And then there were 2.

Texas and Texas A&M are the last 2 SEC teams with just 1 conference loss after Tennessee fell at Georgia. Of course, the 2 Texas schools will face off in 2 weeks to close the regular season. That means, at most, we’ll have just 1 SEC team that avoids multiple conference losses.

Parity? Yes and no.

Parity would’ve meant that Saturday yielded multiple upsets in a further muddied SEC. Florida was the only SEC team that delivered that. Georgia rallied against Tennessee while Texas fended off Arkansas’ upset bid.

It’s not a total free-for-all in the SEC. There’s just potentially going to be a cluster of 10-2 teams that the Playoff selection committee has to sort through.

I’m sure everyone will agree on what that should look like. Obviously.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Saturday in the SEC:

Georgia still has that dawg in them

Sorry. Had to.

Georgia was out of mulligans, down 10-0 against the No. 7 team in America. A loss to Tennessee would’ve ended UGA’s SEC Championship hopes and likely its Playoff hopes. It would’ve been a season-ender for the preseason No. 1 team in America.

But finally, Georgia responded with its back against the wall.

Carson Beck seemingly got rolling after he broke 3 tackles on a scramble to pick up a first down, UGA’s offensive line protected Beck significantly better than it did compared to last week at Ole Miss and Georgia’s defense put the clamps on Dylan Sampson in the second half.

It served as a reminder that UGA still has toughness, even as the injuries mount. Dillon Bell left the game and Trevor Etienne was ruled out with a week-to-week injury, yet the Georgia pass-catchers stepped up and delivered their best performance of the year. Six Georgia players had a catch of at least 20 yards, 3 of which were tight ends.

That was the Georgia offense that many expected to be on display in 2024. Maybe it took getting to that “backs against the wall” place, but 3 punts to start the game didn’t suggest that UGA showed up with the sense of urgency it needed against a hard-nosed Tennessee defense, who hadn’t allowed 20 points in a game in nearly a year.

UGA closed SEC play with 6-2, and if it can avoid a loss against a pesky Georgia Tech team in a couple of weeks, it’ll close the regular season at 10-2. Would that include a Playoff berth? That feels likely. Would that include an SEC Championship berth? That’s a bit more complicated.

But Saturday was Georgia’s most complete game of the season. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

It’s now out of Tennessee’s hands

Everything was Tennessee’s hands entering the night. An SEC Championship path, an automatic bid into the Playoff and a first-round bye … it was all there. Shoot, it was there after a 10-0 start in which Tennessee looked like the better team out of the gate. Seven consecutive losses against Georgia could’ve been a thing of the past.

Instead, UGA went on a 31-7 run and brought Tennessee back into an all-too-familiar territory. That is, without a likely path to Atlanta and wondering what’s next.

The good news for the Vols is that if they can get to 10-2, they’ll have the head-to-head against Alabama. The bad news is that even if they get to 10-2, they’ll likely only have 1 win against a CFP Top 25 team. Their résumé won’t stack up well next to Georgia’s and without anything more than a handful of common opponents vs. Ole Miss, it’s hard to say that the selection committee will definitively favor the Vols.

That’s 4 SEC teams before we include Texas and Texas A&M, both of whom are sitting there with just 1 conference loss and a path to get to 10 wins themselves, though that head-to-head matchup to close the regular season will give one of those teams another loss.

That’s the daunting part.

Tennessee now has to hope that the selection committee will value its résumé. Kirby Smart admitted afterward that he doesn’t know anymore what the selection committee values, which might’ve been about his team falling 9 spots after the Ole Miss loss.

Whatever the case, a long few weeks are on deck for the Tennessee faithful.

Billy Napier just got the best win of his tenure

Yeah, it was bigger than a nonconference game in September. And yeah, it was bigger than a September game against Tennessee. Speaking of beating Tennessee in September, Saturday marked Florida’s first win vs. an AP Top 25 team since … Sept. 2023 vs. No. 11 Tennessee.

Even more important than that or ending the LSU losing streak was that Billy Napier gave his team a significantly better chance of playing in the postseason. Now, Florida just needs to get past either Ole Miss or 1-win Florida State to make that happen. That matters for a group that’s loaded with underclassmen, most notably a certain DJ Lagway, who looked the part in his return from a hamstring injury.

Quite simply, Saturday was the proof of concept for the Napier era. That was his developed quarterback running his offense and beating one of the most respected coaches in the sport. On top of that, Napier’s out-of-the-box hire of Ron Roberts to be the defensive play-caller with Austin Armstrong paid dividends and sacked Garrett Nussmeier 7 times after LSU had only allowed 6 sacks all year.

Florida, even with a depleted roster, played the type of game that Napier promised when he got the job. Will that be the building block victory ahead of a pivotal offseason? That remains to be seen.

For at least a day, that felt possible.

Brian Kelly just got the worst loss of his tenure

Before I start, let’s say this. LSU has more than 60 million reasons not to fire a coach who led the program to consecutive 10-win seasons in his first 2 years on the job. Like, a job that had 39 scholarship players in a bowl game when he showed up.

But yikes. That was rough.

