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

What did Jimbo’s flop cost?

Well, they actually did it. A little less than 6 years after luring Jimbo Fisher to College Station with the most infamous contract in the history of the sport, Texas A&M officially fired him on Sunday morning, effective immediately. Fisher’s buyout, the subject of so much awe and derision from the moment he touched down in December 2017, will come out to somewhere in the neighborhood of $75-80 million, a number that makes the record-breaking $20+ million buyout Auburn paid to Gus Malzahn in 2020 look like a bargain.

With that, Fisher stands to make about two-and-a-half times as much to not coach the Aggies as he did on the job. He leaves with a slightly worse winning percentage over the course of his tenure than his predecessor, Kevin Sumlin, posting a 45-25 record that, pending the final accounting, will ultimately cost A&M well over $2 million per win in the head coach’s salary alone. Truly the stuff that legends are made of.

At times, the sheer looming obscenity of the sums involved seemed to impose its own logic. The Buyout was often cited as a powerful deterrent against the whims of impatient, trophy-hunting boosters, whose itchy trigger fingers after all would be the same ones ultimately making out the checks. Their bet on Jimbo and the spare-no-expenses program they built around him was quite literally too big to fail — all the more so as the initial optimism faded and the creeping failure became too obvious to deny. There was always a reason to hope the best was yet to come: A 9-1 record in 2020 that yielded A&M’s best finish in the AP poll (4th) in 70 years; an out-of-the-blue upset over Alabama in 2021 that ended Nick Saban’s win streak against his former assistants; a massively hyped recruiting class in 2022 that announced A&M’s arrival as a major player in the NIL era. The reasons just kept getting thinner, until they started to feel more like excuses.

Still, how could they possibly afford to satisfy the remainder of Fisher’s deal and pay the next guy, who will inevitably command a ransom in his own right? How bad does it have to get to be worth digging that deep? Even for a bunch of committed stakeholders flush with gas and oil money, the void that they imagine someday being filled by a championship must have a bottom.

It turns out that if you can afford to keep one over-compensated coach on the books in this economy, you probably can afford to keep two, if you really want it bad enough. Which, of course, A&M bigwigs have repeatedly made it clear that they do. The university is reportedly on the hook for 25% of Fisher’s buyout up front (that’s booster money), followed by annual installments through the rest of the decade baked into the athletic department budget: The cost of doing business. In the end, their fingers were itchy enough. Their pockets were deep enough. They spared no expense, no matter how ludicrous.

The Les Miles Rule

In fact, the most stunning aspect of Fisher’s ouster when it landed on Sunday morning was not the fact that A&M finally decided to swallow Fisher’s buyout whole — there had been previous reporting to the effect that money was no object — but the timing.

Fisher has been on one of the hottest seats in the country for the better part of the past 2 years, with his contract coming in for a fresh round of mockery after every loss. Why now, in the immediate aftermath of a lopsided win? Statements by university officials chalked up the decision to move to a “very careful analysis of all the components related to Texas A&M football” (athletic director Ross Bjork) and “a thorough evaluation of the football program’s performance” (interim president Mark Welsh III). But the Aggies’ most recent performance was among their best of the past 2 seasons: A 51-10 massacre over Mississippi State on Saturday night that secured bowl eligibility at 6-4. The win marked the most points A&M has scored against an SEC opponent in Fisher’s tenure, and the 2nd-largest margin of victory, behind a 3rd-string quarterback making his first career start. Usually it’s the coach on the losing side of that kind of score facing the firing squad at sunrise.

Had the “thorough evaluation” yet to be completed after last week’s down-to-the-wire loss at Ole Miss, the Aggies’ 10th consecutive defeat on the road? Or the trademark close-but-no-cigar losses at Tennessee and Alabama that preceded it in October? The Bama loss in Week 6 (a game A&M led at halftime) had already snuffed out any notions of a dark-horse run in the SEC West; the Tennessee loss in Week 7 (also a game A&M led at halftime) relegated them permanently to the margins nationally. The Ole Miss loss ensured, at best, a 3rd-place finish in the division and a 4th-rate bowl game. What changed in the course of trashing a juiceless, injury-plagued version of Mississippi State that commanded such a sudden sense of urgency?

