CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah joined the show to discuss the weird developments on the College Football Playoff, the coaching carousel and Texas Tech’s rise.

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

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The post SDS Podcast: Can Oklahoma and Vandy keep CFP hopes alive? Shehan Jeyarajah on coaching carousel & Texas Tech appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Steve Sarkisian would like you, me and Joe Blow to know that everything is fine with him at Texas and he’s not going anywhere. The Year 5 Longhorns coach made that point emphatically on the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday, wherein he addressed outside speculation about his future … unprompted:

Here was the full quote:

Sure, that’s fine.

That could’ve stemmed from what came out before the game at Mississippi State when Sarkisian’s name was at the center of a report from The Athletic’s Diana Russini that his representatives, “have let NFL decision-makers know that he’d be interested in potential head coaching openings, including the Titans’.”

There’s some careful wording in there that certainly makes it safe for Sarkisian to offer up an emphatic denial that he’s got 1 foot out the door. Whether he waited to address that until Texas suffered loss No. 3 and saw it’s name next to the No. 17 spot in the Playoff Poll heading into the penultimate weekend of the regular season, well, that’s in the eye of the beholder.

It’s also apparently in the eye of the beholder whether or not Texas has underachieved this year. As in, the program who earned its first preseason AP No. 1 ranking in its rich history.

Ask Sarkisian about that, and he’ll remind you that “underachieving” is a subjective term.

If Sarkisian had just cut off that first part of his response to longtime Texas columnist Kirk Bohls, that response doesn’t get all of that social media engagement. If everything is fine, why is it so hard for Sarkisian to just say “I’m proud of how we handled adversity, but we haven’t achieved our goals this season.” Forget the preseason ranking. Truth serum Sarkisian would never tell you that 7-3 is an acceptable place to be for a program who has been to consecutive semifinals. Do you think Sarkisian has approached his team after these 3 losses and told his team, “you guys met my expectations today.” No chance.

But instead, that reasonable question was turned into an icy exchange by Sarkisian. Why? Nobody expects Sarkisian to pretend that everything is fine.

Sarkisian presented that front repeatedly when asked about Arch Manning this season. The “I’ve never filmed any of you guys when you’re using the bathroom” response to early-season speculation about Manning wincing after throws was weird, and if you’ve observed Sarkisian in a local media setting, it’s been noticeably weird how little insight he provides on Manning.

“Dismissive” might be the best word to describe Sarkisian’s 2025. After that Florida loss, Sarkisian seemed to dismiss the idea that Texas’s Playoff chances were in significant danger even though it was a 2-loss team heading into the midway point of the season. With 3 losses, Sarkisian dismissed the idea that his team has underachieved.

Speaking of getting to 3 losses, Sarkisian apparently has some strong thoughts about that dreaded total.

As Lane Kiffin said on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, he, Kirby Smart and Sarkisian have a group text, wherein they discuss things like what a loss means. Here was the index that they came up with after watching Brian Kelly get fired at LSU, according to Kiffin:

One small, tiny issue with that.

Smart is the coach of a 1-loss team who is very much in the top 10, as is Kiffin. In fact, all but 2 (No. 11 BYU and No. 16 Georgia Tech) of the remaining 1-loss teams are in the top 10.

Another small, tiny issue with that is Sarkisian is coaching a 3-loss team who is ranked No. 17. According to their own index, not only does that mean the Longhorns are out of the top 25 — every 2-loss Power Conference team is currently inside the top 25 of the Playoff Poll — but it means that Sarkisian should be fired.

Mind you, Sarkisian’s squad lost 3 games last year. So did Smart’s and Kiffin’s. Not only are all of them are still employed, but they’re all on 8-figure contracts.

(OK, Kiffin technically isn’t there yet. He’s only making $9 million annually, but if he’s not making $10 million annually after all of this drama for his services, knock me over with a feather.)

In fact, Sarkisian got both a raise and an extension after a 3-loss season in 2024. It made him one of the 5 highest-paid coaches in the sport.

Everything should be fine in Austin, even in the likely event that Texas ends its season playing in the Citrus Bowl instead of another College Football Playoff. After all, Texas was the only program in America who entered 2025 having reached the semifinal in consecutive years. Hence, why it earned that preseason No. 1 ranking. It’s also why it earned the right to say that 3 regular-season losses isn’t fine. Whether he admits it or not, Sarkisian has felt a bit off all year.

According to who, you ask? You, me and Joe Blow.

The post For a coach who says everything is fine, Steve Sarkisian is giving off some weird vibes appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Kiffin is about to upset 2 SEC fanbases.

Well, we’re assuming Kiffin doesn’t go rogue and take the Penn State job, or decide that he’s taking his talents to the moon (I hear the boosters are even crazier there than the ones we’ve got on earth). In the likely event that Kiffin can’t coach at Florida, LSU and Ole Miss, at least 2 SEC fanbases are about to get their hearts broken. And hey, let’s throw Auburn in there for fun. After all, that’s the job that Kiffin nearly took until his daughter, Landry, put together the sentimental slideshow that changed history.

Ultimately, someone will come up short in their pitch of Kiffin, who reportedly has until the Egg Bowl on Nov. 28 to decide if he’s staying at Ole Miss (he’s since denied that he is on a deadline). They’ll be wondering how he turned down their ideal situation where he could’ve been a legend. Apply that jaded sentiment to any of those aforementioned SEC teams.

But as Kiffin steers directly into a recruitment unlike any in recent memory, I thought I’d help with the inevitable coping that’ll be needed to stomach such a loss.

These 5 anti-Kiffin stats will help with that:

1. Kiffin has 1 true road win vs. a Power Conference AP Top 25 team since the SEC expanded to 14 teams

That’s right. I said 14 teams, not 16. Since the start of 2012, Kiffin’s lone true road win vs. a Power Conference AP Top 25 team came a few weeks ago at No. 13 Oklahoma. Yes, he also beat a ranked Tulane team on the road in Sept. 2023, though that was with the Green Wave playing a backup quarterback. In the last 14 seasons (including this one), Kiffin is 2-12 vs. AP Top 25 teams in true road games.

In that stretch, Billy Napier was 1-14 in those matchups as an FBS head coach, and Sam Pittman was 1-13. That’s extremely similar to Kiffin, though with a different price tag. Just for a little perspective, even Steve Sarkisian is 7-10 in those spots since 2012, and Josh Heupel, who always gets reminded about his road issues, is 4-8 in those spots. Shoot, even Kalen DeBoer is 8-2 lifetime vs. AP Top 25 teams in true road games.

If you’re getting paid 8 figures on an annual basis like Kiffin figures to with this inevitable new contract that he’ll sign — he’s currently making $9 million annually — your legacy is defined by whether you can win those types of games. There are 25 active FBS coaches with at least 3 wins vs. AP Top 25 teams in true road games, and Kiffin isn’t one of them.

That’ll be a major trend for him to flip wherever he coaches in 2026.

2. Kiffin has never started and finished as an AP Top 10 team

Two times, Kiffin led a team that started in the top 10. The 2012 USC squad infamously went from preseason No. 1 to falling to 7-6 after a loss in the Sun Bowl, while the 2024 Ole Miss squad started No. 6 and posted top-3 finishes in scoring offense and scoring defense, but lost 3 games by a combined 13 points and missed the 12-team Playoff.

Kiffin had 3 teams start as top-15 teams, and they went a combined 25-14 with 2 unranked finishes. Sure, 2 of those were at USC, who had more roster limitations post-NCAA sanctions than the casual fan (or even USC decision makers) might care to acknowledge, but this is perhaps the most important question to ask if and when Kiffin makes his decision for 2026.

How will he handle massive expectations?

That’s what’ll follow him wherever he goes. To this point in his career, he’s been better at exceeding a low bar than meeting a high one, which is perhaps why he’s been such a godsend at Ole Miss, where he became the first coach in program history to deliver 3 consecutive 10-win seasons. He’s got 4 such seasons in Oxford, and 3 of them were with teams who didn’t even start in the top 20 of the AP Poll.

Kirby Smart has 7 consecutive seasons of starting and finishing as an AP Top 10 team, while Ryan Day has done that 6 times (he’ll make it 7 this year). Dabo Swinney did it 6 times at Clemson, and fellow top-dollar coaches like Dan Lanning, Marcus Freeman and Sarkisian have each done it once. It’s the type of thing that next-tier coaches like Mario Cristobal and Heupel haven’t quite been able to do yet. Brian Kelly couldn’t do it at LSU, which is ultimately why that job is vacant. Sometimes, that’s still not enough. James Franklin has done it twice, and he got the boot.

Kiffin’s ability (or inability) to do this will define the next chapter of his career.

3. In 14 seasons as a head coach, Jaxson Dart leads Kiffin-produced quarterbacks with 17 career NFL touchdowns

Also of note, Dart is a rookie who wasn’t QB1 to start the season, and he’s also injured. It took less than half a season for Dart to best previous NFL touchdowns leader among Kiffin-produced quarterbacks, Matt Barkley, who had 12 career scores as a journeyman backup. In other words, Dart is already the best NFL QB that Kiffin produced in 14 years as a head coach.

What does it matter if Kiffin just cranks out elite offenses, you ask? It’s a fair question. After all, if Kiffin can take a Division II transfer like Trinidad Chambliss and turn him into a Heisman Trophy candidate, who cares if he isn’t lining up NFL quarterbacks like Lincoln Riley? Plus, if Dart succeeds in the NFL, doesn’t that push back against the notion that Kiffin’s scheme is too college-centric for a quarterback to make that transition at the next level?

Yep, that’s totally fair. But ask yourself this — wouldn’t Kiffin be more attractive to decorated high school and portal quarterbacks if there wasn’t any discourse about that?

Kiffin’s last 5-star quarterback he signed was Max Browne in 2013. He inherited Matt Corral and he signed Dart from USC out of the portal after he flashed as a true freshman, albeit for a Trojans squad who had a lame duck coaching staff. At Ole Miss, Kiffin hasn’t really both signed and developed a high school quarterback recruit. Once, that was supposed to be Marcel Reed, then he flipped to Texas A&M just before National Signing Day in 2023. Then, it was supposed to be Austin Simmons, but when he got his shot earlier this season as a redshirt sophomore, multiple first-quarter interceptions in his first 2 starts and an ankle injury opened the door for Chambliss.

Again, Kiffin’s quarterbacks all produce. That’s not the knock. The knock is that he can’t really sit with a decorated high school quarterback recruit and sell that NFL path.

4. At Ole Miss, he’s 4-12 when his teams are held to 25 points or less

Even Riley is 5-8 when his teams have been held to 25 points or less in the 2020s. It’s essentially the same mark as offensive-minded coaches like Heupel (4-13) and Kenny Dillingham (5-13). It makes sense given their background that there’s a certain style of game that Kiffin would prefer to win that would differ from the defensive-minded Smart, who is 9-6 when his team has been held to 25 or less in the 2020s. That’s obvious.

(It’ll come as no surprise that Kirk Ferentz leads FBS with 18 wins when held to 25 points or less in the 2020s.)

And yes, it’s a positive that Kiffin’s Ole Miss teams are 50-7 when they score at least 26 points. You’ll take that all day, every day. That’s what you’re signing up for if you hire an elite offensive mind like Kiffin.

But to win at an elite level, you’d like to be able to win in a variety of ways. Ole Miss watched its Playoff dreams die in 2024 because it was stuck on 17 points in 2 of those losses, and when the Rebels were held to 26 in the overtime loss at LSU, that was after failing to score a second-half touchdown. It’s unrealistic to expect Kiffin to win 2/3 of his games without hitting 26 points like Nick Saban did in 17 seasons at Alabama, or like Day has since he took over at Ohio State in 2019. It is, however, realistic to expect Kiffin to get that number closer to .500, which is where the offensive-minded Jeff Brohm is (10-11 in those games in the 2020s).

Kiffin appears to have righted the defensive issues that plagued his first few seasons at Ole Miss. Now, he just has to be better at winning games when the offense isn’t humming.

5. He’s never coached in a Power Conference championship or a Playoff game, and every other 8-figure coach has done both

Well, with the exception of Bill Belichick. The whole “9 Super Bowl appearances as a head coach” sort of covers that.

Here’s the list of the other 8 coaches who made at least $10 million in 2025 (via USA Today):

• Kirby Smart
• Ryan Day
• Lincoln Riley
• Dabo Swinney
• Steve Sarkisian
• Dan Lanning
• Kalen DeBoer
• Brian Kelly

And yes, we need to mention that Kiffin’s 2011 USC squad would’ve accomplished that feat if not for the postseason ban from the Pete Carroll era NCAA sanctions. That needs to be mentioned here because it was indeed the preamble for the aforementioned 2012 USC squad that earned a preseason No. 1 ranking. We also need to mention that Kiffin’s current squad is also on the brink of a Playoff berth, and it still will have an outside (but unlikely) shot at reaching the SEC Championship Game, which is something Ole Miss has never done in the 33-year history of the event.

But it’s a stat worth referencing because Kiffin is likely going to have to make that destination decision before we ever see him on that stage. Being on that stage as an assistant, like he was at USC and Alabama, is entirely different than competing for a conference title or in the Playoff. It’s not that Kiffin is destined to shrink in those moments. It’s that there’s not even a sample size to project that. He’s coached in 2 BCS/New Year’s 6 Bowls, 1 of which saw Corral suffer a game-ending injury in the 1st quarter, and the other was a blowout win vs. Penn State in the 2023 Peach Bowl.

If Kiffin leaves Ole Miss, he’ll be judged on whether he can win a title. Period. If he stays at Ole Miss, he’ll still be defined by reaching new heights like reaching the Playoff and perhaps advancing to the semifinals.

Whatever Kiffin chooses will be seen as a massive victory for that fanbase, and understandably so. He’s earned that right after reestablishing himself as one of the top coaches in the sport.

But maybe not all is lost for the fanbase(s) who misses out on the top prize.

The post If you’re among the fanbases who’ll miss out on Lane Kiffin, here are 5 stats to help you cope appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Both 2-loss teams would still make the Playoff if the season ended today. Inevitably, both fanbases will tell you “ignore the rankings and just win.” Sure. Teams can do that. Coaches can sell that.

As for the rest of us, well, we’re free to break down a significant development on Tuesday night.

Alabama losing to Oklahoma was inevitably going to drop the Tide below the Sooners within the top 10. Dropping Alabama below Notre Dame, who got a nice road win at 7-win Pitt in Week 12, made as much sense as whatever Pat Narduzzi said about the significance of facing the Irish with College GameDay in the house.

Don’t believe that? OK, here’s the not-so-blind résumé:

• Wins vs. current Playoff 25: Alabama 4, Notre Dame 1
• Wins vs. Power Conference bowl teams: Alabama 5, Notre Dame 2
• Wins vs. current Playoff Top 10: Alabama 1, Notre Dame 0

Ah, but now is the part where Notre Dame fans jump in and tell me that Alabama got smashed at Florida State in Week 1, and that’s a much worse loss than anything on Notre Dame’s résumé. It’s definitely worse. We’ve also had multiple weeks of the selection committee treating Alabama as the top 1-loss team. It wasn’t as if the loss in Tallahassee was wiped off the slate, but there was some grace because of what the Tide did to make up for it since Week 1.

You know, like beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 teams without any bye or rest. No team in SEC history had ever done that. Never mind the fact that those teams entered those matchups with 0-1 losses.

How have those historic 4 wins aged, you asked?

Well, Georgia is up to No. 4 with still just that lone home loss to Alabama, Vanderbilt is still in the hunt as a 2-loss team at No. 14 and Tennessee and Mizzou are 3-loss teams who are both still in the Playoff Poll at No. 20 and No. 22, respectively, heading into the 4th Saturday of November.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s best win is at home against 2-loss USC, who is still a spot behind Vanderbilt.

Ah, but now is there part where Notre Dame fans jump in and tell me about this unbelievable 8-game winning streak. As in, the one that finally included winning a road game against a Power Conference team who had … beaten another conference team. That one.

Even after wins over USC and mighty Pitt, the Power Conferences foes that Notre Dame beat are a combined 13-27 in conference play. In a not-so-stunning development, the Irish’s 2 losses came to the 2 highest-ranked teams it faced this year. Funny how that works. It’s almost as if playing favorable opponents and getting 5 weeks to lick your wounds after an 0-2 start helps. It’s a bit different than how Alabama was tasked with responding.

Oh, but the Tide lost to Oklahoma! That’s a sign of weakness!

Or, perhaps, it’s a sign that Alabama lost in a down-to-the-wire game that could’ve been flipped with a well-executed kick. Notre Dame can relate to that. We all watched how that Texas A&M game played out. Does the selection committee remember those 2 Notre Dame losses? Or is this just all about beating up on a bunch of teams outside the Top 25?

Remember that this weekend when Notre Dame fans and the anti-SEC crowd will post screen shots of Alabama’s matchup with Eastern Illinois. It’ll conveniently ignore that the Tide’s path to loss No. 2 was still far more daunting that the Notre Dame one the selection committee just gave the benefit of the doubt to.

But hey, it’ll all sort itself out, right? Alabama currently sits at No. 10, which would be the last spot in the field if the Playoff started tomorrow (the ACC champ and Group of 5 champ would be put into the final top 12). There’s a chance that Alabama’s résumé doesn’t add anything more than a win against lowly Auburn, and tiebreakers could leave the Tide out of the SEC Championship Game. If 10-2 Alabama is idle during conference championship weekend like we know the Irish will be, those 2 teams are likely staying locked in. That could be Notre Dame getting to No. 8 and Alabama missing out on a home Playoff game at No. 9.

That would be backwards logic. The Irish have been living off it during these first 3 rankings.

It was bad enough that Notre Dame clocked in 8 spots ahead of Miami in the first Playoff ranking. The Irish have already been told by the selection committee that the head-to-head advantage wasn’t enough to block off Notre Dame’s path, even though the selection committee applied that logic to a variety of teams with the same number of losses, including Alabama and No. 8 Oklahoma.

This, however, was another sign that key metrics are being ignored by the selection committee, and it could have a significant impact on how this all shakes out.

Nobody will ever cry foul for Alabama after the unprecedented levels of success the Tide had. And yes, teams like 2017 and 2023 might’ve gotten the benefit of the doubt to make the 4-team field.

But this Alabama squad got its first raw deal of 2025 thanks to the luck of the Irish.

The post Alabama falling behind Notre Dame in the Playoff Poll? That’s a joke appeared first on Saturday Down South.

It is, however, my job to figure out how the Playoff works. Or rather, how it’ll look.

This week, we’ve got a few things to sort through. How high will Oklahoma rise after winning at Alabama? Also, will the Tide come in behind Notre Dame? Will the ACC have anybody in the top 12? Is the Big 12 going to have 3 teams in the top 12 and move a step closer to being a lock for multiple bids?

Let’s dig into what I expect Tuesday night’s rankings will look like.

(Don’t forget that this is the week that’s sandwiched between the 2 college basketball games so the rankings show starts at approximately 8:30 p.m ET.):

12. Utah

Utah’s ceiling is limited by losing to the top 2 in the Big 12, which is BYU and Texas Tech, who appear destined for a rematch in the conference title game. That could make it a difficult path to build on a résumé that doesn’t have any more remaining opportunities for quality wins. They’ll likely need chaos to make the field, but for now, I’d expect the Utes to stay ahead of Vanderbilt.

11. BYU

Aforementioned Utah will help BYU’s floor, which has now become an important thing to see on a weekly basis in the event that it gets to the Big 12 Championship Game with 1 loss. Just like we saw last year with SMU, there could be questions about whether a second loss to Texas Tech would knock the Cougars out of an at-large spot. Of course, the No. 11 team in this ranking would barely miss out on a field that would still need the ACC and Group of 5 champs. Taking care of business in decisive fashion to close the regular season is paramount for BYU.

10. Notre Dame

Just because the AP put Notre Dame ahead of Alabama doesn’t mean the selection committee will see it that way. As much as the selection committee respected the Irish’s turnaround after the 0-2 start, there are still only 2 needle-moving victories, though the most recent one was in decisive fashion at 7-win Pitt. Saturday was the first time that Notre Dame picked up a road victory against a Power Conference team with 3 wins. Clearly, the selection committee values how dominant the Irish have been, but jumping fellow 2-loss Alabama might not be in the cards.

9. Alabama

Losing to Oklahoma at home for loss No. 2 will now have the selection committee viewing Alabama through a different lens. It’s not that the Tide laid a horrendous egg by falling at home, but they’re now going to be compared to other 2-loss teams. So if we’re comparing Alabama to other 2-loss teams, we have to put the Tide behind the Oklahoma team it lost to, but here’s your side-by-side with aforementioned Notre Dame:

• Wins vs. current AP Top 25: Alabama 4, Notre Dame 1
• Wins vs. Power Conference bowl teams: Alabama 5, Notre Dame 2
• Wins vs. current AP Top 10: Alabama 1, Notre Dame 0

Yes, the Florida State loss happened. It also didn’t prevent the selection committee from making Alabama the top 1-loss team the last 2 weeks. Keep that in mind.

8. Oklahoma

Beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa was 1 of the 3 most impressive wins of the season. Maybe you’d put it just behind Alabama winning at Georgia, and Indiana winning at Oregon. Whatever the case, it was monumental. OU now has a trio of wins vs. current AP Top 25 wins, 2 of which were in true road games. That’ll make the Sooners the top 2-loss team in the field with some wondering if they should be ranked ahead of Oregon. And oddly, the Texas loss hurts OU’s résumé in one sense because it’s a 3-loss team now, but the Sooners also don’t have ceiling limited by the Longhorns.

7. Oregon

Quietly, Oregon flexed with a lopsided win against bowl-bound Minnesota. That was on the heels of a gritty showing at Iowa, which allowed the Ducks to move to No. 8 in the CFP rankings. With Alabama likely moving back, I’d expect Oregon to move up another spot ahead of an all-important showdown vs. USC. The Ducks have an opportunity to get a marquee win that would all but lock in a Playoff berth. The question will become what happens if Oregon is 10-2 with its best win being at 4-loss Iowa?

6. Ole Miss

Ole Miss is a virtual lock to make the Playoff, even after the selection committee put Texas Tech as a higher-ranked 1-loss team, much to the chagrin of Lane Kiffin. The Florida win gave Ole Miss that all-important 10th victory, and while the résumé might lack some depth, winning at Oklahoma has aged well. The only real intrigue surrounding Ole Miss is whether it’ll win at Mississippi State to lock in a home Playoff game, or if it’ll lose and be forced to travel for Round 1.

5. Texas Tech

Blowout wins against Utah and BYU matter a lot, which is exactly why the Red Raiders should be in position to get another bump after the Alabama loss. There’s clearly some grace for the loss at 7-win Arizona State because Behren Morton was hurt. It’s been nothing but blowouts outside of that game, which should continue against West Virginia in a couple weeks. Tech could absolutely be in position for a first-round bye if it can win a likely rematch against BYU in the Big 12 Championship Game.

4. Georgia

You could set your watch to a Georgia beatdown of Texas. As a result, the selection committee moving Georgia into Alabama’s spot feels obvious, though ironic considering that was the Dawgs’ lone blemish this season. But now, UGA has a trio of wins vs. current AP Top 25 teams and looks like a team that’s playing its best ball down the stretch. The selection committee tends to give those teams a lot of respect. Will it be enough respect to usurp 1 of the 3 remaining unbeatens? Probably not, but it’s not a bad place to be with the SEC slate in the books.

3. Texas A&M

It’s possible that if the halves were reversed, the selection committee would be looking at Texas A&M with an eyebrow raised. That didn’t happen, though. Instead, A&M avoided what would’ve been a disastrous loss to 3-win South Carolina. The Aggies have had the benefit of facing 7 of the bottom 8 teams in the SEC, though obviously the Notre Dame win in South Bend aged like wine. It’s a Playoff-bound team. That’s obvious. What’s not as obvious is whether A&M will beat Texas in Austin to lock in its first conference championship berth of the 21st century and/or a Round 1 bye.

2. Indiana

The Hoosiers are 11-0 for the first time in program history and likely a Purdue win away from perhaps locking in a Round 1 Playoff bye. It’s crazy that the latter could be true regardless of what happens in the event that they get Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. The selection committee didn’t view the Penn State win as a setback, so one shouldn’t expect anything out of the ordinary this week, especially with how much A&M had to battle to beat 3-win South Carolina.

1. Ohio State

It’s undeniable that Ohio State has been the most dominant team in the sport. The Buckeyes haven’t trailed in the 4th quarter all year, and they haven’t led by single digits in the 4th quarter since Sept. 27. That’s dominance. The Buckeyes might only have 1 win vs. a current AP Top 25 team, but that game control matters. The Buckeyes won’t be moved off the top spot ahead of the penultimate week of the regular season.

The post Predicting the top 12 of the third Playoff Poll of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Who is your SEC Coach of the Year? Who’ll be the first-team All-SEC quarterback? How many SEC players will earn Heisman Trophy invites? Who will get to Atlanta? Is Vandy going to the Playoff?!?!

All of these things are on the table ahead of a week that many know as “Cupcake Week.” Yes, there are only 4 Power Conference matchups in the SEC this week, and Mizzou–Oklahoma is the lone matchup of Power Conference teams with a winning record. But the slate nationally isn’t much better. In fact, the Big Ten has just 1 matchup of Power Conference teams with a winning record while the ACC and Big 12 have 2 apiece.

Perhaps nationally, this should be known as Cupcake Week. That’s probably a bit ambitious when all one has to do to try and show that the SEC schedules cupcakes is take a screenshot of the slate while conveniently ignoring that the conference posted a 10-4 record vs. Power Conference foes in nonconference play.

Hey, narratives!

Here are some narratives, or rather “storylines,” to watch for in whatever you want to call Week 12 in the SEC:

Samford vs. No. 3 Texas A&M — Well, avoiding a slow start seems obvious now

Just a thought. Maybe a 30-3 halftime deficit sent a loud message to Texas A&M that it can’t afford to sleepwalk, especially in these early kickoffs. Then again, A&M sort of had issues with that to start the season against UTSA and Utah State. That double-digit deficit at Notre Dame was also in the first half, so it’s not as if A&M has shown up as a dominant force all year. Against Samford, I’d expect the Aggies to be a dominant force by day’s end, but could that take a bit of time? Perhaps. After all, A&M is now a virtual Playoff lock at 10-0. With Texas on short rest, there could be a desire to have minimal Marcel Reed designed runs, and perhaps it’s a conservative game plan ahead of the postseason. Still, though. A&M has all the motivation to avoid another slow start.

Mizzou vs. No. 8 Oklahoma — OU hasn’t let up 4.0 yards per carry since Week 2

Go figure that it was against Michigan, who only got to that number because of a 75-yard touchdown run from Justice Haynes to start the second half. Outside of that play, OU held Michigan to 31 carries for 71 yards. In other words, this Oklahoma run defense is no joke. Against the top back in the SEC, Ahmad Hardy, that’ll be put to the test. Hardy is coming off a historic 300-yard rushing performance in a lopsided win against a reeling Mississippi State defense. Hardy had 146 yards after first contact alone. How many times has OU allowed 146 rushing yards total this year? Once … against Michigan. OU is the SEC’s No. 1 run defense in both yards/carry allowed and rushing yards/game allowed, and Hardy is running away with the SEC rushing title. This is an ideal strength-on-strength matchup that figures to determine if OU will hold onto its clear Playoff path.

Charlotte vs. No. 4 Georgia — Watch those Gunner Stockton runs

In a game like this, one would think those wouldn’t be needed. After all, Brent Key’s team is on deck and if recent history is any indication, facing Georgia Tech is going to be a dogfight, especially on short rest. Stockton started off the 2025 season by becoming the first Kirby Smart era quarterback to have 10 rushing attempts in a game, which is a feat he matched 3 more times. Mind you, that was a game against Marshall. Hence, why it’s worth remembering in a game against Charlotte when Georgia should again have a lopsided matchup. Only 4 SEC players have more rushing touchdowns than Stockton (8). He’s developed a remarkable nose for the end zone in his first season as a starter. The good news is that Stockton and Mike Bobo have been on the same page for the majority of the season. I’d expect them both to understand that taking unnecessary hits against Charlotte doesn’t make a whole lot of sense ahead of the stretch run.

Eastern Illinois vs. No. 10 Alabama — Let’s see Daniel Hill featured again

If there was a silver lining of another down day at the office for the Alabama run game, it was that we at least saw the 244-pound true freshman get a career-high 15 carries. He finished with 20 scrimmage touches while Jam Miller had 10. Hill also had a 41-33 snap count advantage, albeit in a losing effort. The pass protection issues might still make that snap count closer to a 50-50 split, but at this point, Alabama has to be willing to see if Hill can spark something in the ground game. Against the SEC’s best run defense, Hill not only had 47 yards after first contact, but he had a 28-yard run for an Alabama team who hadn’t had a run that long since AK Dear had a 56-yard run in the final minute of the 73-0 win vs. Louisiana-Monroe in Week 2. In a favorable matchup, it’d nice to see Ryan Grubb make Hill the face of that backfield just so that offensive line can build up some confidence.

Mercer vs. Auburn — This isn’t your older brother’s Mercer squad

Under Year 2 coach Mike Jacobs, Mercer is 20-4 and it enters Saturday at Auburn on a 9-game winning streak having scored at least 38 points in the last 8 games. Since taking over the starting job, true freshman Braden Atkinson has 33 touchdown passes and 3,253 passing yards. Keep that in mind because the way to beat Auburn is through the air. You’re better off trying to attack this secondary and make that group tackle in the open field than you are attacking that loaded defensive front in the run game. In the first game with DJ Durkin juggling interim coaching duties, Auburn’s defense was gashed for 544 total yards at Vandy. Has Auburn already turned the page to an Iron Bowl that’s now loaded with intrigue after Playoff-hopeful Alabama suffered loss No. 2? It’s possible, but it’d be a mistake to look past a Mercer squad that’s a bit more equipped than the 2022 squad that came into Jordan-Hare and got blasted by Auburn 42-14.

Arkansas vs. No. 17 Texas — What way can Arkansas lose by 1 score this week?

