O’Gara: On Thanksgiving, 1 thing that every SEC team should be thankful for in 2024

Ah, what a week.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, yes, but it’s also a time to sit down and look back on the year that was in college football. Or rather, it’s a time to look back on the positives that occurred during the year that was in college football.

For some, that’s a tougher exercise than others. Vandy has all the reasons in the world to be thankful. Alabama fans? Eh, not so much. But this is the SEC, where blessings are aplenty and we don’t focus on the negative.

Eh, who are we kidding? Of course we focus on the negative.

But for today, on Thanksgiving, we’ll focus on the 1 thing that every SEC team should be thankful for in 2024:

Alabama — At least this year was the first of the 12-team Playoff

Why? If this had been last year or any other year, the Tide’s Playoff chances would’ve ended with a brutal loss in Tennessee. Instead, Kalen DeBoer got an extra month of people wondering if this Tide team could make a run. While that possibility looks dead, a month of not-as-negative PR that included a beatdown at LSU was certainly better in the 12-team Playoff era than any year before.

Arkansas — The return of Robert Patrick Petrino

Yeah, I call him Robert Patrick. You might know him as “Bobby,” or “savior,” but I call him by his first and middle name because that man has earned my full respect. In consecutive years, he ignited a dormant SEC offense. No, it hasn’t been a unit that’s at 2011 levels of hogwild. But Arkansas is No. 18 in FBS in yards/play (it was No. 116 last year) and Taylen Green has become a must-watch quarterback when healthy. Here’s hoping Petrino’s nomad ways don’t resurface and he stays in Fayetteville another year.

Auburn — KeAndre Lambert-Smith’s post-spring arrival

That dude rocks. Sorry, Penn State fans. I’ll disagree with the notion that he transferred because he dropped too many passes. At Auburn, Lambert-Smith is poised to become the program’s first All-SEC receiver at season’s end in a decade. Alongside 5-star true freshmen Malcolm Simmons and Cam Coleman, Lambert-Smith has been the deep threat that Auburn desperately needed against SEC competition. He’s got as many receiving touchdowns (8) as any Auburn player in the last 15 seasons and if he can rack up 135 more yards, he’ll be Auburn’s first 1,000-yard receiver since 1999. Needless to say, Hugh Freeze is glad he called that guy.

Florida — DJ. Freaking. Lagway.

Do I even have to explain this one? Or can everyone with 2 eyeballs see why Lagway is special and worthy of all the hype he got as the Gatorade National Player of the Year? Even if you have half an eyeball, you should be able to watch Lagway and see him doing NFL things as a true freshman:

DJ Lagway is already special, man pic.twitter.com/1wJuBmBRix

— Connor O’Gara (@cjogara) November 23, 2024

As long as Lagway is healthy, Florida fans should be giddy about the future. Then again, he made that throw while still nursing a hamstring injury. How about this — as long as Lagway has a pulse, Florida fans should be excited about the future.

Georgia — A lack of elite SEC foes

Think about this. UGA lost to Alabama and got blown out at Ole Miss — both of whom are now 3-loss teams — yet the Dawgs can still win an SEC title and earn a first-round bye. That’s not supposed to happen. Similar to Alabama, who got some grace with the 12-team Playoff, Georgia is a team that still hasn’t put it all together. But because this isn’t some year in which the SEC has 2-3 clearly dominant teams, it can get hot at the right time and potentially make a run.

Kentucky — That day in Oxford

It was magical, wasn’t it? Kentucky’s best moment of the season was stunning Ole Miss in Lane Kiffin’s SEC opener. It came on the heels of the Cats righting the wrong of Mark Stoops not going for it on 4th down against Georgia. But UK’s defense completely overwhelmed Jaxson Dart and the Ole Miss offensive line, and Stoops picked up Kentucky’s highest-ranked road win since 1977. What’s happened since that game? A whole lot of frustration and a missed postseason for the first time since 2015. But that day in Oxford was special.

LSU — At least there was that 6-game winning streak?

That was fun, remember? LSU bounced back and was 1 of the last 2 SEC teams that were unbeaten in conference play. Sure, the Tigers then lost 3 games by double-digits and Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment to Michigan, but that 6-game stretch was fun! Garrett Nussmeier was arguably the best quarterback in the SEC, LSU looked like it was en route to the Joe Moore Award with the best offensive line in America and Whit Weeks was emerging as one of the nation’s most impactful players on Blake Baker’s defense. As crazy as it sounds, LSU can still have a 9-win season if it takes care of Oklahoma and shows up for the bowl game, though one shouldn’t assume anything.

Mississippi State — Year 0 is almost over for Jeff Lebby

Mississippi State might have a quarterback to build around in Michael Van Buren, but defensively, it’s been a mess. We knew it would be a mess with all the turnover from the Zach Arnett era. Getting waxed by Toledo wasn’t something to be thankful for, and neither was watching that defense allow an average of 296 passing yards/SEC game. But the good news for Lebby is that this season will reach a conclusion and he can instead get a full offseason with his guys in Starkville.