Ironically, after 3 years’ worth of disappointments and diminishing returns, it seems the one thing the bosses couldn’t abide as the last grains of sands drained from the hourglass was one last glimmer of hope. Too little, too late for that.

The silver lining in last year’s descent to the division basement was a season-ending stunner over LSU in College Station, which sent an otherwise miserable campaign out on a borderline optimistic note. What if this team, an underclassman-led outfit playing its best ball of the year, pulled off another emotional ambush in Baton Rouge to close out an 8-4 regular season? With Fisher’s prize quarterback recruit, Conner Weigman, waiting in the wings to lead the 2024 hype cycle after suffering a season-ending injury in September? A risky proposition, if the minds that matter had already been made up.

Instead, they invoked what we may as well call the Les Miles Rule: When it’s over, it’s over.

The end of Miles’ tenure at LSU is a case study in the cost of hanging on too long. With the walls closing in at the end of the 2015 season, he was famously granted an 11th-hour reprieve based on some combination of political connections, a prohibitive buyout ($17 million!), and the good vibes that followed a season-ending win over, yes, Texas A&M. Miles returned to high expectations in 2016, presided over a 2-2 start, and was promptly shown the door less than a month into the season.

The coach LSU was in negotiations with to replace Miles before opting to stay the course: Jimbo Fisher, sending the first signal to the outside world that he was looking for a way out of Florida State just a couple years removed from winning the national championship. Eventually, that ring bought him everything he always wanted but claimed he didn’t have at FSU — total institutional support, first-class facilities, a virtually unlimited recruiting budget, an opportunity to build a program in his own image rather than toiling in the long shadow of a legend. A&M, desperate to level up into the sport’s elite tier, held up its end of the deal.

Six years later, its championship-or-bust investment that has officially gone bust. The Aggies are no closer to a title than they were on the day they fired Sumlin, and have nothing to show for their money except an Orange Bowl win accompanied by a COVID-shaped asterisk and a backlog of unfulfilled hype. A&M alums still crack that the letters stand for “Average & Mediocre.” By firing Fisher when they did, at the full sticker price, they’ve effectively committed to giving whoever comes next the same resources to achieve what Jimbo could not. Welcome to life in the arms race. Once you’ve gone all-in, there’s no going back.

Superlatives

The week’s best individual performances.

1. LSU QB Jayden Daniels. Last week, I expressed my concern that Daniels was on the verge of fading from the Heisman conversation: His team had just exited the Playoff conversation following a loss to its biggest rival, and his own status was murky following the head shot that knocked him out of the Tigers’ loss at Alabama in the 4th quarter. It was uncertain whether he’d ever put on an LSU uniform again, or frankly whether he should.

This week? Zero concerns.

Not even one fleeting iota of a concern.

Son, we all thought you were hurt.

OK, if I kept going this entry would never end. Rather than bow out, Daniels leveled up, delivering an instant classic of a performance in a 52-35 win over Florida that transcended the box score and cemented his place in SEC history.

Even by his own prolific standards, every aspect of his dual-threat skillset was dialed to eleven. If he hadn’t tucked the ball once, his output through the air alone (17-for-26 passing, 372 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs) would have been enough to keep his Heisman candidacy in business. Combined with his electric, 234-yard, 2-TD performance on the ground, it sent his stock into orbit. Daniels ended the night as the first player in FBS history with 350+ passing yards and 200+ rushing yards in the same game, against any opponent, and that was just the headline on top of a long list of firsts and mosts. As a team, LSU racked up 701 yards on an astounding 11.5 per play, both records against a Florida defense.