I know that the spread is Texas -10 (via BetMGM), but let’s be honest. We know how this one ends. It ends the same way that Arkansas games have ended 6 times this year. That is, a 1-score loss. It’s actually remarkable that Arkansas is 0-6 in SEC play, but only -25 in scoring margin. That’s nearly impossible. Mind you, that’s not including the 18-point blown lead against Memphis, wherein the Hogs also lost that one by 1 score. The Notre Dame loss was the loudest because it was the nail in the coffin for the Sam Pittman era, but it’s turned out to be the outlier. In other words, don’t assume that Texas will take all of its Georgia anger out on Arkansas. The Longhorns haven’t blown out any Power Conference team with the exception of Oklahoma, who led at half. All signs point to Arkansas finding some ridiculous way to lose by 1 score. I’ll take a pick-6 from Michael Taaffe to break a late tie.

Kentucky vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt — Could this version of Cutter Boley spoil a Playoff bid?

Boley’s emergence has been at the forefront of Kentucky‘s 3-game winning streak. He looks more decisive, he’s trucking dudes as a runner and there’s a reason to believe that he’s established himself as a legitimate SEC starting quarterback. It’s why Kentucky is only a 9.5-point underdog against a Vandy team with Playoff life. He’s got an adjusted completion percentage of at least 79% in 4 of the last 5 games, and he’s up to 13 passing plays of 30 yards, which is 2 more than his Heisman Trophy candidate counterpart, Diego Pavia. Of course, Pavia has also been lethal as a runner with 613 rushing yards and 7 scores. Couple that with an SEC-best 166.8 QB rating and there’s no denying who the superior player is at this point of their careers. But what if Kentucky’s defense, which has allowed a total of 20 points the last 3 weeks, can get some help from Boley and put pressure in Vandy late? Will we see Pavia rise to the occasion like he did against Auburn? Or is there a world in which Mark Stoops gets his annual top-15 stunner on the road like he has the last 3 seasons? If Boley continues to progress, don’t rule it out.

Coastal Carolina vs. South Carolina — Dare I say, Mike Furrey might just be an upgrade at OC

I know that South Carolina got shut out in the second half at A&M, and it now owns the dubious distinction of being the first SEC team to blow a 27-point lead in conference play in over 2 decades. Part of that is on Furrey, no doubt. But that first half, which yielded 23 South Carolina points and a vintage LaNorris Sellers, felt like something to build on. Sellers didn’t get sacked in that first half, and it felt like there were big throwing windows for him. Does that mean Furrey has an opportunity to win the job as OC with a brilliant showing against Coastal Carolina? I wouldn’t go that far, but I would say this is a crucial stretch for Sellers’ future and finding a play caller with a clue post-Mike Shula firing was priority No. 1 for Shane Beamer.

No. 20 Tennessee vs. Florida — If not now, then when can Tennessee ever win in The Swamp?

I’m not sure if you’ve heard this, but Tennessee hasn’t won in The Swamp since 2003. That’s 10 consecutive wins in Gainesville for the home team in this rivalry, including 2 in the Josh Heupel era. At the same time, Heupel also has multiple wins against Florida. Of Tennessee’s 3 wins against Florida in the last 20 years, Heupel owns 2 of them. Can he become the first coach in the post-Phillip Fulmer era to beat Florida in The Swamp? The good news for the Vols is that much to the delight of their fanbase, this game will be played post-October for just the third time since these teams began playing annually in 1990, AKA the start of the Steve Spurrier era. The other good news for the Vols is that Spurrier won’t be on Florida’s sideline. It’ll instead be, for the first time in those 35 years, an interim head coach. The Gators showed fight on the road against Ole Miss, which turned out to be another game in which Florida collapsed late because that’s what 3-7 teams do. Florida’s receiver room is so banged up that Tennessee’s biggest area of weakness (the secondary) might not be exposed. If Heupel can’t get it done in The Swamp this time, it’s fair to wonder if Tennessee is forever cursed to lose that game.

Western Kentucky vs. LSU — Sneaky? Sure, but look at WKU’s strength of schedule

It’s No. 136 of 136. Woof. That’s the byproduct of having 1 victory vs. a team with a winning record. Tyson Helton’s squad doesn’t rank in the top 35 in scoring offense, scoring defense, yards/play, yards/play allowed, turnover margin, red-zone scoring percentage, or opposing 3rd-down conversion rate. Teams with that type of DNA typically aren’t rocking 2-loss records heading into the 4th Saturday of November. Just sayin’. We also saw LSU show that it still can compete for interim coach Frank Wilson. Sure, it was against lowly Arkansas, but LSU’s Whit Weeks-less defense still put up a fight for the second consecutive week, and the Tigers actually established the run. Hence, why an LSU team who has yet to exceed 25 points vs. FBS competition is a 22.5-point favorite (via FanDuel). Death Valley at night might not be what it once was, but this is still a lopsided matchup, despite what those records might suggest.

The post Early thoughts on each SEC game in Week 13 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The guys closed by predicting the CFP Top 12.

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The post SDS Podcast: Oklahoma’s statement in Tuscaloosa, Kirby Smart owns Steve Sarkisian & WTH Texas A&M? appeared first on Saturday Down South.

It gave us a couple of top-15 showdowns, it gave us an ironic Lane Kiffin showing and it gave us one of the wildest comebacks you’ll ever see. It was filled with all sorts of entertainment from start to finish.

But perhaps of equal significance on the entertainment front, it gave us an unclear SEC Championship Game picture. In fact, no SEC Championship Game berth will be clinched until the final weekend of the regular season. That’s the way we draw it up. After years of division races being over in early November, we’re getting a down-to-the-wire race to determine who gets trip to Atlanta.

Here’s what else we learned from Week 12 in the SEC:

It’s undeniable — Kirby Smart owns Steve Sarkisian

Don’t believe that? Did you see that onside kick?

Remarkable. It was the moment that turned a close game into a no-doubter. Georgia went from clinging to a 14-10 lead entering the 4th quarter to turning it into the most lopsided victory yet against the Longhorns. A 35-10 beatdown improved Smart’s record to 3-0 against Steve Sarkisian since he and the Longhorns came to the SEC last year.

This one, however, was arguably the most obvious sign that Kirby Smart owns Sarkisian. Between the onside kick, the multiple gutsy 4th-down calls and the unique pressure packages that Smart and Glenn Schumann dialed up, it was a masterclass.

Against a Texas team that showed it could overcome slow starts on the road, Georgia kept its foot on the gas by harassing Arch Manning all night. It didn’t help Texas’s cause that once again, it couldn’t run the ball and it was held to 23 rushing yards (it had 31 and 29 rushing yards in last year’s losses to UGA). Mind you, that UGA defensive showing came even though captain CJ Allen left the game. That just speaks to Smart always being 1 step ahead of Sarkisian and finding a way.

Last year, Gunner Stockton came into the SEC Championship Game and led a gritty comeback, albeit one that showed his inexperience. This year, he looked every bit like one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He tied a career-high with 5 touchdowns (4 passing, 1 rushing) against an elite Texas defense that was healthy after getting Michael Taaffe and Jelani McDonald back. It didn’t matter. Stockton was decisive, clutch and dare I say … Stetson Bennett IV-like?

Georgia is now shaping into the scariest team in the country while Texas likely will need chaos to keep its Playoff hopes alive after a blowout defeat for loss No. 3.

Brent Venables is better than you think he is at this

What do I mean by that? Let’s recap what Oklahoma just did on Saturday at Alabama without its best defensive player, R Mason Thomas. Venables and the Sooners:

• A) Scored 17 points off 3 Alabama turnovers after it had 6 all season
• B) Improved to 2-0 vs. Kalen DeBoer while handing him his first home loss since 2021 at Fresno State
• C) Handed Alabama its first SEC loss at Bryant-Denny Stadium since 2019
• D) Got arguably the most impressive true road win of the 2025 season
• E) All the above

It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”

Ty Simpson was overwhelmed by what the Sooners defense dialed up. It wasn’t just the turnovers. It was the 4 sacks and the constant pressure on Simpson that forced him into quick decisions. Taylor Wein and Kip Lewis played like All-Americans, Eli Bowen hauled in another interception against an Alabama quarterback and Peyton Bowen put the game away with a textbook pass breakup on 4th down.

In every way, it felt like exactly the type of win that Oklahoma signed up for it when it transitioned from Lincoln Riley to the defensive-minded Venables. After fooling Joey Aguilar into a sloppy performance with a statement win in Tennessee, Venables somehow one-upped that effort by winning in Tuscaloosa. Just for a little perspective, OU didn’t have a true road win vs. an AP Top 25 team in the 2020s. That is, until this 2-game stretch.

Oklahoma played like its Playoff life was on the line because, well, it was. Now at 8-2, Venables not only fended off preseason hot-seat talk, but the Sooners have a clear path to the Playoff with home games against Mizzou and LSU to close the season, both of whom have injured starting quarterbacks. With a gauntlet like what the Sooners have seen, that’s about all they could’ve asked for.

1-dimensional Alabama finally ran into the team it couldn’t fend off

Nobody said that 1-loss Alabama was a perfect team entering Saturday’s matchup vs. Oklahoma. We knew that as impressive as the 8-game winning streak was after the season-opening loss, the Tide had ground-game issues that perhaps prevented Kalen DeBoer’s squad from keeping its foot on the gas. This late into the season, it was unrealistic to expect a unit without a 4.0 yards per carry showing vs. Power Conference competition to turn things around without reinforcements.

But man, the Sooners exposed those issues in a major way.

Alabama’s pass protection broke down in part because Oklahoma didn’t respect the run. Those Sooner pass-rushers pinned their ears back and made Simpson look more overwhelmed than he’s been since the Week 1 game at Florida State. Alabama dominated time of possession, yet it couldn’t lean on the Sooners, and instead, Simpson was asked to make too many tight-window throws. Even on a day in which Alabama won the rushing battle 80-74 — that was the second time that Alabama did so in a Power Conference game — it was reminded that it might not have national championship DNA without that all-important element.

After all, nobody has won a national title with fewer than 122.8 rushing yards per game (1999 Florida State). Alabama entered the day at 111.9 and is going in the wrong direction.

Suddenly, that Iron Bowl just got a whole lot more interesting for the Tide’s Playoff chances.

Texas A&M … should we be worried or impressed? Or both?

Yes, it was worrying watching Texas A&M fall behind 30-3 at home to a 3-win South Carolina squad. Yes, it was impressive that A&M pulled off the biggest comeback in school history and become the first SEC team in the last 287 attempts to win a conference game after falling behind by 27 points.

Can both things be true?

It’s hard to play as bad as A&M did in the first half. Missed throws, drops, poor trenches play, bad kicking, brutal play calling … you name it, A&M did it. It was easily the lowest floor we’ve seen from the Aggies this year, and you could argue that it was the lowest floor we’ve seen from a potential championship contender. On the heels of news breaking of Mike Elko‘s extension, the timing couldn’t have been more awkward for A&M to lay a first-half egg like that.

But perhaps by somehow navigating that, an undefeated A&M learned a tough lesson without necessarily enduring its first loss. Marcel Reed hadn’t faced a deficit of more than 10 points all season, and it was up to him to flip the script. That’s not to discount what that A&M defense by pitching a second-half shutout against LaNorris Sellers and the Gamecock offense, which had legitimate life in the first half with interim OC Mike Furrey. At the same time, A&M would’ve been laughed off the field if not for Reed settling in, which he did after that 4th-and-12 conversion en route to a 371-76 yards advantage in the second half.

Some might want to write off A&M after it needed such a furious comeback to survive South Carolina. After all, the Aggies have their first 10-0 start since 1992 and they’re just trying to reach a conference title game for the first time in the 21st century.

At the very least, the Aggies are keeping everyone on their toes.

Finally, Lane Kiffin got the last laugh on Florida

It wasn’t easy. For a good chunk of Saturday night in Oxford, it felt like Florida could pull off one of the most stunning results of the season, and it was shades of the 2024 stunner in The Swamp when the Gators ultimately kept Kiffin’s squad from its first Playoff berth. So yeah, a year later with all the speculation about Florida’s desire to poach Kiffin, it would’ve been all sorts of ironic if it happened again.

Thankfully for Kiffin, he recruited Kewan Lacy out of the portal.

Unlike last year when Kiffin didn’t have a steady ground game for the first time at Ole Miss, he turned to Lacy to close things out. Well, there were a pair of failed 4th-and-goal attempts wherein he opted for passing plays that weren’t carries to Lacy. But other than that, Lacy got the rock all night. His 31 carries for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns set the tone for an Ole Miss squad that was up and down in seemingly every other area. Lacy allowed Trinidad Chambliss to shake off a rare subpar showing and ultimately, he allowed his head coach to avoid what would’ve been an awkward 2 weeks leading up to the Egg Bowl.

At 10-1, Ole Miss clinched its 3rd consecutive season with double-digit wins for the first time in program history. Saturday likely all but guaranteed Ole Miss a Playoff berth for the first time in program history.

What a difference a year makes.

Ahmad Hardy’s 300-yard game made perfect sense

I mean, there’s the obvious reason why we shouldn’t have been surprised to see Hardy hit the 300-yard mark and produced the 6th-best single-game rushing total in SEC history. The Mizzou running back leads the conference in rushing and Mississippi State had the second-most missed tackles (110) in the SEC entering the night, which was on the heels of allowing Georgia to rack up 303 rushing yards on 17 missed tackles.

Hardy’s brilliance all but locked in his SEC rushing title, so it made sense that he had a big night. Shoot, it even made sense that Eli Drinkwitz had him getting carries late in the blowout win, in hopes that he could get to the 300-yard mark.

But why else did it make sense? As we learned in Hardy’s postgame interview with Cole Cubelic on SEC Network, Hardy finally took the offensive line out to dinner for the first time this week. All it yielded was a 300-yard day at the office.

Needless to say, Hardy has some high-priced dinner tabs in his future.

The post The biggest SEC takeaways from Week 12 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Was South Carolina-Texas A&M a tale of 2 halves? Nah. That’s like saying it gets cloudy during a hurricane.

Texas A&M played seemingly the worst half of football that a top-3 team has ever played at home against a 3-win team in November, and then erased it with its largest comeback in school history en route to a 31-30 victory against South Carolina. Sure. Why not? Nothing made sense on Saturday, including whatever we witnessed with that A&M trick-play attempt on 3rd-and-1 in a 1-point game, wherein a true freshman running back threw a backwards pass and turned the ball over instead of putting the game away.

But A&M’s defense held strong on South Carolina’s last-ditch drive and held on for a Playoff-clinching win — A&M somehow improved to 10-0 with FCS Samford on deck — that’ll be talked about for a long time in College Station.

“Where were you when the Aggies clinched their first Playoff berth in school history with the most baffling game in human history?”

Here’s hoping you weren’t in the way of the state trooper who decided he had the right to walk through not 1, but 2 South Carolina players.

To be fair, that state trooper showed more fight than anybody on A&M’s sideline in the first half.

(Also to be fair, A&M Police shared that the trooper had been relieved of his gameday duties … rightfully so.)

That’s hardly saying much. After all, A&M did seemingly every bad thing one can do in a half of football. It sailed passes, it dropped passes, it didn’t tackle, it shanked kicks, it didn’t win in the trenches, it got out-coached, etc. Shoot, it made matters even more awkward that it came on the heels of Mike Elko reportedly agreeing to new contract that’ll pay him more than $11 million per season, according to ESPN. Perhaps the only thing that A&M did right in the first half was not be found guilty of point shaving, though one could’ve doubted that after how atypical that performance felt from the 3-score favorite.

Never mind the fact that the 3-win Gamecocks were searching for their first win since September, or the fact that A&M hadn’t trailed by more than 10 points all season. Marcel Reed, AKA the guy who was 4th on the Heisman Trophy odds entering the day, looked like he shouldn’t have even been 4th on A&M’s depth chart during the first half. And sure, 4 first-half drops didn’t help, including a KC Concepcion drop in the end zone, and protection breakdowns led to Reed taking multiple first-half sacks behind a Joe Moore semifinalist offensive line that had -9 first-half rushing yards. But Reed had 3 first-half turnovers and looked completely rattled in ways that he hadn’t since he became A&M’s QB1 last year.

It wasn’t any better on the other side of the ball. Against a first-time play-caller in South Carolina interim OC Mike Furrey, A&M didn’t sack LaNorris Sellers once in the first half. Mind you, that was an A&M defense who ranked No. 1 in FBS in sacks per game against a South Carolina that allowed Sellers to be sacked more than any quarterback in America.

Again, nothing made sense in the first half. I cannot emphasize that enough.

With all due respect to Shane Beamer and his mid-game quote that it wasn’t surprising to see his team leading against a team that the Gamecocks beat by 24 points last year, it was stunning. It was the type of result that was so stunning that it could’ve put A&M into an all-or-nothing game against Texas to make the Playoff. Remember, you couldn’t even get odds on A&M to make the Playoff after the Week 11 win at Mizzou. That’s how much of a certainty it was. Like, even in the craziest scenario in which A&M lost to both South Carolina and Texas, surely a 10-2 mark with the Notre Dame win would still be enough. But getting destroyed at home vs. 3-win South Carolina? That would’ve changed that conversation.

Fortunately for the Aggies, they won’t have to entertain that possibility because it replaced Jekyll and Hyde with those 28 unanswered points in the second half. What sparked things, you ask? Was it the state trooper asserting his dominance after that South Carolina touchdown? Nah, that’s like saying the fan who shouts “let’s goooooo” on the jumbotron is actually the one who jump-starts a rally.

Go back to 4th-and-12 on the first possession of the second half. It’s when Reed did the thing that he inexplicably did on only a handful of times in the first half — run. Down 30-3, his 16-yard scramble at midfield prevented A&M from giving the ball back, and ultimately, that’s what got the ball rolling on that historic comeback.

In the second half, Reed led an A&M offense that out-gained South Carolina 271-76. Reed had 203 passing yards in the third quarter alone.

Reed shook off a 6-for-19 first half and finished the game with a 16-for-20 showing for 298 yards in the second half. Time will tell how that impacts Reed’s Heisman Trophy aspirations. That was on the back burner in the second half. All that mattered was that A&M avoided becoming the 287th consecutive SEC team to lose a conference game after trailing by 27 points.

Mission accomplished? Sure.

The spin zone of Saturday’s roller coaster was that it put a Playoff-bound A&M in a hole that’ll likely be steeper than perhaps any Playoff team will see in the regular season. A&M hadn’t been in those situations much at all. In fact, before Saturday, the last time the Aggies trailed in the final 25 minutes was Week 3 at Notre Dame. Reed and Co. made the plays needed late to pull that one out. This one, in just about every way, felt different.

Call A&M resilient, call A&M a fraud, call A&M whatever. Lord knows that this team has already been called all of it.

You know what else you can still call A&M, though? Undefeated. Like, 10-0 for the first time since 1992. Like, 1 of 3 undefeated teams left in the sport. That’s an ideal place to be … even if it felt like wearing maroon at Kyle Field felt like the worst place to be for a couple hours on Saturday.

The Aggies will file that one away come Playoff time. If they’re able to build off whatever experience that was on Saturday, the Aggies could be better for it.

For now, though, the only thing that’s undeniable is that there’s no clear way to explain whatever happened in College Station on Saturday.

The post I have no idea what Texas A&M just did other than clinch a Playoff berth appeared first on Saturday Down South.

We’re in the third weekend of November and we’re still waiting on Alabama to hit 4.0 yards per carry against a Power Conference team. Louisiana-Monroe was the only team who allowed Alabama to hit that mark, which is ironic when you consider that this will likely be the worst Alabama run game since the Tide lost to Louisiana-Monroe in Year 1 of the Nick Saban era back in 2007.

Actually, check that. I know that’s usually the default answer for any sort of bad Alabama stat, but it’s not in this case.

Through 9 games, 2025 Alabama squad averaged 111.9 rushing yards per game and 3.6 yards per carry, which still isn’t even sniffing the 2007 squad’s 149.2 rushing yards per game and 4.0 yards per carry.

Let’s take it back a little further.

The last time that the Tide had fewer yards per carry for an entire season was 2006, and the last time that Alabama had fewer rushing yards per game was in 1955. To recap, the last time Alabama had such little ground-game identity was 3 years before the Bear Bryant era began.

That 1955 squad was 0-10. Seventy years later, football has changed a touch. Hence, why the 2025 squad is 9-1 and a lock to make the College Football Playoff, even with that historically ineffective ground game. The question is no longer about whether the Tide can establish the run; it’s about whether Alabama can win a title with this bad of a ground game.

Sure, football has changed. It’s no secret that 21st century passing attacks are more advanced than their 20th century predecessors, which is why we’re even asking this question about 2025 Alabama.

But this would be a historically dreadful ground game among 21st century national champions

Go back to the first 25 national champs of the 21st century and you’ll see what I mean:

• 2000 Oklahoma: 134.6 rushing yards/game, 3.9 yards/carry
• 2001 Miami (FL): 204.6 rushing yards/game, 5.3 yards/carry
• 2002 Ohio State: 191.3 rushing yards/game, 4.3 yards/carry
• 2003 LSU: 185.7 rushing yards/game, 4.4 yards/carry
  • 2003 USC: 155.9 rushing yards/game, 4.5 yards/carry
• 2004 USC: 177.4 rushing yards/game, 4.7 yards/carry
• 2005 Texas: 274.9 rushing yards/game, 5.9 yards/carry
• 2006 Florida: 160.0 rushing yards/game, 4.7 yards/carry
• 2007 LSU: 214.1 rushing yards/game, 4.9 yards/carry
• 2008 Florida: 231.1 rushing yards/game, 5.9 yards/carry
• 2009 Alabama: 215.1 rushing yards/game, 5.0 yards/carry
• 2010 Auburn: 284.8 rushing yards/game, 6.1 yards/carry
• 2011 Alabama: 214.5 rushing yards/game, 5.5 yards/carry
• 2012 Alabama: 227.5 rushing yards/game, 5.6 yards/carry
• 2013 Florida State: 203.1 rushing yards/game, 5.6 yards/carry
• 2014 Ohio State: 264.5 rushing yards/game, 5.7 yards/carry
• 2015 Alabama: 199.9 rushing yards/game, 4.7 yards/carry
• 2016 Clemson: 170.3 rushing yards/game, 4.3 yards/carry
• 2017 Alabama: 250.6 rushing yards/game, 5.7 yards/carry
• 2018 Clemson: 249.3 rushing yards/game, 6.6 yards/carry
• 2019 LSU: 167.3 rushing yards/game, 4.9 yards/carry
• 2020 Alabama: 183.6 rushing yards/game, 5.0 yards/carry
• 2021 Georgia: 191.2 rushing yards/game, 5.3 yards/carry
• 2022 Georgia: 205.3 rushing yards/game, 5.5 yards/carry
• 2023 Michigan: 169.1 rushing yards/game, 4.5 yards/carry
• 2024 Ohio State: 166.4 rushing yards/game, 5.0 yards/carry
• 2025: TBD

(Just in case you were curious, 1999 Florida State won it all after it only averaged 3.4 yards/carry, but to find a national champ who averaged less than 111.9 rushing yards/game, you had to go all the way back to … never. At least there weren’t any such examples for a national champion dating back to 1936. That 1999 FSU team had the fewest rushing yards/game of any national champ at 122.8.)

To nobody’s surprise, none of those 21st century national champs had 111.9 rushing yards/game and 3.6 yards/carry. Go figure that the team with the least amount of ground game production and efficiency among that group was 2000 Oklahoma, who was led by current Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. That team won the BCS National Championship in a 13-2 victory against Florida State, wherein the Sooners had just 36 carries for 56 yards. Heupel threw the ball 39 times and essentially followed the same pass-run balance that OU had all season.

(Some would argue that FSU didn’t deserve to be in that game after losing to fellow 1-loss team Miami, and that the BCS computers were the only thing that prevented the Hurricanes from playing, and likely winning, the national championship, but now isn’t the time to re-litigate that.)

Of those 25 national champs, 15 of them averaged 5.0 yards per carry and 2000 Oklahoma was the lone winner to average less than 150 rushing yards per game. Alabama would need to average 200 rushing yards over the next 7 games to finish with a season average of 150, which seems next to impossible considering the 9-game sample size that we’ve already seen.

Whether you want to put the blame on Ryan Grubb’s play-calling in the Kalen DeBoer offense, the offensive line or the backfield, there are clearly multiple factors for something that’s become an atypical question to ask of the Tide.

Why can’t Alabama run the ball?

“Oof. Can’t (run the ball). Not like, why haven’t they, can they get it done? They can’t run the football at all,” said former LSU running back and 2007 national champion Jacob Hester, who watched the Tide in person last Saturday night in Tuscaloosa. “Their tight ends are struggling a little bit on the edge. Their offensive line is good enough. They’re not the road-graders that they’ve had. Their running backs’ vision is just poor right now. It just is. I hate talking about my own position like that.

“When a run play in the SEC gives you 4, you take 4, you don’t look for 40. It looks like they’re looking for 40 right now … can you change that? Maybe. It’s kinda tough.”

The numbers back that up. It’s not just that Alabama ranks No. 120 in FBS in both rushing yards/game and yards/carry with just 32 attempts per game (No. 109 in FBS). Of the Tide’s 282 rushing attempts, only 1 went for a 30-yard gain … and it was a 56-yard run by true freshman AK Dear in the final minute of a 73-0 win vs. Louisiana-Monroe. There are 13 FBS teams without multiple runs of 30 yards, and Alabama is one of them. Nobody else in that group is a Power Conference team with a winning record. Mind you, that’s a year removed from Alabama leading the SEC with 13 runs of 30 yards, albeit with Jalen Milroe and Justice Haynes, who transferred to Michigan and is now leading Power Conference players with 122.4 rushing yards/game.

Alabama obviously has found a way to overcome those ground game issues in the form of Ty Simpson. When your quarterback is playing at a Heisman Trophy level, it can allow you to do things like beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 teams without a bye/extra rest for the first time in SEC history, or have the most wins vs. the top 40 of the Sagarin ratings of anybody in the sport (H/T Chris Fallica). Simpson has been everything and then some.

He’s also Alabama’s leader with 13 missed tackles forced as a runner. Not only is Simpson the leader there, but he’s the only Tide player with double-digit missed tackles forced. Just for a little perspective, Kewan Lacy and Ahmad Hardy lead the SEC with 71 and 65 missed tackles forced, respectively. Alabama starting running back Jam Miller, who has battled multiple injuries this season, has 9 missed tackles forced, which ranks No. 33 among SEC players. On the season, Alabama has forced 49 missed tackles in the run game — that’s tied for 12th in the SEC — and nearly half of them (23) have come from non-running backs. Swiss army knife Germie Bernard is 2 away from Miller, and he only has 15 rushing attempts all season.

Perhaps that speaks a bit to Grubb’s willingness to at least try some alternative options in the ground game. Alabama did turn to Bernard to execute a misdirection play for the go-ahead touchdown at South Carolina.

We could expect to see more of Bernard out of the backfield, and maybe even some more William “Refrigerator” Perry-type involvement with 360-pound Kadyn Proctor in short-yardage situations.

But while those unconventional elements can provide a spark, it does feel strange that Alabama can’t truly lean on teams to close a game. The numbers reflect that, too. Simpson leads FBS with 780 passing yards while leading by 1-7 points. Heading into Week 12, Simpson has 61 pass attempts in the 4th quarter, which is a stark contrast from the 2018 Alabama squad that watched Tua Tagovailoa not have to attempt a 4th quarter pass attempt until November.

Times have changed. So, too, has Alabama. Is that for better or for worse? Time will tell.

What’s clear is that if Alabama does wind up as the last team standing, it’ll be the first national champ of its kind. It’d be an ironic pivot from the Saban era, and possibly a sometimes frustrating identity to accept.

But something tells me that if Alabama’s run-game issues don’t stand in the way of a title, that identity will be welcomed with open arms.

The post Can Alabama win a title with this dreadful ground game? Here’s what history says appeared first on Saturday Down South.

LSU legend Jacob Hester joined the show to discuss the vacancy in Baton Rouge, Garrett Nussmeier and SEC running backs.

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

Subscribe to The Saturday Down South Podcast here, and subscribe to Saturday Down South on YouTube for all the latest video content!

The post SDS Podcast: Week 12! Can Oklahoma & Texas make statements? Jacob Hester talks LSU vacancy, Garrett Nussmeier & SEC RBs appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Last year, Kirby Smart led Georgia to 2 wins against a Texas team who played Ohio State down to the wire in the College Football Playoff semifinals. It didn’t matter that UGA won both games away from home, nor did it matter that Carson Beck got knocked out on a Hail Mary attempt just before halftime of the rematch in the SEC Championship Game. Both times, Smart showed up and beat Texas.

The question heading into Saturday night’s showdown between Texas and Georgia in Athens is obvious — does Smart just own Steve Sarkisian?

You could point to the 2-0 record and say that’s too small of a sample size and that we’re going to need more data before we can make such a declaration. You know, like the declaration that Alabama owns Smart, and a 2-0 record for Kalen DeBoer against Georgia is a sign that it’s not just a Nick Saban thing.

Both coaches would tell you that this year’s team is completely different than last year’s, and previous history is irrelevant. That’s fine. Three wins against Sarkisian in the first 2 years of Texas being in the SEC would be quite the feather in Smart’s cap.

Nobody would’ve made that argument upon Texas’s arrival. After all, Texas infamously had the “we’re baaaaaaaaack” declaration from Sam Ehlinger after the 2018 Sugar Bowl victory against Georgia. That wasn’t under Sarkisian, but he was Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2020 when the Tide handed Smart 1 of his 7 losses in that matchup.

But those first 2 Georgia-Texas games in the SEC were telling

As Gunner Stockton rallied Georgia back to an overtime victory in the SEC Championship Game last year, Texas was held to less than 100 rushing yards for the 5th time in just 52 games under Sarkisian. Another one of those games came earlier in the year against Georgia, when the Dawgs delivered a historically dominant defensive showing in Austin. In those 2 games, Texas averaged 30 rushing yards and 1.1 yards per carry without a single rushing score. Mind you, that was with a decorated offensive line.

