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1. Georgia- Georgia played a B- game and just beat a P4 team by 31 points? And it felt like Georgia left points on the board. I'm not sure Clemson's offense is any good but either way once Georgia's offense got going offensively and the OL started forcing their will, Georgia showed why it deserved it's #1 preseason rank.
2. Texas- Nothing crazy, Texas handled business and while the offense sputtered here and there, I think you have to like that the defense allowed less than 200 yards after losing some impact players on that side of the ball. Texas fans clamoring that Arch is better than Ewers on Twitter did give me a nice proper chuckle.
3. Alabama- An interesting twist to me over the weekend when watching Alabama play. I thought their offense would be buzzing with how good DeBoer is on that side of the ball and the defense would need an adjustment period. That was not the case. They were sloppy in the 1st quarter but recovered for a dominant performance on offense with 600 yards. Their defense can still fly towards the ball and dominate the LOS.
4. Tennessee- You can go with the Vols or Ole Miss here. You can't learn too much from a game against Chattanooga other than the Heisman buzz for Nico Iamaleava is legitimate and the offense could the best of Josh Heupel's coaching career (including his Oklahoma days)
5. Ole Miss- Much like what Tennessee did this past weekend, you can't glean too much other than the offense should be a legitimate force. Jaxson Dart continued his hot streak from last year and the run defense was stifling. We probably won't know if the Rebel Black Bears are a legitimate contender until October 12th when they play LSU (sorry Wake Forest).
6. Oklahoma- The offense had some hiccups. New OC/new QB will definitely cause some consternation when you play Temple and only put up 378 yards. They can still run the ball and the interior of both lines looked ready to play big boy SEC football. 1-12 on 3rd down and 158 yards on 29 pass attempts is something to keep my eye on however.
7. Missouri- Much like Ole Miss and Tennessee, an easy cakewalk game with the starters pulled by halftime. Don't really care who you play but giving up 27 pass yards on 15 attempts is hilarious. After week 1, did the schedule become a little bit harder after what Boston College and Vanderbilt did however?
8. LSU- That was one of the weirder games I've watched. I felt like LSU had control of that game but they never did if that somehow makes sense. How weird is that Brian Kelly has excellent offenses at LSU but abysmal defenses yet the inverse was true at Notre Dame? There is no excuse for their defense to get torched like that. Also play Harold Perkins at EDGE you dopes!
9. Texas A&M- The good news? The defense looked good, which is Elko's side of the ball and is an excellent defensive coach. Riley Leonard didn't have anywhere to throw the ball all night and the run defense I thought played better than the stats indicated. The problem is the preseason hype for Conner Weigman never made sense and that showed. What Jimbo Fisher did to the offensive talent at TAMU needs to be studied for a decade.
10. Vanderbilt- Do I actually believe Vanderbilt is the 10th best team in the SEC? Probably not. But Diego Pavia might be the QB Vanderbilt has had since......JAY CUTLER?!?!?!?! Their run defense was stout and the OL was actually average for the first time in six years. Vanderbilt might not 6-6 with that schedule but they will be much more scrappy than they have been the last four years.
11. Kentucky- Weird game due to all the delays and then it getting called after 35 minutes. The run game for Kentucky should be good once again and Vandagriff has legitimate arm talent. The defense should once again hold their own in 2024. We will know much more after September when they play South Carolina, Georgia and Ole Miss.
12. Auburn- Only 1 of 2 SEC teams I didn't get some sort of a glimpse at this week. I heard Peyton Thorne looked more comfortable and the OL was actually moving people...(looks at Auburn's schedule) wait they play Georgia on October 5th????? I hate conference expansion.
13. Arkansas- You know when you see a friend of yours (not a close one) at the bar for the first time in a couple months and you see him with his crazy partner and you look at your buddy and say "Hey, I thought they broke up?" and your buddy does the sitcom head shake and says "so did I" and you both do an exasperated sigh? That's watching Arkansas with Bobby Petrino as OC.
14. South Carolina- If Shane Beamer doesn't "miraculously" pull out the Tennessee/Clemson games in 2022...he's not the head coach at South Carolina right now correct?
15. Mississippi State- Will the Bulldogs be in a bowl game this year? Probably not. Will Mississippi State be tied early in the 4th quarter with Texas on September 28th and you flip to watch the game and then Texas wins by 20 and everyone forgets that fun 10 minutes? Probably.
16. Florida- Florida gets the long diatribe for week 1 (and I don't actually believe they are worse than a couple of the teams listed above). Right now for Florida, it's less about the coach and it's way more about the lack of structure with the entire athletic department. Their President left over the summer and they are in the middle of hiring one. Their AD has shown zero capabilities to running a football program, from hiring to the ongoing lawsuit with Jaden Rashada. They seem behind in the NIL space and their head coach is already criticizing the fanbase. Before firing Napier, the entire university support system has to be aligned. This happened with Tennessee in 2021. Even go back to Alabama when they hired Saban and he's mentioned how important the spine of the AD was aligned to make the program elite again. Until Florida figures that out, it won't matter who the head football coach is. With all that being said, some of the things that Florida does shock me from a Saban disciple and guy who is going into year 7. They commit dumb penalties constantly, the players get confused by play calls and the effort once again seems lacking. How do you have poor effort against an in-state rival in week 1 at home? That might be the worst part of Billy Napier has a head coach. I'm not sure any of his players actually like the guy. I just can't really name an SEC coach in the modern era who has had such a lackluster start and be able to bring the program to consistently elite status. Maybe Johnny Majors? It looks grim for the Gators.