The upshot is that anyone who had somehow failed to notice the stellar season Daniels was putting together prior to Saturday no longer has any excuse. He already led the nation in virtually every category that matters; now, he’s starting to put a little distance on the pack. He ranks No. 1 nationally in total offense, No. 1 in touchdowns, No. 1 in yards per attempt, No. 1 in pass efficiency, No. 1 in Total QBR, No. 1 in EPA (by a mile), No. 1 in completions of 20+ yards, and No. 1 in overall PFF grading, for good measure. Excluding sacks, Daniels is the only quarterback nationally over 1,000 rushing yards on the season, per PFF, a distinction he also held in 2022. Per LSU, he just became the first player in NCAA history with 12,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards for his career. And if he didn’t before, he now has the wow factor to back it up.

So, are we handing him the Heisman with 3 full Saturdays still to go before ballots are due? We are not, especially because he’ll be ceding the stage on the last one, while most of the other leading candidates will have a chance to make their closing statement in their respective championship games. On the same note, there’s still the matter of LSU’s 0-3 record in its 3 biggest games of the season, against Florida State, Ole Miss and Alabama, which would defy precedent for a Heisman winner.

Still, the idea that Daniels’ campaign is necessarily doomed by the unwritten rules of Heisman politics doesn’t quite hold up, either. The whole country just got a glimpse of glimpse of what he’s capable of at his best, which was not very off what he’s done in nearly every game this season. The path to New York for a quarterback whose team is not going to the Playoff is very narrow. Week by week, though, he only continues to light it up.

2. Missouri RB Cody Schrader. Schrader was not exactly a secret prior to Mizzou’s 36-7 romp over Tennessee, but his breakthrough game against the Vols might go down as the emblematic performance of the Tigers’ overachieving season. The diminutive D-II transfer ripped one of the conference’s top rushing defenses for 205 yards rushing on 35 carries, both career highs by a wide margin, and added another 116 yards as a receiver out of the backfield — thereby recording the first individual 200/100 game in SEC history. Think of all the running backs in SEC history! For one afternoon, Cody Schrader was right up there with the best of them.

Missouri officially lists Schrader at 5-9, 214 pounds, which doesn’t pass the smell test on either count. Size notwithstanding, though, he’s been the league’s most consistent workhorse: Saturday was his 3rd consecutive 100-yard outing on the ground and his 6th of the season, including a 112-yard effort against Georgia in Week 10 that snapped the Bulldogs’ 3-year streak without allowing an individual 100-yard rusher.

3. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe. He’s still firmly on the growth curve, but with each passing week Milroe is looking more like a quarterback capable of taking the Tide all the way. Building on his Week 10 breakthrough against LSU, he accounted for a school-record 6 touchdowns in Alabama’s division-clinching, 49-21 win at Kentucky — 3 rushing and 3 passing, to 3 different receivers. If the past 2 weeks are any indication, the 2024 Heisman buzz will be arriving right on schedule.

4. Auburn Edge Jalen McLeod. Auburn turned in its best performance of the season Saturday in a 48-10 beatdown at Arkansas, and McLeod was the Tigers’ most productive defender despite playing just 28 of their 53 defensive snaps. In that span, the former Appalachian State transfer recorded a team-high 9 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble, continuing his emergence since midseason as both the team’s most disruptive pass rusher and the most underrated.

At 6-1, 237 pounds, McLeod is built more like an off-ball ‘backer than a prototypical edge, but his late-blooming production speaks for itself. His 31 QB pressures and 6 sacks for the season both rank in the top 10 among all SEC defenders.

5. Alabama DB Terrion Arnold. Arnold tends to be overshadowed by his more decorated counterpart, Kool-Aid McKinstry, but he’s rapidly closing the gap. He was responsible for both of Alabama’s takeaways against Kentucky, following up a forced fumble in the first quarter with a diving interception in the second, his 3rd INT of the season. Altogether Arnold allowed just 39 yards on 9 targets, per PFF, turning in his highest overall grade (85.8) in two years as a starter.