This year, Texas hasn’t been anywhere near as steady as that group. Whether that’s the byproduct of Tre Wisner and CJ Baxter being banged up or just what happens when an offensive line returns 1 starter, well, that’s in the eye of the beholder. Since stepping off the field in Georgia’s comeback win against Texas in the SEC Championship Game, the Longhorns have had 6 more games without hitting 100 rushing yards, including 3 in their 4 true road games this season.

Speaking of those road issues, Texas has 38 points in the first 3 quarters of those 4 games. Hence, why the Horns needed overtime to survive at Kentucky and at Mississippi State. Against a Georgia team that’s also been a bit of a slow starter — UGA hasn’t led at halftime 5 of 7 SEC games — perhaps that won’t surface. Alternatively, Georgia could just pick up where it left off when it went into Mississippi State and bludgeoned the Bulldogs in Davis-Wade Stadium in the exact way that Texas couldn’t. At least not until the 4th quarter.

The good news for Texas is that Trevor Etienne is off to the NFL after he had a combined 5 rushing touchdowns in those victories last year. The bad news for Texas is that Georgia just had its best rushing performance against an SEC foe since 2020, and stopping the likes of Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens could prove to be another daunting task.

Perhaps of equal significance, Stockton is a much better player than the guy who took the field in the second half of the SEC title game matchup last year. He’s not throwing inexplicable interceptions like he did in the 4th quarter of that game, nor is he being reckless as a runner. Stockton looks like a guy who has his legs under him with 10 starts now under his belt. He’s more decisive both as a passer and as a runner, which is why he’s first among SEC quarterbacks with 7 rushing scores and he’s No. 1 among SEC quarterbacks with a 75.8% adjusted completion percentage when under pressure. Hence, why 11 of his 15 touchdown passes have come against the blitz (Arch Manning also has 11 touchdowns against the blitz and has been better in those spots than some realize).

Add it all up and you’ll see a relatively clear path to a Georgia victory. We haven’t even gotten to the part where I mention that Alabama’s win in Sanford Stadium earlier this year marked Georgia’s first loss at home in a night game since 2009. Saturday against Texas will be under the bright lights, and for Sarkisian, his struggles against Georgia could be under a microscope if it’s another Texas loss in which the Longhorns are a walking turnover (UGA forced 4 takeaways in the first matchup and 3 in the second).

It’ll be magnified for a 2-loss Texas team who has been desperately trying to avoid that dreaded 3rd loss, which doomed every at-large team’s Playoff chances last year. It remains to be seen if that’ll be the case for Texas, who could still have a matchup against a potential 11-0 Texas A&M squad to close the regular season.

But if it’s another game in which Sarkisian’s offense looks lost against the Smart defense, questions will be asked. Or rather, a question will be answered.

Smart might just own Sarkisian.

The post Does Kirby Smart just own Steve Sarkisian? We’re 60 minutes from that being undeniable appeared first on Saturday Down South.

At the start of fall camp, Texas A&M posted a slow-motion video on Twitter of Marcel Reed making an on-target downfield throw that was captioned “wait, we thought @Marcel10Reed wasn’t a passer?” I objected. Yes, we are allowed to question Reed as a passer, I wrote. Despite what that video of Reed throwing in shorts without a pass rush told us, ranking No. 15 in the SEC in adjusted downfield completion percentage in 2024 was an area of concern, as was his 4.4 yards/attempt when pressured (2nd worst in the SEC), which also saw him scramble an alarming 25% of the time in those spots.

My rebuttal wasn’t meant to argue the point “I’m out on Marcel Reed.” In that August column, I outlined why he could indeed take another step in Year 2 of Collin Klein’s system, and that the additions of KC Concepcion and Mario Craver could open up a passing game that felt limited throughout a herky-jerky offensive season in Mike Elko‘s Year 1, wherein Reed and Conner Weigman had a tug-of-war for QB1 status. The rebuttal was that there was real data that suggested Reed had strides to be made, and that putting out a social media clip that scoffed at those aforementioned areas of concern felt misguided.

Three months later, the only misguided take that one can have about Reed is that he can’t pass.

Reed isn’t a perfect player, though he led a perfect A&M start that moved past the “8-4” jokes in historic fashion. Spend any time watching A&M’s QB1 and you’ll see that the Year 2 progression is there. The pocket presence, the command, the understanding of the offense, the trusting of the scheme, etc. It’s all been on display. One can scoff at any notion that A&M is winning games despite Reed. The Aggies are 9-0 with their best regular season win total since Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy year in large part because of Reed.

Don’t get it twisted. We’re not doing a Manziel-Reed side-by-side comp, nor are we ignoring the fact that any quarterback who has the same starting 5 offensive linemen all season — A&M is the only SEC team who can say that — is going to be set up for success.

But let’s go back to those aforementioned question marks entering 2025

As in, the downfield accuracy, the throws under pressure, the over-reliance on scrambles, etc.

The downfield accuracy isn’t at Julian Sayin or Joey Aguilar levels. In fact, Reed’s adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage is still near the bottom of the SEC at 38.5%, but that’s still a nice improvement from 27.8% in 2024.

What’s interesting is that if you take away the air yards element and just focus on passes that have gained 20 yards, Reed is No. 5 in the SEC with 35 such completions, which is just 3 fewer than SEC leader Trinidad Chambliss (it’s also 10 more than Reed had all of last season). Why is there such a discrepancy? Craver and Concepcion. By adding 2 guys who can make people miss in space, Reed’s downfield accuracy isn’t as magnified. With players like that, it’s all about being accurate enough for them to gain yards after the catch (YAC). A&M is the only SEC team with 2 players with at least 300 YAC yards, and Craver leads the SEC with 496 YAC yards. In fact, Louisville and Nebraska are the only other Power Conference teams who can claim that feat.

Sure, scheme helps with that. It also helps that Reed has a 70% adjusted completion percentage on intermediate throws (10-19 yards) after he was 60% in that area of the field last year. That’s good for No. 5 in the SEC. Even better, his 138.3 NFL QB rating on those throws is No. 1 in the SEC and No. 3 among Power Conference quarterbacks.

Again, this is what a Year 2 progression looks like:

A Year 2 progression also looks like someone who has trust in the scheme. That means not defaulting to his legs when pressure hits, just like Reed did on that touchdown to Concepcion.

A&M’s offensive line continuity has shown up in the form of a 23.8% pressure rate on Reed’s drop-backs, which is the second-lowest rate among starting SEC quarterbacks. But remember how Reed scrambled on 25% of the drop-backs when he was pressured last year? This year, that number is down to 15.9%. That’s been evident in key spots.

That first score of the game against Mizzou came on 3rd-and-goal when Reed faced front-side pressure from one of the SEC’s top pass-rushers, Zion Young, and he made an on-target throw going to his left to his No. 3 receiver.

A casual fan might look at some of the plays that Reed is making and suggest that he’s simply benefitting from those surroundings. Take that screen pass to Concepcion against Mizzou. A bubble screen wherein Concepcion followed some excellent blocking en route for 6 won’t show up on any QB highlight reel, but that only happened because Reed recognized the blitz pre-snap on 3rd-and-6, so he audibled into that quick-hitting play.

Perfect. That wins games.

That pre-snap recognition got a nice stamp of approval from Elko.

“When we talked in the offseason about him learning what it takes to be an SEC quarterback, all of that stuff goes into it… credit to him for everything that he put in this offseason elevate his game to be able to do things like that,” Elko said on Saturday (H/T Tony Catalina).

To recap, Elko admitted they had conversations in the offseason about what it takes to be a QB1 in the SEC, which further confirms that even his own head coach knew he had some key areas to improve.

Is Reed now elite among SEC quarterbacks when facing pressure? Hardly. He’s a 52.3% adjusted passer under pressure, which is No. 15 in the SEC. But how can you overcome that in those spots? Don’t throw interceptions (he has 0 under pressure), avoid sacks so that your offense doesn’t get behind the sticks (his 8.7% pressure-to-sack rate is easily the best in the SEC) and make clutch throws (his 5 TD passes under pressure rank No. 2 in the SEC).

That’s the beauty of what Reed’s game has become

Everything in this offense has to be respected. The second you forget about Reed as a runner, he can hit 20.3 MPH and take it to the house with his legs.

That 41-yard touchdown run was a big chunk of the career-high 67 scramble yards that Reed had in Brian Kelly‘s final game at LSU. Mind you, that came on a night in which Reed also tied his career high with 9 designed runs, which fueled his career-high 108 rushing yards in one of the most hostile atmospheres in the sport.

What Reed has shown not only in that LSU game, but this year as a whole, is that he’s extremely comfortable playing with a lead. Of equal importance, he’s extremely comfortable throwing with a lead. With a lead of 1-7 points, Reed leads all FBS QBs with 34 first downs as a passer (he had 14 last year), and Ty Simpson is the only FBS quarterback with more passing plays of 15 yards in those spots.

But unlike Alabama, who has yet to run for 4.0 yards per carry against Power Conference competition, A&M can pair those chunk yardage plays in the passing game with a rushing attack that averages 205 yards per contest. Shoot, the Aggies had 220 rushing yards in the second half alone on Saturday against a top-15 Mizzou run defense.

That’s how you become a difficult offense to contain, which perhaps explains why it only fell behind by 8 points once this season (at Notre Dame). So far, Auburn is the only team who held the Aggies to less than 31 points. Including Notre Dame, the Reed-led A&M offense is averaging 36.3 points per game against Power Conference competition. Take away non-offensive scores — Tennessee had 4 of those vs. Power Conference competition — and that’s the best mark in the SEC. Even Indiana, who has the No. 1 scoring offense in America, is averaging 38.3 points per Power Conference game if you take away the non-offensive scores.

That side-by-side résumé with fellow unbeaten Indiana isn’t going anywhere, and likely, neither is the Fernando Mendoza-to-Marcel Reed Heisman Trophy comparison. Reed has earned the right to be on the short list (+750 on BetMGM) with Mendoza. Time will tell if he can become the first A&M player to reach New York since Manziel. Reed already became the first A&M quarterback to lead a 9-win regular season since Manziel’s Heisman season in 2012.

Unlike that magical 2012 season in College Station, though, Reed still has everything in front of him as mid-November nears. First on that list would be doing something that neither Manziel nor any 21st century A&M quarterback got to do. That is, play in a conference championship. It could all come down to a revenge game against Texas in Austin.

Either way, Reed and the Aggies are a virtual lock to make the Playoff (good luck finding odds anywhere on them to earn a bid). They joined 2020 Alabama, 2021 Georgia, 2022 Georgia and 2023 Georgia as the only SEC teams in the 2020s to start 9-0. Three of those teams won a national title, and all 4 of them finished in the top 3 of the AP Poll. A&M hasn’t done either of those things since 1939. Reed’s passing improvement is a major reason why that’s all on the table.

No rebuttal necessary.

The post An appreciation of Marcel Reed and the player I wasn’t sure that he’d become appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Without an upset in the top 10, there wasn’t expected to be a major shakeup. The biggest question was going to be how far Texas Tech moved up and how far BYU moved down after the former took care of business to take control of the Big 12.

Outside of that, though? Well, there were some minor takeaways that could turn into major takeaways soon.

Here were the biggest developments from the second Playoff Poll of 2025:

Texas Tech moving up to No. 6 and BYU only falling to No. 12 suggests the Big 12’s 2-bid hopes are alive

I wondered if the selection committee would have the guts to move Texas Tech up 2 spots to No. 6 ahead of Ole Miss after that drubbing of undefeated BYU. That was the second time we saw the Red Raiders smash a current Playoff Top 25 team (Utah was the other one), and considering the Arizona State loss came with Behren Morton sidelined, it made sense that the selection committee gave Joey McGuire’s squad even more love on Tuesday night.

By surpassing Ole Miss, who has just 1 marquee win (at Oklahoma), the selection committee opened up the possibility of the Big 12 being a legitimate 2-bid league. BYU is the other part of that conversation. BYU stayed ahead of a 1-loss team like Georgia Tech, as well as 2-loss teams like Miami (FL) and Vanderbilt. That feels significant. If BYU and Texas Tech get a rematch in the Big 12 Championship Game, the loser could be safe in the way that SMU was last year when it didn’t get knocked for earning an extra game in the ACC Championship Game.

Not every league had the same takeaway on Tuesday night.

The ACC not having a team ranked higher than No. 15 suggests a 1-bid league is imminent

Brace for it, ACC fans. It’s happening. A 1-bid league feels more imminent than ever after aforementioned Miami came in at No. 15 and Georgia Tech clocked in at No. 16. Shoot, even Louisville got a bad draw by falling 5 spots and coming in behind fellow 2-loss Miami, who lost to the Cardinals at home. The selection committee operates in mysterious ways.

(The irony is that Miami fans argued last week that it was slighted for being ranked 8 spots behind Notre Dame, yet the Canes somehow got the benefit of the doubt with Louisville.)

It’s a strange thing to say about a conference that has depth with 5 teams ranked No. 15-22. The problem is that none of those teams can get a boost like what we saw Texas Tech get by taking down an undefeated team. Georgia Tech can still make a nice push with games against Pitt and Georgia left on the schedule, which could give Brent Key’s squad 3 more opportunities for quality wins.

The ACC’s multi-bid path is dwindling after No. 20 Louisville and No. 19 Virginia dropped from the 1-loss ranks and fell 5 spots near the back half of the top 25.

The SEC’s chaos scenario is in play

What if I told you that the SEC had 7 teams ranked ahead of the highest-ranked ACC team? You’d say that’s pretty favorable that the SEC will get 4 bids. Now what if I told you that among those 7 teams inside the top 14 (No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia, No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 10 Texas, No. 11 Oklahoma and No. 14 Vanderbilt), there are only 3 matchups left among those teams? Five of them are still alive for the SEC Championship Game, too.

What’s the chaos scenario for Selection Sunday you ask?

• 11-1 Texas A&M
• 11-1 Ole Miss
• 10-2 Texas
• 10-2 Oklahoma
• 10-2 Alabama
• 10-2 Georgia
• 10-2 Vanderbilt

That can still happen. Of course, it would take A&M losing to Texas, who would also have to beat Georgia. It would also involve Oklahoma beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa, which no SEC team has done since 2019 LSU, as well as Vandy taking care of Tennessee in Neyland to close the regular season.

Will that chaos parlay hit? In all likelihood, it’ll be dead by the end of the weekend. But it’s wild to think that it’s even a possibility heading into the third Saturday of November.

And hey, the Group of 5 does exist!

Looking at you, No. 24 USF. A week after the Group of 5 was left out of the Top 25 altogether, USF cracked the rankings as the lone Group of 5 squad. In another instance of head-to-head not carrying as much weight as it probably should, 2-loss USF got the nod over 2-loss Memphis even though the latter has the head-to-head advantage. Make of that what you will. USF obviously has the win at Florida back in Week 2, and the other loss coming at Miami certainly isn’t a deal-breaker for a Group of 5 team.

With USF being slotted in there, there’s a growing sentiment that the winner of The American will get that Group of 5 bid. Shoot, if USF wins out, perhaps it could upend the ACC winner and a Power Conference could get left out of the 12-team Playoff altogether as the 5th-highest ranked conference champ (only the 4 highest-ranked conference champs get auto-bids). That still might be a tall task for USF with Navy and a potential conference title game as the only remaining opportunities to rack up respectable wins.

For the first time, the selection committee acknowledged that the Group of 5 does exist. Whether it carries enough weight to do the unthinkable remains to be seen.

The post Takeaways from the second Playoff Poll of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

If you’re seeking alternative YouTube TV options for Tuesday night’s Playoff rankings, don’t. It’s not worth it. There are times when it could be worth it, but the Week 12 Playoff Poll won’t be one of them.

Maybe that’s a discouraging thing to say to you, reader of this Playoff prediction column. I don’t care. My objective is to give you the truth.

Last week, I gave you the truth by predicting that Texas and Oklahoma would round out the top 12, and that it would differ from the AP Poll. We had all 12 teams accurately predicted, just not in the perfect order with teams ranked No. 6-9. That’s fine.

This week, we’ll give you the exact top 12 so that you don’t have to watch the rankings show:

12. BYU

After a demoralizing loss to Texas Tech, I tend to think that BYU won’t fall off the face of the earth. Two-loss Vanderbilt and 1-loss Georgia Tech are teams worth watching in this spot, but BYU losing on the road to a top-10 team for its first defeat of the year will provide a bit of grace. The Cougars have that all-important Utah win in the Holy War that should be a buffer of sorts. BYU will likely be tasked with winning the final 3 regular season games, one of which includes a trip to Cincinnati, in order to get into the top 10 before a potential Texas Tech rematch in the Big 12 Championship.

11. Oklahoma

The idle Sooners won’t get a drastic shakeup. They still have 2 wins against teams ranked in the current AP Top 25 and 2 losses against teams ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll. That’s a combination for minimal variance. Beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa to hand the Tide their first conference loss of the season would change that conversation. For now, though, OU will stay locked in just outside the top 10.

10. Texas

Last week’s ranking of Texas over Oklahoma confirmed that the selection committee values head-to-head when it’s convenient. It’s convenient with Texas, who beat Oklahoma convincingly on a neutral site and has that Vandy win. Both of those victories are better than Oklahoma’s, and I’d argue they’re better than any win that Notre Dame has on its résumé. But with the selection committee putting the Irish as the top 2-loss team based on the response after those “quality losses” to start the season, it’s safe to say that’s not changing.

9. Notre Dame

Eight consecutive wins has given Notre Dame the benefit of the doubt in the eyes of the selection committee. Whether that’s justified isn’t up to me. If it were, I would point out that the Power Conference foes that Notre Dame beat are a combined 7-21 in conference play. Again, I’m not in charge of pointing that out, nor am I in charge of pointing out that Notre Dame’s 2 wins away from South Bend came against teams that are a combined 3-16 overall. If I were in charge of that, I wouldn’t have the Irish as the top-ranked 2-loss team.

8. Oregon

Winning at Iowa is no small feat, especially with how nasty those conditions were. That was a hard-fought win against a 6-win team who has, oddly enough, turned into the best thing on Oregon’s résumé. As it stands, though, the Ducks now lack a win against a team that’s in the current AP Top 25. The irony is that beating a ranked Iowa team knocked the Hawkeyes team out of the Top 25. Oregon is still set up well to get an at-large bid, but that first ranking suggested the selection committee isn’t necessarily sold on the body of work because of how that Penn State win aged.

7. Texas Tech

You could argue that blowing out BYU should have Texas Tech even higher than No. 7. Simply taking the Cougars’ spot might not seem significant, but there’s something else worth monitoring with Tech and BYU. If both teams are going into the Big 12 title game with 1 loss and it’s a grudge match, that sets up a likely scenario in which both teams are in. That’s based on last year’s SMU precedent. Even if the Red Raiders are still outside of the top 5-6, that’s a nice silver lining that didn’t feel as likely before the first ranking.

6. Ole Miss

If you’re upset that I’ve got Ole Miss here instead of Texas Tech, remember this. Whatever gap that existed a week ago has narrowed by virtue of Ole Miss facing The Citadel and Tech blowing out a Top 25 team for the second time. And while “quality losses” are a bit overrated, I do wonder if the selection committee will value Ole Miss losing on the road to top-5 Georgia after blowing a 9-point 4th quarter lead is less of a knock than losing to unranked Arizona State, albeit without Behren Morton. It won’t be surprising if Ole Miss gets leapfrogged, but for now, it’s 1 spot ahead of the surging Red Raiders.

5. Georgia

Georgia being sandwiched between Alabama and Ole Miss makes sense considering that’s where you’ll find the Dawgs’ lone loss and best win. Beating Mississippi State like a drum won’t necessarily help the résumé in a significant way, but it will push back on the trend of playing in nail-biters in SEC play. The good news for Georgia is that it likely still has a loss to give. The bad news is that it has a pair of legitimate contenders (Texas and Georgia Tech) still on the schedule, which means nothing is guaranteed.

4. Alabama

Alabama and Louisville are the only teams with 3 wins vs. AP Top 25 squads, which is why the Tide have overcome that horrific loss to Florida State. As we outlined with Notre Dame, winning 8 in a row packs some punch. There’s a level of consistency that the selection committee valued by putting the Tide as the top-ranked 1-loss team. That’ll still be the case after making sure LSU didn’t feed off interim coach energy in Tuscaloosa.

3. Texas A&M

The selection committee told us last week that Texas A&M‘s win at Notre Dame wasn’t quite as good as Indiana’s win at Oregon. That’s fine for the Aggies. They’re still in ideal position at No. 3 after drubbing Mizzou to knock the Tigers out of the AP Top 25. Sure, Mizzou had a true freshman quarterback in his first career start. A&M also racked up 220 second-half rushing yards against a top-15 run defense on the road. The Aggies are 4-0 in true road games and worthy of being in the conversation for the No. 2 spot, but it’s hard to envision the selection committee reversing course after last week’s initial ranking.

2. Indiana

As IU was facing its first defeat of the season against Penn State with an interim coach, you already saw some of those 2024 narratives resurface. Poke holes in the depth of the résumé, if you will, but that win at Oregon got even better with the Ducks winning at Iowa. Indiana likely won’t be moved off that No. 2 line unless it falters before the Big Ten Championship, though if A&M beats Texas in Austin to get to 12-0, those conversations will be had. Until then, the Hoosiers aren’t going anywhere.

1. Ohio State

Let’s not diminish what Ohio State has done. That Texas win has come all the way back around, and while beating Washington and Illinois on the road in convincing fashion won’t necessarily count as wins vs. the current Top 25, that still added some depth to the résumé. Texas remains the only team to keep it within 17 points against Ohio State, which is why the Buckeyes aren’t in jeopardy of losing that top spot if they win out.

The post Predicting the top 12 of the second Playoff Poll of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The chase for Atlanta, and essentially an automatic bid into the College Football Playoff with a possible Round 1 bye, is getting real as we head into the 3rd Saturday of November. Still in the hunt for that are Texas A&M (6-0 in SEC play), Alabama (6-0), Georgia (6-1), Ole Miss (5-1) and Texas (4-1).

This week, that number will go down to 4 with Texas traveling to Georgia. Consider that an SEC Championship elimination game. If Texas wins, it’ll likely have another SEC Championship elimination game to close the season when it hosts A&M. Those are the only 2 remaining matchups involving those 5 teams, but as we saw last year, plenty of other SEC foes can have an impact on that race to Atlanta.

Let’s discuss the potential for that in Week 12:

South Carolina vs. No. 3 Texas A&M — No Mike Shula? Great, but LaNorris Sellers still has a Cashius Howell problem

In his first game with Mike Furrey as South Carolina‘s offensive coordinator, Sellers will travel to face an A&M defense who boasts the SEC’s sacks leader in Howell, who plays for the team who leads the nation in sacks per game (3.8). Oh, and Sellers has been pressured on 44.7% of his drop-backs, which is the highest among Power Conference quarterbacks (min. 75 pressured drop-backs). Not great. Also not great? A&M allowed 12 points per SEC home game. If South Carolina had any sort of ground game, perhaps that could be an area that could be exposed after A&M allowed multiple 100-yard rushers at Mizzou, but the SEC’s worst run game in yards/game and yards/carry doesn’t figure to find that in College Station.

This has the makings of a long day at the office for Sellers as a 3-score underdog (via BetMGM). Sadly, that’s been the story of his season.

Arkansas vs. LSU — Our first interim bowl of 2025!

Hey, it was inevitable. After all, 25% of the conference fired their head coach before Week 11. We were destined to get a matchup of interim coaches, and the college football gods blessed us with Bobby Petrino and Frank Wilson. Both fiery coaches have had notable sideline moments, with the former blasting officials and the latter blasting his own decorated QB1, Garrett Nussmeier, who was benched in favor of Michael Van Buren Jr. amid LSU‘s comeback attempt vs. Alabama. Neither one of these coaches figure to get their respective interim tags removed, which is all the more reason that this game could get sideways.

LSU being a 6-point favorite hardly feels like a lock, and while Blake Baker’s unit showed against Alabama that it was still fighting, facing an Arkansas ground game that’s averaging 6 yards per carry will test that. The Tigers will have to find motivation beyond clinching a bowl berth.

Tennessee Tech vs. Kentucky — Um, Tennessee Tech has won 15 in a row

Yeah. I didn’t realize that, either. That’s why you come to a place like this to learn things about FCS opponents who look like cupcakes, but might actually be as tough as a $2 steak. That’s terrifying. It’s terrifying because Mark Stoops has seemingly righted the ship with consecutive SEC wins against Auburn and Florida, who were held to 1 combined touchdown. Speaking of dominant defensive performances, during this 15-game winning streak, which dates back to Oct. 2024, Tennessee Tech allowed 24 points just once. That’s not something that should be ignored for Cutter Boley and a Kentucky offense that showed signs of life in a 38-7 beatdown on Saturday, albeit against a lifeless Florida defense.

And just in case that wasn’t enough to give Kentucky fans a little pause ahead of this matchup, Tennessee Tech coach Bobby Wilder looks like he came off the set of “Peaky Blinders.” Things could get weird in Lexington on Saturday afternoon.

No. 11 Oklahoma vs. No. 4 Alabama — The stat that has allowed Alabama to operate in such a unique way is …

Ty Simpson leads all FBS QBs with 780 passing yards while possessing a lead of 1-7 points. In those situations, he’s a 67% passer with a 162.6 QB rating and he’s thrown for 33 first downs, which trails only Marcel Reed (34) among FBS quarterbacks. Why bring that up? Well, it’s simple. Alabama can’t run the ball. At all. After a 56-yard performance on the ground against LSU — that was Alabama’s fewest rushing yards in a game since that weird 2023 game vs. Texas A&M — the Tide rank No. 15 in the SEC in yards/carry (3.5) and No. 14 in rushing yards/game (111.9). Ty Simpson is Alabama’s leader with 13 missed tackles forced as a runner while the Tide have just 798 rushing yards after contact, which ranks No. 14 in the SEC. It’s why the ball is seemingly always in his hands late in games when Alabama would ideally prefer to run the ball.

Keep that in mind against this Oklahoma defense, which has been mostly dominant, but a bit vulnerable against the pass in conference play. The Sooners have allowed 253 passing yards per SEC game, which ranks No. 12 in the SEC. One would think Alabama will again lean on that passing game instead of running it at an OU defense that hasn’t allowed 4.0 yards per carry since Week 2. Note that Alabama hasn’t had 4.0 yards per carry since Week 2 against Louisiana-Monroe, but when you’ve got Simpson playing at such a high level with big-time throws and just 1 interception, well, you can operate in a unique way.

New Mexico State vs. No. 21 Tennessee — I’ve given up hope that Tennessee’s cornerback duo will return in 2025

That is, Rickey Gibson III and Jermod McCoy, AKA Tennessee‘s top 2 corners who have played a combined 19 snaps this season. All of those came from Gibson in the season opener, when he suffered an upper-body injury that made matters worse for a Tennessee secondary that had already lost McCoy to a January ACL tear. That’s been at the forefront of Tennessee’s down defensive season. It’s not just that the Vols have allowed 33 passing plays of 20 yards (No. 14 in SEC). It’s that they have struggled with missed tackles in space. On the season, the Vols have 103 missed tackles. That’s the 4th most in the SEC. Teams like Auburn and Vanderbilt have been able to overcome that because they’ve been excellent against the run, especially in the red zone. Tennessee, however, ranks dead last in FBS with an 83.9% red-zone touchdown percentage allowed. That’s a year removed from ranking No. 5 in FBS in that area at 46%.

Why bring that up with McCoy and Gibson? Last year, McCoy had 3 interceptions within Tennessee’s 5-yard line. He was a momentum-flipping game-wrecker in that area of the field. There was hope early on that McCoy and Gibson would return for a potential Playoff push. But now that the Vols are out of that conversation, it doesn’t feel like anybody should be holding their breath for their return.

Florida vs. No. 6 Ole Miss — This is more than just a revenge game for Ole Miss

It’s a “let’s not screw up our Playoff hopes so that Lane Kiffin has all the reason in the world to stay at Ole Miss” game. That matters, too. A letdown to a lifeless Florida team would be an all-time bad loss for Kiffin, though given his team’s ability to avoid those potential land mines this year, that would feel completely out of character. Out of character for Kiffin would be to completely ignore the elephant in the room. His ties to the Florida job won’t be lost on him. His “spot the ball” tweets have felt like subtle jabs at Florida. My guess is that we’ll see plenty of those this week before and after Ole Miss takes care of business against Florida.

It’s worth noting that DJ Lagway got benched against Kentucky. A year removed from getting the biggest win of his college career by halting Ole Miss’s Playoff path, Lagway’s time at Florida could be done on the heels of Billy Napier’s firing. What a difference a year makes.

No. 10 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia — Does Kirby Smart just have Steve Sarkisian’s number?

In both of those Georgia wins against Texas last year, the Longhorns failed to score 20 points and they were held to an average of 30 rushing yards without a rushing score. Those were the 2 worst rushing performances since the start of the 2023 season. Oh, and the Longhorns turned the ball over a combined 7 times in those losses. That feels … significant. Sure, those were different teams, but Smart has been a reminder that sometimes, the uniform matters (his 1-7 mark vs. Alabama supports that). Play callers matter. Those haven’t changed since those statements that the Georgia defense made.

Coming off its most complete game of the year in a blowout win at Mississippi State, Georgia looks like a team that could be rounding into form at the right time. If that is indeed the case, it’ll frustrate a 2-loss Texas team that’s kept its SEC Championship and Playoff hopes alive the last month. Smart getting to 3-0 against Sarkisian and being responsible for half of his losses since the start of 2024 would be quite the feather in the Georgia coach’s cap.

Mississippi State vs. Mizzou — Have mercy on the Mississippi State run defense

It was gashed by Georgia in every possible way. Nate Frazier is still running. He was at the center of a 303-yard rushing day for the visiting Dawgs. Mind you, that was a week removed from getting gashed for 239 yards against 2-win Arkansas. A defense that looked like it was on the rise now gets to close the season with games against Ahmad Hardy and Kewan Lacy. Why bring that up? Those are the 2 Power Conference leaders in missed tackles forced. That’s bad news for a Mississippi State run defense that has missed 110 tackles this year, which is tied for the most of any SEC team. Yikes.