Mizzou — Luther Burden III was electric for 3 years

I know it wasn’t always smooth sailing with Burden this year. He had too many unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and it was frustrating to see some of the droughts Mizzou would endure without getting him the football. Still, though. This was a 5-star recruit who stayed home and balled for 3 years. He was everything Mizzou hoped he could be as a playmaker, which Eli Drinkwitz desperately lacked before he arrived in 2022. Burden was a major reason why that team broke through last year and raised it to a Playoff-or-bust standard this year. If Saturday is indeed his last game in a Mizzou uniform, he deserves to be remembered as one of the greats in program history.

Oklahoma — Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman ran it back

I pondered this question on the latest episode of The Saturday Down South Podcast not to send Oklahoma fans into even more of a panic, but rather to praise these 2 All-American seniors. Would Oklahoma be a 4-8 team if Stutsman and Bowman were both playing defense on Sundays? It’s a fair question. Instead, they came back and were the heart and soul of an Oklahoma program that endured a historically horrific season on the offensive season. Those guys deserved that Senior Night beatdown of Alabama and while they were part of 2 seasons to forget by the OU standard (2022 and 2024), they should be remembered forever.

Ole Miss — The portal spending on defense

Look. It’s a disappointing season for Ole Miss. There’s no way around it. With a favorable schedule, that team wasn’t supposed to lose 3 regular season games. But if not for the big-time acquisitions of Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen, Chris Paul Jr. and Trey Amos, where would this Ole Miss team be? Pete Golding is a worthy Broyles Award candidate for the job he did leading the nation’s No. 5 scoring defense, who has 9 more TFLs than any FBS program. Say what you want about the missed opportunity to get to the Playoff, but Ole Miss lost 3 games this year because its offense choked down the stretch. Credit that portal-heavy defense for showing up on a weekly basis.

South Carolina — Kyle Kennard said, “Where do I sign?”

I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t spend any significant time writing/talking/thinking about Kennard coming to South Carolina from Georgia Tech. Buddy, had I known the game-wrecking destruction that Kennard would’ve caused this year, I would’ve spent summer nights drinking Kona Big Waves and shouting at strangers about South Carolina’s defensive improvement. Kennard leads the SEC in TFLs (15.5) and sacks (11.5), and he’s doing so for a group that’s No. 15 in the Playoff Poll with a monumental showdown at Clemson ahead. Alongside Dylan Stewart, TJ Sanders and Tonka Hemingway, South Carolina’s defensive line has been one of the breakout units in America this year.

Tennessee — Dylan Sampson is that dude

Remember last year when Tennessee fans begged for Sampson to get more run? Yeah, they were right. Sampson is incredible whether the Doak Walker Award wants to acknowledge that or not. Sampson has a chance to beat Derrick Henry’s single-season SEC record of 28 rushing touchdowns. He’s the reason this Tennessee offense, which didn’t take off as expected after a blistering start, has been able to stay afloat. There’s no denying that he’s become one of the most valuable players in all of college football. It’s been a total 180 for Josh Heupel to feature a bell-cow back, and that’s what Sampson has been with 25 carries/SEC game. Any world in which Tennessee makes a Playoff run includes Sampson continuing to be Superman.

Texas — Steve Sarkisian isn’t his predecessor

If you know, you know.

Sarkisian enters Saturday likely with a second consecutive Playoff berth all but in the bag. Granted, he would obviously like to cap Texas’ first SEC season by winning a conference title and eventually a national title. But think about this. Texas had a completely new group of pass-catchers, it dealt with multiple season-ending injuries in the backfield and it endured another multi-game Quinn Ewers injury, yet it sits at No. 3 in the Playoff Poll as the SEC’s last 1-loss team. Favorable schedule or not, don’t take that for granted or the fact that Sarkisian won 25 consecutive games vs. teams outside the top 15 of the AP Poll. If he can make that 26 with a win at Texas A&M on Saturday, he’ll add another impressive notch to his belt.

Texas A&M — The word “buyout” is completely removed from the A&M vernacular

Hey, I know Auburn was disappointing. There’s a chance that Saturday against Texas doesn’t go the Aggies’ way and the 8-4 jokes are back after a disappointing latter half of the season. I get that. But you know what’s nice? Playing in an SEC semifinal game on your home field in the regular-season finale instead of discussing Jimbo Fisher or Kevin Sumlin’s buyout. Mike Elko should be in the SEC Coach of the Year discussion if A&M wins on Saturday. He managed a back-and-forth quarterback situation about as well as one could’ve hoped for given the circumstances. So far, Elko has checked the boxes that Aggie fans hoped he would in the post-Fisher era.

Vanderbilt — The 2023 version of New Mexico State

And I suppose I should add “the fact that Clark Lea took note of the 2023 version of New Mexico State and decided to make it his entire rebuilding strategy.” I shouldn’t dismiss the decision by Lea to make himself the defensive coordinator, which resulted in a unit that’s 2 touchdowns per game better than it was last year. But Diego Pavia, Eli Stowers, Tim Beck and Jerry Kill have been a revelation in Nashville. Beating No. 1 Alabama and getting into the AP Top 25 was never supposed to be in the cards for this team. Instead, the New Mexico State imports helped Vandy clinch bowl eligibility earlier than it ever has. Vandy would be especially thankful if Pavia could win his lawsuit vs. the NCAA and run it back in 2025.

But for now, let’s just all be thankful that we got Pavia and Co. in 2024.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.