It wasn’t just that LSU lost to Florida for the first time since 2018. It was that the strength of Kelly — the offensive line — was completely overmatched against a defense that hadn’t exactly been a world-beater. LSU allowed 7 sacks after it allowed 6 in the first 9 games of the season.

That’s the second consecutive game in which LSU only reached the end zone once. That’s not something you can pin on the defense.

By the way, this is the first time since 2016 that Kelly won’t hit 10 wins in a season. That means the longest active streak of 10-win seasons will come to an end.

That’s not ideal. Also not ideal is the fact that Garrett Nussmeier looks like he’s regressing instead of rounding into form in his first season as a starter. That’s a troubling thought knowing that LSU still has capable veteran defenses waiting in Vandy and Oklahoma.

Rock bottom for the Kelly era was Saturday. At least that’s what it felt like. Dare I say, LSU might have even further to go.

Let’s forget the Playoff discussion and just appreciate what Shane Beamer’s best team is doing

I know, I know. The offense was held in check for the vast majority of the second half and the Gamecocks finally ran into a rushing attack that could neutralize that elite defensive line. Allowing Mizzou to nearly pull off that comeback — via a highlight-reel grab on 4th down by Luther Burden III — would’ve been a devastating way to lose a 6th consecutive game to the Tigers.

And then it wasn’t.

South Carolina would’ve watched Burden score and lost that game in the previous 3 years of the Beamer era. Not this team. Not this developed version of LaNorris Sellers and this healthy version of Rocket Sanders, who wasn’t going to be stopped by the ’85 Bears on that go-ahead score.

The way that South Carolina responded to that Ole Miss loss has been easily the best stretch of football it played in the post-Steve Spurrier era (AP rankings):

  • L, 27-25 at No. 7 Alabama
  • W, 35-9 at Oklahoma
  • W, 44-20 vs. No. 10 Texas A&M
  • W, 28-7 at No. 24 Vanderbilt
  • W, 34-30 vs. No. 24 Mizzou

That’s 3 consecutive games vs. ranked teams and 3 consecutive victories. That’s the first time in program history that South Carolina did that. Saturday marked the first time since Sept. 13, 2014 that South Carolina won a matchup of AP Top 25 teams. Yeah. A decade. Ending that drought while beating Mizzou for the first time since 2018 was significant.

South Carolina is scary. It’s scary that the Gamecocks won without the defensive line taking over. If anything, that group was an Achilles’ heel for a decent chunk of the day with its 4 tackles for loss with just 2 sacks, though future All-American Kyle Kennard delivered the dagger sack late.

Let’s just acknowledge that 2 things can be true with South Carolina. Losing 3 games with 1 of them coming via a blowout will prevent the Gamecocks from making the 12-team Playoff, especially with Mizzou likely falling out of the Top 25 (Clemson also could fall out if South Carolina beat them). But there might not be 10 scarier teams to face in America than the one in Columbia.

A 10-win season doesn’t feel crazy at all for Shane Beamer’s squad.

It was a loss, but Brady Cook’s toughness can’t go unnoticed

When Cook uncorked that go-ahead touchdown to Luther Burden III, I thought Cook was about to get the win that had escaped him all year. Then, of course, Mizzou’s defense picked the worst possible time to turtle and South Carolina spoiled the best throw and catch of the Tigers’ rocky season in the spotlight.

But man, Cook showed a ton of toughness in those circumstances. In a hostile atmosphere against one of the best defensive lines in America, a less-than-100-percent Cook left it all out there. He led Mizzou back from a 21-6 deficit and only took 2 sacks against a Gamecocks defense that ranked No. 3 in FBS in that department.

With all due respect to Drew Pyne, who led Mizzou in a wild game late last week against Oklahoma, but he wouldn’t have been able to do the things that a limited Cook did. Even as loss No. 3 hits and all but ends even Eli Drinkwitz’s wildest Playoff hopes, Cook not giving up on the season should mean a ton to a program that elevated its ceiling the last 2 years.

Texas isn’t one for style points, which might be just fine

Here’s what I mean by that.

Texas is No. 3 in the Playoff poll even though it doesn’t have a win against the current Playoff Top 25. Those are contradicting statements to many. All that matters is what the selection committee says about Texas. Ergo, being held to 20 points against a porous Arkansas pass defense won’t be held against the Longhorns’ résumé.

We can question what that means for Texas’ national championship upside, but whatever “style points” that it might lack with an offense that hasn’t fully clicked this year it made up for defensively. Holding Arkansas to 231 yards of offense in Fayetteville was impressive. Jahdae Barron and Alfred Collins did the heavy lifting for a group that continues to be among the most consistent in the sport. Both forced key turnovers and helped Texas fend off Arkansas’ upset bid.

That was all that mattered on Saturday. Based on what the selection committee has done with Texas so far, getting to win No. 10 might be enough to secure an at-large berth. Of course, beating Texas A&M in College Station and earning a trip to the SEC Championship would be a much more satisfying way for Texas in its first season in the SEC.

To be determined on checking those boxes in a couple weeks. Checking Saturday’s box — beat a team who already had a win against a top-4 team — was priority No. 1.