With Mizzou, it’s not even just Hardy, who leads the conference with 1,046 rushing yards. Jamal Roberts is an ideal change-of-pace back with 538 rushing yards and 6.5 yards/carry. Among SEC backs with at least 60 carries, he’s No. 2 with an average of 4.2 yards after first contact. Who’s No. 1, you ask? Hardy. Say a little prayer for the Mississippi State defense.

The post Early thoughts on SEC games in Week 12 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Garrett Nussmeier’s benching in favor of Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren Jr. was something that LSU fans had plenty of time to brace for, especially after Brian Kelly‘s firing, though it’s still baffling how quickly things changed for LSU quarterback over the last 2 months. After the Clemson win, he was the Heisman Trophy favorite for a legitimate national contender. Never mind the fact that he had NFL folks salivating at his ability to make next-level throws. Everything was ahead of Nussmeier.

During LSU’s 3rd consecutive loss on Saturday night at Alabama, 3 plays showed exactly why there’s nothing ahead for Nussmeier at LSU.

Down 2 touchdowns but with the ball to start the second half, Nussmeier put LSU in position to potentially make it a 1-score game. He even bounced back after getting his helmet ripped off on a rare scramble. But on 3rd-and-goal from the Alabama 8-yard line, Nussmeier did the thing that made Kelly turn shades of red that were deeper than the sea of Crimson that he saw at Bryant-Denny Stadium. He didn’t see the play clock winding down and he took a delay of game penalty.

Bad? Sure, but trying doing that on the very next play.

Nussmeier again didn’t show urgency getting out of the huddle. Blame that on the first game with a new play caller if you will, but it’s still up to the quarterback to get to the line and not have the same exact pre-snap infraction happen, much less on a goal-to-go situation in a 17-3 game. This time, though, interim coach Frank Wilson called a timeout to bail out Nussmeier.

Bad? Sure, but try spinning into a 3-man pass rush 14 yards behind the line of scrimmage on the very next play.

Or don’t. Take it from Nussmeier, who had plenty of 3-man pass rushes get home with LSU’s lack of a ground game, but perhaps none as embarrassing as that one. After that stalled LSU’s drive, he was shown on ABC cameras getting an earful from Wilson, who then did the thing that Kelly couldn’t — he pulled the plug on Nussmeier.

It was an afterthought that LSU made the kick to make it an 11-point game with 8:54 left in the 3rd quarter. Shoot, the LSU defense didn’t allow a second-half touchdown and continued its mostly impressive season, even without captain Whit Weeks. LSU’s offense, which still hasn’t scored more than 25 points vs. an FBS opponent all year, had plenty of help from Blake Baker’s defense again on Saturday night.

As LSU’s defense prevented the College Football Playoff-bound Tide — don’t tell convince yourself under any circumstances that Alabama is missing the Playoff — from putting the game away, Nussmeier might’ve had as much on-screen face time as Van Buren (it didn’t help matters that Nussmeier’s beard seemingly blended in with his eyeblack). It was a tough sight to see for those who expected big things from Nussmeier in 2025.

The NFL Draft folks will be left to determine how much of Nussmeier’s 2025 regression was related to his multiple injuries, how much of it was related to poor offensive line play, how much of it was related to poor play-calling and how much of it was related to him not seeing the field the way you’d hope a 5th-year, son-of-a-coach quarterback should’ve.

There’s no denying that even the biggest Nussmeier apologist can’t defend what he was in 2025

Before that 3-play sequence happened, LSU great Booger McFarland gave a blunt, but fair, breakdown during the ABC halftime show. Essentially, it was “Ty Simpson makes plays like an NFL quarterback and Nussmeier doesn’t.” Greg McElroy pointed out on the broadcast the timing issues with Nussmeier and why, banged up receivers or not, he was missing throws that have to be made.

The 3-man rush sack was what took the cake, though.

Is LSU’s offensive line what it was last year with Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr.? Certainly not. Is it also a 5th-year, son-of-a-coach quarterback’s responsibility to not spin directly into a 3-man pass rush and turn 1st-and-goal into a long field goal attempt? Certainly, it is. Even an interim coach could see that.

As Sean McDonough said on the broadcast, getting chewed out was hardly new for Nussmeier, but having it lead to a benching was certainly a first for him at LSU.

Three years ago, he was the redshirt freshman who threw the ball without fear in relief of an injured Jayden Daniels the second half against eventual-national champion Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Three years later, he was unrecognizable against the Alabama team who’ll likely play for a conference title. It’s too bad. It’s too bad for someone who stayed not only when Kelly got on board, but stayed after Daniels came in and won the starting job. His return for 2025 fueled preseason national title buzz thanks to some urgent transfer portal spending. Nussmeier did the things that college football purists would salute.

But likely the final meaningful snaps of his college career were anything but commendable. They were casual. They were sloppy. They were disastrous.

Outside of Week 1, it’ll be difficult to find the positive in Nussmeier’s 2025 season. He’ll end with a quarterback rating outside the top 10 in the SEC, and along with fellow preseason darling-turned-benched-quarterback DJ Lagway, Nussmeier will be tied for 14th in the SEC with just 7 completions of 30 yards. Mind you, he had 23 last year.

Nothing about Nussmeier’s 2025 season felt like a progression. It instead felt like a painful reminder that these days, the life of a decorated preseason quarterback often fails to meet expectations. Blame it on NIL if you choose, or just blame it on the reality that not everyone is capable of handling the weight of expectations.

Nussmeier fell short of that. His college career will end without any of that aforementioned hardware. That was his reality well before Wilson benched him on Saturday night.

It just took that inevitable 3-play sequence to reach Nussmeier’s anticlimactic LSU ending.

The post 3 plays personified the sad ending of the Garrett Nussmeier era at LSU appeared first on Saturday Down South.

In many years, the second weekend of November had division races all but decided. Figuring out who would get to Atlanta wasn’t so much a mystery as it was an inevitability. Perhaps we’ll still wind up with an Alabama–Georgia SEC Championship Game, but at the very least, it remained a mystery entering Week 11.

Dare I say, it’s still a mystery. Cheers to that.

Here were the biggest takeaways of the Week 11 action in the SEC:

We were overdue for a Georgia flex

After starting off SEC play without a halftime lead in 5 of 6 conference games, Georgia finally put its foot on the gas from the jump. Well, I supposed that wasn’t entirely true because of that opening script touchdown for Mississippi State. But needless to say, 38 consecutive points from the visiting Dawgs put the the home Dawgs away early.

Georgia ran the ball seemingly at will against Mississippi State. Nate Frazier looked like the second coming of D’Andre Swift, Elyiss Williams looked like the second coming of Darnell Washington and Kirby Smart looked like the second coming of … Kirby Smart, who got his 47th consecutive win vs. an unranked foe (longest in the nation). To be fair, Georgia hadn’t had a flex like that against a non-Kentucky SEC team all year. The offensive line completely overpowered Mississippi State and we even saw Georgia have — wait for it — multiple sacks in the first half.

One of those sacks knocked out Blake Shapen, who was overwhelmed during roughly 1 half. He gave way to the true freshman Kamario Taylor, who has shown promise when he’s been used in certain packages, but was never going to overcome a lopsided deficit against the Georgia team that showed up on Saturday.

With Texas on deck, it was a fitting time for Georgia to put together its best SEC game of the season. Now the question for the No. 5 Dawgs will be whether that’ll continue against a Texas team that felt their wrath last year. At the very least, Saturday served as a reminder that Georgia might just be peaking at the right time.

Texas A&M can officially kiss those 8-4 jokes goodbye

I’m old enough to remember when Mike Elko inherited a Texas A&M program that had lost 10-consecutive true road games. My, how things have changed. Not only did Elko squash that in Year 1, but in Year 2, his team might just sweep its entire road slate.

That’s how you move past 8-4 jokes.

The 9-0 Aggies feasted on a true freshman quarterback in his first career start, but after 23 rushing yards in the first half, it also finally broke a Mizzou run defense that had the fewest missed tackles (45) of any FBS team and had 220 rushing yards in the second half. Fittingly, it was a 57-yard Rueben Owens touchdown that did just that to put the game on ice. Marcel Reed made plenty of big-time throws, though it was a perfect play design and blocking on the bubble screen to KC Concepcion that fueled the biggest passing play of the day.

Whatever the case, A&M showed why it’s the most versatile SEC team. Ergo, it showed why it’s the last remaining unbeaten in the conference and a legitimate national title contender. That’s becoming tougher and tougher to deny. The Aggies could still have their first 21st century trip to a conference title game come down to that Texas matchup, but that’s fine.

Elko just gave A&M its first 9-win regular season of the post-Johnny Manziel era. Think about that. Jimbo Fisher couldn’t do it, and Kevin Sumlin only did it with the best player in program history.

If Elko isn’t part of those national coach of the year conversations, well, he should be … and not just because A&M won’t finish the regular season with an 8-4 record like it has 7 times in the last 12 seasons.

Mizzou can officially kiss that Playoff path goodbye

It felt over with the Vandy loss, but loss No. 3 with a 3rd-string quarterback made that official. Matt Zollers struggled mightily in his first career start, and understandably so. That was an A&M defense that entered Week 11 ranked No. 1 in FBS with 4 sacks per game. It was tough sledding for him. To be fair, it would’ve been tough sledding for Beau Pribula, too.

But for a program that was knocking on the door the last 2 years, that had to feel like a frustrating missed opportunity. It was an extremely favorable schedule, the portal hits were evident on both sides of the ball, it was an elite defense that looked the part for the vast majority of the season and Eli Drinkwitz had a Year 3 offensive coordinator. This was a team with a 10-2 ceiling, though obviously a 3rd-string quarterback keeping Playoff hopes alive doesn’t usually set up well (unless you’re 2014 Ohio State). That’s a tough pill to swallow.

Now, attention will shift to Drinkwitz’s future. Will he be pursued by another SEC job? And would he leave? The Mizzou coach has a fascinating November ahead, even as his Playoff chances end.

As for Vandy’s Playoff chances … you’re still there? You’re still there!

What’s that? Vanderbilt will have Playoff life heading into the 4th Saturday of November? Yep.

(Vandy is on bye next week, AKA the 3rd Saturday of November, so it won’t play again until the 4th Saturday of November.)

It wasn’t exactly Diego Pavia getting the last laugh on Hugh Freeze, but it was indeed another Vandy victory against Auburn. Go figure that it was the polar opposite of last year’s game. A 45-38 shootout turned into one of the more entertaining games of the day. It even gave us Pavia stumbling on 4th-and-1 in the scenario that he seemingly never stumbles in. Of course, he still delivered a jump-pass touchdown to Cole Spence in overtime for the win. Why would’t he?

Vandy OC Tim Beck did a masterful job slicing up an Auburn defense who was 1 of 3 units who hadn’t allowed 25 points in a game this season. A 20-10 halftime deficit flipped because of Vandy’s ability to dial up the chunk plays. Some of that was scheme, and some of that was a busted coverage on a 57-yard touchdown pass in the middle of the 3rd quarter. Tempo might’ve contributed to the latter, but still.

It’s remarkable to see how easy things look for the Vandy offense at times, and not just because of how special Pavia is. Eli Stowers continues to be the best tight end in the country, Junior Sherrill makes plays in traffic and Sedrick Alexander finishes off drives. A unit that was quiet for the majority of the last 2 weeks — that furious comeback at Texas came in the last 4 minutes — looks borderline unstoppable.

Vandy is 8-2 with a chance for its first 9-win regular season since 1915. The only thing standing in Vandy’s way of a Playoff berth is a home game against Kentucky and a road game at Tennessee.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — what a time to be alive.

Cam Coleman’s 2026 price is skyrocketing

All it took for Coleman to be force fed targets was for Freeze to get fired. Imagine that. In his first game without Freeze running Auburn’s offense, Coleman had career highs in both catches (10) and yards (143). But it wasn’t just the fact that Coleman stuffed the stat sheet. The degree of difficulty of his catches was a sight to behold.

Just insane. Not pictured there was him hauling in a jump ball for the 2-point conversion, or the fact that Ashton Daniels blindly targeted Coleman in double coverage on 4th down in overtime. The latter didn’t work, but who could blame Daniels? Coleman, as well as Georgia Tech transfer Eric Singleton, looked as advertised without Freeze.

It begs the question — what’s Coleman going to get for 2026? Interim coach DJ Durkin said after the game that coaches across the country were calling Auburn players. One would assume that Coleman got the most calls of anyone. Will he stay at Auburn with whatever new-look offense it rolls out in 2026? Or will he hit the portal and inevitably make as much money as any non-quarterback in the sport?

Whatever the case, it was a joy to watch Coleman finally unleashed in 2025.

DJ Lagway and Garrett Nussmeier getting benched felt __________.

“Sadly inevitable.”

Man, what a brutal 2025 it’s been for the second-year Florida quarterback and the LSU post-Week 1 Heisman Trophy favorite. A season that began awkwardly for Lagway with injury questions galore now feels all but over after a disastrous first half resulted in his benching in favor of Tramell Jones Jr. Lagway was a mess, and not just because he had a banged-up group of receivers. He wasn’t seeing defenders, which led to a trio of interceptions. The 5th multi-interception game of Lagway’s young career was the most depressing of the bunch because it happened to a Kentucky team that was searching for its first home win vs. an SEC foe in over 2 years.

As for Nussmeier, like Lagway, he hasn’t looked healthy and a banged-up group of receivers didn’t help. But also like Lagway, watching the mistakes has been alarming. Whether that’s nearly taking consecutive delay of game penalties or spinning into a sack in a 3-man rush, Nussmeier was such a mess that LSU coach Frank Wilson pulled the plug in the middle of the 3rd quarter. It was bad. It was more of the same that we saw under Brian Kelly. It didn’t matter that Nussmeier had a new play caller.

It’s now fair to wonder if that’s the last that we’ll see of them in their respective uniforms as QB1. Nussmeier’s NFL Draft stock has inevitably taken a massive hit while Lagway’s 2026 will be spent in college, but where that is is anyone’s guess.

What’s clear is that nobody in August would’ve guessed that this is how November would go for those 2 decorated signal callers in 2025.

The post The biggest SEC takeaways from Week 11 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

With each clutch throw that Simpson makes in his first season as Alabama‘s QB1, surely there are NFL folks taking note. He checks a ton of boxes. The physical measureables are there at 6-2, 208 pounds, he’s the son of a head coach (and it shows), he’s been the driving force of an offense that lacks an elite ground game, he became the first SEC quarterback to ever beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 foes without any extra rest and he’s shown he can make every throw on the field, though the intermediate passing game (10-19 yards) is where he’s been at his best with a 130.4 NFL quarterback rating.

(Literally as I was writing this, I went to PFF to look up those advanced stats and saw that Simpson was on the home page going No. 1 overall in Trevor Sikkema’s post-trade deadline mock draft.)

Simpson has been even better than the most optimistic preseason projection, which is why he’s among the current Heisman Trophy favorites heading into the second weekend of November. For some, the notion of an Alabama quarterback being “must watch” doesn’t make sense considering that Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones, Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe all finished in the top 6 of the Heisman (Hurts finished No. 2 after he transferred to Oklahoma in 2019).

But Simpson is indeed must watch for a variety of reasons. His emerging greatness needs to be appreciated by those who love watching a modern passing attack like the one Ryan Grubb and Kalen DeBoer are running at Alabama. Simpson should also be appreciated by college football purists who love watching a guy stay at the same school and wait behind multiple quarterbacks while enduring a head coaching change.

A question lingers, though. It’s the one I can’t help but wonder about.

Is Simpson going to be the exception to the new unwritten rule about avoiding 1-year starters in the first round in the NFL Draft?

And if not, would coming back to school with an inevitably large price tag make sense?

We’re not here today to make that decision for Simpson. He’s proven that he doesn’t need any help at making decisions in high-pressure situations. In fact, that very element could be the thing that allows him to overcome the “1-year starter” knock that’ll loom with those NFL Draft discussions.

Just in case you haven’t been following this trend, take a look at the first-round quarterbacks selected in the last decade who were only 1-year starters in college:

• Mitch Trubisky, 2017
• Kyler Murray, 2019
• Dwayne Haskins, 2019
• Trey Lance, 2021
• Mac Jones, 2021
• Anthony Richardson, 2023

That’s not exactly an inviting group. Murray is the only one of that group who got a second contract with the team who drafted him, and most recently, there’s speculation that Murray was given a soft benching in favor of Jacoby Brissett.

None of those 6 guys attempted 600 passes at the college level. Simpson likely won’t hit 600 college pass attempts unless he returns for Year 5 — he’d need to average 36 passes for the rest of the season if it included 16 games — which would be his last year of eligibility. And sure, while there were guys in that group like Trubisky, Murray and Jones who waited until Year 4 of college to become starters, this is about meaningful reps.

But what’s unique about Simpson as a first-year starter is that he’s already gotten a ton of meaningful reps in high-leverage situations.

• Leading by 1-7 points: 54-for-81 (66.7%), 679 yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs, 157.5 QB rating
• Tied: 41-for-54 (75.9%), 478 yards, 5 TDs, 1 INT, 177.1 QB rating
• Trailing by 1-7 points: 16-for-23 (69.6%), 222 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 193.7 QB rating
• Total: 111-for-158 (70.2%), 1,379 yards (8.7 yards/attempt), 13 TDs, 1 INT

That’s 158 pass attempts when the scoring margin is 7 points or less. Just for a little perspective, Richardson had 184 such passing attempts in his lone full season as QB1, and Jones had 189 such passing attempts during that entire 13-game season he had as Alabama’s QB1. For all we know, Simpson will have both of those numbers surpassed by game’s end on Saturday against LSU, and he’ll finish with a number closer to the late Haskins, who had 323 such attempts as QB1 in 2018.

Whatever draft discussion exists with Simpson should factor something like that into the equation. Let’s also remember that Simpson could end up starting in 16-17 games this season. That’s closer to 1.5 seasons. Shoot, Simpson could wind up facing 8-9 AP Top 25 finishers if Alabama makes a run to the College Football Playoff National Championship. That’d be as many as Lance (0), Trubisky (4) and Haskins (4) combined. Of course, one could argue Josh Allen faced 2 AP Top 25 finishers in his entire college career and life turned out just fine for him.

It’ll be in the eye of the beholder with Simpson. He’ll undoubtedly receive some sort of draft feedback in December or January. Perhaps the 1-year starter element and his 86 drop-backs under pressure (No. 10 in SEC) will create at least some slight skepticism from the next level that’ll have some wondering if a nice payday to return to Alabama makes more sense. Of course, if Simpson does that, he’d have to consider the college-level trend that’s taken shape in the NIL era.

Being a decorated returning QB hasn’t exactly gone well in this era of college football

It wasn’t long ago that Simpson saw what that was like with Milroe. Granted, that included a significant scheme/coaching change. Simpson, in theory, wouldn’t have to worry about that. Then again, neither did Garrett Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik or Drew Allar, all of whom were draft-eligible quarterbacks who returned to school and have since hurt their respective NFL Draft stocks with disappointing 2025 seasons. Go ask 2024 Carson Beck or 2024 Quinn Ewers about that, too.

Any world in which Simpson returns would include an overwhelming amount of hype/NIL opportunities/preseason accolades. Managing that — even for a coach’s son who seemingly says and does all the right things — could still prove to be a challenge.

It’s the other side of the coin that needs to be remembered when anyone suggests that Simpson returning to school and getting $4 million is the “safe” decision. There’s risk in that, too, especially for someone who doesn’t have the luxury that a post-2024 Beck had with another year of eligibility.

To Simpson’s credit, he’s done a masterful job of assessing risk and making plays in meaningful moments. It’s not just that he has the 20-1 TD-INT ratio. PFF has him for turnover-worthy plays on just 2.2% of his drop-backs, which ranks No. 2 in the SEC and No. 13 among Power Conference quarterbacks (min. 150 drop-backs). You could say the degree of difficulty lessens with a receiver room as talented as Alabama’s, but watch him and you’ll realize that he’s not just benefitting from favorable passing-game surroundings; he’s making that offense go.

Add it all up and these are a fascinating couple of months ahead for Simpson. Who knows what it entails both with college and NFL Draft accolades? Lord knows someone who has 8 career college starts is hardly a finished product. Simpson would be the first person to tell you that. His self-criticism has felt like a chip off the old Nick Saban block, but amid his emergence is a prevailing thought.

He’s absolutely earned the right to have all eyes on him.

The post As we appreciate Ty Simpson’s emerging greatness, a deeper NFL Draft question lingers appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The Next Round’s Ryan Brown joined the show to discuss all things Auburn, Jon Sumrall and Ty Simpson

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

Subscribe to The Saturday Down South Podcast here, and subscribe to Saturday Down South on YouTube for all the latest video content!

The post SDS Podcast: Can Texas A&M stay unbeaten? Tricky spots for Georgia & Alabama, Ryan Brown talks Auburn & Ty Simpson appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Interpret that how you will. Consensus will tell you that it’s Kiffin who is considered the top candidate for a variety of SEC vacancies in what’s turning into an unprecedented coaching carousel. Consensus will also probably tell you that such a unique position makes the Ole Miss coach the most fascinating person in this coaching carousel.

But there’s at least a decent chance that Kiffin’s coaching carousel arc has an anticlimactic ending of him staying at Ole Miss, likely as a richer man. After all, Kiffin is in the $9 million club with a team that just earned its highest Playoff Poll ranking in 11 years. Does he have to leave? Certainly not.

A few weeks ago, Kiffin took to the podium and shared a consensus opinion. That is, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall will move up from the Group of 5 ranks and get an SEC job this cycle. Kiffin then proceeded to wipe the floor with Sumrall’s squad, but the point remains an overwhelming feeling, especially after Power Conference candidates like Curt Cignetti and Rhett Lashlee agreed to new contracts.

It’s Sumrall, not Kiffin, who should be viewed as the most fascinating person in this coaching carousel.

You’ve likely seen his name for all 4 current SEC vacancies. After all, he’s coached all over the South, and he’s been a successful head coach at Troy and Tulane, which are in 2 states (Alabama and Louisiana) where there are big-time vacancies. That doesn’t even include his alma mater, Kentucky, who could soon have a $37 million decision to make on Mark Stoops, especially if there’s fear that their long-expected coach-in-waiting has a better SEC job waiting for him.

That begs the question — what’s considered a good job for Sumrall?

To be clear, that’s not to say that Sumrall is going to be offered all of these jobs and he’ll have some Signing Day-type announcement with a row of hats. That’s not how this works, even for the coveted candidates.

But at the same time, you can bet that the 43-year-old head coach is asking this question internally as his name surfaces. That includes evaluating his current job, Tulane, who has Playoff life but is where every other Group of 5 program is in the first Playoff Poll. That is, outside the top 25. While there are programs like aforementioned SMU and Indiana who have found ways to benefit in this new era of college football, one can’t help but think that there’s still an obvious ceiling at the Group of 5 level.

While Tulane would certainly give Sumrall another raise to stick around — he reportedly got bumped up to nearly $3 million annually last December — the money to be made in one of these SEC jobs blows that out of the water. A “good job” for Sumrall isn’t necessarily one that pays him the most. It’s where he sees the path to competing for national titles.

Auburn, Florida and LSU have all won national titles in the last 2 decades. They’ve also combined for 7 coach firings — all of which included buyouts of at least $15 million — and 0 Playoff berths in the 2020s. In the Playoff era, the only coaches at those respective jobs who earned a Year 5 reached or won a national title during their tenures (Gus Malzahn and Ed Orgeron).

Another way that Sumrall’s approach should differ from 2010s logic is with the roster he inherits

With the 30-day window for players on the roster to enter the transfer portal, Sumrall’s decision can’t be based on the assumption that the current roster will be kept. Even Kalen DeBoer, who inherited the No. 1 team in the 247Sports talent composite with several key veterans who stayed in board in 2024, still lost guys like Caleb Downs and Julian Sayin. More important for Sumrall than the roster he could inherit should be how he feels about the roster he’ll be tasked with building.

After the 2024 season, Brian Kelly pledged $1 million of his own money to help finance an LSU roster that was headlined by a high-priced transfer portal class that ranked No. 1 in the cycle. That didn’t yield the national championship results he hoped for, but there’s no denying that LSU was a major player in acquiring talent and keeping talent. Would Sumrall have that same kind of alignment at LSU? Or would all the instability at the university level, which recently led to promoting interim AD Verge Ausberry to the full-time role, lead to an unclear picture there?

As an in-state coach, Sumrall has had a unique vantage point seeing the Louisiana government’s involvement in the aftermath of Kelly’s firing. He could be thinking “man, I’d really prefer to have my future decided within the confines of the university and not at the state level” or “I love how much this state cares about football.”

We don’t know. It’s the job of Sumrall’s representatives (he’s a CAA client), to find out real intel about these jobs. Every athletic director who has interest in Sumrall will sell a vision of alignment. Duh. Kiffin was infamously sold a vision of alignment and a lack of major NCAA sanctions before he took the USC job. How did that work out?

Sumrall doesn’t have to navigate a situation like that, but he does have to weigh that heavily. Alignment is something Bill Belichick didn’t have upon arrival at UNC. It’s something Bryan Harsin didn’t have upon arrival at Auburn. It goes beyond whether boosters and administrators think you’re the right person for the job. It even goes beyond how much money is available to acquire a roster in a given year.

The assistant pool is the underrated element of alignment. Cignetti’s first new contract extension that he signed at Indiana bumped his assistant pool salary up to $11 million, which was nearly as much as Ohio State’s. His most recent new contract has a clause that states Indiana’s assistant budget will be top 5 in the Big Ten and top 10 nationally. That’s alignment.

For a defensive-minded coach like Sumrall, there’ll be an expectation that at whatever school he goes to, he’ll have to make a splashy offensive coordinator hire that’ll likely be north of $2 million annually. Kiffin had that type of alignment at Ole Miss, and it allowed him to poach defensive coordinator Pete Golding from Alabama and get him a deal that reportedly paid him $2.1 million in 2024.

A place like LSU has been better than Florida and Auburn at landing high-priced coordinators, but then again, both of those 2 programs had a head coach who held on to offensive play-calling duties. Make of that what you will. USA Today’s Matt Hayes reported that Napier attempted to poach Ole Miss OC Charlie Weis Jr., but failed to do so.

Alignment can look different for a Year 1 coach than a Year 3 coach on the hot seat. Napier’s shortcomings at Florida weren’t from a lack of support. If anything, the unprecedented amount of support he received with a ballooned staff made his lack of on-field results more alarming. If there’s a sense from Florida that the wasted funds of the Napier era will limit Sumrall’s potential budget, that has to be considered. For what it’s worth, there aren’t any indications that’ll be the case from a Florida administration that believed in 2024 that it had the resources to poach Kiffin from Ole Miss.

If Kiffin has a different sort of alignment at Florida than Sumrall, that matters. All of this is relevant context.

What if this ends with Sumrall doing the thing that fools us all?

At this point, “fooling us all” would be him going to Kentucky. As in, the program who currently has the longest-tenured coach in the SEC but is in jeopardy of paying a historic buyout after its 4th consecutive disappointing season.

If Sumrall decides that home is where the heart is and he returns to the place where he played and coached, it’ll be more evidence that we need to rethink how we view the coaching carousel. With generational wealth and a path to the Playoff available at so many Power Conference programs, Sumrall going to Kentucky instead of Auburn, Florida and LSU would be a massive victory for the little guy.

Again, though, that would be fooling us all.

What wouldn’t fool anyone is if Sumrall ends up at 1 of those 3 premier SEC jobs with a lucrative contract and a national pat on the back. He could be this cycle’s version of Mike Elko, who was considered the non-splashy hire that replaced the guy that was fired with the largest buyout in the history of college athletics. In Year 2, Elko has Texas A&M off to its best start since 1994. Perhaps of equal importance, he could be the reason why big-time programs invest in someone like Sumrall.

A fascinating month or so awaits. If Sumrall leads Tulane to a Playoff berth with an AAC Championship, that’ll only complicate things.

For now, though, keep your eyes on the most fascinating person in this chaotic coaching carousel.

The post If you were Jon Sumrall, AKA the most fascinating person in this coaching carousel, what would you do? appeared first on Saturday Down South.

OK, maybe we got a little specific there. Josh Heupel‘s situation is specific. It needs context. Any sort of “he’s not the guy for Tennessee” reaction to Saturday night’s devastating loss to Oklahoma is lacking just that.

Let’s be clear. It was a frustrating loss. Losing that game — one in which Tennessee turned the ball over 3 times in a first half that it dominated but still trailed at the break — should sting. Tennessee has earned the right to have losses like that sting instead of just being happy that it played a competitive game against a ranked foe on a national stage.

Why has Tennessee earned that right, you ask? Heupel.

As in, the guy who just delivered the program’s best 3-year stretch in 20 years. Like, the guy who had the No. 1 scoring offense in America at the midway point of the season even though that unit had 4 new starting offensive lineman, it lost its 3 leading receivers, it replaced SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson and it had a post-spring transfer as QB1. He’s the guy who has coached in 47 consecutive games as an AP Top 25 team dating back to the 2022 season opener, and just lost his first game to a non-Georgia team at Neyland Stadium in over 4 years. Oh, and in that building, he’s the guy who finally ended the 15-year losing streak to Alabama-led Nick Saban and beat his successor en route to Tennessee’s first Playoff berth last year.

You know, that guy.

But hey, who needs context when we can just fire off takes like this one:

Here’s the problem with that take and the context it lacks. It ignores the part where Heupel took over for Jeremy Pruitt’s disaster and James Franklin took over for … Bill O’Brien’s rebuild after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Yeah, nobody ever likes to bring that up with Franklin because O’Brien only spent 2 years in State College, where he held that program together and made it an attractive enough vacancy for someone like Franklin to take over. Scholarship limitations hampered Penn State in the first couple years of Franklin’s tenure — watching Penn State’s offensive line allow 10 sacks to Temple in the 2015 season opener did permanent psychological damage to Christian Hackenberg — but he worked through that.

Is that too much context? Let’s add some more. Franklin’s 4-21 record vs. AP Top 10 teams was his biggest knock, and the fact that his last such victory in a regular season game came in 2016 led to angst among that fanbase entering Year 12.

