News And Views: SEC, Week One

 Send This Story To A Friend

Each Monday of the regular season we’ll provide a quick wrap of news and views following the previous weekend’s SEC action.  Here’s the first edition:


The Scores

Alabama 48, San Jose State 3
Arkansas 44, Tennessee Tech 3
Auburn 52, Arkansas State 26
Florida 34, Miami (Oh) 12
Georgia 55, Louisiana-Lafayette 7
Kentucky 23, Louisville 16
LSU 30, North Carolina 24
Mississippi State 49, Memphis 7
South Carolina 41, Southern Miss 13 (Thursday)
Tennessee 50, UT-Martin 0
Jacksonville State 49, Ole Miss 48
Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 21


The SEC Hot List

1.  Alabama
2.  Georgia
3.  Florida
4.  South Carolina
5.  Arkansas
6.  LSU
7.  Auburn
8.  Kentucky
9.  Tennessee
10.  Mississippi State
11.  Ole Miss
12.  Vanderbilt


Rising And Falling

1.  Arkansas receiver Joe Adams — rising
2.  Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton — rising
3.  Florida’s makeshift offensive line — falling
4.  LSU multi-threat weapon Russell Shepard — rising
5.  Ole Miss’ defense — falling
6.  Mississippi State quarterback Tyler Russell — rising


The Views

* It was expected that Alabama would be a bit more explosive on offense in 2010 while the new defense jelled.  Explosive and wide open were certainly the keywords coming out of Saturday’s game with San Jose State.  Bama ran a little Wildcat, a little Pistol, and Jim McElwain had Greg McElroy throwing the ball deep (with long TD passes to Marquiz Maze and Julio Jones).  As we’ll say with most of these opening day opponents — it was only San Jose State.  But Bama fans have reason to believe the offense really will be more dynamic in 2010. 

* The big story in Fayetteville: 3 points.  I don’t care about the offensive numbers at Arkansas.  The Hogs will score points a plenty this year (44 versus Tennessee Tech) and Ryan Mallett proved last year that he can dissect non-conference foes (21 of 24 for 301 yards, 3 touchdowns and a pick on Saturday).  So that wasn’t the story.  The story was the defense.  The Razorbacks’ D allowed just 187 yards of offense to TTU and that’s a massive improvement over last year.  Whether they were playing Tennessee Tech or Johnson’s Barber College, Arkansas’ defense needed to show some signs of strengthening.  It did.

* Cameron Newton came up big in his debut for Auburn.  Try 171 yards rushing and 186 yards passing against Arkansas State big.  For the first time in three years, AU fans will see an actual dual threat quarterback leading their team’s spread offense.  How good was Newton?  Here’s what Arkansas State’s coach said after the game: “I don’t know if I have seen an individual performance better than Cam Newton’s.  He is the best player I have ever seen live.”  (On the downside, Auburn’s defense gave up 323 passing yards.  Not a good sign.)

* Doing radio shows in the state of Florida, I picked up over the summer a feeling in the Sunshine State that the Gators might actually be better this year without Tim Tebow.  The theory seemed to go like this: “Now the Gators can be a team and not just a one-star squad.”  Well I bet UF fans wish they’d had Superman on Saturday.  The offensive line play (and botched snaps) should improve when three offensive line return to the lineup.  But there ARE real issues in Gainesville.  I’m a “believe it when I see it” kind of guy and when it comes to running backs and receivers these last two years, I haven’t seen it.  One long Jeff Demps run might be enough to subdue Miami of Ohio, but it’ll likely take a little more ground production than that to win in the SEC.

* It was only Louisiana-Lafayette (told ya we’d say that a bunch), but Aaron Murray looked confident and steady as UGA’s new starting quarterback.  With so little depth behind them, though, he’ll want to go easy on the rushing attempts (4 carries, 21 yards, 1 TD).  Georgia fans can also be happy with the fact the Dawgs turned the ball over only once.  That’s an improvement over last year.  (We’ll learn a lot more about their rebuilt defense next week.)

* Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb will need to carry Kentucky this year.  Their big plays led the way for the Cats to get past Louisville on Saturday.  No surprise there.  But if Mike Hartline can continue to play safe, smart and solid football (17 of 26, 217 yards, 0 TD and 0 interceptions), UK could jump up and bite someone they’re not supposed to in 2010.

* If Les Miles fails at LSU, he will officially be Gilligan.  Both are extremely lucky.  Sure Gilligan was trapped on an island, but just how many chances did he have to successfully escape?  Everyone from actors to surfers to cosmonauts landed on that island.  That’s luck, even if he wasted it.  Well Miles lucked into a terrific gig left to him by Nick Saban, saw a number of longshot gambles pay off in 2007, and was even lucky enough to be voted into the BCS title game with two losses.  On Saturday he was lucky again.  Facing a make-or-break season, Miles’ Tigers got to kick off the season against a depleted North Carolina squad that was missing more bodies than the graveyards around Frankenstein’s castle.  The result: a nailbiter of a 30-24 win.  Anyone want to suggest Carolina would NOT have won that game had they been at full strength?  Miles is lucky alright.  And he’ll need to take advantage of it this year… or else he’ll have blown as many lucky breaks as Gilligan.  (Sidenote — both are known for their oversized hats, too.)

* What happened to Ole Miss’ defense?  Houston Nutt called the Rebels’ loss to Jacksonville State the worst of his career.  No doubt.  But no one in Oxford should be too surprised.  Nutt is a fine coach.  He puts together two or three good seasons (never great, but good) and then falls back to the five- or six-win plateau for a year or two.  Then he’ll put up some more eight- or nine-win years before dropping off again.  Rinse, repeat.  It’s a pattern.  Ole Miss fans should have known what they were getting when they hired him.  You can bet Arkansas fans did.  Good coach, not great, with very days sprinkled in on occasion. 

* Right now, Mississippi State fans have to feel better about their program’s direction than Ole Miss fans.  Dan Mullen has created excitement in Starkville.  He’s cocky (perhaps a little too cocky at times) and he’s improved MSU’s recruiting.  The Bulldogs whipped a better Ole Miss squad in last year’s Egg Bowl.  They opened this season by taking care of business with Memphis and they appear to have found a quarterback in Tyler Russell (13 of 16, 256 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 picks).  It’s early and a lot of things can change, but it’s hard not to take the big picture view that State’s program is on the rise while Ole Miss is headed for one of Nutt’s patented dips.

* We covered South Carolina’s impressive debut on Friday.  No need to rehash it here.  Suffice to say we’ll be tuned in when Carolina and Georgia kick things off on Saturday.  If Florida can’t get things together, the Cocks and Dawgs could be playing for a trip to Atlanta.

* Tennessee whipped up on a completely undermanned UT-Martin squad Saturday night.  The 50-0 win will no doubt convince some followers that the Vols won’t be as hampered by depth issues (72 scholarship players) as folks in the media have been saying.  We’ll know more this time next week after Derek Dooley’s Vols have hosted Oregon.  (The Ducks rolled New Mexico 72-0 on Saturday.)  While it’s way too soon to jump on UT’s bandwagon, the Vols deserve credit for the following: When a boxer schedules a bout with a tomato can, he’s supposed to knock him out.  The Vols knocked out the tomato can known as UT-Martin.

* Surprise: Vanderbilt put up 432 yards of total offense.  Surprise: Quarterback Larry Smith completed 19 of 33 passes for 240 yards.  Compared to last year, those are Manning/Brady/Brees-type numbers for Vandy’s quarterback and offense.  But unbelievably… it didn’t matter.  The kicking game killed the Commodores.  VU missed an extra point, a field goal (albeit a long one) and a pair of two-point conversions (necessitated by the missed extra point).  And that why is Vandy remains Vandy.  Kudos to Robbie Caldwell, however, for finding some offense.


Final Thought

Don’t write off Florida just yet.  The Gators do have problems (as we mentioned earlier), but they also have way too much talent on their roster to not be battling for the SEC East title when they face Georgia in Jacksonville later this fall.