It’s Sunday morning, and for the second consecutive week I’m left with this feeling – the more we watch the less we know this year in the SEC. It was another weekend full of upsets. Here’s what we learned in Week 6.
What we learned in the early games…
1. Missouri is the best story in college football right now
The most overlooked and disrespected team in the SEC each and every year is Missouri. The low hanging, and very dumb, cliche jokes about the geographic location of the state, and them being in the league, have been tired jokes for years. But, the statement that Missouri is making this season so far has been truly awesome to watch.
Their best player hasn’t played a snap because of a gunshot wound suffered in the summer. They just had a freshman receive a life saving heart transplant earlier this week. The heartstrings this team has tugged on this season have been abundant. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz doesn’t get nearly enough credit in any season, but especially this season. That needs to stop.
2. Mike Elko is in trouble, and it’s his own fault
This Aggie team is a shell of what they were a year ago. They’re just a bad football team. The third-year quarterback, Marcel Reed, has regressed significantly. The offensive line is horrible, and the idea that promoting a first-time play caller from within at offensive coordinator was going to ever work is hilarious. To make matters worse he called out the largest fan site in the country saying the TexAgs readers were a “cesspool.”
Call me crazy but calling out the fans, and more importantly the donors, after your team hasn’t scored a touchdown in two of their last three SEC games isn’t very bright.
3. Shane Beamer isn’t going anywhere and neither are the players
What a win for South Carolina. It was equally as impressive as it was desperately needed for that program. The Gamecocks opened the week as a two-touchdown underdog, and they left the swamp with a 19-point win that truly wasn’t even as close as the final score suggested. Beamer’s hot seat talk has been discussed plenty over the last few weeks, but Saturday’s statement win gave him a great deal more job security than he had just a few weeks ago.
What was most impressive about the win? The 38 points? LaNorris Sellers’ five touchdowns? No. The most impressive part is that despite all the outside noise and three straight losses, it was beyond evident that he hasn’t lost the locker room and his players are still playing very hard for him.
What we learned in the afternoon games…
1. Arkansas fans deserve better
Arkansas wasn’t expected to win on Saturday against Tennessee. Maybe they should have been given a little more credit considering they hadn’t lost to the Vols at home since 2001. Arkansas was in this game until the very end. They were in it until about 1:45 left in the fourth quarter to be exact. That’s when head coach Ryan Silverfield opted to punt on fourth-and-10 trailing by seven points. This will shock you, but even with three timeouts, Arkansas never got the ball back.
What we learned in the night games…
1. Georgia is king of the SEC
What a game in Tuscaloosa. Georgia and Alabama played in an absolute war for three-and-a-half hours on Saturday night. For the second consecutive game, head coach Kirby Smart and Georgia came out on top. The Dawgs were great on Saturday in a very hostile environment. Their “game manager” quarterback who continues to be the most overlooked player in the country completed 18-of-22 passes for 249 yards. They ran for 206 yards, forced four sacks, and put up 455 yards of offense.
After an offseason of hearing about his program taking a step back because of *gasp* losses to elite teams in the college football playoff, Smart will get to the halfway point of the season as the No. 1 team in the country once again.
2. Alabama should weirdly feel better about the program after the loss
Anyone that thinks the sky is falling in Alabama is probably wrong. Loud and wrong. Ten months ago Alabama got whipped by Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. They were held to minus-3 yards rushing, and after a three-game span that included blowout losses to Georgia and Indiana the physicality and toughness of the entire program were questioned by everyone.
Saturday night didn’t result in a win, but it busted that narrative. Alabama lined up and ran right at Georgia for most of the night. They averaged 5.6 yards per carry and finished with 161 yards on the ground. There were some questionable missed calls throughout the night, and Georgia had four fumbles and recovered all four. Alabama didn’t lose because of the refs, but they should feel more than confident that that is a game they can win if they meet again. Which, historically speaking, seems more than likely.
3. The blueprint for a program turnaround under a new coach was on display in Lexington, and it wasn’t Lane Kiffin
The hiring of head coach Will Stein checked a lot of boxes for Kentucky. It was an offensive mind that would be trying to fix an offensively challenged team under Mark Stoops. It was also a homegrown kid who had a tremendous amount of love and passion for that program. We’ve seen that work time and time again. Coaches like Smart, or even Ed Orgeron, have had tremendous success at places that mattered to them, and Kentucky matters to Stein.
But, the thing that really brought a 5-1 record to Lexington quicker than any of that was the blueprint they put in place with a new hire. Kentucky could’ve easily skimped on its NIL resources with football, and a new hire especially considering the $22 million they spent on a basketball team the same year on a one-and-done in the NCAA tournament. They didn’t. They gave Stein enough resources to go get a good quarterback along with 28 other portal players including 14 from the SEC.
Stein has done an incredible job so far in Lexington. They spent significantly less than programs like LSU, and their coach did something the one in Baton Rouge couldn’t seem to do yet – not make everything about him.
