MARLER: Takeaways from a wild Week 7

By Chris Marler

Vanderbilt is the best guilty pleasure of the season 

Vanderbilt continues to be one of the best and most fun stories of the 2024 season. They’re also something else that no one seems to want to label them as – a damn good football team. Vanderbilt went on the road at Kentucky a week after beating Alabama, and, as a 14-point underdog, beat the Wildcats 20-13.

Vanderbilt has been a double-digit underdog in their last two games, and they’ve never trailed for a second in either game.

Vanderbilt has two losses by five combined points. Both came in the last seconds of the game (including one in double overtime at a Top 10 team). Diego Pavia has completed over 80 percent of his passes in consecutive games and has just one turnover all season. Hell, they even have a kicker who’s hit four field goals over 50 yards this season.

They also have, say it with me – a damn good football team. When you wake up on Sunday and (hopefully) read this, they’ll be ranked for the first time since 2008.

Cut Billy Napier some damn slack 

I don’t know what Billy Napier did to make people hate him so much, but goodness that man gets an unfair shake from seemingly everyone. Hear me out. I’m not saying that Billy Napier is a great coach, nor am I saying that he’s the man to return that program to its glory days.

But.

Florida was a 15-point underdog on the road against a Top 10 team. They lost their starting quarterback, Graham Mertz. Said quarterback had completed over 82 percent of his passes in his last four games and was playing his best football. Said quarterback had the Gators up 10-0.

They lost in overtime.

Billy Napier didn’t fumble on the goal line in the second quarter. Billy Napier didn’t make this year’s schedule. If you want to fire him, then fire him because the rest of us are sick of hearing Gator fans complain about how bad of a hire he’s been when you’re less than a decade removed from Will Muschamp and a guy with Shark Week themed OnlyFans pics running the program.

Also, don’t forget that Dan Mullen was 21-5 in his first two seasons and went to a New Year’s Six Bowl in each of his first three. The fans wanted him gone, too.

Tennessee’s First Half Offense went from the Top, to Rocky

Tennessee has been one of the best first half offenses in the country under Josh Heupel, ranking in the Top 4 nationally in two of his first three seasons. Fast starts have been a staple of Heupel teams.

Tennessee has scored first in 35 of Heupel’s 44 games, and they’ve held a lead at halftime in 25 of their last 32 games dating back to the start of the 2022 season. That’s how this season started as well, but it has come to a crashing halt.

Tennessee’s first half offense in their first four games

• Outscored opponents 149-6
• Averaging 37.3 ppg

First half offense in the last two games

• 0 total points
• Snapped a streak of 62 straight games with a first half score (vs Florida 2019)

Saturday’s win over Florida is just the second win in 14 games when trailing at the half under Heupel.

Georgia’s Interesting Game plan 

Georgia faced Mississippi State at home in their last tune up before their showdown against Texas next Saturday in Austin. This may be an overreaction, but any time Kirby Smart teams struggle against teams they shouldn’t, part of me wonders if it’s by design.

I’m not saying he let, or wanted, Mississippi State to score 31 points on his defense while letting a freshman quarterback throw for 300 yards. I’m not saying that I think he wanted to let his foot off the gas in the second half and watch Mississippi State score three touchdowns in the final 30 minutes when they’d only allowed two second half touchdowns all season.

What I am saying is I think Georgia is so good at this point as a program that I genuinely believe that Kirby uses actual games as glorified scrimmages to work on things. Case in point, Mississippi State came into today with the worst rushing defense in the conference allowing over 250 yards and six yards per carry to Power 4 opponents.

Georgia threw it 48 times on them. Carson Beck finished the game 36-for-48 for 459 yards and three touchdowns. Through three quarters, Georgia had run 58 total plays with 42 (73 percent) being pass plays.

The 48 attempts were the most of any Georgia quarterback in a game they won during the Kirby Smart era. Again. it was against a team they probably could have run all over, like every other opponent already has.

Not Kirby Smart. He’s out here trying to play on Heisman mode against basement dwellers just to feel something. What a psychopath. And, I love it.