Taking a look back at the top SEC story lines of the past weekend …
What did we learn from the fourth weekend of SEC football?
First, we learned — or at least confirmed — that Arkansas is in big trouble. A season that was already teetering on the edge just got a little worse. Tyler Wilson came back and the Razorbacks still could not post a victory, losing to Rutgers, of all people. Actually, Rutgers is a pretty good football team having opened the season at 4-0.
Arkansas needs a redo for the past six months. There was a time when the Razorbacks where considered a contender for SEC and national honors, had two legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates and Bobby Petrino was still considered worthy of leading young men.
Now all of that is gone. With Texas A&M and Auburn up next on the road before the Razorbacks get another home game against Kentucky on Oct. 13, it could be a long stretch between wins for John L. Smith’s team. …
We also learned that Alabama would be scored on again this season. After 192 minutes and 25 seconds of shutout ball, Florida Atlantic scored on the Crimson Tide defense, the first points Alabama had given up since the third quarter of the season opener against Michigan. …
Now, in conference games it’s hard to figure out what LSU’s 12-10 win at Auburn Saturday night meant for each team. LSU was journeying away from home for the first time and while they did win, they were not all that impressive in doing so. The Tigers famed running game was bottled up by a stout defensive effort by Auburn. Is that bad news for LSU or good news for Auburn?
Auburn was one muffed punt away from the biggest upset in the conference to date, and that should give Auburn fans some hope after a disappointing 1-3 start to the season.
When asked after the game if the defense was the heart of this team, Auburn coach Gene Chizik said, “I won’t just say our defensive heart; I am going to say the heart of our football team period. Again, I am very proud of the defensive strides we made. Do we have a long way to go? Absolutely.”
Les Miles was also pragmatic in his view of the situation. “First of all,” he said, “anytime you come down to Auburn and you get a victory on the road, it’s a great win.”
What the 12-10 LSU win should say is that LSU is still a fierce contender for SEC and national honors, but the Tigers are going to have a few more battles on their hands than at first thought. It also says that Auburn quarterback Kiehl Frazier is getting his feet on the ground, and the Auburn defense still has some steel in its backbone. …
Florida beat Kentucky, which is an annual event for the Gators. Since that’s 26 times in a row, we didn’t take anything new away from the beating in The Swamp. We did see Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel take another step in his maturation as an SEC quarterback, but it was the Gators’ defense that got most of the attention from the 38-0 victory. It was Florida’s first shutout of an SEC team in 11 years.
“Anytime you get a shutout, now, those things are hard to come by in this day and age of football, regardless of who you’re playing,” Florida coach Will Muschamp said. “I’m proud of the players for that.”
The Gators had three interceptions and held Kentucky to 219 yards of total offense.
“Well, we’re a better team. You guys see it. We are a more physical team on both lines of scrimmage,” Muschamp said. “We’re tied together better as far as what we are and what we want to be, because we’re better on both lines of scrimmage. I think we’re deeper. I think we’re more mature. I think we handle things a lot better. We’re a year older. We’re more experienced. I think all those things factor in when you are dealing with young people.”
Florida has been 12-0 over the past three years in the month of September, but the rest of the season has been problematic for the Gators, who are 7-11 over the past two years after September.
“Last October was rough,” Driskel said. “We don’t really like to mention that around here.”
We also learned that maybe that preseason hype about the Georgia Bulldogs and South Carolina Gamecocks was justified.
“We played with our blood a little hot, which was good,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said after the Bulldogs drubbed Vanderbilt 48-3. “They got after it every snap and they played hard. I’m really proud of everyone. We talked about how this is the first game of seven in a row (in the conference) and how important it is to win every single one of them to get where we want to go. But you have to take them one at a time.”
“We wanted to make sure that we closed out the game strong,” Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones said. “[Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham] called a great game. On the field, we communicated and executed well and had fun. It’s a great feeling.
“I thought that we played well on all three sides of the ball and when we do that I think people can see how good we can be. If we keep preparing, executing and having fun, we’re going to continue to win games.” …
South Carolina got a record-setting performance from quarterback Connor Shaw, and I’m not just talking about him making it through the whole game without getting hurt again. He completed 20 consecutive passes at one point and threw for 249 yards and two scores as South Carolina beat Missouri 31-10. The 20 consecutive completions tied Kent Austin of Ole Miss in 1982 for the second longest streak in SEC history, which came as a surprise to Shaw.
“I wasn’t aware until they told me after the game,” he said. “Of course I had a lot of guys around that helped a lot with that. My offensive line played great and our receivers caught great passes and made yards after catches as well.”
With the Saturday showings by Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, we may be forced to re-evaluate the strength of the SEC East. Perhaps the distance between the East and West is not as great as it has been the past couple of years.