In Year 5, Heupel has 3 wins vs. AP Top 10 teams. A 3-7 mark vs. AP Top 10 teams still beats Franklin’s 2-11 mark in that stretch, which began well after he had already reestablished Penn State’s identity, but let’s not get lost in that side-by-side comp.

Want more context? Sure. In the 14 seasons prior to Heupel’s arrival on Rocky Top, Tennessee was 0-37 vs. AP Top 10 teams. Jeremy Pruitt (0-9), Butch Jones (0-13), Derek Dooley (0-8), Lane Kiffin (0-2) and Phillip Fulmer (0-5) all contributed to that horrendous stretch.

Do I need to get a billboard to make sure people remember that? Maybe a megaphone? Let’s put it in big, bold letters.

Tennessee was 0-37 vs. AP Top 10 teams in the 14 seasons prior to Heupel’s arrival on Rocky Top

Tennessee went from 2007-20 without beating a single team ranked inside the top 10 of the AP Poll, and yet there are people convinced that Heupel’s ceiling is too low. Never mind the fact that since Heupel took over, he’s tied for No. 6 among active coaches with 11 wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (4 of the guys ahead of him have reached the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in the last 3 seasons). Saturday night’s showing was a convenient time to go back to the well and dig up some early Heupel era narratives for why he won’t work at Tennessee.

I’ll take “his offensive style doesn’t care about complementary football” for 500, Alex.

Context? Let’s offer some up.

As Joel Klatt mentioned, Saturday night against Oklahoma was indeed a bad showing for complementary football. Really, this season has been bad for that, which is why the Vols are bottom 10 in the FBS in time of possession. It’s not a defense that can overcome those mistakes. To add some context that Klatt left out, though, there aren’t many defenses who look the part when their top 2 corners have played a combined 19 snaps. Preseason All-American Jermod McCoy has been out all year after tearing his ACL in an offseason workout in January while Rickey Gibson III has been out since he suffered an arm injury in the season opener.

Does that dismiss how bad its been for the No. 115 scoring defense in America? Nope. The missed tackles are a problem, and if you want to blame it all on an offense that operates too fast at times, fine.

But let’s add some context to Klatt’s claim that this is what Tennessee always is and why the defense limits that ceiling with the only defensive coordinator that Heupel has had through 5 seasons, Tim Banks, who would’ve left if his unit didn’t have a chance. The last 2 years, the defense did the heavy lifting for the Vols. They went 19-7 with 4 ranked wins thanks to a pair of top-25 units. We’re a year removed from the Vols having the No. 7 scoring defense in the nation with a group that was No. 5 in yards/play allowed. Sure, the Vols struggled to hold down Georgia and Ohio State, but they allowed 23 points per game against ranked foes and they finished the year with 3 wins when they scored 25 points or less.

That’s worth remembering because saying “they just want to score 50 points and by God everything else be damned” implies that Heupel refuses to adapt to his personnel. An offseason point of emphasis that’s been referenced on broadcasts was Tennessee expanding its route tree and not being as limited by those choice routes that Klatt referenced. If Heupel was someone who refused to adapt, we also wouldn’t have seen him tweak his entire offensive philosophy last year to have less of a downfield passing attack (Nico Iamaleava was No. 60 in the FBS in 20-yard pass attempts) and much more of a centrally focused rushing attack with Sampson. We saw that last year in the win at Oklahoma, wherein the Vols possessed the football for 35 minutes and ran the ball 52 times en route to a 25-15 road victory.

Speaking of the Tennessee running game, which Klatt called “nonexistent,” the 2025 Vols average 38 rushing attempts for 175 yards per game. That’s OK nationally, but it’s not a fair criticism of the Heupel offense as a whole, which has averaged at least 199 yards per game in each of his first 7 seasons as an FBS head coach, the most recent of which saw Sampson tote the rock 258 times (32 more than any SEC player). Sure, this unit could end with Heupel era lows in both rushing attempts and rushing yards per game, but the notion that Vols offense is nothing but “a token hand-off here or there” and deep shots lacks context, too.

Joey Aguilar is No. 5 in the FBS with a 61.7% adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards past the line of scrimmage, and he’s got 12 touchdown passes on those plays, which leads the FBS. He’s got 47 such attempts, which is high, but it’s No. 13 in the FBS. It’s hardly some outlier. Plus, Chris Brazzell II leads Power Conference receivers with 11 catches on passes 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and the 6-5 wideout is No. 5 among that group with a 64.7% reception percentage on those targets. Mike Matthews is tied for No. 3 among SEC receivers with 7 such grabs while Braylon Staley has 5.

Should the Vols just completely overhaul their downfield passing game even though they’ve proven to have the right personnel to operate that way? Klatt said in that appearance on “The Next Round” that there’s a model to success for the Vols to emulate.

Tennessee should try to be more like Ohio State, Klatt says

Yes, I agree. Tennessee should try to be more like the No. 1 team in America/defending champs, who happens to have the nation’s top defense and the nation’s top passing attack, which has arguably 2 of the 3 best receivers in the sport in Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate. If Ohio State is the standard that Tennessee is being held to, sure, I guess we can say Heupel’s team has a lower ceiling.

But there’s a good chance that for the second consecutive season, nobody plays up to Ohio State’s level. Tennessee couldn’t do it last year, which dropped Heupel’s road record to 8-10. That’s well documented. It’s why he’s not considered a Tier 1 coach. Perhaps it’ll be the thing that, like with Franklin’s struggles vs. top-10 teams, puts more pressure on him from the fanbase.

It’s still way too premature to assume that about Heupel when you have full context of the job he’s done in Knoxville.

It’d be great if Heupel had Tennessee in Atlanta every other year, or if he could end the losing streak to Georgia. He was a shanked kick from doing that this year, which meant the Vols would’ve had Playoff life heading into Week 11, but that context doesn’t matter when loss No. 3 hits.

Heupel gets credit for getting Tennessee annual Playoff expectations, regardless of what sort of roster turnover exists. He’ll be measured against his own standard moving forward. College football history suggests there’s a much greater chance that he’ll eventually wear out his welcome than get a statue. Shoot, Heupel learned that the hard way at his alma mater.

It is, however, too reactionary to say that loss No. 3 in 2025 should change long-term opinions about Heupel. If you’re now out on Heupel, you’re telling on yourself that you haven’t been paying attention.

Context be damned.

The post If you’re out on Josh Heupel, I’m out on you as a respectable football mind appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Or perhaps if you were a team on the outside looking in at the first Playoff Poll of 2025, it was a loss. That’s in the eye of the beholder. As we know, the eye of the beholder is ever changing when it comes to the selection committee.

Here’s what that first Playoff Poll looked like:

Here were my top takeaways from the first Playoff Poll:

In a field loaded with 2-loss teams, Notre Dame is oddly the highest at No. 10 … which matters a lot

Why does it matter that Notre Dame is the highest-ranked 2-loss team? A few reasons. One is that, in case you haven’t heard, the Irish lost a season-opening game at Miami. Currently, Miami is also a 2-loss team. Also currently, Miami is ranked No. 18 and well behind the Irish.

There’s no head-to-head advantage there like there is in other spots in the poll among teams with the same amount of losses (Alabama over Georgia, Georgia over Ole Miss, Texas over Oklahoma, Virginia over Louisville, etc.). Interesting. An 0-2 start isn’t being held against Notre Dame because it won 6 consecutive games, 5 of which were to Power Conference foes. That included a double-digit win against USC, who was part of that massive group of 12 2-loss teams.

The place where one could be skeptical of Notre Dame is that those 5 Power Conference teams have a combined conference record of 6-20. Clearly, though, the Irish are being rewarded for playing more consistently than some of those other 2-loss teams.

Remember that because the Irish could again steal an at-large berth if it wins out and sits idle during conference championship weekend. Starting off at No. 10 suggests that’s the obvious path for Notre Dame.

Texas and Oklahoma rounding out the top 12 was all they could’ve asked for

Here’s a wild thought. If the season ended today, Texas and Oklahoma would be the first 2 teams out of the Playoff (the ACC champ and highest-ranked Group of 5 champ would move into the top 12). Fortunately for Texas and Oklahoma, the season doesn’t end today. It still features multiple headliner matchups that they’ll likely need to win in order to keep their Playoff hopes alive.

It’s a slightly different path for Texas compared to Oklahoma because it has just the 1 conference loss, but the reality is the same. Getting to 10-2 means those teams are likely hosting home Playoff games. Starting off in the top 12 with those remaining headliners could present another interesting question, which Steve Sarkisian presented before the first Playoff Poll this week. Why couldn’t a 9-3 SEC team make the field this year?

The 2 most likely candidates would be Texas and Oklahoma, both of whom have multiple wins vs. teams that are in the Playoff Poll, and could get a third marquee win during the final month of the season. If Texas loses a thriller to Georgia but hands Texas A&M its first loss, are we sure the Longhorns would be toast? And what if Oklahoma hands Alabama its first SEC loss at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 6 years, but then it loses on a last-second play at Mizzou?

I’m not advocating for 3-loss teams yet, but seeing that first ranking should at least open the masses up to the notion that it could happen in Year 2 of the 12-team Playoff.

I have zero issue with Texas A&M at No. 3, and it’s weird to me that some are discounting the Notre Dame win

This is what I mean:

So to recap, A&M is benefitting from being unbeaten with a road win over a Notre Dame team that came in at No. 10 in the first poll … duh? I get that A&M’s SEC schedule has been extremely favorable. Nobody will deny that. But winning in South Bend, even with the benefit of that botched extra-point snap, carries more weight than that. Winning at LSU in that fashion still mattered, and it’ll matter if A&M ends Playoff dreams in road games against a pair of 2-loss teams in November.

On the flip side, Joey Galloway argued that A&M was underrated. That ignores Indiana ending the nation’s longest win streak, as well as the fact that the Hoosiers have had 1 game decided by single digits, and it was a road game a No. 20 Iowa. A&M had 1-score games against Auburn and Arkansas, who are a combined 1-10 in SEC play.

The notion that A&M is either overrated or underrated doesn’t make sense to me. The Aggies are No. 3 in the poll and No. 3 among the remaining unbeatens. Anything besides that would’ve been a surprise.

Group of 5 … where ya at?

Per Matt Baker of The Athletic, this was the first Playoff Poll that lacked a Group of 5 team. That’s significant in a couple ways.

For starters, it adds to the likelihood that the Group of 5 representation will come from the AAC winner. Whether that’s Memphis, South Florida, North Texas or Navy, that race features 4 teams who got AP Top 25 votes. Memphis was No. 22 in the AP Poll but unranked in the Playoff Poll. The latter is fine for now considering that there are still 2-3 of those AAC matchups left (including the conference championship). That’s tough for James Madison, who has the lone blemish at Louisville but a remaining schedule that doesn’t really have those résumé-boosting wins.

That could come into play with this increasingly crazy coaching carousel, especially as coaches like Rhett Lashlee, Matt Rhule and Curt Cignetti sign extensions. For coaches who are considered possible candidates like Jon Sumrall, Ryan Silverfield and Alex Golesh, as well as James Madison coach Bob Chesney, it figures to be tougher to poach a Playoff-bound coach than not. Then again, we don’t know what that’ll look like because this is an unprecedented carousel with the expanded Playoff.

Consider that another intriguing element to what figures to be a wild month ahead.

The post Takeaways from the first Playoff Poll of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Cheers to that, friends.

If you’re able to actually watch the first Playoff rankings on ESPN on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET (that was a YouTube TV blackout reference), you’ll get to see the unveiling of the poll that actually matters.

(Sign up with Sling TV or Fubo to watch Tuesday night’s CFP programming.)

How much will it resemble the AP Poll? That’s a fair question. It’s also fair to wonder if Ohio State will be the prevailing No. 1 like it’s been in every post-Week 1 AP Poll. Does Indiana have the better résumé? Also, how many SEC teams will be in the top 12?

Let’s answer some of those questions with a prediction of what the first top 12 will look like:

12. Oklahoma

That Tennessee win was monumental for all the obvious reasons. The Sooners got their first true road win vs. an AP Top 25 team in the Brent Venables era, which is why they still have Playoff life. Of course, that’ll be put to the test at Alabama in a couple weeks, but starting off in the top 12 feels likely for a squad who has a 2-1 record vs. top-15 teams this year.

11. Texas

If you believe that Texas is starting behind Oklahoma, remember who won that head-to-head. It was Texas, who has quietly beaten 2 top-10 teams and is riding a 4-game winning streak since the Florida loss. Quality wins slightly favor the Longhorns in that discussion. The bigger collective groan will come when the ACC watches 2 of its 1-loss teams (Virginia and Louisville) come in ranked behind OU and Texas. The good news for those 2 teams is that Texas still has to play Georgia in Athens and Texas A&M at home in the regular-season finale. The Longhorns won’t get an at-large bid by just skating by down the stretch.

10. Notre Dame

I could argue that Notre Dame’s ranking should be what has people most riled up, but the aforementioned SEC teams rounding out the top 12 will likely earn that distinction. The Irish have won 6 consecutive games after a pair of thrilling losses to Miami and Texas A&M. One could point out that USC is the only one of those Power Conference teams who has a winning conference record. In fact, those combined conference records among the Power Conference foes that Notre Dame beat is just 6-20. But hey, it helps to be a team coming off a national runner-up season with star power.

9. Texas Tech

Dominating at Utah and Houston matters for that résumé. It’ll matter even more if the Red Raiders can dominate a huge top-10 showdown against BYU (more on that in a minute), but for now, this feels like a worthy top-10 inclusion. The No. 1 run defense in the nation has been as advertised in the trenches after a Cody Campbell-fueled transfer portal haul. Now with Behren Morton back — he was out for the lone loss at defending Big 12 champ Arizona State — there’s no reason to believe that Texas Tech will be disrespected in the first Playoff Poll.

8. BYU

The lowest-ranked unbeaten will be a BYU squad who just continues to defy expectations after starting the season unranked in the AP Poll. The bizarre Jake Retzlaff fallout didn’t derail Kalani Sitake’s squad. The last remaining unbeaten in Big 12 play turned some heads the last couple weeks with wins vs. Utah in the Holy War and then at Iowa State, where it entered the day as a slight underdog. It’s weird to say that there’s a bit of skepticism for a Big 12 team that’s 19-2 since the start of last season, but that can change with that aforementioned top-10 showdown against Texas Tech.

7. Ole Miss

Sure, the LSU win hasn’t aged particularly well, but going into Norman and beating a 7-2 Oklahoma squad will be big in that first ranking. It’s what could give Ole Miss grace to make the field at 10-2, though the odds of running the table en route to 11-1 now seem fairly likely with The Citadel, home vs. Florida and an Egg Bowl at Mississippi State remaining. And while “quality losses” aren’t as significant as some like to believe, losing at Georgia after having a 2-score lead in the 4th quarter wasn’t exactly a bad loss.

6. Oregon

Go figure that Oregon and Alabama will likely be 2 of the highest-ranked 1-loss teams, yet both suffered a double-digit loss. Winning at Penn State in that atmosphere shouldn’t count for nothing, even if that win aged in inexplicably awful fashion. The combined conference records of the 5 Power Conference foes that Oregon beat is 4-23. Oregon should be ranked behind Ole Miss, BYU and Texas Tech. Will that happen, though? Don’t bank on it.

5. Georgia

Georgia has a floor and a ceiling. Why? Alabama has the head-to-head against Georgia, and Georgia has the head-to-head against Ole Miss. All 3 are 1-loss teams in the SEC. Ergo, UGA will be sandwiched somewhere between those squads. One could point out the fact that this hasn’t been a dominant Georgia team. Game control metrics probably won’t favor a team with a halftime lead in 1 of its 6 SEC games. At the same time, a 1-loss team whose lone blemish is a 3-point defeat against Alabama will get a favorable start in the Playoff Poll.

4. Alabama

Nobody else who figures to start in the top 12 has a double-digit loss to an unranked team, so why is Alabama a lock to be the highest-ranked 1-loss team? Well, the Tide beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 teams. No SEC team had ever done that. The first 3 of those matchups were against undefeated SEC teams, too. As bad as the Florida State loss was, that stretch redeemed an Alabama résumé that has 4 wins vs. bowl-eligible Power Conference teams.

3. Texas A&M

You knew at the time that beating Notre Dame in South Bend would mean a ton for A&M’s Playoff chances. That’s proven to be the case, and it’s doing the heavy lifting because the rest of A&M’s résumé is lacking. Like Oregon, the conference records are lacking. A 6-20 mark in SEC play among those A&M foes will prevent a top-2 ranking, though also like with Oregon with Penn State, winning at LSU in that fashion means something. It also means something that A&M is 8-0 with 4 remaining unbeatens.

2. Indiana

At this point, there’s no denying what Indiana has done. Not only does it have arguably the best win in America by ending the nation’s longest home winning streak with a double-digit victory at Oregon, but it also has 4 Big Ten wins by 3 scores or more. IU has been dominant on both sides of the ball, and whatever eye test metric that was in question last year certainly isn’t in question this year. The better question might be whether the Hoosiers would be ranked No. 1 if they had played a more competitive game at Ohio State last year. Fair or not, that perception will likely keep IU at No. 2.

1. Ohio State

The Buckeyes have been the clear No. 1 team for the vast majority of the season, perhaps with the Indiana win at Oregon as the lone thing calling it into question. Besides beating preseason No. 1 Texas in a defensively dominant showing to kick off the season, they blew out a solid Washington squad who hadn’t lost a home game since 2021 and they cruised past 6-win Illinois on the road. They haven’t had a down-to-the-wire game since the opener, which is why the defending champs figure to start the Playoff rankings as the top dog.

The post Predicting the top 12 of the first Playoff Poll of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Five SEC teams will go into the second Saturday of November with 0-1 conference losses, which is essentially how one should view the race to Atlanta in a division-less conference. Getting there with 2 conference losses is indeed possible after it happened last year with Georgia, though it’s certainly not the blueprint.

The race to Atlanta will feature just 2 more matchups among those teams (Texas at Georgia, Texas A&M at Texas), so in theory, the possibility for late carnage isn’t inevitable. But at the same time, SEC play has already been carnage. Teams 3-14 in the conference standings all have an average scoring margin in conference play of a touchdown. In fact, teams No. 3 (Georgia) and No. 14 (Mississippi State) will face off this weekend, and take a wild guess what the spread is. It’s Georgia -7.5 (via BetMGM).

That’s life in the new SEC. Call it the NFL, or just call it a conference where the margin for error is slimmer than ever. Shoot, we’ve still got a month before the SEC Championship Game and a quarter of the conference’s teams have already fired their head coaches. Will more join? Time will tell.

For now, though, let’s break down a calm-before-the-storm SEC slate in Week 11:

No. 5 Georgia vs. Mississippi State — You shouldn’t be surprised by a 7.5-point spread

Did you read the intro? Like, the part where I told you that Georgia has an average scoring margin in SEC play of +7.2 and Mississippi State is -7.0? That’s why the Dawgs are 1-score favorites in Starkville. After all, that’s the building where Mississippi State beat the defending Big 12 champs (Arizona State) and forced Tennessee and Texas into overtime games after blown 4th quarter leads. Jeff Lebby‘s squad led with less than 2 minutes to play against all 3 of those teams. The Bulldogs haven’t been the doormat that their 1-4 SEC record suggests they’ve been, especially at home. You could argue that Georgia hasn’t been the juggernaut that its 5-1 SEC record suggests it has been, especially away from home.

The Dawgs overcame a trio of second-half deficits in all 3 of those contests, which were decided by an average of 5.7 points. Add in Georgia’s growing list of defensive injuries and yeah, the oddsmakers didn’t pull that line out of nowhere. This should be another 60-minute game for the Playoff-hopeful Dawgs.

The Citadel vs. No. 7 Ole Miss — Time for the non-Kewan Lacy rushing options to step up

That’s fairly obvious given the lopsided nature of this matchup, but consider this a reminder that Ole Miss is about to embark on something it’s never experienced. That is, a Playoff run. In order to make one of those, Ole Miss needs Lacy to be healthy, or at least as close to healthy as one can be after the type of workload he’s had this year. Once upon a time, Lane Kiffin used to rely on a multi-faceted rushing attack with at least 2 and sometimes 3 backfield options, as well as the quarterback run game. The quarterback run game is still there, but this year, Lacy has 189 carries — he’s got 632 yards after first contact and more missed tackles forced than any Power Conference player — and no other Ole Miss running back has 20 carries. That’s as wide of a discrepancy as there is in the SEC.

Against The Citadel, now would be an ideal time for Lacy to have single-digit touches while former LSU transfer Logan Diggs and former Troy 1,000-yard rusher Damien Taylor handle the majority of the work. Go ask 2024 Tennessee about riding Dylan Sampson into the Playoff. He was too banged up to contribute by the time the Vols got there. Ole Miss should take advantage of this de-facto bye week to preserve Lacy.

No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 19 Mizzou — This type of win has eluded Mizzou, and it’s hard to see that changing

What do I mean by that, you ask? Well, Mizzou hasn’t beaten an AP Top 10 team in the regular season under Eli Drinkwitz (the Ohio State win came in the Cotton Bowl), and the last time the Tigers earned such a victory was on Oct. 12, 2013, at No. 7 Georgia. In the Playoff era, Mizzou is 0-13 in regular-season games vs. AP Top 10 teams (including the 2014 SEC Championship Game).

A&M, on the other hand, is 8-0 because it’s 1 of 8 Power Conference teams with a 3-0 record or better in true road games this year. That’s wild considering that when Mike Elko showed up in 2024, A&M hadn’t won a true road game since Oct. 26, 2021 … at Mizzou. Go figure that Elko was the defensive coordinator in that matchup. One would think that in this matchup, he’ll try to apply plenty of pressure to Mizzou true freshman quarterback Matt Zollers in what’ll be his first career start after the Beau Pribula injury. A&M leads FBS with 4 sacks per game thanks in large part to Cashius Howell, who is tied for No. 3 in the FBS with 9.5 sacks. Something tells me his presence will be felt in CoMo.

Auburn vs. No. 15 Vanderbilt — On the bright side, Auburn … you know the bright side

If you’re an Auburn fan, you know that at least you don’t have to watch Hugh Freeze lose to Diego Pavia again. That would’ve been like having to go to a 5-year-old’s birthday party while being hungover. Instead, this could still be going to a 5-year-old’s birthday after a late night, but you’ll at least have a full Pedialyte and some toast in your system. There’s hope that this won’t be another vomit-inducing experience at the hands of Pavia, who went 2-0 vs. Auburn and 3-0 vs. Freeze (don’t forget the New Mexico State-Liberty clash in 2022). Instead of seeing sideline shots of Freeze looking sick to his stomach while Pavia converts another 3rd down, Auburn fans can pray that DJ Durkin will spend all of his waking hours devoted to making sure that Pavia doesn’t dance all over the Tigers’ grave.

Will that happen? History isn’t on Auburn’s side, and not just because of that 10-game losing streak to ranked teams in true road games. Since the start of 2024, Vandy’s 3 home losses have all come to teams with at least 9 regular-season wins … and they were all in the latter half of last season when Pavia was playing through a leg injury. Pavia appears healthy and more than capable of continuing this Auburn hangover.

LSU vs. No. 4 Alabama — Another interim coach for LSU vs. Alabama = another relatively close game?

If you’re counting the 2021 matchup as an interim coach game like I am, Saturday will mark the 3rd time in the last decade that LSU will have an interim coach against Alabama. After all, Ed Orgeron had already been fired. So yes, the last 2 times that LSU faced Alabama with an interim coach, they were both Orgeron. Last I checked, he’s not showing up on that sidelines come Saturday, but never rule it out. Also don’t rule out that the possibility of this being a relatively competitive game, much like when Alabama won 10-0 in 2016 and 20-14 in 2021. After all, Alabama has an average scoring margin of 9.2 in SEC play this year. It’s been 12 years since LSU failed to keep it within 2 scores in Tuscaloosa, though it’s worth noting that the Tide haven’t lost to an SEC team in Bryant-Denny Stadium since the 2019 LSU game. Kalen DeBoer is also undefeated at home as a Power Conference head coach.

One would think that even if the removal of the Brian Kelly stench and the arrival of the experienced Frank Wilson leads to a more promising LSU showing than what we’ve seen the last 5 weeks, Alabama has proven to be poised in 60-minute games.

Florida vs. Kentucky — Florida’s interim offensive staff showed promise with 2 key wrinkles

Like, more promise than the Auburn offense that Kentucky faced to end its SEC losing streak last Saturday night. Florida, unlike Auburn, did things to actually move the ball in its Week 10 matchup against Georgia. We’re possibly a somewhat on-target DJ Lagway throw to J. Michael Sturdivant from talking about a 27-point showing in a Florida win (don’t forget the only reason that play was controversial was because of how underthrown that pass was). As it stands, Florida looked offensively competent with first-time play-caller Ryan O’Hara. Lagway nearly had more designed runs (4) on Saturday than he had all season (5). In fact, last year’s Kentucky game was the only other time in Lagway’s career that he had at least 4 designed runs in a game. The 34 yards off designed runs against Georgia bested Lagway’s previous high of 32 yards in that win against Kentucky last year (he came into Saturday with 28 yards off designed runs all season). There’s no reason to shy away from that.

There’s also no reason to shy away from Tre Wilson, who finally had his first big game of 2025 after an injury-riddled 2024. Wilson entered Saturday’s Georgia game with 121 receiving yards on the season, which he naturally followed with a 121-yard showing. It marked his first game with double-digit targets since the 2023 Cocktail Party. One would think that against a Kentucky secondary that was shredded by Tennessee’s passing attack in its most recent home game, Wilson will be heavily involved again, though maybe not with another 46% target share. Those 2 interim staff wrinkles could be what fuels Florida to its first win in Lexington since Kyle Trask stepped in after that Feleipe Franks suffered that gruesome season-ending injury in 2019.

The post Early thoughts on SEC games in Week 11 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The guys dig into Brent Venables’ big-time win at Tennessee, Texas holding off Vandy’s wild comeback, Georgia surviving Florida with another late rally, South Carolina fired Mike Shula after a dreadful showing at Ole Miss, Mississippi State finally got an SEC win and the guys closed with the Freeze discussion and who could replace him.

Watch the full episode here:

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The post SDS Podcast: Hugh Freeze fired, Brent Venables’ Toby Keith win, Texas & Georgia win thrillers appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Hugh Freeze ultimately couldn’t weather the storm on The Plains. Whether he was doomed from the start is debatable. He certainly didn’t feel as instantly doomed as his predecessor, Bryan Harsin, but like Harsin, Freeze couldn’t make it to the end of Year 3. Struggles to beat quality foes hindered him, as did the issues in close games.

Now, a program that’s in jeopardy of suffering its 5th consecutive losing season will try to turn things around with somebody new.

Who could that be? These 5 candidates would make sense for Auburn:

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

If Kiffin was really a Landry Kiffin iMovie away from taking the Auburn job at the end of the 2022 season, doesn’t John Cohen owe it to himself to make that call again? You bet. And while a potential Ole Miss Playoff run could complicate the timing of a potential move, remember this. Cohen, AKA the former Mississippi State athletic director, watched Kiffin’s rise at Ole Miss from across the state. He knows that he didn’t take over an ideal situation. In some ways, you could argue that Kiffin was tasked with cleaning up the final pieces of the post-Freeze mess in Oxford. The post-Freeze mess at Auburn would involve fixing an offense that has been starving for solid quarterback play. Kiffin bringing his offensive acumen to The Plains — and doing so with a play caller working with him — would be a sight for sore eyes.

Those who watched Kiffin succeed at Ole Miss know that he’s been portal-reliant, but his floor has been incredibly high. He should finish with double-digit wins for the 4th time in 5 seasons, which coincided with Auburn’s aforementioned run of losing seasons. Coincidence? Maybe, or perhaps Kiffin’s Ole Miss squad has just taken Auburn’s place within the SEC. Poaching someone on a $9 million annual salary would be quite different than the last time that Auburn stole a coach from Ole Miss. Times have changed since the Tommy Tuberville era, but for Auburn, times are certainly more desperate. Now might be as good a time as ever to finally land Kiffin.

Eli Drinkwitz, Mizzou

If there’s any sort of longing for the days of the Gus Malzahn offense at Auburn, the best person to bring that back is one of his disciples. As in, a Malzahn disciple who not only spent 2 years at Auburn as a quality control coach in 2010-11, but who also just came into Jordan-Hare and beat Freeze. Like, the guy who had his quarterback in the hospital for part of last year’s game vs. Auburn and still found a way to overcome a double-digit deficit late and win. You know, the guy who is now 27-7 the last 3 years having beaten Freeze twice. That turnaround in Year 4 was sparked by a shift to delegating play-calling duties. Having that figured out instead of the back-and-forth that has seemingly existed for the last decade-plus would be a relief.

One of the other reasons why Drinkwitz elevated Mizzou is that he found a pair of defensive coordinators who played excellent complementary football. Blake Baker (now at LSU) and Corey Batoon have both been huge additions on that side of the ball, where Mizzou has done a tremendous job adding ready-to-play transfer portal pieces. But seeing Drinkwitz’s ground game thrive vs. SEC competition should have Auburn’s decision-makers intrigued. If Drinkwitz feels like he’s taken Mizzou as far as it can go — he hasn’t indicated such a notion — then it’s not crazy to think he could be sold on a return to Auburn.

Jon Sumrall, Tulane

The overwhelming sentiment in the sport is that Sumrall is going to be a Power Conference coach in 2025, most likely in the SEC. The 43-year-old has done a phenomenal job at Troy and Tulane, where he’s won 9-11 games in his first 3 seasons as an FBS head coach. Tulane might’ve suffered a setback loss to UTSA, but there’s an overwhelming feeling that whoever wins the AAC will have a shot at the Playoff. That’s true for Sumrall, who already got Power Conference wins vs. Northwestern and Duke this season. He’s the real deal. You saw that play out with the job he did against DJ Lagway in the bowl game last year, albeit in a losing effort wherein Tulane’s depleted offense couldn’t do anything.