2. Texas- Nothing crazy, Texas handled business and while the offense sputtered here and there, I think you have to like that the defense allowed less than 200 yards after losing some impact players on that side of the ball. Texas fans clamoring that Arch is better than Ewers on Twitter did give me a nice proper chuckle.
3. Alabama- An interesting twist to me over the weekend when watching Alabama play. I thought their offense would be buzzing with how good DeBoer is on that side of the ball and the defense would need an adjustment period. That was not the case. They were sloppy in the 1st quarter but recovered for a dominant performance on offense with 600 yards. Their defense can still fly towards the ball and dominate the LOS.
4. Tennessee- You can go with the Vols or Ole Miss here. You can't learn too much from a game against Chattanooga other than the Heisman buzz for Nico Iamaleava is legitimate and the offense could the best of Josh Heupel's coaching career (including his Oklahoma days)
5. Ole Miss- Much like what Tennessee did this past weekend, you can't glean too much other than the offense should be a legitimate force. Jaxson Dart continued his hot streak from last year and the run defense was stifling. We probably won't know if the Rebel Black Bears are a legitimate contender until October 12th when they play LSU (sorry Wake Forest).
6. Oklahoma- The offense had some hiccups. New OC/new QB will definitely cause some consternation when you play Temple and only put up 378 yards. They can still run the ball and the interior of both lines looked ready to play big boy SEC football. 1-12 on 3rd down and 158 yards on 29 pass attempts is something to keep my eye on however.
7. Missouri- Much like Ole Miss and Tennessee, an easy cakewalk game with the starters pulled by halftime. Don't really care who you play but giving up 27 pass yards on 15 attempts is hilarious. After week 1, did the schedule become a little bit harder after what Boston College and Vanderbilt did however?
8. LSU- That was one of the weirder games I've watched. I felt like LSU had control of that game but they never did if that somehow makes sense. How weird is that Brian Kelly has excellent offenses at LSU but abysmal defenses yet the inverse was true at Notre Dame? There is no excuse for their defense to get torched like that. Also play Harold Perkins at EDGE you dopes!
9. Texas A&M- The good news? The defense looked good, which is Elko's side of the ball and is an excellent defensive coach. Riley Leonard didn't have anywhere to throw the ball all night and the run defense I thought played better than the stats indicated. The problem is the preseason hype for Conner Weigman never made sense and that showed. What Jimbo Fisher did to the offensive talent at TAMU needs to be studied for a decade.
10. Vanderbilt- Do I actually believe Vanderbilt is the 10th best team in the SEC? Probably not. But Diego Pavia might be the QB Vanderbilt has had since......JAY CUTLER?!?!?!?! Their run defense was stout and the OL was actually average for the first time in six years. Vanderbilt might not 6-6 with that schedule but they will be much more scrappy than they have been the last four years.
11. Kentucky- Weird game due to all the delays and then it getting called after 35 minutes. The run game for Kentucky should be good once again and Vandagriff has legitimate arm talent. The defense should once again hold their own in 2024. We will know much more after September when they play South Carolina, Georgia and Ole Miss.
12. Auburn- Only 1 of 2 SEC teams I didn't get some sort of a glimpse at this week. I heard Peyton Thorne looked more comfortable and the OL was actually moving people...(looks at Auburn's schedule) wait they play Georgia on October 5th????? I hate conference expansion.
13. Arkansas- You know when you see a friend of yours (not a close one) at the bar for the first time in a couple months and you see him with his crazy partner and you look at your buddy and say "Hey, I thought they broke up?" and your buddy does the sitcom head shake and says "so did I" and you both do an exasperated sigh? That's watching Arkansas with Bobby Petrino as OC.
14. South Carolina- If Shane Beamer doesn't "miraculously" pull out the Tennessee/Clemson games in 2022...he's not the head coach at South Carolina right now correct?
15. Mississippi State- Will the Bulldogs be in a bowl game this year? Probably not. Will Mississippi State be tied early in the 4th quarter with Texas on September 28th and you flip to watch the game and then Texas wins by 20 and everyone forgets that fun 10 minutes? Probably.
16. Florida- Florida gets the long diatribe for week 1 (and I don't actually believe they are worse than a couple of the teams listed above). Right now for Florida, it's less about the coach and it's way more about the lack of structure with the entire athletic department. Their President left over the summer and they are in the middle of hiring one. Their AD has shown zero capabilities to running a football program, from hiring to the ongoing lawsuit with Jaden Rashada. They seem behind in the NIL space and their head coach is already criticizing the fanbase. Before firing Napier, the entire university support system has to be aligned. This happened with Tennessee in 2021. Even go back to Alabama when they hired Saban and he's mentioned how important the spine of the AD was aligned to make the program elite again. Until Florida figures that out, it won't matter who the head football coach is. With all that being said, some of the things that Florida does shock me from a Saban disciple and guy who is going into year 7. They commit dumb penalties constantly, the players get confused by play calls and the effort once again seems lacking. How do you have poor effort against an in-state rival in week 1 at home? That might be the worst part of Billy Napier has a head coach. I'm not sure any of his players actually like the guy. I just can't really name an SEC coach in the modern era who has had such a lackluster start and be able to bring the program to consistently elite status. Maybe Johnny Majors? It looks grim for the Gators.
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