s first season.

Construction zone

⬌Auburn. Nothing else Hugh Freeze does here matters until he solves his quarterback problem, which isn’t about to happen in the next 6 weeks. In 4 games vs. Power 5 opponents, Payton Thorne and Robby Ashford have combined to average 98 yards passing on a dismal 4.5 per attempt. The silver lining: The schedule finally eases up a bit between this weekend’s visit from Ole Miss and the Iron Bowl.

⬇Mississippi State. The Bulldogs are 0-3 in SEC play under first-year coach Zach Arnett and facing a critical stretch of games for bowl eligibility against Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky. Assuming a win over Southern Miss on Nov. 18, they need to win at least 2 of those 3 to have a realistic shot at breaking even, and at salvaging some goodwill for Arnett heading into the offseason.

Purgatory

⬇Texas A&M. The product on the field is improved from last year’s collapse, for whatever it’s worth. (Not much.) Otherwise, it’s Year 6 under Jimbo Fisher and A&M is no closer to the top of the West than when he arrived. The offense bottomed out Saturday in a 20-13 loss at Tennessee, the second week in a row the Aggies wasted a stellar defensive effort in a high-profile, season-defining game. On an alternate timeline, would the presence of injured QB Conner Weigman have made any difference in those 2 losses? Only if that timeline also involves a vastly improved offensive line.

At any rate, at 4-3, the goal for the rest of the season is to avoid another descent into the abyss of a sub-.500 record. A strong finish is still possible, potentially sending the Aggies into 2024 with a renewed sense of optimism for a young, blue-chip-laden team scheduled to return the vast majority of its production, not to mention Weigman. Just as likely, we’re all about to spend November getting reacquainted with the annual mandates of Jimbo’s buyout.

⬇South Carolina. The Gamecocks were on the verge of salvaging their season Saturday against Florida, only to blow a 10-point lead in the final 5 minutes. With that, they fell to 2-4, all but guaranteeing a regression to the mean in Shane Beamer’s 3rd season following an 8-5 finish in 2022. Carolina has pulled off November surprises in each of Beamer’s first 2 seasons, but this time around they’re banking on an upset just to have a shot at breaking even.

⬇Arkansas. The Hogs rallied late at Alabama to turn what had been a disaster of an outing offensively into a near-upset on the road. Keeping it close is a theme: 4 of the 5 losses in their current losing streak have come by 7 points or less. But that’s no solace to Arkansas fans, who had much higher hopes for KJ Jefferson’s 5th and likely final year on campus than an extended run of respectable defeats. If the skid goes to 6 against Mississippi State, the ensuing bye week is going to feel like one of the longest of Sam Pittman’s life.

View from the basement

Vanderbilt. Expectations in Year 3 under Clark Lea ranged from winning a conference a game (floor) to sneaking into a bowl game (ceiling), neither of which looks like it’s going to happen as the Commodores hit their open date on a 6-game losing streak. One more loss will officially eliminate Vandy from bowl eligibility for the 5th consecutive season — seems like longer, doesn’t it? — and given the lopsided margins so far against Power 5 opponents, merely avoiding an O-fer in the league standings will require a significant upset in the last 4 games. Three of those will come on the road (at Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee), leaving a Nov. 4 visit from Auburn as the Dores’ best chance to prevent the skid carrying over into the offseason. To the extent that they’re used to it, they must also be getting a little sick of being used to it. After stealing 2 SEC wins in 2022, a winless slog in the league slate would represent a tangible step backwards.

Bama’s blind-side blues

Left tackle at Alabama is one of the positions that has been occupied by a future pro — usually a future first-rounder — for so many years it’s easy to take for granted that whoever happens to be holding it down is a future star. For true freshman Kadyn Proctor, the consensus No. 1 offensive lineman in the 2023 class, that might eventually be true. Eventually. For the time being, the position is a red flag and arguably getting redder by the week.

Bama’s o-line as a unit has played well below the typical Tide standard, but Proctor’s growing pains have stood out on a near-weekly basis. Per Pro Football Focus, he’s allowed an SEC-high 7 sacks this season, and a team-high 18 QB pressures in all; he’s also been flagged 4 times for holding. In a season full of rough outings, Saturday’s close shave against Arkansas might have been the roughest: Proctor was victimized for 2 sacks on 18 pass-blocking snaps, earning a dreadful 39.6 PFF grade in protection.

It’s a given that freshmen are going to take their lumps, even highly touted ones. Still, it was ugly enough in the first half that coaches finally decided enough was enough and pulled Proctor for junior Elijah Pritchett, who was in the thick of the competition for the starting LT job throughout the spring and preseason. Rather than stabilize the position, though, Pritchett was worse, proceeding to give up 3 sacks on just 12 pass-blocking snaps before yielding back to Proctor in the second half. (PFF pass-blocking grade: 21.6.) Altogether, Jalen Milroe was pressured on 13 of his 30 drop-backs, with roughly half those pressures and all 5 sacks coming from the blind side.

