Front Porch FootballWeek 2 Grades in the SEC West
by Brendan Paschal
Week 2 was always a dangerous time for my grades. Classes settled in, homework started to pile up, all the while I began to develop bad habits. Cramming in 75 pages of reading thirty minutes before class quickly turned into skipping it altogether; my class participation grade drastically dropped; and I somehow managed to use at least one unexcused absence in week 2. However, one semester I managed to maintain a quality routine, coincidentally that was the one semester I managed to make the Dean’s List. Much like my performance in the classroom, Week 2 in the SEC reveals a lot about how the rest of the season should go.
Week 2 Grades in the SEC West
Alabama: A
Final Score: New Mexico State 10, Alabama 62
The University of Alabama had to pay New Mexico State 1.7 million dollars to show up in Tuscaloosa. Nobody wants to take the physical toll that comes with playing Bama. They’re like that one kid in chess club who nobody wants to play because it ends after he takes all of your pieces before hitting you with that “checkmate.”
Arkansas: D
Final Score: Ole Miss 31 , Arkansas 17
Chad Morris is making improvements and taking the proper steps in the right direction. Unfortunately so is Matt Luke at Ole Miss. Both Luke and Morris were handed programs is shambles, but Luke had a head start. However, there were two major things that left me scratching my head after the game.
First, the secondary was horrendous. The Reb’s receivers had 150+ yards after completion, which was a combination of poor coverage and even worse tackling. Nowhere near SEC level of play. Second, the quarterback situation continues to worry me. Right when fans were starting to think Ben Hicks was their guy Morris replaces him with Nick Starkel at halftime. Neither impressed, but Starkel technically had a better game. But it’s hard to perform well when you can’t establish the run.
Auburn: B+
Final Score: Tulane 6, Auburn 24
The hangover period was on display this past Saturday. After “upsetting” Oregon in Week 1 the Tigers came off a bit sluggish. However, they seemed to maintain their composure and turned on the gas in the second quarter. Bo Nix is a talented QB. As a true freshman he knows how to put the ball in the hands of his athletes and can throw the ball extremely well. He is the future for the Tigers. Also, this defense is elite.
LSU: A+
Final Score: LSU 45, Texas 38
Texas is a top 10 team. They are complete on both sides of the ball, and could push Oklahoma for the top spot in the Big 12. But the same can be said about LSU and Alabama. Traditionally, the Tigers pride themselves on strong defensive play with a conservative offense. For years there hasn’t been a QB in a Tiger uniform that won games. We would see final scores like 0-6 or 14-7. However, Joe Burrow is rewriting the manual for LSU. Completing 31 out of his 39 passes for nearly 500 yards and four touchdowns Burrow had a fantastic performance.
The defense played well and gets a pass from me due to circumstances of the heat. After the game former coach and now commentator Gene Chizik mentioned how during games with extreme heat great teams don’t defend to make a stop every drive, just one or two times when it matters. And LSU did just that.
Mississippi State: A-
Final Score: Southern Miss 15, Mississippi State 38
A well balanced performance against an inferior opponent. After QB Tommy Stevens went down late in the first half the Bulldogs didn’t blink. Garrett Shrader took over QB responsibilities, and performed well. The player of the game, however, was running back Kylin Hill who rushed for 124 yards on 14 carries adding a touchdown as the cherry on top.
Ole Miss: B+
Final Score: Ole Miss 31 , Arkansas 17
They played extremely well on both sides of the ball, but also had the worst play I saw over the weekend.
Texas A&M: C
Final Score: Texas A&M 10, Clemson 24
I’ve seen people putting a lot of blame on quarterback Kellen Mond, who went 24 for 42, 236 yards, a touchdown, an interception, and a fumble. But it’s not fair to Mond. They could not run the ball to save their lives. The Aggies combined a total of 53 rushing yards, which is the same number of yards as Clemson’s second leading rusher of the game. No coach prepares a game plan for 2 and 15 or 3 and 20. A&M had very little production on the offensive side of the ball, which makes their defensive performance all the more impressive.
At the end of the day Clemson is too deep and too athletic for the Aggies to hang right now. Give Jimbo a few years, and maybe they’ll be in the same conversation again.
