Well, that didn’t take long. Saturday marked the official halfway point of the regular season, and there are no unbeatens left in the SEC.
Georgia’s shocking loss to Auburn cemented that between the hedges in Athens. Elsewhere, upsets once again swept across the conference, and the difficulty of a nine-game SEC schedule has already cannibalized the standings.
Here’s what we learned in Week 7.
What we learned in the early games…
Arch Manning is a liability.
The leash that Manning has been given in his first several years is wild. The highest ranked player in the country didn’t have to play meaningful snaps until his sophomore season. Now in Year 3, they’ve shown little meaningful progress, regardless of the millions spent to build a supporting cast.
The only thing more egregious than the overranking of Manning is the overranking of Texas.
The Longhorns are flirting with disaster and still have a very tough schedule in front of them. Ole Miss comes to town next week, and there’s still a trip to Baton Rouge on the horizon. The most perplexing part of their fall-off is that it has happened after their bye week.
The door is still open for LSU.
Last week, it felt like the sky was falling after the loss to Kentucky. Now, neither of LSU’s two losses looks all that bad.
Both Ole Miss and Kentucky are currently projected to be in the Top-12 teams to make the CFP, and the path for LSU to join them isn’t as daunting as originally thought.
They need to avoid a trap at Auburn next week and then get healthy on the bye week. If they can win two of the three games in that Alabama, Texas and Tennessee stretch, it’s not unreasonable to think they’ll get in.
If they win all three, they’re definitely in.
What we learned in the afternoon games…
Ole Miss is a different team after the bye week.
Ole Miss was one of three teams who took their bye week in Week 5. That sounded as ridiculous as a 10:30 a.m. lunch break at work, but to each their own.
Whatever they did during the bye, it worked. The Rebels went into the break with the worst rushing defense in the SEC.
In the two games since, they’ve allowed just 142 yards and 2.3 yards per carry. That includes holding the SEC leading rusher, Jamal Roberts, to 39 yards on 20 carries.
Alabama has some serious issues, and health concerns.
Tennessee absolutely manhandled Alabama for 60 straight minutes. The 26-10 score wasn’t even as close as it would suggest, either.
Alabama was physically inferior on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and the Ryan Grubb woes on the road continued.
The Vols held Bama to just 201 yards of offense, the second lowest in any game for the Tide since 2015. Even more concerning, Alabama’s six lowest offensive yardage totals since 2015 have all come in the past three years under Kalen DeBoer. Four of those six came with Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator.
To make matters worse, they entered the game with three starters out, and had five out by the end of the game. They desperately need to get to the bye week.
For Tennessee, they’ve found their quarterback and a whole new identity. They bludgeoned Alabama the entire game. They wore them down with the run game, and they made Keelon Russell uncomfortable all afternoon. That included five sacks.
In his first 14 dropbacks, Tennessee had 11 pressures. Alabama’s first seven plays didn’t yield a single positive yard. The Tide has officially turned in this rivalry with Tennessee now winning the last three in Neyland.
It means something to Alex Golesh.
Growing up in Atlanta, the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has always been my favorite rivalry in college football. People outside of that footprint don’t get it, but from an SEC nostalgia standpoint alone, it’s incredible.
Before the game moved to October, it was a mid-November staple. The leaves were changing, temperatures hovered around 60 degrees, and two original SEC members spent 60 minutes beating the crap out of each other.
The rivalry has been lopsided for quite some time in favor of Georgia, but Saturday’s win for Auburn meant a lot to that fanbase, that team and especially Alex Golesh.
Golesh has become an afterthought amongst the new hires in this league. Saturday meant something to him, and his postgame press conference and quote about his son being on the field if they won was an all-time cool moment.
For those that missed it, his son asked if he could go on the field after the game if they won.
“We’re on the field bro,” said Golesh to him and a national television audience.
What we learned at night…
Keep doubting Kentucky at your own risk,
The Kentucky Wildcats are atop the standings in the SEC right now. Yep, you read that correctly.
Kentucky went on the road and beat Oklahoma as a +6 point underdog. It’s their third win on the road in SEC play this season, which is now the second time in 45 years the Wildcats have accomplished it.
Will Stein and company continue to exceed expectations by incredible amounts in year one. The creative offense and bend-but-don’t-break defense continue to be a winning formula, even as underdogs in each of their last four SEC games.
This is no longer a cute story. There is a real chance Kentucky is able to make the College Football Playoff if they are able to win four of their last five games.
The battle for the CFP is going to be an uphill one for the SEC.
The schedule isn’t getting any easier for SEC teams the rest of the way.
Last night, Notre Dame lost at BYU, while Miami escaped Florida State after officials overturned not one, but two touchdowns in the second overtime to hand the Hurricanes a rivalry win.
There’s no home cooking like that from SEC officials, and the road ahead remains a gauntlet. Several teams already have two losses and can’t afford a third if they want to make the CFP.
Teams like Alabama and LSU each have two losses and will play each other, while LSU will also have to face Texas and Tennessee in consecutive weeks after. Only four teams in the entire conference currently have one loss.
To put it mildly, the combination of the nine game conference schedule and only one bye week this season has been a blood bath.