By all appearances, the Tide will stick with the freshman, bank on their investment paying off over the long haul, and live (or die) with the results. Do they have a choice? Short of flipping aspiring first-rounder JC Latham from right tackle, where he’s started all 20 games over the past 2 seasons, the 6-7, 360-pound Proctor appears to be locked in for the foreseeable future. But the longer it takes for him to grow into his enormous potential, the less the already volatile Milroe can afford to trust that his protection is going to hold up.

Georgia’s Brock Bowers contingencies

Georgia got a scare in the first half of Saturday’s 37-20 win at Vanderbilt when leading receiver/presiding freak show Brock Bowers exited the field with a severe limp. The initial diagnosis: “A little bit of an ankle sprain,” per his head coach.

Monday morning, Georgia made it official: Bowers will have surgery and could miss the rest of the regular season.

Obviously, his absence will be a significant blow: Beyond the stat sheet, Bowers is a perennial mismatch against any defense in the college game. On paper, the Bulldogs are also relatively thin at tight end: Bowers’ running mate at the position, sophomore Oscar Delp, has settled nicely into the full-time role manned last year by the since-departed Darnell Washington, but the understudies, true freshmen Pearce Spurlin III and Lawson Luckie, have a combined 38 offensive snaps between them.

That leaves the wideouts to level up in his hypothetical absence, which they look well-equipped to do despite the absence of a clear-cut WR1 — a recurring theme under Kirby Smart, regardless of the play-caller. As usual, the emphasis at the position has been on cultivating depth over star power, although not for lack of candidates. Of the top 5 wideouts, 3 of them (Ladd McConkey, Missouri transfer Dominic Lovett and Mississippi State transfer RaRa Thomas) have more than 1,000 career receiving yards to their credit; the other 2 (Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint and Arian Smith) have averaged 17.3 yards per catch between them with a combined 10 career touchdowns.

Five wideouts have a TD catch from Carson Beck this season — not including McConkey, who’s had the luxury of working his way back slowly from a back injury — with Lovett, a second-team All-SEC pick in 2022 at Mizzou, finally joining the list Saturday against Vandy. But only Rosemy-Jacksaint has 2.

If anything, the “any given Saturday” nature of the rotation almost seems designed to prevent any single receiver from separating from the pack when the entire 2-deep has the potential to play at the next level. Bowers and his unique skill set are exceptions to the rule; even Georgia can’t relegate a talent that big to being just another cog in the machine.

The Bulldogs arguably would not have escaped their Week 5 trip to Auburn without him, specifically. If it comes down to winning a game without their go-to target, or a handful of games, the Dawgs arguably have more viable options at their disposal than any team in America outside of Columbus, Ohio. But then, given UGA’s commitment to sharing the wealth, it might take all of them to make up the difference.

Turning point of the week

Missouri’s fake punt. In Week 6, Missouri got off to a hot start at home vs. LSU but faded in the second half, blowing a 15-point lead en route to its first loss of the season. (The turning point in that game: A 2nd-quarter interception by LSU’s Harold Perkins Jr. with the Bayou Bengals trailing 22-7 and desperate for a stop.) On Saturday, the tables were reversed: This time, it was Mizzou facing an early hole on the road after Kentucky cashed in its first 2 offensive possessions for touchdowns. Down 14-0 at the start of the 2nd quarter, the Tigers found a spark from the last place you’d expect — the right arm of a punter who’d never attempted a pass in his life.

The most remarkable thing about this play wasn’t just the audacity to call it at a crucial moment: It was the fact that Kentucky, acutely aware that Mizzou was within kicker Harrison Mevis’ capacious field goal range, was playing for a fake. The Wildcats had a starting cornerback, Andru Phillips, alert and in position to make the play on an underthrown ball by Missouri’s Luke Bauer. He just … didn’t, allowing true freshman Marquis Johnson to come down with his 3rd touchdown reception in the past 4 games.

From there, the Tigers went on to outscore Kentucky 31-7 over the remaining 40 minutes, pulling away in the 4th quarter on 3 short-field scoring drives. On a night when Mizzou’s actual offense turned in season lows for total yards (285) and yards per play (4.2), watching the other phases fill the breach against a ranked opponent made for as satisfying a win as any in Eli Drinkwitz’s tenure.

Superlatives

The week’s best individual performances.

1. Arkansas DE Landon Jackson. Jackson thoroughly dominated Alabama’s overmatched left tackles on a career day, racking up 11 total tackles and 4 sacks at their expense. PFF recorded 10 of his 11 tackles as “stops,” which it defines as tackles that constitute a “failure” for the offense based on down and distance – 3 more than any other FBS defender on the weekend.

2. LSU QB Jayden Daniels. Daniels continued to his red-hot campaign against Auburn, finishing 20-for-27 for 325 yards, 3 touchdowns, and an additional 93 yards rushing in a 48-14 blowout in Baton Rouge. It was his 5th consecutive game with over 350 yards of total offense and an 88+ rating in Total QBR.

3. Tennessee edge James Pearce Jr. Pearce wreaked havoc in the Vols’ win over Texas A&M, finishing with 6 tackles, 7 QB pressures and 2 tackles for loss, including a sack. (He also drew a key holding penalty on Texas A&M’s final drive.) His 31 pressures and 6 sacks for the season both rank 2nd in the SEC behind only Alabama’s Dallas Turner.