Fat guy of the week: Georgia OL Tate Ratledge

If it felt like Ole Miss’ pass rush barely laid a hand on Georgia’s Carson Beck on Saturday night, well, that’s because it didn’t. Not even barely: PFF credited the Rebels with a grand total of 1 quarterback pressure on 27 drop-backs, which along with the UGA’s 300 rushing yards on 8.6 per carry pretty well sums up the grand unifying theme of the Dawgs’ 52-17 win — complete and utter dominance in the trenches.

In that context, the entire Georgia offensive line deserves the distinction as a unit. For accounting purposes, the individual nod this week goes to Ratledge (No. 69 below), who started his 25th consecutive game at right guard and notably paved the way on Kendall Milton‘s back-breaking, 37-yard touchdown run in the third quarter:

Milton, who has been banged up most of the year, ran through gaping holes for a season-high 127 yards and 2 TDs on just 9 carries. Beck, operating from constantly pristine pockets, was 18-for-25 passing for 306 yards and 2 touchdowns to his star targets, Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers. Everyone got involved, everything worked, and it all started up front.

Honorable Mention: Auburn QB Payton Thorne, who passed for 3 touchdowns and ran for a 4th in the Tigers’ blowout win at Arkansas. … Auburn RB Jarquez Hunter, whose 123 scrimmage yards against the Hogs represented his 4th consecutive game over the century mark. … South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler, who threw for 351 yards and 3 TDs in a 47-6 rout of Vanderbilt. … His top receiver, Xavier Legette, who accounted for 120 of those yards on 9 catches. … Florida RBs Trevor Etienne and Montrell Johnson Jr., who combined for 239 scrimmage yards and 3 touchdowns (all by Etienne) in the Gators’ shootout loss at LSU. … Ricky Pearsall, who remains on pace for a 1,000-yard season after hauling in 7 catches for 103 yards. …Texas A&M LB Edgerrin Cooper, who finished with a team-high 11 tackles and 3 QB pressures in the Aggies’ blowout win over Mississippi State. … Texas A&M DB Tyreek Chappell, who recorded an interception and a PBU while allowing just 1 reception on 5 targets. … Alabama Edge Chris Braswell, who was his usual disruptive self with 5 QB pressures and 2 sacks against Kentucky. … And Georgia LB CJ Allen, who looked the part of the next great UGA linebacker in his first career start with a team-high 9 tackles and a sack in place of the injured Jamon Dumas-Johnson.

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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.

Catch of the year of the week

There wasn’t much reason to stick around for the 4th quarter in Athens, especially if you were rooting for the Rebels. In the depths of garbage time, though, Ole Miss WR Dayton Wade offered a momentary break from the slog courtesy of this sprawling, full-extension classic:

At 5-9 (officially), Wade doesn’t boast much in the way of length, but what he lacks in wingspan he more than makes up for in his ability to get almost fully horizontal in mid-air, a trait he also flashed a couple weeks back in a previous COTYOTW effort against Vanderbilt. In this week’s entry, he launched himself with his back parallel to the ground in the style of a high jumper.

Proof that “catch radius” can come in all shapes and sizes, if you’ve got the hops.

Quote of the week

“I appreciate the fact that when he was in there, he took care of the ball and gave us a chance to punt.” — Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, on why he stuck with starting quarterback Ken Seals for the entire game in the Commodores’ 47-6 loss at South Carolina. Seals finished 13-for-28 for 104 yards, good for just 3.7 yards per attempt, but was not responsible for either of Vandy’s 2 lost fumbles in the second half, both of which set up Gamecocks touchdowns. He career record as a starter vs. SEC opponents now stands at 0-20.

SEC Power Rankings

Updating the food chain.