Sumrall is a defensive-minded head coach, but it’s worth noting that he’s having success with his 3rd different QB1 with Birmingham native Joe Craddock running the show at both programs. That could be a nice packaged deal to fix those well-documented offensive issues. Sumrall could be pursued by several SEC programs, including Arkansas and Kentucky if that job opens up. That could drive his price up, but we’re still talking about someone who is reportedly making close to $3 million annually, which is 1/3 what Kiffin and Drinkwitz are making. Perhaps that could make him a more feasible fit after agreeing to a trio of 8-figure buyouts to fired coaches in the 2020s.

Fran Brown, Syracuse

Some will scoff at the notion that Brown should be considered because Syracuse is 1-5 in ACC play. That also happened in the midst of the injury to starting quarterback Steve Angeli, and offensively, Syracuse just hasn’t found the answers. Replacing Freeze with a guy who can’t step in and immediately fix the offense might be a tough sell, though it’s worth noting that Syracuse averaged 34 points per game in Brown’s Year 1, and it had much more offensive promise with a healthy Angeli. Take that for what it is.

Brown could covet an elite offensive coordinator and give them full autonomy that would pair well with his no-nonsense style. Unlike Bryan Harsin’s no-nonsense style, Brown’s would have more credibility because it would have been paired with the SEC experience having worked on Kirby Smart‘s staff in 2022-23. You won’t have to worry about the talent acquisition aspect. The 43-year-old aggressively recruited the transfer portal and would bring a level of accountability that Auburn has been lacking. Perhaps he wouldn’t be considered the leader in the clubhouse because of the way this year has played out, but a month ago, the consensus was that Brown had a big future in store. Why can’t that be on The Plains?

Brent Key, Georgia Tech

Perhaps it’s not realistic to think that Key would leave his alma mater, who jumped out to a 6-0 start. But he’s in a situation in which he’s making just $4.5 million annually, and if he feels like the ACC is set to implode at the end of the decade once those exit fees drop, Auburn could make a real pitch. He’s certainly qualified. In Year 3 at Georgia Tech, Key has done a masterful job turning things around and creating a Playoff path. He’s had a trio of competitive games with Smart, which is the ultimate measuring stick. There’s also the Atlanta recruiting success, and he spent a decade on George O’Leary’s UCF staff, so he’s got ties in The Sunshine State, as well.

The former Alabama offensive line coach would be the first Nick Saban disciple to coach at Auburn. That’s hardly the only thing that defines his résumé, but it doesn’t hurt. He knows what it takes to win in the trenches in the SEC. Spend any amount of time watching his Georgia Tech teams and you’ll see it’s clear that he knows what it takes to win in the trenches at any level. That’s probably why since the start of 2023, he’s got as many wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (5) as the aforementioned Drinkwitz … and 4 more than Freeze (1-11). Key would deserve some rare internal alignment.

The post My 5 favorite candidates to replace Hugh Freeze at Auburn appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Week 10 arrived at a record pace, and with it came plenty of storylines to watch.

Could Texas keep its Playoff hopes alive against a confident Vanderbilt squad? Could Josh Heupel lead Tennessee to a Playoff elimination game victory against his alma mater? Would Georgia avoid a letdown against a nothing-to-lose Florida squad? Who would help their Heisman Trophy cases in the SEC?

All of those questions were answered in Week 10. Here were the biggest SEC takeaways from Saturday:

Brent Venables just picked up his biggest win as a head coach

If Venables lasts a decade in Norman, remember that night in Knoxville. Against Heupel, he got revenge. Better yet, he did so in a place where Tennessee had defeated every non-Georgia team since the start of the 2022 season.

How did it happen, you ask? Well, that’s a bit tougher to explain. Takeaways were monumental early, which had been an issue for the Oklahoma defense. They turned Joey Aguilar into the version of himself that led the nation in interceptions last year. That also included losing R Mason Thomas on a scoop-and-score on a strip sack, which was why OU led at halftime even though Tennessee had mostly dominated the first half. And while the Sooners had some inexplicable time management issues late — I still can’t explain the decision to have John Mateer throw a sidearm laser with 4 minutes left in a 9-point game — all that mattered was getting out of Neyland alive. Or rather, with Playoff hopes alive.

That was a Playoff elimination game in every sense. Had Venables lost that, it not only would’ve been another defeat at the hands of Heupel, but it also would’ve knocked the Sooners out of that discussion after a 5-0 start. Maybe that’ll still happen in 2 weeks at Alabama. That didn’t matter. What did matter was that Venables won a true road game vs. an AP Top 25 team for the first time in his career. It helped that we saw close to a pre-injury version of Mateer.

This felt like a fork-in-the-road game for Venables. Lose this with an offense that’s stuck in the mud, and everyone is wondering about his future instead of the Playoff. He doesn’t have to live in that reality. Instead, OU exceeded the 27-point mark in SEC play for the first time since joining the conference thanks to 3 takeaways and the leg of Tate Sandell, who made 4 field goals, 3 of which were from 50-plus.

It wasn’t pretty, but Oklahoma was seeking a statement. Venables got that on Rocky Top.

Tennessee has nobody to blame but itself for ruining its Playoff path

Yuck. Dumb. Woof.

Pick your favorite word, or just slam your head into the wall. All are fair reactions to that Playoff-ruining performance. We knew that Tennessee’s defense was a walking missed tackle. What we didn’t know was that the Vols would suffer awful turnovers … and then have a pass go off a freshman tight end’s head on 4th down in a 9-point game. Yeah, it was that kind of night for Tennessee. Heupel didn’t get the last laugh on his alma mater this time.

Aguilar picked the wrong time to turn into a pumpkin, and the Vols had extremely atypical struggles in the ground game. With a defense that had little margin for error, that wasn’t a winning combination. It was a combination that led to the Vols’ first home loss to a non-Georgia team since Lane Kiffin returned to Knoxville back in 2021.

Just like that, Tennessee’s Playoff dreams are gone. A team that had 1 loss and the nation’s No. 1 offense at the midway point of the season now has 3 losses and an offense that’s been regressing against better defenses. That’s a problem. It’s a problem for a Tennessee team that’ll still travel to Florida, where it’ll face plenty of reminders that it hasn’t won in that building in 22 years. Playing spoiler to a potential Playoff bid for Vandy might end up being the only real bragging rights that the Vols are in line for in 2025.

Georgia is terrifying in such a different way than previous years

In a different era, I think some would assume the sky is falling for Georgia only beating a 3-win Florida team by 4 points after rallying for a go-ahead score late. Perhaps some still have that takeaway, but watching the Dawgs seize yet another key second-half moment en route to victory felt significant. In a sport that’s now defined by winning close games to get to the Playoff, Georgia is a scary sight.

Five of 6 times in SEC play, UGA went into the break without a lead. That’s not something you say about a team that improved to 5-1 in SEC play. It’s impossible to ignore. Georgia might’ve gotten the benefit of a favorable ruling on that long J. Michael Sturdivant play late, but this isn’t a team that’s surviving on luck. Gunner Stockton makes big-time throws when needed, the ground game steps up late, the defensive line gets push in the second half, etc.

What’s clear is that Georgia is comfortable playing in tight games, and perhaps unlike last year when that felt a bit unnerving, Kirby Smart always seems like he’s in control. That’s a comforting feeling for Georgia amid a nail-biting slate so far.

Does it mean that Georgia can overcome a second-half deficit against anyone? No, but there’ll be plenty of Playoff teams who’ll have minimal experience in that setting. UGA won’t be one of them.

That’s all we need to see from the Hugh Freeze era

We’ve seen enough here. Contrary to what Freeze said yet again after another devastating home loss, Auburn is not close. It’s 1-5 in SEC play for the 3rd consecutive year, and even worse, his team failed to score a touchdown against a Kentucky defense that got hit for 56 points at home last weekend. Neither Ashton Daniels nor Jackson Arnold were the answer, which feels fitting.

Actually, as Cole Cubelic said on the broadcast, the the most Auburn play of 2025 was Keldric Faulk forcing an interception late, only to have Kentucky strip the defensive play-carrier to regain possession and a new set of downs. One step forward, 2 steps back. That’s been the Freeze story.

Call that the perfect encapsulation of the Freeze era, which appears over after allowing Kentucky to beat its first Power Conference foe in over a year. The “fire Hugh Freeze” chants took over at Jordan-Hare Stadium, where Freeze lost to an SEC team for the 7th time in his last 8 games. The Tigers are now 2-10 vs. Power Conference competition at Jordan-Hare during the Freeze era. That was his first time since the 2019 season opener at Liberty that Freeze watched his team fail to score a touchdown (he was infamously in the hospital bed atop the stadium).

This is done. Add Auburn to the list of programs who’ll be making a hire in the 2025 cycle. Soon, the Tigers will have their 4th coach of the 2020s. The only question remains who that’ll be.

Just when you think Texas played a complete game … that ending happens

Everything that happened in the first 55 minutes suggested that Texas finally played its first complete game of the season. To be fair, it looked like Texas was about to take a 41-16 lead with 4:13 left in the 4th quarter against No. 9 Vandy. Being that dominant against a top-10 team is no small feat, especially this late in the season. What happened after that, you ask? This sequence:

• Overturned Texas TD call (with a missed defensive pass interference)
• Missed Texas FG
• Busted coverage on a 67-yard Vandy TD
• 2-point conversion for Vandy that didn’t appear to break the plane live or on replay
• 4-play, 49-second Texas drive that ended with a punt
• 89-yard Vandy touchdown drive to make it 34-31
• Vandy onside kick attempt that wasn’t recovered, but trickled out of bounds

Wild. Truly wild.

Had Texas lost that game for its 3rd defeat of the season, Steve Sarkisian would’ve never heard the end of it. Instead, the preseason No. 1 team in America won a game in which it mostly dominated until that bizarre final 4 minutes. That’s the good news. You knew it was going to be a good day for the Longhorns when Arch Manning’s swing pass to Ryan Wingo went for 75 yards on the opening play. Manning, who was in concussion protocol during the week, picked up where he left off from his comeback at Mississippi State.

The Texas defense had some busts in coverage that proved costly, but it still sacked Diego Pavia 6 times, which nearly matched his total (7) in the first 8 games. The Longhorns had a great game plan against Tim Beck’s window dressing in the Vandy offense, but that was far from a perfect showing.

Will Sarkisian take that? You bet. He beat his second AP Top 10 team this season, and he’ll go into Week 11 with just 1 SEC loss and Playoff hopes very much alive. Are his team’s inconsistent ways still maddening? After that sloppy finish, yes, that’s fair.

Don’t write off Vandy’s Playoff chances, but Diego Pavia’s Heisman Trophy path hit a roadblock

That aforementioned chaotic finish should’ve served as a reminder that you simply shouldn’t write off Vandy. Like, the 7-2 team who has 3 wins vs. top-15 teams and 2 losses on the road at Alabama and Texas. Quality losses don’t change opinions, but ask yourself this. Does Vandy’s path to 10-2 seem impossible?

• vs. Auburn
• vs. Kentucky
• at Tennessee

Yes, that Tennessee game looms. Still, though. If you had told anybody that Vandy’s path to the Playoff would be this with 3 games to play, it would’ve been seen as a stunner. This team keeps fighting. Pavia is healthier than he was late last season, and Beck is still an elite schemer who managed to get massive throwing windows for his quarterback against a Texas defense that looked like it had things figured out. That’s a silver lining of that too little, too late comeback.

What does feel all but over is Pavia’s path to the Heisman. He came into the day at No. 5 in the Heisman odds (via BetMGM). In theory, a 408-yard, 4-touchdown performance isn’t supposed to halt the Heisman path. The issue for Pavia is that Vandy’s path to the SEC Championship Game is all but over, and he’s got 24 total touchdowns with 3 games to play.

Could Pavia still get to New York? Absolutely. A Playoff-bound Vandy could absolutely yield that. But winning the award when you’re idle during conference championship weekend and likely shy of 40 total touchdowns would make that all but impossible, especially when Ty Simpson outplayed Pavia in the head-to-head.

Pavia is having a historic season, but just maybe one that won’t quite have him joining the Heisman fraternity.

The post The biggest SEC takeaways from Week 10 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The only time it didn’t come this year was against Alabama, though that’s debatable because Georgia had a true freshman receiver drop what would’ve been a go-ahead touchdown pass that would’ve erased a 14-point deficit. That doesn’t make that loss any easier to stomach, but it’s a reminder that when this team needs to dial up that all-important play, it’s somehow always there.

On Saturday in Jacksonville, you could see it coming from a mile away. Once a banged-up Georgia defense shut down a 4th-down attempt by Florida, erasing that 3-point deficit became inevitable. Never mind the fact that the Dawgs had barely possessed the ball in the second half. Up until Chauncey Bowens got a carry at the Florida 36-yard line, UGA had just 9 carries for 1 yard in the second half.

And right on time, Georgia did a Georgia thing. The UGA offensive line cleared a bath for Bowens to cut back, and he delivered a 36-yard dagger right through the hearts of Florida fans.

Sure, Georgia needed another favorable ruling on a controversial deep pass to an inexplicably wide-open J. Michael Sturdivant to hold on and avoid a go-ahead touchdown drive for Florida, but would you expect anything less?

This is Georgia. That is, the team who hasn’t led at the break in 5 of 6 SEC games, yet has won 5 of 6 SEC games. Make that 3 4th-quarter comebacks for the Dawgs.

No big deal. Even Gunner Stockton’s game-sealing run — wherein he took a knee before scoring the walk-in touchdown that would’ve cashed Georgia -7.5 tickets — was no big deal.

Call it poise, call it casual, call it whatever — Georgia is winning the way SEC games have to be won now

It didn’t matter that this was a Florida team who was in its first game with an interim coach (Billy Gonzales) who had a first-time play-caller in Ryan O’Hara. The Gators showed up like a team with nothing to lose. It was easy to forget that the Gators hadn’t beaten a ranked Power Conference foe away from home since the 2020 Cocktail Party. And it was also easy to forget that Georgia hadn’t lost to an unranked team since the 2019 South Carolina debacle.

Shoot, it’s been easy to forget that this season. We all saw the Auburn game. Georgia basically arrived to Jordan-Hare Stadium once officials made the polarizing call that Jackson Arnold didn’t cross the plane in a 10-0 game. This team is still feeding off that energy.

Would it be nice if Georgia could put its foot on the gas and play a 60-minute game against a non-Kentucky SEC team? Sure. You know what’s a nice thing to have in your back pocket come Playoff time? A coach with multiple rings and a team that won’t panic down a score or 2 in the second half.

Florida’s aforementioned chance to make it a 2-score game came on that 4th-down run in a 20-17 game. A conversion there and Florida is either looking at a 23-17 lead or a 27-17 lead with just under 8 minutes to play. Georgia got that key stuff from Raylen Wilson and true freshman Elijah Griffin, but at this point, the question is worth asking — are we sure Georgia wouldn’t have found a way even if it didn’t get that 4th-down stop?

That’s where we’re at.

Imperfect, Georgia is not. It feels different than an imperfect Georgia team that won last year’s SEC Championship Game. Time will tell how that race will shake out. UGA lost control of its destiny when it lost to Alabama and ended the nation’s longest home win streak.

But much like Ohio State last year, Georgia can do the thing that plucky Playoff underdogs fear. The Dawgs can be the ridiculously talented team who makes the field without having played its best football yet.

All the ingredients are there, even if it’s not the prevailing takeaway from a 4-point win against a 3-win Florida squad. Times have changed. So has Georgia. It has morphed into a team who can trust its quarterback in late-game situations, and know that its defense won’t break. What more do you want in this era of college football?

On Halloween weekend, Georgia once again did its best Michael Myers imitation. It’s becoming one of the scariest sights in America to see Georgia in the second half. Perhaps another Alabama will come along and stand up to the haunting villain that the Dawgs have become among SEC fans.

But I wouldn’t set my watch to that.

The post Is Georgia playing with fire? Maybe, but this elite resiliency is impossible to ignore appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Florida legend Chris Doering joined the show to talk all things Cocktail Party, the Florida vacancy & some SEC WR trends.

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

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The post SDS Podcast: Huge CFP implications at Texas & Tennessee, Chris Doering on Cocktail Party, Florida & SEC WRs appeared first on Saturday Down South.

That’s why for the 4th consecutive year, I gave them the recognition they deserve. The SEC “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Team is pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you need a rundown, here ya go. You’re only eligible for this if your team has lost at least 3 games (out of the SEC/Playoff picture). The 10 players selected here have been in tough situations that are (mostly) out of their control.

These are the guys that I wish I could just grab with a crane and drop them into a different situation. Like, I wish I could pluck LaNorris Sellers down as he’s running for his life and drop him into the Texas A&M offense with that elite offensive line.

Whoops. Spoiled a member of the team. You get it.

This is the 2025 SEC “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Team:

LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina QB

He’s the captain. He’s the face of the team. He’s the reason this team exists. This (via Cole Cubelic) is the most “dudes who deserve better” stat in human history:

That’s comical. So are his 393 yards after first contact and 37 missed tackles forced, both of which are easily No. 1 among Power Conference quarterbacks. Sellers has also been pressured on 46.2% of his drop-backs. Not only is that the highest rate in the SEC, but it’s the highest rate of any Power Conference quarterback (min. 20 pressured drop-backs).

That’s the byproduct of an underwhelming South Carolina offensive line — Sellers suffered a concussion against Vanderbilt on a hit from a free rusher — as well as an offensive coordinator hire that hasn’t worked out at all. Mike Shula’s promotion from analyst to OC was met with skepticism, and it’s looking like the 2025 version of what Oklahoma endured last year when it promoted Seth Littrell to OC from analyst. On top of that, he’s not getting much help at all from the skill positions. The rushing attack ranks last in the SEC in yards/carry and there’s not a South Carolina receiver who ranks in the top 25 in the SEC in either catches or receiving yards. Oh, and Sellers has had 6 passes dropped while under pressure, which is 2nd-most among Power Conference quarterbacks.

One of the most decorated quarterbacks entering the season is now in position where NFL scouts just want to see him get to the pre-draft process in 1 piece. That’ll be easier said than done.

Dylan Stewart, South Carolina DE

Stewart was on the preseason “Dudes Who Deserve Better” Watch List for obvious reasons. South Carolina lost a ton of defensive talent to the NFL, and Stewart was the best bet of anyone to be the Will Smith meme of him standing in an empty living room. Unfortunately for Stewart, that’s played out. He’s still every bit the superstar that he was as a true freshman last year, yet he’s playing for a defense with too many run-game issues that can’t seem to get off the field. You could argue that Stewart should be doing more to help that cause, but he’s got 10 tackles for loss, only 3.5 of which are sacks. He’s only got 5 missed tackles this year, all of which happened in the first 4 weeks.

Because of the hip injury that limited him to 6 snaps vs. Oklahoma, he’s played in 7-plus games this year, and he still No. 3 in the SEC with 22 hurries, and he’s No. 4 in pressures (29). All of his plays still feel so disruptive, even if the sack numbers don’t suggest he’s having a sensational season.

You could argue that the well-paid Stewart is doing just fine for himself and that he’s going to have even more millions of dollars coming his way once he’s eligible to declare for the 2027 NFL Draft. Still, though. He got a taste of playing in some ideal surroundings when he burst onto the scene for a Playoff-hopeful South Carolina team last year. This year, he’s been put in some tougher spots and will likely have some questioning his abilities because of that. That’d be a mistake.

Mansoor Delane, LSU CB

Say what you want about this catastrophe of a season in Baton Rouge, but don’t direct that criticism at the money spent on Delane. The Virginia Tech transfer has done everything in his power to bring the “DBU” moniker back to the Bayou.

This year, he’s allowed just 8 catches on 25 targets. He’s got 7 pass breakups and quarterbacks have a 28.2 QB rating when targeting him. Just for a little perspective on that, a QB who spiked the ball on every play would have a QB rating of 39.6. Teams have basically decided that’s a better option than targeting Delane. After his dazzling LSU debut in the Clemson win wherein the Tigers targeted him 8 times, he’s been targeted just 17 times in 7 games. Since that game, he’s only allowed 79 yards in coverage and 42 yards after catch (YAC). He surrendered just 2 catches of 20 yards all season for an LSU defense that showed promise, but ultimately fell off the rails the last few weeks.

LSU’s offseason spending will forever be part of the Brian Kelly obituary, and understandably so. Just don’t convince yourself that the dude who has been dominant in his 380 snaps at outside corner was money wasted.

Auburn’s defensive front 7

I’m including the non-secondary pieces of the Auburn defense here because the nation’s No. 93 pass defense probably doesn’t deserve better, although Rayshawn Pleasant has been fantastic in the defensive backfield after transferring from Tulane. That 1-4 SEC record doesn’t reflect how good that defensive front has been for the majority of the season. Auburn hasn’t allowed more than 24 points in a game yet, thanks in large part to that group.

Keldric Faulk was a household name coming into the year, but it’s been more than him. Xavier Atkins leads the SEC with 13 tackles for loss, Keyron Crawford has 8 TFLs and 5 sacks at the BUCK position, Bobby Jamison-Travis has been an outstanding run-stuffer at nose tackle and Robert Woodyard Jr. has 7 TFLs. That group surrendered 3.5 yards per carry once this year, and it was on the road against undefeated Texas A&M, who was held to a season-low 16 points that day. Arkansas is far from undefeated, but it’s the No. 4 unit in FBS in yards/carry, yet it was held to 23 carries for 63 yards against that Auburn defensive front, which was nearly 100 yards less than its previous season-low total of 158 yards.

Hugh Freeze‘s best accomplishment as Auburn’s coach is rebuilding a defensive front and not just getting it to an SEC level, but getting it to an elite level. If only he had an offense that could pull its weight and convert better than 36% of its 3rd-down attempts.

Cam Coleman, Auburn WR

There might not be a player in college football who ranks outside the top 10 in his conference in receiving and who has a louder presence than Coleman. Every week, you see him make some ridiculous grab and then you see the final stat line that reads “3 catches for 49 yards.” He’s been held to 3 or fewer catches in half of Auburn’s games this year, which feels like the byproduct of a maddening passing attack and not an indictment of his NFL-level abilities. The sophomore got banged up against Arkansas, but before that, he delivered the exact type of grab that we’ve come to expect from him in his young career.

Now imagine only targeting that guy an average of 6 times per game. In 8 games, Coleman has just 13 targets on passes that traveled 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That cannot happen for someone who has 5 contested catches on 20-yard throws (No. 2 in SEC and No. 4 among Power Conference receivers). Just for a little perspective, Tennessee has 2 receivers with more 20-yard targets than Coleman. One of them, Chris Brazzell, is having the type of season that Coleman should be having. He’s leading the SEC with 740 receiving yards and 8 receiving touchdowns while Coleman is No. 16 in the conference with 440 yards and just 3 receiving touchdowns.

Perhaps a change in quarterback will give us the full version of Coleman. To this point in his career, his ridiculous talents have been held back by quarterback play.

Taylen Green, Arkansas QB

This is a tricky one because I have to acknowledge that Green has 5 interceptions in the 4th quarter alone this season. For a team that can’t seem to win close games, it’s hard to ignore that stat when he’s got more late-game picks than anybody in America. That needs to be addressed.

But the flip side is that Arkansas is only in those positions because Green is carrying it there. That’s behind an offensive line that has struggled in pass protection — his 373 scramble yards rank No. 1 among Power Conference quarterbacks — and has forced him to spin out of designed plays before they even begin far too often. Green still has led Arkansas to the No. 3 offense in yards/play with a group that’s averaging 205 rushing yards per contest. That’s not easy for a team that’s often trailing. On top of that, he ranks No. 1 in FBS with 347.6 scrimmage yards/game and he’s No. 2 among Power Conference quarterbacks behind the aforementioned Sellers with 346 yards after contact.

There’s a chance that Green ends the season with some of the most prolific numbers that you’ll ever see from an SEC team who fails to win a conference game. Perhaps the only thing that worked in his favor this year was that Bobby Petrino got the interim job after Sam Pittman was fired. Other than that, though, a guy who has lost while hitting 31 points in 4 losses deserves better.

Jadan Baugh, Florida RB

OK, so some might disagree with this one because Baugh finally started getting the rock in the final 3 games of the Billy Napier era. He averaged 26 scrimmage touches in those contests after averaging 15 in the 1-3 start. That’s all well and good. He also just lost his play caller and his now at the mercy of first-time play-caller Ryan O’Hara, AKA Florida‘s quarterbacks coach. He’s also been operating alongside a hobbled DJ Lagway, who has been one missed assignment away from getting ripped to pieces, yet Baugh has allowed just 1 pressure on 36 snaps in pass protection.

In ideal world, Baugh’s body of work would speak for itself. He’s No. 5 among Power Conference players with 40 missed tackles forced, which is even more impressive for someone who has yet to fumble on 117 carries. Tell me how this guy only ranks No. 17 in the SEC with 16 red-zone rushing attempts.

He and Jeremiah Cobb are the lone SEC running backs with 110 carries and 0 fumbles this season. He’s also No. 1 among SEC running backs with 19 catches (on 21 targets), and he doesn’t have a drop this season. When Baugh is inevitably snubbed from All-SEC honors, it’ll be more confirmation that he deserved to be playing on a team in Playoff contention and not for a team that fired its play-calling head coach midseason.

Brylan Lanier, Mississippi State DB

I’m not sure if a whole lot of SEC fans outside of Alabama or Mississippi know Lanier’s name. The Tuscaloosa native started his college career locally at Alabama, but then transferred to Indiana and played as a reserve during his redshirt freshman season. In Year 3, he transferred again and got regular snaps at East Mississippi Community College (the original “Last Chance U”), where he blossomed into one of the top JUCO corners in the country. After earning a starting job in Coleman Hutzler’s defense at Mississippi State in 2024, he’s turned into an All-SEC player in 2025.

Will he get that type of love? Probably not if the Bulldogs are stuck on 4 wins. But Lanier did what he could to change that, not only by picking off DJ Lagway twice but also by delivering a crucial 3rd-down sack against Florida. Lanier is tied for the SEC lead with 3 interceptions, which is why Mississippi State leads the conference with 11 picks. Lanier hasn’t allowed a touchdown in coverage against SEC competition, and quarterbacks have a 67.5 QB rating when targeting him. After being in a mostly traditional corner role last year, he now plays over the formation this year and has plugged multiple holes for a unit that had massive questions entering the season.

He’s a major reason why, despite that winless record in SEC play, Mississippi State is much more competitive than it was in Year 1 under Jeff Lebby.

Brenen Thompson, Mississippi State WR

Let’s continue the Mississippi State trend with the man who delivered arguably the biggest moment of the post-Dan Mullen era in Starkville:

Electric. How Thompson was ever “covered” like that with the game on the line is still baffling. He’s as fast and as lethal downfield as anyone in the SEC, yet for someone who has been at 3 SEC schools, he’s still not a household name in the conference. Shoot, the place where he came from, Oklahoma, viewed him as part of the problem. Considering what Thompson does well (catch downfield passes) and what Jackson Arnold doesn’t do well (unleash downfield passes), it’s not a surprise to see why it didn’t work out.

Reuniting with Lebby, who watched Thompson average 34 yards per catch with Dillon Gabriel at Oklahoma in 2023, has been the best thing for his skill set. He’s No. 6 in the SEC with 609 receiving yards and he’s No. 1 with 17 targets on passes that traveled 20 yards. Thompson has as many downfield catches (7) as the aforementioned Coleman and Williams, yet he’s hardly a household name like they are. Mind you, that’s for a 5-9 receiver who has played 91.7% of his snaps on the outside. Someone like Thompson who has a 132.4 QB rating when targeted could probably benefit from more consistent quarterback play.

At the very least, he deserves to be part of an SEC win.

Cutter Boley, Kentucky QB

For those who don’t know Boley’s story, here it is. He transferred to play his high school ball at Lexington Christian Academy, where he starred for 2 years and reclassified from 2025 to 2024. He announced his commitment to the Cats while Liam Coen was the OC in 2023. Boley signed his letter of intent with Kentucky as a 4-star recruit with plenty of options, and did so under the premise that Coen would be his first OC. Then Coen went back to the NFL 6 weeks later, and Boley stayed with the program after it scrambled to hire Bush Hamdan. After showing signs of promise late in his true freshman year in place of the ineffective Brock Vandagriff, not only did Mark Stoops elect to keep Hamdan after he led the nation’s No. 119 scoring offense, but he brought in the well-traveled Zach Calzada to compete for the starting job.

Spoiler alert: Calzada didn’t work out. The guy who lost his job at 2 different SEC schools started 2 games and lost his job again.

So instead of having Boley get first-team reps throughout the offseason and into fall camp, Stoops created an even steeper learning curve for his redshirt freshman quarterback. In the last few games, Boley has started to look like the blue-chip recruit he was billed as, albeit with pretty limited options at receiver. Unfortunately, it’s for a Kentucky team that already watched its season collapse, in part because Stoops insisted on bringing in Calzada and keeping an OC who didn’t lead the offense to a single game with 21 points vs. Power Conference competition in 2024.

Boley deserves better. It’s just a matter of whether he’s got any chance of getting it if he stays in Lexington.

The post The 2025 SEC ‘Dudes Who Deserve Better’ Team appeared first on Saturday Down South.

If there’s a chance that we could get some made-for-Hollywood storylines in the first round of the College Football Playoff, we as college football fans need to be doing everything in our power to make that happen. That’s what we’ll try to do today. What does that look like?

Oh, a coach against his former boss? Yep. Wait, you mean we could see a quarterback face his former team? Oh, we could see a revenge game after this team threw shade at that team? You bet. Sign me up.

Here are 7 juicy first-round Playoff matchups that could actually happen … if we just will them into existence (note that I put the currently higher-ranked team as the home team):

Georgia Tech vs. Texas A&M

Let’s start with Haynes King facing his former team. Lost in the shuffle of this 2025 season is the fact that King and Texas A&M are both undefeated heading into November. Somewhere, Jimbo Fisher would be sitting on a pile of money and taking credit for both of those things. It would be a fascinating matchup for that element alone, but also because it’d be a December matchup between a pair of teams that are cut from the same cloth. Toughness wouldn’t be lacking. Physical teams who have resilient quarterbacks would love to see a game like this won in the trenches.