4a. Florida QB Graham Mertz. Mertz turned in easily his best performance as a Gator at South Carolina, finishing 30-for-48 for 423 yards and 3 touchdowns – 2 of them capping a pair of late, 75-yard scoring drives that brought the Gators back from a 37-27 deficit to win, 41-39. Florida badly wants to be a run-first offense, but the emerging connection between Mertz and Ricky Pearsall (10 catches for 166 yards, including the game-winner in the final minute) may leave them with no choice but to continue airing it out.

4b. South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler. Florida’s comeback overshadowed another highly efficient afternoon for Rattler, who finished 20-for-30 for 313 yards and 4 touchdowns on the losing end. The lone blemish on his stat line, an interception on the Gamecocks’ last-gasp drive in the final minute, effectively ended the game.

5. Kentucky DL Deone Walker. The 6-6, 348-pound Walker was an enormous presence in the middle of UK’s defensive line against Missouri, logging career highs for tackles (7) and TFLs (4) in a losing effort. As a team, Mizzou managed just 118 yards on the ground on 3.1 per carry.

Fat guy of the week: Tennessee OL Cooper Mays

Mays missed the first 4 games of the season to injury but has been a rock at center in the past 2. Against Texas A&M, the Vols were at their best running right up the gut, grinding out 92 yards on 5.8 per carry on A-gap runs, per PFF; for his part, Mays posted the weekend’s top run-blocking and overall grades among all SEC o-linemen. At a moment when the offense is reassessing its strengths, his veteran presence in the middle ranks near the top of the list.

Freak of the week: Georgia RB Daijun Edwards

Edwards went off for a career-high 146 yards on 7.3 per carry against Vanderbilt, including a 62-yard run in the 4th quarter that put the game on ice. But for our purposes, I really only care about this absurd jump cut that left Vandy LB BJ Diakite grasping at air:

I became so obsessed I was compelled to break it down frame by frame:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edwards initially plants his feet to set up the move about a foot outside the hash marks, and a split-second later has teleported nearly halfway to the numbers in a single bound. CBS’ stunned color guy asked “how do you even know you can do that?” but I don’t think it’s something you know, as if there’s some kind of conscious decision-making going on here. I think it’s just something you do on pure instinct, and then say, “oh, I can do that.” Some guys are born knowing.

Honorable Mention: LSU LB Harold Perkins Jr., who was his usual disruptive self against Auburn with 4 QB pressures, 2 TFLs and a sack for emphasis. …Tennessee DB Kamal Hadden, who recorded 2 PBUs and the game-clinching interception against Texas A&M while allowing just 2 completions on 7 targets. …Tennessee RB Jaylen Wright, who ground out 123 yards against the Aggies despite a long gain of just 23. … Vanderbilt LB CJ Taylor, who had 7 tackles, 1 TFL, and an interception that briefly threatened to make things interesting against Georgia in the 4th quarter. … Arkansas DB Jayden Johnson, who broke up 2 passes and didn’t allow a reception on 5 targets in the Razorbacks’ loss at Alabama. … South Carolina LB Debo Williams, whose 9 total tackles against Florida included 4 for loss. … Florida kicker Trey Smack, who hit 4-for-5 field goal attempts in the Gators’ come-from-behind win at South Carolina, including successful boots from 48 and 54 yards out. … And Arkansas punter Max Fisher, who averaged 53.9 yards on 7 punts and dropped 4 of them inside the Bama 20-yard-line.

–   –   –
The scoring system for players honored in Superlatives awards 8 points for the week’s top player, 6 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd, 4 for 4th, 3 for 5th, and 1 for honorable mention, because how honorable is it really if it doesn’t come with any points? The standings are updated weekly with the top 10 players for the season to date.

Obscure stat of the week

Stetson Bennett was arguably the best-protected quarterback in the country in 2022, facing pressure on just 18.8% of his total drop-backs, per PFF — the lowest rate among Power 5 quarterbacks. So far this year, Carson Beck has fared even better, facing pressure on 15.2% of his drop-backs, 2nd nationally only to Oregon’s Bo Nix (12.6%).

SEC Power Rankings

Updating the food chain.

1. Georgia (7-0). | (Last week: 1⬌)

2. Alabama (6-1). | (LW: 2 ⬌)

3. Ole Miss (5-1). | (LW: 3⬌)

4. Tennessee (5-1). | (LW: 4⬌)

5. LSU (5-2). | (LW: 6⬆)

6. Missouri (6-1). | (LW: 8⬆)

7. Kentucky (5-2). | (LW: 9⬆)

8. Florida (5-2). | (LW: 9⬌)

9. Texas A&M (4-3). | (LW: 5⬇)

10. South Carolina (2-4). | (LW: 10⬌)

11. Auburn (3-3). | (LW: 11⬌)

12. Mississippi State (3-3). | (LW: 12⬌)

13. Arkansas (2-5). | (LW: 13⬌)

14. Vanderbilt (2-6). | (LW: 14⬌)

Moment of Zen of the week

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