1. Georgia (10-0). The Bulldogs extend so many different streaks with each win it’s getting hard to keep track. Here’s another one to add to the list: This week marks their 22nd consecutive week atop the AP poll, the 2nd-longest streak in the poll’s history dating to 1936. Only the Bush-Leinart USC teams have held down the top spot for longer, spending 33 straight weeks at No. 1 from 2003-05. (Last week: 1⬌)

2. Alabama (9-1). For most of the season this looked like Nick Saban’s most vulnerable team, but as the postseason approaches, it’s still not one anyone looks forward to facing. (LW: 2⬌)

3. Missouri (8-2). Mizzou wasn’t quite up to toppling Georgia, but this is a legitimate New Year’s 6 team. The passing game got most of the attention over the first half of the season, but since midseason the Tigers’ success has been increasingly driven by the defense and ground game. After Tennessee scored its only touchdown on Saturday to go ahead 7-3 early in the second quarter, the Vols’ next 8 possessions ended in a punt or turnover. (LW: 6⬆)

4. Ole Miss (8-2). It’s official: Ole Miss is the only original member of the SEC West that never won the won the division in its 32-year existence. With the divisional format on its way out in 2024, the path to Atlanta only gets steeper. (LW: 3⬇)

5. LSU (7-3). The Tigers are averaging 8.4 yards per play, on pace for the highest total for an FBS offense since Oklahoma averaged 8.6 ypp in 2018. No SEC team has averaged above 8.0 since at least the turn of the century, including LSU’s vaunted 2019 offense, which averaged 7.9 en route to the national title. (LW: 5⬌)

6. Tennessee (7-3). You can tell the story of the Vols’ season in the trenches. In 7 wins, they’ve outrushed their opponents by 180 yards per game; in 3 losses, they’ve been outrushed by 87 ypg. (LW: 4⬇)

7. Texas A&M (6-4). If you’ve ever wondered why the NCAA doesn’t do anything about runaway coaches’ salaries, well, 25 years ago it tried and failed: A court ruled in 1998 that the NCAA’s effort to cap the salaries of assistant basketball coaches was a violation of antitrust laws, a decision the Supreme Court effectively upheld when it declined to review the case. Revisiting the question today, when the NCAA is getting dunked on in the courts on the regular basis, is unlikely to gain traction. If they ever get serious again about stopping the madness, there’s only one way to do it: Pay the players. (LW: 8⬆)

8. Kentucky (6-4). The Wildcats are firmly in the middle class but aren’t getting any closer to rising out of it. All 4 of the their losses have come at the hands of ranked opponents, but they’ve also come by an average margin of more than 3 touchdowns per game. (LW: 7⬇)

9. Auburn (6-4). The competition is nothing to write home about, but the Tigers have made enormous strides offensively over the second half of the season. A competitive effort in the Iron Bowl would cement Hugh Freeze’s first season as a success. (LW: 10⬆)

10. Florida (5-5). The offense is clicking, but the defense has been consistently ghastly and getting worse. Upsetting Missouri or Florida State to get to bowl eligibility will be a feat. (LW: 9⬇)

11. South Carolina (4-6). Blowing out Vandy may not count for much right now, but as always it sure as heck beats not blowing out Vandy. The Gamecocks still face an uphill battle for bowl eligibility against Kentucky and Clemson, both in Columbia. (LW: 13⬆)

12. Mississippi State (4-6). It had to be a little surreal to lose a game 51-10 and wake up to the news that the other head coach got the axe. Zach Arnett’s reprieve didn’t last long, though. MSU fired him Monday. Barring a minor miracle in the Egg Bowl the Bulldogs’ 13-year postseason streak is almost certainly kaput. Whatever the over/under was on Arnett’s tenure, it’s shrinking fast. (LW: 11⬇)

13. Arkansas (3-7). The Razorbacks salvaged a little respect in their Week 10 upset at Florida, and immediately squandered it in Saturday’s debacle against Auburn. With a losing record assured and a last-place finish likely, it’s beginning to look like Sam Pittman is the next man up on the chopping block. (LW: 13⬌)

14. Vanderbilt (2-9). Saturday’s loss at South Carolina extended the Dores’ losing streak to 9 games, with Clark Lea describing the effort in the second half as “disgusting.” This week, they’re due for an open date ahead of their season finale at Tennessee. Would anyone object if they just went ahead and called it a season? (LW: 14⬌)