SEC Football Week Three: The Rundown

Week three in the SEC saw the beginning of the end for two head coaches in the league, in my opinion, as well as turning up the heat on two other coaches who need to find a way to win quickly.  In other SEC towns, quarterback controversies heat up in both Columbia, SC and Columbia, MO, and the top tier of the conference is starting to show a little bit of separation.  Let's start the rundown.

1. Renewed Excitement, Same Old Result
    Back in July, CBS made what seemed to be a good decision at the time, opting for the Alabama-Arkansas game to kick off the SEC on CBS 2012 season over Florida-Tennessee.  By the time Louisiana-Monroe had pulled off the Arkansas upset in overtime last week and ESPN chose Knoxville for their Gameday location, I'm sure the CBS team was kicking themselves.  The Gators and the Volunteers both came into the game undefeated, and given Florida's recent offensive woes, it looked like the best opportunity for Tennessee to break their seven-year losing skid at home with a healthy Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter and newcomer Cordarrelle Patterson.
    At the end of the day, however, it was Florida standing tall in a 37-20 victory that saw the Gators outscore the Vols 27-6 in the second half.  Florida has now won two weeks in a row on the road with come-from-behind heroics and look to be a serious contender for the SEC East title.  The Gators have five of their remaining six conference games coming at the Swamp (only Vanderbilt is a road game).  Meanwhile, after Akron next week, Tennessee will face four straight ranked opponents, with only one home game (versus #1 Alabama) in that stretch.  Derek Dooley's future at Tennessee may be on the line this season, and he still doesn't have a signature win.  If he doesn't pull at least one of these off, I'd suggest it's time to start looking for a real estate agent.

2. Fear the Sun Belt!
    Before the 2012 season, there had been 94 matchups featuring an SEC team and a Sun Belt Conference opponent.  The Sun Belt team had actually won four of those games - a nearly 96% failure rate.  Through week three, however, Louisiana-Monroe took both Arkansas and Auburn to overtime, winning against the former and losing to the latter and Western Kentucky edged Kentucky (32-31) in overtime as well.  In addition, Mississippi State actually traveled to Troy(!) and struggled to pull out a 30-24 victory.  Is the most hated and feared football conference in America in danger of being overtaken by the lowly Sun Belt?
    Well, no, but it does speak to the embarrassment of riches that is football talent in the South that the best teams in the Sun Belt can compete with (and sometimes beat) the weaker teams in the SEC.  Unfortunately, SEC fanbases don't see it that way, and Western Kentucky's narrow defeat has probably sealed the fate of Kentucky coach Joker Phillips, who is 12-15 since taking over the helm at Lexington.  Auburn coach Gene Chizik, on the other hand, staved off any serious discussions about his job for at least one more week.  We'll see how they look after LSU next Saturday.

3. Southern Barbecue
    Poor, poor Arkansas.  The preseason expectations that Hog fans had for their team were probably unrealistic even before Bobby Petrino took his ride into infamy, but my, how the mighty have fallen.  While last week's debacle began to reveal the cracks in the facade, Alabama came into Fayetteville and absolutely crushed the Razorbacks.  By the end of the game the third, fourth and fifth string players for the Tide were not only scoring almost at will, but were preserving the 52-0 shutout, the worst for Arkansas since the 1960s, and Alabama's biggest SEC shutout since 1948.  With John L. Smith's lame duck coaching staff, a quarterback who is calling out his own team in a game in which he didn't take a snap, and a sorely disappointed and disgusted fanbase, things at Arkansas are looking grim.  If the Razorbacks don't right the ship next week at home against 3-0 Rutgers, it's going to be a long season.

4. Quarterback Controversies?
    It's a old saw that players shouldn't lose a starting position due to injury, and granted, James Franklin (Missouri) and Connor Shaw (South Carolina) won the starting quarterback jobs at their respective schools back in 2011.  However, once a starter, especially a QB, gets hurt, he is a target.  Shaw was hurt before playing Vanderbilt in week one, and has actually played fewer minutes so far than his backup Dylan Thompson.  Franklin's shoulder is hurt, and with South Carolina up next, it isn't clear how badly.  Meanwhile, Austyn Carta-Samuels (Vanderbilt) got his first start against Presbyterian in Saturday's blowout and Jordan Rodgers never even took the field.  Is Rodgers hurt?  Was he benched?  Vandy coach James Franklin (no relation to the Mizzou QB) wouldn't say who might start against Georgia next week.  With the pressure that today's coaches have to win early and often to keep their jobs, it's no wonder that the security of a starting quarterback position is tenuous.

5. The Good

(1) Alabama (won 52-0 at Arkansas)

The Crimson Tide has outscored its opponents 134-14 in the first three weeks of the season, and none of the games have been competitive by halftime. It may be mid-October before this team is really tested.

(3) LSU (won 63-14 over Idaho at home)

With USC's loss, the Tigers rose to #2 in both polls, but the Tigers haven't really been tested either.  Don't expect Auburn to provide one on Saturday.

(6) Georgia (won 56-20 over Florida Atlantic at home)

The Bulldogs amassed a school-record 713 yards of offense in a game that wasn't as close as the score might indicate.

(8) South Carolina (won 49-6 over UAB at home)

More significant than the win is that Connor Shaw left the game injured after a savage hit and did not return.  Can Thompson lead the Gamecocks to a win over Mizzou Saturday?

Missouri (won 24-20 over Arizona State at home)

Despite the fact that Missouri gave the Sun Devils ample opportunity to take the game away, the fact is that they won a non-conference game against a team they lost to in 2011, they recovered from last week's loss to Georgia, and they did it with a backup quarterback.  Not too shabby.

Texas A&M (won 48-3 over SMU at home)

The Aggies rolled up over 600 yards of offense in a romp.

6. The Bad

Kentucky (lost 32-31 to Western Kentucky at home in overtime)

They supposed to be SEC?

Ole Miss (lost 66-31 to (17) Texas at home)

While the Rebels were clearly over-matched by the Longhorns, this wasn't actually as bad as I expected it to be.  At least Ole Miss didn't give up, like some SEC West teams I know...

7. The Ugly

Auburn (won 31-28 over Louisiana-Monroe at home in overtime)

Mississippi State (won 30-24 at Troy)

Sure, both Auburn and Mississippi State got wins against their Sun Belt opponents, but is that really something to be proud of?  At least Dan Mullen didn't call it a great win.

8. Games to Watch in Week Four

Missouri at (7) South Carolina

Mizzou hits the road in the SEC for the first time.  I think South Carolina is a better team, but if Connor Shaw can't play, it may be close.  I still favor the Gamecocks.

(2) LSU at Auburn

Remember when this was a marquee game?  Now I just want to see if LSU can break 100.

Rutgers at Arkansas

The Razorbacks need to win and win convincingly.  Not sure if that is going to happen.

Vanderbilt at (5) Georgia

Yeah, the Week Four slate is pretty bad.