The best question is perhaps whether these teams are too good to prevent this from happening. After all, they represent 40% of the remaining Power Conference unbeatens. They could, however, slide into that 5-12 range if they both come up short of winning conference titles. A&M might be able to lose 2 games and still host a home Playoff game at 10-2 or 11-2, depending on what that looks like. Whatever the case, King returning to the place where he started his career would be a great full-circle moment.

Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M

I promise that not all of these are A&M games, but these 2 teams played in one of the best games of the season. At the time, it felt important when A&M delivered that go-ahead touchdown on the heels of the botched Notre Dame snap on the extra point. It’s still proving to be important for both teams that haven’t lost a game since that night in South Bend. They’ve already had a home-and-home during the Mike Elko era, but another game against his former team would make for great theater. Both CJ Carr and Marcel Reed are playing at a high level, and against a pair of talented, but imperfect defenses, we could watch another wild back-and-forth contest.

Barring a complete collapse, Notre Dame is likely going to be behind A&M in any future Playoff ranking. But if the Aggies lose a regular season game and then fall in the SEC Championship Game, this could certainly be a 7-10 or 8-9 matchup to kick things off, just as Notre Dame did against first-time Playoff participant Indiana last year.

Alabama vs. Indiana

Remember the time that Curt Cignetti fired back at Alabama by claiming that Indiana was “adopting SEC scheduling philosophy?” I remember that, too. It was … sort of weak? And while Cignetti might’ve tried to justify Indiana canceling a home-and-home with Virginia to get to 9 Power Conference games, it didn’t help his case that Alabama was already set to face 2 Power Conference foes in nonconference play to get 10 such opponents in 2025. But whatever. Cignetti was an original Nick Saban assistant at Alabama, and we’d surely get plenty of reminders of that, as well as how at odds these teams were over last year’s Playoff decision.

If both of these teams lose in their respective conference title games and nothing else, they’re likely both looking at top-8 seeds. What would probably need to happen is Alabama loses 1 more regular season game and then it suffers an SEC Championship Game loss. How realistic is that? Eh, maybe not, but as we saw with Alabama late last season, nothing should be assumed.

Ole Miss vs. Alabama

You had me at “Lane Kiffin vs. Alabama.” Need I say more? The amount of great moments this would yield is off the charts. We’d have Kiffin joining Nick Saban on a College GameDay set and they’d reminisce about all of their iconic sideline interactions from 2014-16. Shoot, maybe we’d even get Kiffin throwing out a “get your popcorn ready” just for old time’s sake. Knowing Kiffin, he’d probably say that about the Alabama offense in a not-so-subtle attempt to give a little rat poison for the Tide. Ah, the pageantry would be fantastic.

It’s been somewhat overlooked that these 2 teams haven’t faced each other since the conference expanded. No longer divisional foes, a throwback Ole Miss-Alabama game would move the needle in a major way. It would probably take Ole Miss losing another regular-season game and Alabama losing in the SEC title game. Whatever it takes, nothing would get the juices flowing like Kiffin in his old stomping grounds.

Miami (FL) vs. Georgia

Carson Beck against Georgia? Sign me up. Having Beck return to Athens would be the ultimate revenge game. Depending on whose side of the story you believe, you could argue who this is actually a revenge game for. I don’t care who it’d be a revenge game for, but I do care that Georgia fans would make that a 1-of-1 atmosphere. Knowing Kirby Smart, he’d say everything right publicly, but internally, he’d have his team convinced that Beck literally spat in the face of every individual member of that Georgia locker room. Of course, that didn’t happen. Beck just chose to leave Georgia for a new chapter at Miami, where he’s had a mostly good bounce-back season.

You’d have the obvious Beck storyline, but it’d be Miami’s first Playoff berth … in a building where the home team has 1 loss in the 2020s. No big deal, right? Surely Mario Cristobal could beat a top-8 team in a true road game for the first time in his career, right? Well, it’d be entertaining to find out.

Oregon vs. Georgia

Dan Lanning making a cross-country return to Athens would be worth the price of admission. Lanning already faced his former team, but that was in his Oregon debut back in 2022. Much has changed since that game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Ducks are one of the steadiest programs in America having immediately established themselves as an annual Big Ten contender. Watching these teams face off on a Playoff stage feels like something that we’ll see happen at some point, but we need these Big Ten-SEC battles on campuses because of how rare they’ve become.

Smart would have the chance to remain unbeaten against his former assistants while Lanning would have an opportunity to pick up what would be arguably his most impressive victory to date. Another regular-season loss for both programs and getting an 8-9 matchup for a pair of 10-2 squads is probably the only way this happens, but it’d be a treat if it did.

Oregon vs. Ohio State

Do I want a 3rd matchup between these teams? Absolutely. This game was phenomenal in the first matchup in Eugene and … not so much in the second one. That’s fine. These are extremely different teams. It’d still be 2 extremely talented teams facing off after not meeting in the regular season. Well, that’s assuming they won’t find a way to face off in the Big Ten Championship Game, which would negate this possibility altogether.

Dante Moore vs. Julian Sayin would be an exceptional quarterback matchup, but the Will Stein-Matt Patricia chess match would be the real draw. Two of the best minds on their respective sides of the ball would be a strength-on-strength matchup that would feel like a semifinal game. And of course, the winner of Part III would have a whole lot of bragging rights as the premier Big Ten program in the latter half of the 2020s.

And the one that probably won’t happen because they’re both 2-loss teams with a month left, but it would be the juiciest Playoff matchup ever … USC vs. Oklahoma

I need a Lincoln Riley return to Norman like I need air in my lungs. I know I’m not alone. Oklahoma fans might hate Riley more than Texas. This would be the ultimate revenge matchup for OU after Riley left for USC. The College GameDay signs would be at an all-time level. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that both of these teams would have to win out to make this happen. For Oklahoma, that would mean winning road games at Tennessee and at Alabama, as well as taking care of Mizzou and LSU at home. Losing any one of those games likely means OU isn’t getting into the Playoff, much less hosting a home Playoff game.

But at the very least, the path is there because of how much credit OU would get for running the table with a schedule against teams that are a combined 24-8. This would be the No. 1 chaos scenario for November. We’d all have to take back any negative things we’ve said about the selection committee if it actually makes this happen.

The post 7 juicy first-round Playoff games that could actually happen appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Nowhere on that list will you find household names like Ryan Williams or Cam Coleman, both of whom were preseason first-team All-SEC selections entering Year 2. You’ll instead find 8 former transfers, 7 of which are in Year 1 at their current school.

But there’s a former transfer who, in Year 2 at his current school, has been more valuable than those top 10 SEC leaders in receiving (as well as Williams and Coleman).

Germie Bernard is that dude.

He’s not just that dude because he delivered the game-tying and the go-ahead touchdown when Alabama trailed late at South Carolina, though it certainly confirmed his value. Alabama OC Ryan Grubb called the game-tying touchdown “the Germie Bernard drive” (H/T Yea Alabama). You could say that scheme and South Carolina allowing that rushing score once Bernard got inside the 10-yard line had something to do with his late-game heroics, but you could’ve picked any point in the season to give him that title.

Yeah, you could’ve even said that in the Florida State debacle. Without Bernard, who caught 146 of Ty Simpson’s 254 passing yards, Alabama might’ve lost 31-0. That day, he was the only receiver that Simpson could trust. Since that dreadful start to 2025, Simpson has been surgical with working through his progressions and delivering on-target throws to a variety of targets. It’s at the root of why Bernard’s 526 receiving yards only rank No. 11 in the SEC.

Dig a little deeper into the numbers and you’ll see that’s arguably the least relevant stat to illustrate his value.

Even in a share-the-wealth offense, he’s the go-to guy for Simpson, AKA the guy currently at No. 2 in the Heisman Trophy odds. Bernard’s 58 targets are 10 more than Williams or any other Alabama player. Of equal significance, he only has 1 drop this season compared to 7 for the decorated Williams. But this isn’t really about Bernard vs. Williams and their different strengths and weaknesses (there’s no denying that Williams makes more jaw-dropping plays). It’s about being that steadying force that Alabama needs, especially with a ground game that still hasn’t averaged 4.0 yards per carry against a Power Conference foe.

Bernard is the 1 SEC receiver who would swing multiple games if he got hurt

How does one quantify that, you ask?

Well, he’s got an NFL QB rating of 129.0 when targeted (No. 5 among SEC WRs with at least 30 targets). He’s also been as clutch as it gets. He’s tied for 3rd in the SEC with 8 3rd-down receiving conversions, and in spots in which it’s been just a 7-point margin or less, he’s got 375 scrimmage yards and 7 touchdowns (5 receiving and 2 rushing). Seven scrimmage touchdowns in those spots is remarkable. Just for a little perspective, Jalin Hyatt’s 2022 Biletnikoff Award winning season included 8 touchdowns in those spots.

Bernard isn’t in line to garner hardware like that, and it wouldn’t be surprising if those raw receiving numbers left him off the All-SEC team at the end of the regular season. You likely won’t see Bernard’s 11 scrimmage plays for 20 yards (No. 3 in SEC) cited, nor will you see him honored for his versatility in the Kalen DeBoer/Grubb offense. He’s got 94 rushing yards on 15 carries on the season, 10 of which happened on gap-designed runs. In Bernard’s 3rd year in the offense, DeBoer and Grubb have turned him into the ultimate interchangeable weapon:

• Outside WR: 284 snaps
• Slot WR: 182 snaps
• Backfield: 21 snaps
• QB: 2 snaps

That type of versatility has allowed Alabama to adjust its offense on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes that means playing him predominantly on the outside (he had 54 outside WR snaps at FSU) and other times he means playing him predominantly in the slot (he had 43 slot snaps at Mizzou). And sure, he had nearly a 50-50 split of outside WR snaps to slot snaps in 2024, but he’s already 1 scrimmage touch away from matching his total from last year. When a guy averages 5.1 yards after contact as a runner, well, it makes sense why he continues to get the ball in a variety of ways. The guy is indispensable.

It probably buried the lede to take this long to mention that Bernard’s game-winning rushing touchdown on Saturday happened on a direct snap in which he was tasked with holding onto the ball while faking the misdirection.

Mind you, Alabama was already in field goal range, but any sort of mishandling of that would’ve been devastating, and it would’ve fallen directly on the head coach for being “too cute” in that spot.

In a way, Bernard feels like the one who has been on a mission to do right by DeBoer. Simpson will continue to get all the attention, and understandably so, but he was a Nick Saban recruit. Bernard was the one who opted to leave Michigan State and join DeBoer’s crowded receiver room at Washington in 2023. When he probably could’ve gone anywhere in the country after DeBoer left for Alabama in 2024, Bernard not only followed him to Tuscaloosa, but he stuck around in 2025 instead of starting his NFL career.

DeBoer said after Saturday’s performance that “we’ve got all the trust in the world” in Bernard. It shows. Bernard also looks like he has all the trust in the world in that coaching staff to maximize his unique skill set.

Unlike any of those current 10 SEC leaders in receiving, he’s in Year 3 in his offense. Perhaps we’ll get reminders of that down the stretch for an Alabama team that appears to be in ideal position to claim its 4th SEC title of the 2020s. Of course, this would be the first of its kind for Washington imports like DeBoer and Bernard.

At this time a year ago, Alabama was in desperate need of glue to hold things together. It never quite found that. This time around, Bernard certainly appears to be that all-important glue.

That dude is as valuable as they come.

The post He’s not in the top 10 in the SEC in receiving, but Germie Bernard is the league’s most valuable WR appeared first on Saturday Down South.

And then 7 days later, Kiffin shut me and David Stone up by going into No. 13 Oklahoma and handing the Sooners their first home loss in over a year.

Stone was the Oklahoma defensive lineman who was caught in the crosshairs of a confident Kiffin in the postgame interview with ESPN’s Molly McGrath. According to Kiffin, Stone had been doing a lot of talking to the Ole Miss sideline during the game, and on live television afterwards, that came to light in fittingly Kiffin fashion.

Had Kiffin known (or cared) about the stat that I brought up as the “yeah, but” with his impressive, but imperfect Ole Miss résumé, you can bet that type of energy would’ve been directed my way, too. Either way, Kiffin’s 2025 mantra has felt like one that late Oklahoma fan/country music sensation Toby Keith belted out many a time during his multi-decade, chart-topping career.

“How do you like me now?!?!?”

Now, I like that I can’t reference that stat with Kiffin anymore. Instead, there’s something I’ll start saying about him that’s a bit less quantifiable and a bit more about what my eyes have told me during this “how do you like me now” season.

We’re watching Kiffin’s best coaching job of his storied career. Of course it’s happening in the midst of him being considered the top candidate for big-time vacancies like Florida and LSU (more on that in a second).

The Trinidad Chambliss element alone feels like the obvious argument this being the best coaching job of Kiffin’s career. Unless you were extremely dialed into all things Ole Miss, you probably hadn’t even heard of Chambliss in the offseason when he made the post-spring transfer from Division II Ferris State. Yeah, that story is well documented. Good. It should be. It’s insane. We watch extremely talented teams fall apart when a backup quarterback steps in. At the very least, we usually watch post-spring transfers look limited if they take over an offense early in the season.

Nothing about Chambliss is limited. He’s No. 3 in the SEC with 16 completed passes that traveled 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, he’s No. 3 among Power Conference quarterbacks with an 80.8% adjusted completion percentage against pressure and he’s 4th among SEC quarterbacks with 14 runs of 10-plus yards. Chambliss could improve his accuracy in the intermediate passing game (10-19 yards), but in a scheme that’s elite at creating big throwing windows, there’s a higher floor for him there than most places.

But let’s also remember something else with the team that Chambliss is leading after he took over for the injured/mistake-prone Austin Simmons.

Coming into 2025, Ole Miss ranked dead last in the SEC and No. 113 in FBS in percentage of returning production

That’s not to say Bill Connelly’s metric had the wrong projection for Ole Miss. Percentage of returning production is meant to set the expectation for regression vs. progression. In other words, it was completely fair to project regression for Kiffin’s 2025 squad.

Last year, I’d argue that Ole Miss had a top-4 roster in the sport. Do you disagree with that because it missed the Playoff with a devastating 9-3 finish to the regular season? OK, it lost 3 games by a combined 13 points. That happened while an eventual 1st-round quarterback led the No. 3 scoring offense and it had 5 NFL Draft picks from the No. 2 scoring defense in the FBS.

There’s a reason why everyone looked at Year 5 as such a pivotal season for Kiffin. It wasn’t pivotal in the way that 2025 proved to be for hot-seat coaches like Brian Kelly and James Franklin, but it was considered to be the answer to an all-important question that could shape the SEC in the latter half of the decade — can you win a national title at Ole Miss in this new era of the sport? And if not, would Kiffin go to a place where that could be possible?

A few costly mistakes prevented Ole Miss from earning that opportunity in 2024. Heading into the first Saturday of November in 2025, it’d be stunning if 1-loss Ole Miss didn’t earn that opportunity (FanDuel has Ole Miss’s latest Playoff odds at -300). There’s not a team with a winning record left on that regular-season schedule, which features 3 SEC teams that are a combined 3-11 in conference play (2 of the wins came from a Florida team who already fired Billy Napier).

Could a potential Playoff run rule out Kiffin as a candidate at Florida and LSU? We don’t know. This is an unprecedented dynamic. We do know that Kiffin could be at the center of it.

Sure, it’s possible that an Ole Miss team that’s played in 1-score games 6 of 8 times is flying a bit too close to the sun and some of those defensive issues could catch up to Kiffin’s squad in the postseason. It’s also looking increasingly possible that Ole Miss hosts a home Playoff game in the building where Kiffin has 1 loss since the start of 2023, and it could be favored to earn a quarterfinal bid that won’t happen until Dec. 31-Jan. 1. Time will tell how all of this plays out.

The safest bet is that Kiffin, who maintains that he won’t make future decisions because of money, is about to get a raise from his $9 million salary. He could one-up the Curt Cignetti contract with annual compensation in the $12-13 million range. Maybe like Cignetti, Kiffin should also be getting National Coach of the Year attention. After all, it’s clearly the best coaching job of Kiffin’s career.

He’s managed to do something that’s more impressive than shutting people up; he’s got everyone talking about him. This time, it’s for all the right reasons.

The post This is Lane Kiffin’s best coaching job ever … and it’ll inevitably end in a raise appeared first on Saturday Down South.

We’ve still got more than 2.5 months until we crown a College Football Playoff national championship winner.

As the calendar turns to November, we’ve also still got more than a month until we crown an SEC Championship Game winner. Much can happen.

After an eventful Week 9 in the SEC race, let’s break down some early Week 10 thoughts with (some) eyes on that conference title:

South Carolina vs. No. 7 Ole Miss — Can Ole Miss get a rare comfortable win?

It’s a fair question to ask when you consider that Lane Kiffin‘s squad has played in a 1-score game in 6 of 8 contests this year. To its credit, Ole Miss is also 7-1 having only blown the Georgia game after leading by 2 scores in the 4th quarter. In theory, this should be a favorable matchup at home against a South Carolina team that can’t seem to get back on track after a preseason top-15 ranking. The Gamecocks have had, at least prior to the Alabama game, issues defending the run and getting explosive plays in the passing game.

It’s not a vintage Ole Miss run game under Kiffin, but it’s at least one that can be a tough task behind Kewan Lacy, who leads the SEC with 12 rushing touchdowns and is No. 2 among Power Conference backs with 58 missed tackles forced. Ideally, Ole Miss would have Lacy doing the heavy lifting while Trinidad Chambliss would continue to operate behind a well-blocked offensive line. You could argue that Ole Miss does all the things well that South Carolina’s offense wishes it could do well (protect the QB, get explosives in the passing game, run the ball, etc.). Seeing those differences play out in a rare lopsided game in Oxford would be a welcome sight for Playoff-hopeful Ole Miss.

No. 18 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Tennessee — This is a different kind of Josh Heupel-OU reunion game than last year

Don’t get it twisted. The drama over last year’s Heupel reunion was sports movie stuff. You couldn’t script the former Oklahoma national championship winning quarterback returning to Norman under those circumstances a decade removed from his firing as OC. But this year, dare I say, the stakes will be even higher for Heupel. Timing is part of that. This is a November Saturday instead of a September Saturday. But it’s fair to call this a true Playoff elimination game. A pair of 2-loss teams who are lacking big-time wins would hardly fit the mold of the first 3-loss team to make the field.

OU’s passing game has somewhat quietly been stuck in neutral since John Mateer’s expedited return from his broken thumb. Connect those dots if you will, but Mateer is seeing a juicy matchup to turn things around. Tennessee‘s banged-up secondary yielded the No. 124 passing defense. That’s on the heels of allowing 330 passing yards and 5 touchdowns to Cutter Boley and a Kentucky offense that hadn’t hit 25 points under second-year OC Bush Hamdan. And yes, even though this game will be played in Knoxville, Tennessee surrendered an average of 275 passing yards in Neyland. That feels like it’ll have a massive say in who keeps Playoff hopes alive heading into the home stretch.

No. 9 Vanderbilt vs. No. 20 Texas — Arch Manning’s concussion protocol will dominate headlines, but how much will that matter?

Texas is a slight 3-point favorite for this one, so make of that what you will. Manning suffered a concussion that sidelined him at the end of the Mississippi State comeback, which would lead one to believe that the decorated Texas quarterback has a fairly decent shot of playing. But whether it’s Manning or Matthew Caldwell, who delivered that game-winning score, ask yourself this. Are we sure that either quarterback will have success moving the ball consistently against the Vandy defense? The Commodores have a top-20 run defense nationally and they’re No. 20 in FBS with 21 sacks this season.

At the very least, it’s unrealistic to expect Texas to string scoring drives together for the majority of this matchup. The Longhorns have yet to show that they can do that against Power Conference competition. Perhaps their first home game vs. Power Conference competition will change that around, but at this point, Texas is who it is. That is, an offense that lacks an identity and only looks the part when it trails in the second half. Vandy, who is more than capable of holding 1-score leads, figures to be a tall task if yet another slow start puts Texas in a deficit at the break.

No. 5 Georgia vs. Florida — Beware of the interim energy, Georgia

Go ask UCLA and UAB about interim energy. It’s real. As Penn State found out back in September, it can sometimes be challenging facing a first-time play-caller. That’ll be the case after Florida fired Billy Napier. Quarterbacks coach Ryan O’Hara is going to be calling plays for a Florida offense that’s been one of the more disappointing SEC units in 2025. Napier took heat for his play-calling and late-game decisions, but one thing he seemed to finally figure out was how to get Jadan Baugh involved. He had 22-30 scrimmage touches in the final 3 games of the Napier era, which feels like a wise strategy to continue against a Georgia defense that’s been vulnerable in SEC play.

At the same time, UGA’s lack of a pass rush could make DJ Lagway look as confident as he did against Texas when the Longhorns failed to bring him down. That could explain why this is only a 7.5-point spread. Florida has been in 1-score games deep into the 3rd quarter in all 4 of those losses. If the Gators come out looking like a team that’s relieved to have the Napier decision in the rearview mirror, nobody should be surprised if this is a down-to-the-wire Cocktail Party.

Mississippi State vs. Arkansas — The Bulldogs won’t be bowling without this game

That’s not bold, but it does need to be said for a team that started off 4-0 with a win against the defending Big 12 champs. Mississippi State should already be bowl-eligible having blown not 1, not 2, but 3 SEC games late. Instead, they’ve made some brutal late-game decisions that have proven costly. Whether that’s punting to Ryan Niblett, throwing the ball while in field goal range late or roughing the passer on 4th and 1 in a 17-point game, Jeff Lebby‘s squad can’t get out of its own way. Hence, why that 15-game SEC losing streak exists. It dates back to that dreadful 7-3 win at Arkansas in 2023.

Returning to the scene of the crime, Mississippi State has all the reason to show up desperate. It’s still a 4.5-point road underdog against an Arkansas team that can light up the scoreboard. It’s not often that a 2-5 squad ranks No. 3 in FBS in yards/play. Taylen Green and Mike Washington are capable of running all over an improved, but not elite, Bulldogs run defense. If that plays out in another devastating Mississippi State loss, Lebby and Co. can all but kiss those postseason dreams goodbye with remaining games vs. No. 5 Georgia, at No. 19 Mizzou and vs. No. 7 Ole Miss.

Kentucky vs. Auburn — Ashton Daniels, you’ve got nothing to lose

This is the best SEC matchup possible. At home, facing a Kentucky defense who just allowed 3 different Tennessee receivers to hit the 100-yard mark, Daniels should be set up for success. Auburn’s weapons haven’t gone anywhere. It’s just been easy to forget they’ve been there with the Jackson Arnold version of the Auburn offense. Assuming that Daniels is the guy moving forward, one would think that this will be an opportunity for him to pick up where he left off in the second half against the equally-porous defense he faced at Arkansas.

The frustration with Arnold was that he felt too afraid to make mistakes, and it limited the offense. He’s No. 14 among SEC quarterbacks with just 23 passes of 20 yards attempted. A week after Kentucky was gashed for 5 passing plays of 35 yards, there’s no reason why Auburn shouldn’t be willing to stretch the field with Cam Coleman and Co. As long as Daniels can hit on some of those explosive plays against a lost Kentucky defense, the Tigers should be set up for a rare multi-score SEC win at Jordan-Hare … which has only happened once since Nov. 2021.

The post Early thoughts on SEC games in Week 10 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Sunday night’s news that Kelly was fired at LSU brought that roller coaster to a screeching halt. The question won’t be whether LSU’s search covets some big-time names. Instead, it’ll be whether any of those big-time names get LSU back on the national championship track.

Who would make sense? Let’s remember that a list of candidates is a “make them say no.” It’s a way of outlining who would make sense for a program to hire, and why they need to at least need to be called. It doesn’t mean that they’re locks to get the job or even succeed if offered it. Keep that in mind for what’s going to be as juicy of a vacancy as there is in the 2025 cycle.

With that said, these 5 candidates would make a lot of sense:

1. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

It’s gotta start here, which has been said many a time. At the very least, you can all but guarantee that Kiffin’s interest in the job won’t hinge on an slideshow from Landry Kiffin, but obviously, any potential fit would go well beyond that. Shoot, it would even go beyond the fact that Kiffin got the ball rolling for LSU’s frustration with Kelly by handing the Tigers their first loss. He did that with a roster that ranked last in the SEC in percentage of returning production, and has since established itself as a likely Playoff team with Division II transfer Trinidad Chambliss at quarterback.

Kiffin’s contract will inevitably get a raise if he stays at Ole Miss, where he’s on a deal that pays him $9 million annually. Coming over the top of that would all but guarantee a deal similar to the one that Kelly just got bought out of. Whether LSU can actually afford such a steep price for Kiffin remains to be seen (more thoughts on that in a second). But if there’s any chance that LSU is one of the few jobs that Kiffin would be willing to leave Ole Miss for, well, let’s just say that’s a call Scott Woodward simply has to make.

2. Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State

I’m fully aware that Dillingham is at his alma mater, and there’s a good chance that he’s got no intentions of leaving anytime soon. He’s in the more favorable Big 12, which he saw last year had a clearer path to reach the Playoff than getting through the SEC gauntlet. It’s possible he stays there and he becomes a 15-year guy who wins a ton of games at a place that was starving for such a coach.

But you can’t tell me that Dillingham wouldn’t at least think about LSU. He’s only in Year 3 as an FBS head coach, and he’s already established himself as one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the sport after leading Arizona State to a Playoff berth. Unlike the 64-year-old Kelly, Dillingham would be a strong pivot as a 35-year-old coach who seems to have the pulse of this new generation of players. That matters. It also matters that while Arizona State is his alma mater, Dillingham held assistant jobs at Memphis, Auburn and Florida State. He understands the South and the type of recruiting that takes place at the high school level, so he wouldn’t be considered a geographical outsider, either. Dillingham is a darn good coach who should have athletic directors in this cycle gauging his interest to see if he’d be willing to leave Tempe.

3. Jon Sumrall, Tulane

If there’s a feeling that LSU would be walking with its tail between its legs to pay $53.8 million (perhaps that’ll get negotiated) to fire a coach, only to then poach from in-state Tulane, that would be foolish. Sumrall is 6-1 even after he had his quarterback poached, and he already beat a couple of Power Conference teams this year. In fact, his lone loss was to the aforementioned Kiffin. That’s hardly an indictment of someone who is 38-10 in Year 4 as an FBS head coach.

Sumrall has experience in the SEC having coached at Ole Miss and Kentucky, which will likely matter to LSU after how fish-out-of-water Kelly felt during his tenure in Baton Rouge. He’s considered one of the top up-and-coming minds in the sport. He’s not considered a splashy candidate, which would have some scratching their heads as to why LSU felt a move away from Kelly was so imminent. Last I checked, the same was said when Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher with his historic buyout and hired a defensive-minded head coach on a much cheaper deal. LSU knows all too well how that’s going.

4. Joe Brady, Buffalo Bills OC

I know, I know, I know. The scouting report on Brady has been that he wants to stay in the NFL and become a head coach. The ability to work with Josh Allen as long as he chooses could make him a long-shot candidate for LSU. But LSU has been chasing the high of that 2019 team since it walked out of the building, and Brady was largely responsible for that historically dominant offense. Giving him the keys to the LSU operation with the ability to develop quarterbacks would make him an obvious fit from the LSU side. It wouldn’t matter that he’s never run a college program. Plenty of those boosters would open up their wallets at the thought of getting back to the 2019 levels that we saw with Brady.

And while Brady still might covet NFL head coaching vacancies more than college ones, few people would truly scoff at that job to remain an NFL offensive coordinator. Brady would be a splashy, intriguing move that would be quite the pivot during a time in which it appears there’ll be a lack of elite candidates to fill elite jobs.

5. Jeff Brohm, Louisville

As mentioned with Dillingham, getting someone to leave their alma mater is no small feat. It shouldn’t be assumed that Brohm is locked in for life and that every other vacancy is off limits. LSU is one of the few jobs that could warrant his attention. He should warrant LSU’s attention having gone 42-18 overall and 27-11 in conference play since the start of 2021 at Purdue and Louisville, both of which were rebuilds when he arrived. Brohm has been excellent taking down elite competition with 5 top-10 wins since the start of 2017. Among coaches with 8 such games in that stretch, Brohm’s winning percentage vs. top-10 teams ranks No. 8 among active coaches. The only active coaches with more AP Top 25 wins in true road games than him since 2017 are Lincoln Riley, Kirby Smart, Ryan Day and Kalen DeBoer.

Maybe Brohm wouldn’t be an obvious fit at a place like LSU because he hasn’t necessarily been some juggernaut on the recruiting trail, but if the thinking is that he’ll have a General Manager — Vince Marrow is his GM at Louisville — and he’d be able to focus on building an offense with interchangeable pieces that’s similar to what Ole Miss has established with Kiffin, Brohm would make a lot of sense. He wouldn’t be Kiffin, but he’d also have the ability to establish a lethal offensive attack and the mindset that he can take down anybody on a given day. That wouldn’t be a bad fit at all.

The post My top 5 candidates to replace Brian Kelly at LSU appeared first on Saturday Down South.

That’s not to dismiss the chaos that 2021 yielded. After all, who could forget when Lincoln Riley walked straight out of Oklahoma for USC after a Bedlam loss? We also had Florida, Miami (FL) and Oregon all open up. And might I remind folks that Brian Kelly left potentially Playoff-bound Notre Dame for LSU?

But 4 years after that 1-of-1 coaching carousel, we can already call the 2025 cycle unprecedented because athletic directors are facing a new question that doesn’t have an answer yet in the 12-team Playoff era.

Can you actually hire a Playoff-bound coach?

Kelly’s 2021 situation at Notre Dame might have some thinking the answer to that is a definitive “yes.” The Irish, who were idle entering conference championship weekend as the No. 6 team in the country, essentially needed to hit a 2-leg parlay of a Baylor win vs. Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship Game and a Georgia win vs. Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. The first leg hit in dramatic fashion, but Bryce Young played the best game of his career in a Heisman Trophy-clinching win against Playoff-bound Georgia.

