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Are we having fun yet?
I hope so because the midway point of the season came and went this past week, and the new version of the SEC looks messier than ever. We can thank Georgia for that. Or maybe we can thank Tennessee for that after handing Alabama, AKA the SEC champ in 3 of the 4 seasons in the 2020s decade, its second loss in conference play.
A bananas year in the SEC got a whole lot more interesting in Week 8.
Here were my biggest takeaways:
Georgia still has its fastball and it isn’t just Texas and everyone else
Hand up. I had Texas winning by 3 touchdowns. Wrong. Dead, dead, dead wrong. So when Kirby Smart said afterward that “nobody believed in us,” I felt called out.
To be fair, that was a different level of UGA dominance on Saturday night in Austin. Smart’s defense played one of the best games we’ve ever seen from him in 9 years as a head coach in Athens. Neither Quinn Ewers nor Arch Manning saw anything but ghosts in that first half, which included just 38 yards of offense after Jalon Walker and the UGA pass rush feasted on that Texas offensive line.
Mind you, this was a UGA defense that struggled to get off the field against Mississippi State last week. It was the UGA defense that got hit for 30 points in the first half at Alabama. It was the group that was No. 54 in yards/play allowed entering Week 8. So naturally, Saturday night on the road against the No. 1 team in America was when the Dawgs played like their season was on the line.
Finally.
Georgia reminded the college football world that it isn’t to be doubted. Smart didn’t take too kindly to the unanimous College GameDay picks for Texas, and he was clearly aware of his team being a 5-point underdog on the road. The Dawgs finished the night with 10 tackles for loss and 7 sacks. They forced 4 turnovers, which was what allowed them to overcome a shaky night in the passing game by Carson Beck and the Georgia receivers.
It was a humbling day for a Texas squad that trailed for just 3 minutes and 50 seconds all season en route to its first 6-0 start in 15 years. It ran into a buzzsaw. Perhaps it won’t be a buzzsaw if those 2 teams meet again in the postseason, but on Saturday night, there was no denying who the better team was.
There’s a reason UGA has 51 consecutive wins against non-Alabama teams. We saw that on Saturday night.
This is so clearly a new era of Alabama football
And I’m not just saying that because Alabama went for it on 4th-and-22 deep in their own territory instead of punting the ball away with all 3 timeouts. But yeah, that’s part of it. So, too, was the fact that the Tide held Tennessee without a first-half point and it couldn’t make the right plays down the stretch to win a game.
The discipline was lacking at times in the final years of the Nick Saban era, but 15 penalties for 115 yards didn’t cut it in a game that could’ve gone anybody’s way.
(Yes, I also thought James Pearce Jr. got away with being in the neutral zone on that sack on 3rd down with 5 minutes left, and I’m not sure why the unsportsmanlike penalty on Kendrick Law wasn’t offsetting. It was still an undisciplined performance.)
Jalen Milroe crumbled at some key points in that game. Like, a game in which Milroe attempted a career-high 45 passes, which was 12 more than any game of his college career. Kalen DeBoer put a ton of faith in Milroe, even with some of the pre-snap communication early on in a hostile atmosphere. At certain points, Milroe looked poised for the moment like when he led Alabama right down the field after Tennessee took its first lead of the day. He recognized the importance of targeting Ryan Williams, who had a career-high 19 targets, but none of which went for 20 yards and the interception in the end zone to Jermod McCoy proved costly.
Ultimately, Milroe didn’t handle that as well as he could’ve. As a result, Alabama has 2 losses before November for the first time since … 2007, AKA Year 1 of the Saban era. A new era, indeed.
Dylan Sampson needs to be in the SEC Player of the Year conversation
I know that we’re not supposed to say that a running back is the “most valuable player” on a given roster. To that, I’d say watch Sampson and tell me how much that guy means to the Vols. The guy who came into Saturday ranked No. 4 in FBS in yards after contact per carry was the heart and soul of that struggling Tennessee offense, which had its third consecutive scoreless first half for the first time since the John F. Kennedy administration.
Sampson’s 26 carries for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns don’t tell the full story. His ability to finish drives is monumental. Think about this — he’s now got 17 rushing touchdowns on the year. That’s the most of any SEC player since Najee Harris in 2020. Also of note, it’s only the Third Saturday in October.
You know, just in case you forgot that amidst the sea of cigar smoke on Rocky Top.
Billy Napier avoided what would’ve been a fireable offense
That is, losing to Kentucky in each of your first 3 seasons and doing so with 3 different starting quarterbacks. In his first start against SEC competition, DJ Lagway became the first Florida starting QB to beat the Cats since Kyle Trask. He did so with the help of some massive chunk plays, as well as a Florida record 5-touchdown showing for true freshman Jadan Baugh in place of the injured Montrell Johnson Jr.
So can Napier somehow whether the early-season storm and save his job? It might be too early to determine that. Florida has a bye week, then a showdown at Georgia, at Texas and home against LSU. All of those teams are locked into top-8 spots (and perhaps even more after LSU rolled Arkansas).
It helps that Florida’s defense that’s played far more inspired the past 3 weeks. It doesn’t help that top Florida corner Jason Marshall Jr. added to the growing list of key Gators injuries.
But in the “survive and advance” discussion that’s become Napier’s job security, a blowout win against Kentucky was all he could’ve asked for.
No lead is safe with Auburn
Here’s all you need to know. In the past 20 years, Auburn was 105-1 when it had a second-half lead of at least 14 points. Make that 105-2.
Yikes.
