The slate was top heavy, and it lacked any real power after the noon game on paper. It felt like going into Saturday if we were going to see any surprises they’d come in the first game of the day between Alabama and Mississippi State. Surely, Florida would roll, and Tennessee and Auburn most likely wouldn’t be competitive.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was another day full of lessons in the league. Here’s what we learned in Week 5.
What we learned in the early games…
1. Alabama is really good, like really, really good
Everyone should have expected the offense to be good, but this good? I don’t know if anyone saw that coming. Alabama ranks third in the country in scoring (49.6 ppg) and quarterback Keelon Russell is the current leader in the Heisman Trophy odds.
Russell was fantastic and put together another 300-yard game with four touchdowns, and Alabama routed Mississippi State, 56-23. The defense was the real story, though. The Alabama front seven secured five sacks and forced four turnovers and now lead the conference with 13 turnovers gained this season. It’s the first 5-0 start for Alabama under Kalen DeBoer with Georgia coming to town next week.
2. Mississippi State is a different team if they can’t run the ball
Fluff Bothwell had to leave the Alabama game after the second play from scrimmage, and Kamario Taylor could only do so much on his own. The Bulldogs finished with 0.6 yards per carry thanks to an ineffective ground game whose leading rusher had just 27 yards on 10 carries and half of that came on one run.
This team is still very dangerous, and Taylor’s connection with Anthony Evans was on full display once again. However, a few interceptions put State behind the eight-ball early, and the rout was on by the second half.
3. Georgia is methodical and terrifying
Georgia sleepwalked through the first half against Vanderbilt and only had a seven point lead at the half. Then they put the clamps down and pulled away to a boring, and methodical, 24-point win over Vanderbilt. The Mike Bobo offense that has received so much criticism over the years leads the country in scoring (51.4 ppg) heading into their big showdown next week with Alabama.
What we learned in the afternoon games…
1. Florida is far from a finished product
Florida has been really bad over the last few years, and maybe we should have waited another week to crown them as a program being all the way back. The point spread of -5.5 seemed odd after their blowout win over Ole Miss and Missouri’s road loss at Mississippi State. It shouldn’t have. Florida got absolutely embarrassed in Columbia, 45-17. The Tigers made them one dimensional, and it got ugly quick. Florida couldn’t stop anything on defense, and their star running back Jadan Baugh was held to 13 yards on 12 carries. Yikes.
2. Missouri has more talent, and fight, than they were given credit for
Hand up, that’s on me. I was one of the many that didn’t believe Missouri deserved to be ranked after its loss at Mississippi State. Call me crazy, but Wake Forest beating a ranked opponent on the road, while Mizzou lost to one, felt like the Demon Deacons should’ve gotten some more respect. That may not have been wrong, but it was absolutely wrong to disrespect Missouri and Eli Drinkwitz. And, let everyone know that on Saturday.
Missouri beat the brakes off of Florida. Austin Simmons looked awesome, and torched the Gators secondary while Jamal Roberts had an all-time performance with 211 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
3. Tennessee has a quarterback controversy
What’s that old saying about having two quarterbacks? If you have two quarterbacks you have no quarterback. That might not be the case for Tennessee just yet, but having to bench Faizon Brandon against Auburn certainly isn’t ideal at this point of the season. The all-everything former five star and true freshman was benched for George MacIntyre, and MacIntyre led the Vols to a big home win over an SEC team. Lucky for them they get lowly Arkansas next week, but with Alabama coming to town in two weeks they’ll need to figure it out quickly.
4. Shane Beamer and South Carolina are broken
There’s a novel I could write about this latest example of an embarrassing loss for South Carolina, but I won’t. It’s the same story we’ve all watched over and over again.
South Carolina hosted a ranked team at Williams-Brice Stadium. They took a 17-0 lead to open the game. They lost 35-34 in overtime. Tale as old as time.
Shane Beamer is a great person, that doesn’t make him a great fit to run the program as a head coach. It’s frustrating to watch. South Carolina had the ball with the 17-0 lead with less than five minutes left in the first half. Up until that point they had held Kentucky to 20 plays for 39 total yards of offense. They then fumbled, and you could watch the panic set in over the entire team.
It’s the sixth time they’ve squandered a double-digit lead to an SEC opponent, and the third time in their last four SEC games. That’s really hard to do. They don’t do any of the little things that good football teams do to win games. They constantly shoot themselves in the foot. They lose the turnover battle, and they go out of their way to not utilize their best players in key moments. It’s truly fascinating. It’s also run its course and time for a change in Columbia.
What we learned in the night games…
1. Arkansas still sucks
That’s it. There’s not really much more to say than that.
2. Those Texas A&M uniforms were hideous
Also, not going to elaborate. It’s self-explanatory.
3. Lane Kiffin is really focused on setting a standard at LSU
Talent was never missing at LSU under Brian Kelly. The Tigers were super talented year in and year out, and even had one of the best, and most expensive, rosters in his final season. That didn’t matter and they won seven games. Lane Kiffin didn’t just bring an explosive offense and twitter trolling gimmicks to Baton Rouge. He is hellbent on setting a standard with this program in his first year, and it’s awesome to watch. Multiple times against McNeese he gathered a player, or at one point his entire team, around him and lit into them about playing to their standard and not to the opponent. He even took a time out seven seconds into the second half to do it. This program lacked leadership like that. It doesn’t anymore, and that’s a welcomed sight.
