Taking a look back at the top SEC story lines of the past weekend …
Arkansas’ loss to Louisiana-Monroe was an embarrassment for the Razorbacks and the Southeastern Conference, especially considering that the Hogs blew a 28-7 second half lead before losing in overtime. On the plus side for Arkansas, the Razorbacks have made eight trips into the red zone this season and have scored a touchdown every time.
The Razorbacks were hard hit by injuries against ULM. Quarterback Tyler Wilson, cornerback Tevin Mitchel and running back Kody Walker were all knocked out of the game.
Wilson had a head injury and is listed as day-to-day. Mitchel had an above the shoulders injury and is doubtful for Saturday’s game. Walker had a leg injury and will likely miss the rest of the season. …
The Texas A&M Aggies brought a lot of football tradition to the SEC. Unfortunately for the Aggies one of those traditions was blowing double-digit leads only to lose the game. Despite having a new coaching staff and playing in a new league, the Aggies blew a 10-point second quarter lead only to lose to Florida, 20-17.
You can’t blame linebacker Jonathan Stewart or and defensive end Damontre Moore for the loss. The pair combined for 27 tackles and three-and-a-half sacks against the Gators, but that didn’t take the sting out of blowing another double-digit lead.
“It’s something we addressed,” new Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin. “It’s the elephant in the room.”
For Texas A&M, it is still there.
The Aggies, who led the NCAA in sacks last year, had eight sacks for losses of 48 yards against the Gators. …
While Texas A&M lost a heartbreaker, it was a satisfying win for Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel, who was named the starter the middle of last week. Although he was shaky against the Aggies, he finished 13-of-16 for 162 yards and led Florida’s fourth-quarter drive of 66 yards on 15 plays for the winning touchdown.
Florida coach Will Muschamp said he was not surprised that Driskel brought home a win in his first career start.
“They asked me what I learned about Jeff Driskel,” Muschamp said. “Nothing. I knew going in he was a tough guy. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. I mean that as a big compliment.” …
In Alabama’s 35-0 win over Western Kentucky, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who has never been considered a dangerous passing threat, tossed four touchdown passes and ran his season total to six TDs without an interception.
Alabama coach Nick Saban was not pleased with the overall passing game even though McCarron was on the money all day.
“We need to do a better job in the passing game,” said Saban. “AJ is a guy that is very capable of making a lot of good plays, a lot of good throws. We had a couple of drops today; not perfect passes, but passes that should be caught. We just need to get in sync in terms of what we are doing in the passing game.” …
Mississippi State’s win over Auburn was coach Dan Mullen’s first SEC West victory against any team not named Ole Miss. The totality of Mississippi State’s dominance was a surprise after Auburn played relatively well in its season-opening loss to Clemson. The win was Mullen’s 23rd as the Bulldogs coach in three seasons plus two games. Those 23 wins put him fifth on the career coaching list.
“I loved the leadership of our guys; they kept it together and had great poise,” said Mullen. “When I told them to make big plays they did; that was a big difference for us. Our defense was stout all day long; they only gave up three points after an offensive turnover. They created turnovers, which was obviously a huge factor in the game.
“As of right this second we are first place in the SEC West. I don’t know if that has happened in quite a while at Mississippi State. We’ve talked since I’ve been here that we were going to compete for SEC Championships, and I’ve talked about the road we have to take to do that. You have to win your home games. You have to win your conference opener and both of those happened for us today,” he said.
Auburn did not score an offensive touchdown and haven’t had one in the past seven quarters. The Tigers’ only touchdown against State came when Onterio McCalebb returned the opening second half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. That means in two games the Auburn offense has scored just one touchdown (a 54-yard Kiehl Frazier to Emory Blake scoring strike in the first quarter of the season opener) while settling for five Cody Parkey field goals.
It would be easy to blame Auburn quarterback Kiehl Frazier, who finished 13-of-22 passing for 125 yards and three interceptions, for the Tigers’ offensive woes, but Auburn coach Gene Chizik refused to point the finger at his sophomore quarterback.
“I don’t think it is just one player,” Chizik said. “Sometimes it is protection; sometimes it is missing an open receiver. Other than that last drive, we struggled all day in the passing game. Everybody wants to bring up Kiehl Frazier, but there are 10 other guys out there with him.”
Auburn returned to the practice field on Sunday and didn’t show any carryover from the State loss.
“Our guys came in today ready to work,” said Chizik. “They know they need to play better and we need to coach better. There’s an urgency to improve, and a lot of things execution-wise that we need to improve.” …
Kent State ran an incredible 80 plays in the Kentucky loss over the weekend, a fact that was not lost on Wildcats coach Joker Phillips.
“We can’t allow people to have 80 plays,” said Phillips, who did find something positive about his defense. “You know, we did get lined up. A lot better at getting lined up.” …
LSU’s defense was dominant against Washington of the Pac-12 over the weekend. The Tigers hit Washington with four sacks and held the Huskies to an average of 1.08 yards per rush. The Tigers also put 41 points on the scoreboard. …
Ole Miss has scored 77 points in its first two games of the Hugh Freeze era, which are the most points the Rebels have had in their first two games of a coaches’ debut season since Billy Kinard’s 1979 team scored 78 points in Kinard’s first two games. …
Missouri’s T.J. Moe finished the Georgia game with 45 yards receiving on six catches to move into ninth place in school history for career receiving yards. Moe now has 1,773 career receiving yards. Moe has 157 career receptions, which is sixth all-time. …
Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray had a big day against Georgia State. He was 18 of 20 for 310 yards and four touchdowns. At one point in the first half, Bray completed 13 consecutive passes. The 13 straight completions ties Bray for third all-time at Tennessee, a mark he now shares with Casey Clausen and Jeff Francis, who served as the color commentator for the Vols pay-per-view broadcast of the game.
The Vols had 558 yards of total offense against Georgia State to go with the 524 yards against NC State. The back-to-back 500-plus yard games marked the first time Tennessee achieved that feat since 2000, when they did it against Arkansas and Kentucky.