For the 2nd time this season, Auburn blew a double-digit 4th quarter lead. Hugh Freeze might try and spin that as a sign that the Tigers are “right there,” but that’s a tough sell for a program that’s now 2-5 overall and 0-4 in SEC play. Auburn had Mizzou on the ropes thanks to a nice route by Cam Coleman for a 47-yard score and an opportunistic fumble recovery in the end zone on a Luther Burden III muffed punt.
But Freeze opted for 3 consecutive pass plays on 1st-and-goal from the Mizzou 10-yard line. It led to a missed 30-yard field goal from backup kicker Towns McGough. From there, it was the Brady Cook show. As in, a quarterback who struggled throughout 2024 and was 2 hours removed from leaving the game with an ankle injury. As in, a quarterback who was in the hospital during Saturday’s game.
#Mizzou QB Brady Cook went to the hospital for an MRI, Eli Drinkwitz says, and then warmed up in the indoor facility before trying come back. Crazy.
— Eli Hoff (@byEliHoff) October 19, 2024
And yet, Auburn still couldn’t force Cook into enough tough decisions to escape Columbia with a win. Unbelievable. It’s unbelievable grit by Cook and Mizzou to win a game like that, but it’s hard not to focus on Auburn blowing another game like that.
It wasn’t just Thorne’s struggles down the stretch, though completing 1-of-6 passes and recording 22 total yards of offense is an easy way to blow a lead like that. That’s not changing anytime soon.
What else doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon is Auburn’s losing streak against AP Top 25 teams, which is now at 14 games. Forget beating AP Top 25 teams. It’s now fair to wonder if Auburn is going to win an SEC game with this remaining slate:
- at Kentucky
- vs. Vanderbilt
- vs. Texas A&M
- at Alabama
Perhaps the better question is how many points does Auburn need to be spotted to hold on to one of those games?
That’s how Mizzou needs to survive in this league
It won’t be pretty, but it better be gritty.
Sorry. I’ll show myself out.
Cook’s performance was what this Mizzou program needed after a dreadful start allowed Auburn to jump out to a 17-3 lead. You can’t always bank on an emotional lift like watching your quarterback enter the game after being in the hospital to save an inept offense, but this team needs to be comfortable winning ugly. It won’t win with a top-10 offense like many (myself included) expected, and it won’t necessarily be splash plays in the passing game that’ll do that damage.
But fortunately for Mizzou, it’ll enter late October with just 1 loss. It still has Playoff life heading into an all-important showdown against a potentially vulnerable Alabama team. Life could be a whole lot worse for Eli Drinkwitz’s squad.
Oklahoma’s offense has no shot against SEC competition, especially when it turns the ball over 3 times in the first 9 plays
There are horrendous starts, and then there’s whatever Oklahoma did on Saturday.
Three turnovers in the first 5 1/2 minutes is a challenge, even for the most offensively challenged teams. The Sooners are definitely in that camp. Michael Hawkins Jr.’s 3 turnovers in the first 9 plays prompted Brent Venables to go back to his original QB1, Jackson Arnold. While Arnold had more success moving the ball downfield, he took 8 sacks.
Therein lies the problem with this version of Oklahoma. Without those top 5 receivers and with a shuffled offensive line — they were even shuffling guys around in the first quarter — it doesn’t really matter which quarterback starts. The Sooners are a disaster. It’s tough to run an offense when you can’t block and you can’t trust a receiver to get separation.
South Carolina’s loaded defensive line was a big part of that — 13 tackles for loss by the FBS leader in TFLs in conference play wasn’t necessarily a coincidence — but nothing we’ve seen from the OU offense in 2024 suggests that game-changing reinforcements are on the way, even if some of those receivers return to action. It’s daunting to think about that with the schedule that remains.
The stat that tells you all you need to know about South Carolina’s defensive improvement
Last year, South Carolina recorded a Shane Beamer-era best 38 tackles for loss in 8 SEC games … which was only good for No. 107 in FBS. This year, the Gamecocks entered Saturday ranked No. 1 in FBS with 33 TFLs in conference play. All they did was add to that with 13 TFLs.
Dylan Stewart forced an interception to Nick Emmanwori, who very likely earned himself SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors with a pair of takeaways and a TFL to go along with a team-high 11 tackles. But go figure that Stewart and SEC sack leader Kyle Kennard only had 1 TFL apiece. That speaks to how deep this unit has been. Tonka Hemingway had a scoop-and-score on 1 of those aforementioned 3 Oklahoma turnovers in the first 9 plays, and Demetrius Knight Jr. had a pair of TFLs.
As we saw last week at Alabama, South Carolina has been living in backfields all season. They’re as dangerous of a 3-loss team as any in America because of how dominant they are up front. If you don’t have a comfortable veteran quarterback, forget about it.
The Gamecocks have 4 multi-year FBS starters coming up in their last 4 games vs. FBS competition. Each one of them will be in for a challenge.
Go figure that next week’s LSU-A&M showdown could be for a ticket to Atlanta
The SEC’s last 2 remaining unbeatens in conference play will face off next week in College Station. Naturally. Who predicted that LSU and A&M would be those teams in the preseason? Better yet, who predicted that they’d be those teams after they both dropped their headliner openers?
Wild. Wild it is that for the first time since 2007, the SEC won’t have a single unbeaten team heading into November. All that matters is being unbeaten in conference play. That all-important ticket to the SEC Championship to earn a potential first-round bye feels very much up for grabs.
The winner of next week’s showdown in College Station will have an inside track to it.
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.
