Front Porch FootballWhat We Learned About the SEC from Week 1?
by Chris Paschal
This is the first of of fourteen weekly recaps Front Porch Football will produce throughout the football season. Usually these recaps will be on the Sunday following a SEC Football Saturday, but because LSU played on Sunday this week, we postponed this week’s recap until Monday.
The SEC started off the season on the right foot. The conference went 13-1 with the only loss coming from a rebuilding Tennessee football team. Even more impressive, the SEC dominated other power five opponents. The SEC beat two top-10 opponents. The rest of college football had zero. The SEC beat teams from the Pac-12, Big 12, and ACC. The SEC also has the only undefeated Power 5 Division in the SEC West. Overall, it was a good first weekend for a conference that has been buried five feet under and left to die. But how did each individual program do this opening weekend?
Alabama: The Crimson Tide beat the brakes off Louisville (51-14) but somehow that wasn’t the storyline of the game. There hasn’t been this much drama surrounding an Alabama victory since Lurleen Wallace whipped all of her challengers in the 1966 Gubernatorial Election. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, look it up — only in Alabama). Nick Saban and his handling of the “quarterback battle” became the question of the year for the media. It was a lazy question to start with because anyone with eyeballs knew Tua was going to be the starter, but second it was a stupid question. It was a stupid question because at the end of the day who cares which quarterback was named the starter for Alabama. No matter who it was, Alabama was going to breeze through the heart of their schedule before hitting the month of November, and by then, somebody would have been named the starter. That being said, Tua is officially the starter. And whether Saban had said that or not, all of y’all in the media knew it. “So quit asking.”
Arkansas: At the end of the day, the Hogs played Eastern Illinois. All of that in consideration, I was still impressed by Arkansas’s performance in week one. They showed some promise on the offensive side of the ball, and had some solid plays on the defensive side of the ball. Colorado State is another weak opponent Arkansas will face in week two, but it’s in Colorado. Another huge performance and I will feel confident in my preseason prediction that the Razorbacks win at least six games.
Chad Morris had an impressive season opener in his first game as head coach. Image from Arkansas Times.
Auburn: It sure as hell wasn’t pretty, but it was still a win over an elite opponent that will probably win the PAC-12. Auburn demonstrated a bend but don’t break defense on Saturday that came up big when it mattered. The Tiger defense finished the game with five sacks, an interception, a forced fumble and an average of 3.1 yards allowed per carry. Further, Auburn was excellent when in the shadows of their own endzone. Stidham had a solid game passing the football, but overall the offense looked sluggish at times, especially running the football. The Tigers will need to clean things up before their showdown with LSU in a couple of weeks.
To the victor go the spoils…Leather helmet and all. Image from Capital Journal.
Florida: I know it was Charleston Southern, but didn’t it feel different? A Jim McElwain team might have won 31-10. But this Dan Mullen-led team went out there and completely dominated. The final score was 53-6, but what was even more impressive was how they did it. They threw the ball well, they ran the ball with conviction, they rushed the passer, they forced an interception, they punted the ball well, they made three field goals. And they did it while having fun. Watch out y’all, we will see after Week 2 with more of a challenger in Kentucky, but the Gators are on track to shake things up again in the SEC.
Dan Mullen is already working his QB magic with Fleipe Franks. Image from Gator Sports.
Georgia: The Dawgs dominated one of the worst teams in the FCS, Austin Peay. They looked impressive, but we will know more about this team after a road trip to Williams-Brice Stadium next Saturday.
Kentucky: Despite it being a somewhat close win against Central Michigan, I thought this was actually a solid performance by the Wildcats. I was very impressed by their play on the line of scrimmage. Kentucky rushed for close to 300 yards and averaged 7 yards per carry. Even more impressive is this defensive line found a way to limit Central Michigan to a mere 3 yards per carry. Does that translate to play in the SEC? We will see, but I loved seeing both the offensive line asserting their will against an inferior opponent and the defensive line playing with some speed and attitude against one of the better rushing attacks in the MAC. One area of concern is still the offensive production outside of Benny Snell, Asim Rose, Sihiem King, and Co. Terry Wilson started out horrifically only to be benched for Gunnar Hoak who performed well. Lynn Bowden played pedestrian at best. He needs to step up.
Benny Snell Jr. dominated as expected. Image from Courier-Journal.
LSU: This was the statement win of the week. May not have been as important as Auburn’s win, but it was a statement win in that LSU was labeled a mediocre team on the decline. Some pundits even argued that LSU might finish the season with a losing record? What kind of garbage is that? Further, it felt like every pundit that gets paid to spout off about college football thought Miami would beat LSU. I never in a million years thought that was going to happen. Why? Because there are three types of speed, in my opinion. There is regular college football speed, there is SEC speed, and then there is LSU speed. LSU speed suffocates opponents on the biggest of stages. The nation and Miami witnessed that on ABC last night. The Bayou Bengals might have also found a quarterback, which is good news heading into the murderous schedule LSU faces this season. Will LSU win the SEC this year? No, but giving the Tigers a Preseason Ranking of 25th was a spit in the eye to a team (and coach) that deserves much more respect.
LSU’s defense abused Miami in Arlington, TX. Image from NBC.
Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M: I’m going to lump all of these teams together because while we didn’t really learn much about any of these teams, they all did a good job of handling business against inferior opponents. Unlike Georgia, it was not a foregone conclusion that these four teams were just going to spank their opponents like they stole something. Questions still need to be answered – like is South Carolina’s defensive line going to step up against Georgia, because the defensive line (and the defense overall) did not look good at times against Coastal – but overall this was a solid Week 1 for these four programs.
Ole Miss: Defense played better than I expected. Against a Big 12 offense, the Rebels stopped Texas Tech on fourth down three times, bent but didn’t break in run defense, and survived an aerial onslaught (Texas Tech passed the ball 56 times). The offense played magnificently. Ole Miss passed for more yards on fewer attempts than Texas Tech and averaged 7.5 yards per carry rushing the football. And overall, just using the ole “eyeball test,” the Rebels just looked like a better football team than Texas Tech. They looked faster and more physical. I want to see Ole Miss against SEC competition before I start making final judgements, but Week 1 went about as well as it could’ve for the Rebels.
Matt Luke and Co. enjoy their win over Texas Tech. Image from USA Today.
Tennessee: We knew this was going to be a long season for the Volunteers, but there are some positives that can be taken out of this game, as well. First of all, it looked like they gave a rip, which was something that was not as prevalent last season, and they played a lot more physical than last year. Shy Tuttle had a great game at defensive tackle. Tim Jordan showed some toughness rushing the football when Ty Chandler went down early in the first half. And Jared Guarantano played efficiently at quarterback. Tennessee can build on this, and effectively recruit off of this game, as well.
Jarrett Guarantano settled down after a rocky start. Image from Knoxville News Sentinel.
Well-written, Chris. That’s all I care about. And USC popping into the AP Top 25 today.