7 takeaways from the SEC's Week 1

While some conferences (cough, cough Pac-12) and teams (cough, cough Penn State and Stanford) struggled in Week 1 of the 2015 season, the SEC thrived, winning all but one game. Thank Vanderbilt for the lone loss.

Football is back and we finally got our first look how the SEC will play out on the field this season.

Here’s a look at some takeaways in the SEC from the opening week of the season:

QB Battles: The SEC had plenty of quarterback challenges going on this summer and it appears some of them were settled in Week 1. Jake Coker was the man for Alabama, guiding the Crimson Tide to a 35-17 win over No. 20 Wisconsin. Coker was steady, completing 15-of-21 for 213 yards and a touchdown. Chad Kelly, Jeremy Johnson and Greyson Lambert each earned wins in their respective debuts with Ole Miss, Auburn and Georgia. Kelly, a Clemson transfer, tossed for 211 yards on 9 of 15 passing, while Johnson was 11-of-21 for 137 yards, 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Lambert connected on 8 of 12 passes for 141 yards a touchdown toss. While it wasn’t always pretty, especially for Johnson, they did earn the victories. Johnson, it should be noted, went up against a Louisville defense that was among the best in the nation last season. Expect more wins to come as the new signal callers work out some early-season kinks.

Return of the D: The South Carolina defense looked like the same porous unit from last year’s Week 1 blowout loss to Texas A&M during the first few drives of the Gamecocks’ home-opener against North Carolina. But new defensive coordinator John Hoke’s unit dug in their heels and shut down the Tar Heels and star quarterback Marquise Williams to earn a hard-fought 17-13 win. The defense yielded 440 yards of total offense, but came up big when it needed to, including Skai Moore, whose second interception of the game (both in the end zone) sealed the win. If Steve Spurrier can right his offense, which struggled at times to build momentum, then South Carolina could be a surprise team in the SEC East.

Week 1 Wonders: The Texas A&M defense was among the pleasant surprises in the Aggies’ Week 1 upset win over Arizona State. First-year A&M defensive coordinator John “The Chief” Chavis’ new defense was a force in the Aggies’ 38-17 win over the No. 15-ranked Sun Devils. The Aggies sacked ASU quarterback Mike Bercovici nine times and caused five fumbles in the win. We knew entering the season that LB Myles Garrett would wreak havoc on offenses, and he did with two sacks and a forced fumble. But the bigger surprise was DL Daeshon Hall, who tallied 4 sacks and caused two fumbles. For Hall, who started five games last year, the four sacks were .5 shy of matching his entire total from last year. His presence only bolsters an A&M front seven that might be one of the more formidable units in the SEC. The Aggies’ 9 sacks were the most by an A&M defense since registering 10 in 1999 against Texas Tech. We’ve seen this before from Texas A&M, who blew the doors off South Carolina in Week 1 of 2014, only to limp to a 8-5 record.

Two-QB Systems: Several SEC coaches dealing with quarterback competitions during fall camp threatened to use multiple-quarterback offenses this year; and a few of them made good on their word. Will Grier (15-of-17, 164 yards, 2 TDs) and Treon Harris (14-of-19, 215 yards, 2 TDs) helped the Florida Gators to a resounding 61-13 win over New Mexico State. Kevin Sumlin gave starter Kyle Allen (15-of-26, 198 yards, 2 TDs, INT) the hook in lieu of Kyler Murray. Allen eventually returned to the game, rushing for a 12-yard score and sealed the game with 3:45 remaining courtesy of a 66-yard scoring strike to Christian Kirk. And in South Carolina, Steve Spurrier used Connor Mitch, Perry Orth, Brandon Wilds and Pharoh Cooper under center — none of whom impressed.

Lightning Bottled: Dak Prescott appears to be Mississippi State’s best running option. Without last year’s leading rusher Josh Robinson, the Bulldogs struggled to establish the run. Mississippi State had seven players rush the ball during the Bulldogs’ 34-16 win over Southern Miss. Of them, quarterback Prescott was the leader with 72 yards. The next closest player was Brandon Holloway with 51 yards. Prescott took the team on his back, adding punctuation mark to the win with a 7-yard touchdown run with 55 seconds left to play. The lack of a strong run game could hurt Prescott in the long run, if he’s forced to throw too much or gets injured while scrambling.

Sacked Masters: The Tennessee defense was supposed to be dominant this season, thanks to a pass-rushing attack that should rank among the nation’s best again. What can’t be encouraging for defensive coordinator John Jancek, was watching as his defense yielded 557 yards, including 433 of them in the air. The Volunteers still earned the win, but allowed the speedy Bowling Green offense to post 30 points in the 59-30 win. A silver lining is that fact that Jancek’s unit thrived on third downs, limiting the Falcons to 4 of 18 on conversions. Yes, it’s only Week 1, some rust is expected. But Tennessee will need to address their secondary or SEC quarterbacks will pick them apart.

Oof, not good: Vanderbilt is going to have a tough year. Things are so bad in Nashville, reports claim that there were more Western Kentucky fans in the Vanderbilt Stadium than Commodores fans. That can’t happen in an SEC season-opener. Vanderbilt gets Georgia next week and still has out-of-conference matchups against Austin Peay and Houston later this year. There’s a possibility that Vandy doesn’t win a game this season, though the team should beat its FCS opponent. Even a one- or two-win campaign could be detrimental to Derek Mason keeping his job.