In other words, we never really found out. Also, Kelly left Notre Dame because he felt he couldn’t win a national championship in South Bend. Perhaps a pair of previous blowout losses in semifinal games to eventual-national champs spoiled any potential hope he had for his 2021 squad, or he just didn’t think Notre Dame would go 2-for-2 with conference championship breaks to make the Playoff.

This also isn’t like a 2017 Scott Frost situation, which included him agreeing to become Nebraska’s head coach before undefeated UCF would earn a New Year’s 6 Bowl bid. UCF wasn’t about to play for a national title (don’t tell their fans I said that). And while we’ve seen assistants from national championship-bound teams like 2016 Lane Kiffin and 2021 Dan Lanning leave for head coaching jobs, let’s not pretend that compares to the face of the program being on the move with a title hanging in the balance.

The 12-team Playoff with hiring head coaches is different. Think about the timeline for a vacancy at a place like Florida, and what it would entail if Playoff-contending coaches like Kiffin, Brent Key, Eli Drinkwitz, Jon Sumrall and Alex Golesh are considered Scott Stricklin’s top target (they all have 0-1 losses entering Week 9). Under the new calendar, here’s what that looks like:

• Dec. 3-5: Early Signing Period
• Dec. 5-6: Conference Championship Weekend
• Dec. 7: Selection Sunday
• Dec. 19-20: College Football Playoff 1st Round
• Dec. 31-Jan. 1: College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
• Jan. 2-16: Transfer Portal Window
• Jan. 8-9: College Football Playoff Semifinals
• Jan. 19: College Football Playoff National Championship

All of that is worth remembering. Long gone are the days in which athletic directors can wait until January to make a coaching hire. Shoot, based on the early-season firings we’ve had so far, it feels like gone are the days in which athletic directors can even wait until December to make a coaching hire.

We’re now in an era wherein coaches with a legitimate national title path could be faced with the dilemma of accepting another job or risk watching it go to a non-Playoff coach.

Will they even entertain those conversations or try to avoid them altogether in fear that it could derail a potential title run?

Let’s say Ole Miss is looking like a lock to make the Playoff at 10-2, but is idle heading into conference championship weekend. If word gets out that Kiffin has agreed to become the next coach at Florida just as his team is set to earn its first Playoff berth in program history, isn’t that begging for a distraction to derail a national title run? Alternatively, will an athletic director be willing to wait on a Playoff-bound coach if they’re told they don’t want to make a decision until after the season? That’s awkward.

That’s also going to be well past the Early Signing Period. Sure, that can be salvaged a bit because the new transfer portal window opens on Jan. 2, AKA the day after the quarterfinal games are played — something that’s not a coincidence — but what’s to say that a potential coach on the move will lose in the quarterfinals? Athletic directors don’t know that. The coaches don’t even know when that final game will be.

It’s possible that athletic directors will try to work out handshake deals with Playoff-bound coaches, but there’s great risk in that. That could leak and become public knowledge, or it’s possible that winning a couple of Playoff games could change a head coach’s mind and negate a handshake deal. Could we have Playoff-bound coaches sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with their new schools to try to protect all parties? It’s possible, but certainly not ideal, especially if that means a coach is secretly trying to do 2 jobs at once.

There are a variety of ways in which this gets messy. Hoping that a prospective candidate misses out on the Playoff might seem simple until you also remember that fanbases probably won’t be thrilled with a couple of Playoff-derailing late-season losses from their new coach. Few roads, if any, feel clean.

Last year when there wasn’t a single FBS program who paid an 8-figure buyout to a fired head coach, some incorrectly connected dots and assumed we were getting more frugal spending because of the upcoming revenue sharing era. A year later, that take is freezing cold. Programs like Purdue, UCF and West Virginia couldn’t dream of poaching Playoff-bound coaches last year. That feels a touch different than the potential market this year at places like Florida and Penn State, perhaps with schools like Auburn and Florida State (among others) soon joining the carousel.

Despite what anyone suggests, nobody knows how this unprecedented coaching carousel will turn out. We’re entering a unique time in our sport. The first year of this new calendar coincided with the first year that this pressing question is going to be asked at several places. And if the answer is “yes,” we can come to another conclusion.

More power to you.

The post Can programs like Florida actually hire a Playoff-bound coach? It feels like we’re about to find out appeared first on Saturday Down South.

CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford joined the show to discuss the Shane Beamer-Virginia Tech drama, as well as who Florida should hire and an interesting national championship hypothetical.

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

Subscribe to The Saturday Down South Podcast here, and subscribe to Saturday Down South on YouTube for all the latest video content!

The post SDS Podcast: Who keeps SEC title hopes alive? Brad Crawford on Shane Beamer-Virginia Tech drama & Florida vacancy appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Personally, I won’t write off the loser of a top-15 showdown between No. 15 Mizzou and No. 10 Vanderbilt, which feels more like an EA Sports College Football ’26 creation than real life. In real life, these 2 teams are playing in the final Saturday of October with 1 loss apiece and College GameDay on hand.

It’s not just that Vandy is hosting the popular pregame show for the 2nd time in program history (2008), and that this is a top-15 matchup with a 2.5-point spread (via BetMGM). It’s that this is already the 2nd time this year that Vandy is part of one of those matchups, and it’s the first time that Mizzou is involved in a College GameDay setting since 2014.

The loser of this game involving a pair of unranked teams in the preseason will get the old, pat-on-the-back-but-go-back-to-being-an-afterthought treatment nationally.

They might as well hand out a trophy to the losing team that’s just a kids table. Nationally, that’s where many will assume the loser is going after a brief stay at the adults’ table. Confirmation bias will creep in, and we’ll probably even get a handful of AP voters who forget that the loser of this game exists.

But that’d be a mistake. Dare I say, it’d be a mistake as egregious as sleeping on Diego Pavia or Ahmad Hardy, both of whom are in Year 2 of being stars worthy of national attention.

Let’s start with the basic reminder that loss No. 2 means something different in the 12-team Playoff era. Love it or hate it, the field will likely consist of more teams with multiple losses than not. Ergo, winning 4 in a row to get to 10-2 all but guarantees an SEC team a spot in the Playoff field.

Two things can be true at the same time

One is that the winner of this game is in ideal position to earn a Playoff bid as a 1-loss team heading into November, and beating a top-15 team will add to that résumé. There’s no denying that, regardless of whether that path to Atlanta is realistic for the winner, going into November with a loss to give is as much as either one of these teams could’ve asked for in August.

The other thing that can be true at the same time is that these remaining schedules aren’t exactly gauntlets. Let’s remember that both of these teams played in competitive games vs. Alabama for their lone loss — Jam Miller scored a rushing touchdown with 17 seconds left to make the Vandy game look more lopsided than it was — and the scariest SEC team is already in the rearview mirror. Mizzou’s post-Vandy SEC foes are a combined 6-9 in conference play while Vandy’s post-Mizzou foes are a combined 4-11 in SEC play.

Yes, both of those teams would probably be an underdog in 2 of their 4 remaining games. But then again, how big of an underdog would Vandy be at 2-loss Texas next week? And sure, it’s possible that Texas A&M might be 8-0 and ranked in the top 3 when Mizzou plays host to the Aggies next week, but we also just watched Mike Elko‘s defense get gashed in a 45-42 game at lowly Arkansas.

You could argue the same thing that Mizzou and Vandy have been at the center of in the SEC is the exact reason why that remaining schedule shouldn’t be considered a gauntlet. That is, parity.

That’s not meant to diminish what both programs have done. If Mizzou and Vandy had different logos on their helmets, they’d probably be ranked higher. We’re talking about a Mizzou team that was 21-5 over the last 2 seasons, but it started 2025 unranked. We’re talking about a Vandy team that had Pavia earn 2024 All-SEC honors at season’s end, but he didn’t receive that honor in the preseason. In different ways, both can play the rare “nobody believed in us” narrative that often falls on deaf ears in the SEC.

They’ve gotten to this point because they have strengths beyond those aforementioned focal points of their respective offenses

Mizzou has been a force on the defensive line with Zion Young and Damon Wilson II, both of whom are big reasons why only 1 opponent hit 4 yards per carry against the Tigers this season. You could say the same thing about Vandy with its improved defensive line, which has surrendered just 3 rushing touchdowns all year, none of which happened at FirstBank Stadium. These are top-15 units nationally against the run, which will be put to the test against a pair of ground attacks that have both run for as many touchdowns (22) as any Power Conference program.

While Mizzou’s defense excels at getting off the field on 3rd down, Vandy’s defense excels at getting in the backfield and creating negative plays to put an offense behind schedule. While Mizzou’s offense is among the nation’s best at getting all-important 10-yard completions, Vandy’s offense is among the nation’s best at 7.35 yards/play.

These are good, well-rounded teams, which is why they’re the best in the SEC in scoring through Week 8. Perhaps you could argue that neither team has beaten a true contender yet, and that multi-score wins vs. South Carolina shouldn’t have the nation on notice, even if we acknowledge that both teams played games that were decided late against juggernaut Alabama. After all, Florida State did more than that and what did that mean for the Seminoles?

But all that would be is moving the goalposts, especially after Vandy beat LSU as a favorite. It’s a convenient thing to do for these programs. It’ll ignore the remarkable jobs that Clark Lea and Eli Drinkwitz have done with teams who needed to make a variety of key personnel moves this offseason. Lea’s was stepping out of the defensive coordinator role he carried in 2024 during Vandy’s emergence onto the national stage while Drinkwitz’s was retooling an offense that had massive overhaul at the skill positions.

It’s safe to say that worked out pretty well for both of them.

It’ll work out better for one of them on Saturday when their teams meet. One will go into November with aspirations of a first Playoff berth very much alive while the other will … still have aspirations of a first Playoff berth very much alive.

Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard the last of Saturday’s loser.

The post It’ll be easy, but don’t write off the loser of the wildly significant Mizzou-Vanderbilt showdown appeared first on Saturday Down South.

While sitting next to fellow No. 16 Arch Manning on Saturday night in Lexington, he looked out at the Texas media and defended his scrutinized team, specifically an offense that was held to a single touchdown with 179 yards of offense and 8 first downs in an overtime win against lowly Kentucky.

“These questions seem a little bit negative, not gonna lie, guys, to the offense,” Taaffe said on Saturday night. “I’ll say this. It’s frickin’ hard to win in the SEC. Go ask Georgia when they won the national championship, what they did against Kentucky last year when they won the SEC championship. What did they do against Kentucky last year? It’s hard to win in the SEC. We frickin’ won. Let’s put some smiles on our faces. We won, and the show goes on. We’re dancin’ and at the end of the day, we control our destiny.

“So, we’re gonna keep on pushin’ and we’re gonna do it with a smile on our face. There’s gonna be corrections, and I trust in my guys, I trust in my coaches, and I’m frickin’ excited, so I want y’all to put some smiles on your faces.”

There’s a lot to unpack there. We don’t have time to dig into the ethical issue with Taaffe’s “smile” request and why the media isn’t in that role to be a cheerleader, so we can leave that alone.

Taaffe is right that in an SEC that feels closer together than ever, there isn’t this great divide between the haves and the have-nots. He’s also right that Georgia struggled to move the ball in a night game at Kentucky last year.

But does he think Georgia was safe from criticism after it also had 1 touchdown in Lexington? This isn’t a “pick on Texas” deal. UGA, like Texas, was the preseason No. 1 team in America. Unlike Texas, though, that was the first moment in which UGA’s offense showed signs of real long-term issues, which ultimately played a part in its disappointing quarterfinal exit in a decisive loss to Notre Dame.

Texas, on the other hand, has now been held to 1 offensive touchdown in 3 of 4 games vs. Power Conference competition. Oh, and last I checked, the preseason No. 1 team in America already has 2 losses and doesn’t have any grace left, which is why it’s alarming to see the lack of urgency with the Texas offense.

(If you don’t believe that, tell me how many 9-3 at-large teams made the Playoff last year. It could happen, perhaps as soon as this year, but no 9-3 team should feel entitled to anything.)

Whether Taaffe or anyone in burnt orange wants to admit it, this offense has lost its grace.

At this point, it’s not even bold to say it’ll get bottled up on Saturday at Mississippi State

As Taaffe and others have pointed out, the gap between the top and bottom of the SEC isn’t very wide. Ergo, it shouldn’t be considered a surprise if and when Texas can’t move the football in Starkville. After all, that’s the same Mississippi State defense who held Tennessee and its No. 3 scoring offense in the FBS to just 1 offensive touchdown in the first 58 minutes. The Bulldogs also went into Kyle Field and had A&M stuck on 7 points deep into the 3rd quarter. Remember the Arizona State squad that gave Texas everything it could handle last year in the Peach Bowl? A Cam Skattebo-less group was held to 10-for-23 passing for 82 yards with just 4.5 yards per offensive play in a 24-20 loss at Mississippi State.

It’s frickin’ hard to win in the SEC, especially when the cowbells are rocking and you can’t think straight. Throw the records out. Shoot, Texas players like Ryan Wingo admitted after that road loss at then-1-3 Florida that “it was a little loud.”

What about the Texas offense has shown us that it can execute in another atmosphere that’ll be “a little loud?” The second half against Oklahoma felt like a breakthrough, but it might’ve felt that way because the rest of the meaningful sample size has been a tough watch for the Texas offense. In its games vs. Power Conference competition, here’s where it ranks among SEC teams:

• Scoring offense: 15th in SEC
• Yards/play: 13th in SEC
• Passing yards/game: 15th in SEC
• Rushing yards/game: 15th in SEC
• 3rd-down conversion rate: 10th in SEC
• Red-zone TD percentage: 11th in SEC
• Time of possession: 15th in SEC
• 20-yard scrimmage plays: T-11th in SEC

And if you take away the non-offensive touchdown that Ryan Niblett scored on the punt return against Oklahoma, we’re talking about a group that averaged 15 points per game in its 4 Power Conference matchups. Call me a bit too negative, but that’s not a unit worth smiling about.

You could argue that winning games away from home is more about getting out alive than earning style points. Fair. All 4 of those games were away from home against respected defensive minds. That’s what Texas signed up for. Texas also signed up for a roster that’s being paid well in the NIL era. That’s why criticism is warranted for a preseason favorite to win the national title. We’re heading into the final weekend in October, and Texas has 1 game vs. Power Conference competition with multiple offensive touchdowns. Mind you, it was the Florida game when the Longhorns were stuck on 7 points late into the 3rd quarter. Also of note, 1-3 Florida won that game and still fired Billy Napier 2 weeks later.

We’re 5.5 weeks removed from the UTEP game when Texas heard the boo birds because Manning had 10 consecutive incompletions. Spend any time watching the Texas offense and you’ll see Manning is still inaccurate on completable throws and his group of pass catchers has been disappointing. The numbers reflect that, too.

On passes 0-9 yards, Manning has a 66.0% adjusted completion percentage with 4.0 yards/attempt, both of which are a distant last among the 16 qualified SEC quarterbacks. On intermediate throws (10-19 yards), he’s 13th among SEC quarterbacks with a 58.1% adjusted completion percentage and 14th with 8.4 yards per attempt. To make matters worse, Texas pass catchers have just 6 contested catches, which is last in the SEC.

It’s not just Manning, though he’s at the center of a unit that’s been anything but reliable. All the turnover at the pass-catcher spots and the 4 new starters on the offensive line should’ve tempered some preseason expectations while allowing some early-season grace. We’re past that point now.

Texas can talk about “making corrections” and how it’s still in control of its own destiny, but those of us on the outside shouldn’t be surprised if a new reality plays out on Saturday. That is, Texas suffers that dreaded loss No. 3 while Jeff Lebby picks up that coveted SEC win No. 1. The Bulldogs are tied with Texas for the SEC lead in takeaways, and they’re first in the conference in interceptions. That explains why Texas is only a 6.5-point favorite (via BetMGM) against a Mississippi State squad that Manning rolled past in his first career SEC start in 2024. At this point, the only thing that would be surprising on Saturday is if Manning repeated his 358-yard, 3-touchdown performance from last season.

Time is ticking on the Texas offense to figure things out. As Taaffe said, it’s frickin’ hard to win in the SEC. It’s even harder to win in the SEC when your offense is stuck in neutral.

Sorry if that’s a little bit negative.

The post We’re not smiling about the Texas offense, especially when it gets bottled up in Starkville appeared first on Saturday Down South.

With Florida‘s list of potential candidates, you can find a way to talk yourself out of anyone being the right fit to replace Billy Napier. Some of those issues are more obvious than others. Context is important, too. Not everybody dealt with the same set of circumstances.

But hater facts aren’t always about giving full context. They’re about finding the flaw, clinging to it and building a narrative against someone being the right fit for the job.

Kidding, sort of.

At the very least, we’re going to provide some ammo against every coach because nobody should be seen as an obvious slam dunk. While there could certainly be some off-the-radar candidates to be considered, we’ll use 10 of the most common names popping up.

Lane Kiffin — He’s 1-10 vs. AP Top 25 teams in true road games at Ole Miss

And the lone win came in 2023 at Tulane, who was starting a backup quarterback. Historically, Lane Kiffin is 3-15 in those matchups, and his last victory vs. a ranked Power Conference foe in a true road game was in 2011 at No. 4 Oregon. The knock against Napier was his 0-14 mark vs. AP Top 25 foes away from The Swamp (road and neutral). As great of a candidate as Kiffin would be, that’s the thing that’s prevented him from being considered a Tier 1 coach. It’s possible that Florida could be stuck with the same issue with Kiffin on board, albeit with a bigger check to write.

Eli Drinkwitz — He’s a $9 million coach with 0 wins vs. AP Top 10 teams in the regular season

As much as Eli Drinkwitz deserves credit for the job he’s done at Mizzou, let’s remember that context. He’s getting paid extremely well at his current job, so any sort of poaching is likely going to take at least a $10-11 million annual investment into someone who lacks that signature victory in the regular season. Even Napier just beat a top-10 Texas team in the regular season. Go figure that with a win on Saturday at No. 10 Vandy, Drinkwitz would finally get his first regular-season win vs. a top-10 foe in Year 6 in Columbia after an 0-7 start in those matchups.

Jedd Fisch — He hasn’t had a Year 4 at a job since 2007

Fisch’s path in football has had more stops than he can probably count. The 3-year run he had at Arizona in 2021-23 marked his longest stay somewhere since he was an offensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens from 2004-07. Florida infamously just had a 4th consecutive coach in the post-Urban Meyer era fail to earn a Year 5. The goal is not to hire a quick-fix rebuilder, but to hire someone who can truly build year-over-year success. While Fisch’s allegiances wouldn’t be questioned as a Florida graduate, it would be fair to wonder if he’d be the answer to that ever-pressing issue of finding long-term stability.

Rhett Lashlee — He’s an offensive play-caller head coach with 3 offensive coordinators

You could argue that it’s a positive that Lashlee would bring his offensive acumen to Gainesville. You could also argue that someone who has held onto play-calling duties as a head coach with 3 different people who hold the “offensive coordinator or co-offensive coordinator” titles is asking for trouble. Lashlee has said in the past that play calling is a year-to-year process for him after what he witnessed at Auburn while working as Gus Malzahn’s non-play-calling offensive coordinator. The issue could be whether Lashlee holds onto those duties too long, just as Napier did.

James Franklin — Besides the 4-21 record vs. AP top 10 teams? A premier program committed $49 million to fire him

That has to mean something. Florida isn’t in the position that someone like Arkansas is in. The support has been there in Gainesville. Franklin is a rebuilder who has been out-coached repeatedly in the games that defined his tenure. Losing to UCLA and Northwestern was just the final nail in the coffin for a team some believed would finally get over the hump and win a national title. That ignored the fact that Franklin hadn’t beaten an AP Top 10 foe from the Big Ten since his team walked off the 2016 conference title game with a comeback win vs. Wisconsin. And like Napier, he was disastrous vs. ranked foes on the road (2-13 at Penn State). Hiring Franklin, who has $49 million on the way in some form, wouldn’t make any sense with his 0-15 regular-season record vs. AP Top 10 teams in the last 8 seasons.

Jeff Brohm — He’s got 1 AP Top 25 finish in 8 seasons as a Power Conference head coach

That’s an ironic fact considering that Brohm just took down No. 2 Miami (FL) on the road, where Napier watched his team get bullied down the stretch. But while Brohm has established himself as one of the premier upset coaches, that’s not the type of win you’re asked to get at Florida. Napier just beat a top-10 Texas team, but because it was in the midst of a 3-4 start in which Florida was again out of SEC contention by the end of September, it didn’t carry as much weight. Brohm is 7-8 lifetime in games in which his team carries a top-25 ranking, and 4 of those wins came in that 2023 season when he earned his lone ranked finish … but it also included a devastating home loss to 7-win Kentucky.

Alex Golesh — He’s got the least head coaching experience of any candidate here

And it’s all Group of 5 experience. Golesh is 1 year older than Meyer was when he was hired at Florida, and he only had 4 years of Group of 5 head coaching to that point, so you could poke holes in that. But Golesh stands out in this group because others have more high-level experience at this stage in their careers. Napier was a 42-year-old coach with 4 years of Group of 5 experience as a head coach, so it’s possible that Golesh fits a background that Florida is trying to correct more than it’s trying to double down on.

Marcus Freeman — He’s not leaving, but you’d be writing a blank check without offensive answers

No, you cannot assume that Freeman’s OC, Mike Denbrock, is a packaged deal. Before Denbrock left Brian Kelly’s LSU staff for a return to South Bend in 2024, that was a major issue in the first part of Freeman’s Notre Dame tenure. He went consecutive years without a New Year’s 6 Bowl because the Irish offense lacked an identity vs. quality foes. While one could predict that a massive, 10-year megadeal investment in Freeman — I’m assuming that sort of thing is the only way he’d even pick up the phone to consider leaving — would covet an elite offensive coordinator, it’d still be a major question mark after he was hired.

Brent Key — He’s never even coached in a battle of ranked teams

Isn’t that a wild thought? Napier’s 5-17 record vs. ranked foes was much worse than Key’s 7-6 mark in those matchups, but the latter is completely unproven in matchups of ranked teams. To be fair, Napier went 0-2 in those games (2022 vs. No. 20 Kentucky and 2022 at No. 11 Tennessee). Just for a little perspective, Clark Lea just won a matchup of ranked teams on Saturday. Dan Mullen was 4-7 in those games, and what people who claim “they shouldn’t have fired Mullen” forget is that he was 1-6 in those final 7 opportunities, which spanned his final 2.5 seasons in Gainesville. If you’re the head coach at Florida, you’re asked to earn and win those types of games. Just for a little perspective, Smart is 23-6 in those matchups since he walked off the field after that 2020 loss to Florida. Go figure that as long as Georgia Tech doesn’t free fall from this 7-0 start, Key’s first ever opportunity to coach in a game of ranked teams could come next month … against Georgia.

Urban Meyer — It’s 2025, not 2005

Need I say more?

The post Want hater facts for Florida candidates? Here’s 1 piece of ammo against each of them appeared first on Saturday Down South.

At the same time, we’re also coming off a weekend in which there weren’t any upsets in conference play. Is there some real separation in the conference? Or is there true parity?

It’s probably somewhere in between. That still means that plenty of these games could come down to a play, and it could be the difference in 3-1 in SEC play vs. 0-4 in SEC play.

(Looking at you, Auburn.)

So what does that mean for Week 9 with only 2 SEC teams on bye? It means there’s a ton on the line to close October.

Here are some early thoughts on those 7 matchups in the SEC:

No. 8 Ole Miss vs. No. 13 Oklahoma — The OU defense is Trinidad Chambliss’s toughest challenge to date

That’s not usually something that’s said after a quarterback travels to Georgia, but based on the fact that Ole Miss didn’t punt until the 4th quarter against a UGA defense that can’t find its pass rush, that’s perfectly fair. It’s also perfectly fair to say that a 13-yard 4th quarter wasn’t the finish that Chambliss and Lane Kiffin hoped for on the road. Now, he’ll face an Oklahoma defense that ranks No. 1 in FBS in yards/play allowed and No. 2 in scoring defense. Perhaps of equal significance, it’s tied for No. 1 in the FBS with 28 sacks this season. Chambliss has only been pressured on 20.2% of his drop-backs this season, which is the lowest rate among SEC starting quarterbacks. He’s done a nice job of avoiding sacks (5 taken), but he’s really only faced 1 unit (LSU) who could dial up pressure consistently.

R Mason Thomas, Taylor Wein and the OU defensive line can get home without blitzing. That’ll have a massive say in whether Ole Miss can beat a ranked Power Conference team in a true road game for the first time in the Kiffin era.

Auburn vs. Arkansas — Auburn’s offense simply cannot struggle here

You could argue that Auburn’s first-half slate in conference play was borderline diabolical for Jackson Arnold to get his confidence back. Look at the FBS rankings of these units in scoring defense and yards/play allowed:

• Oklahoma: No. 2 scoring defense, No. 1 in yards/play allowed
• Texas A&M: No. 62 scoring offense, No. 49 in yards/play allowed
• Georgia: No. 32 scoring defense, No. 30 in yards/play allowed
• Mizzou: No. 16 scoring defense, No. 9 in yards/play allowed

That’s 3 of 4 units who rank in the top 1/4 in FBS in those 2 key categories, and the one who didn’t (A&M), was a road game in front of 108,000 people against the conference’s top pass rusher (Cashius Howell). Now compare that to Arkansas, who ranks No. 121 in FBS in scoring defense and No. 126 in yards/play allowed with just 11 sacks in 7 games. One would think that Arnold will be set up to run wild and get enough time to target receivers downfield, where he ranks No. 13 in the SEC with 22 such attempts (20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage). In a game in which Arnold’s status as QB1 is very much on the line, this cannot be a matchup in which Auburn struggles to string together scoring drives. Auburn being a slight early favorite in a game with an over/under of 57.5 (via BetMGM) suggests that can actually happen.

No. 4 Alabama vs. South Carolina — Are we overdue for a Shane Beamer special?

Nothing about the 2025 sample size would tell you that it’s in the works. After all, the Gamecocks already have 4 losses after their highest preseason AP Top 25 ranking in the post-Steve Spurrier era while Alabama just became the first team in SEC history to win 4 consecutive games vs. ranked foes without a bye week. This would have to be an out-of-body experience for a South Carolina offense that’s stuck in the mud, as well as a South Carolina defense that can’t stop the run. But is it possible that Beamer, who has thrived historically with 6 wins as a double-digit underdog, makes an out-of-nowhere statement? After all, Alabama is led by Kalen DeBoer, AKA the coach who lost as a double-digit favorite 4 times in his first 14 games. Also, DeBoer still carries a 4-5 record away from Tuscaloosa during his time as Alabama’s head coach.

Could an already chaotic year of college football include a game in which South Carolina gets a pair of Beamer Ball non-offensive touchdowns en route to one of the biggest upsets of the season? For an Alabama team riding high, now could be the perfect time for the Gamecocks to pull off a mammoth upset that would be shades of 2010 against the Tide … or it could be a reminder that LaNorris Sellers is being let down by his supporting cast.

No. 15 Mizzou vs. No. 10 Vandy — On second thought, maybe this actually isn’t a Playoff elimination game

I know that’ll be the billing for this incredibly intriguing battle of 1-loss teams, which is why it will play host to College GameDay. But dare I say, a “Playoff elimination game” might not be fair for a pair of teams who could still be 10-2 at-large bids. Mizzou’s post-Vanderbilt schedule features teams that are a combined 6-9 in SEC play while Vandy’s post-Mizzou schedule features teams that are a combined 4-11 in SEC play. Both of these teams have a lone blemish of losing to Alabama, which is hardly an indictment of one’s Playoff credentials. Both teams are more well-rounded than the casual fan realizes and would hardly be in danger of a free fall with a loss.

Of course, the alternative is that the winner of this game having just 1 loss heading into November would be in an ideal spot to make a Playoff push. That would suddenly make that dream a much more likely reality for 2 teams that were considered preseason afterthoughts nationally.

No. 22 Texas vs. Mississippi State — This would be a fitting place for Texas to watch its national title hopes die

Michael Taaffe doesn’t understand why media members weren’t smiling after Texas narrowly escaped Kentucky in overtime. I don’t understand why Texas still looks so lost offensively after a 179-yard showing in Lexington. Seven games in, it’s no longer an excuse to say it’s inexperience when Texas has played in 4 Power Conference games, and it had just 1 offensive touchdown in 3 of them. The Longhorns were the preseason No. 1 team in America. We’re past the point of this being acceptable. In another road game against a defense that’s not a pushover, I fully expect Texas to struggle offensively. The Bulldogs are No. 12 in FBS with 13 takeaways, and they quietly rank No. 22 in FBS in opposing quarterback rating.

It’s telling that Texas is 1-2 in true road games with the lone win coming in overtime to a team who hasn’t won a Power Conference home game in over 2 years. Against a Mississippi State squad who hasn’t won an SEC game in over 2 years, Starkville could be the place where Texas watches its Playoff dreams go to die.

No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 20 LSU — Cashius Howell vs. the LSU offensive line is bad news for the Bayou Bengals

LSU left tackle Tyree Adams got hurt against Vandy, and he’s already been ruled out vs. A&M. That’s problematic considering that Garrett Nussmeier just faced the highest pressure rate of his career (pressured on 43% of drop-backs) in a devastating loss at Vandy, and now, LSU will have to find answers against the SEC’s leader in sacks. Howell has been a game-wrecker for an A&M defense that, while imperfect, has shown it can get off the field with the nation’s No. 2 opposing 3rd-down conversion rate (23%). Howell is a big part of that. He’s got a 25.5% pass-rush win rate, 32 pressures and 23 hurries this season, all of which are No. 1 in the SEC and top 10 in FBS among edge rushers (min. 70 pass-rush snaps).

Howell is a problem, and while Taylen Green did an excellent job of escaping him on his 7 hurries, nobody will confuse Nussmeier’s mobility with the Arkansas quarterback. This could be another day in which Nussmeier is staring down the barrel and hobbling far too often to make anybody think he’s right.

No. 17 Tennessee vs. Kentucky — Are we on “Mark Stoops Watch” on Saturday? We should be

Losing home games is the standard preamble for firing a coach. It takes an athletic director seeing the home fanbase empty out of the stadium for reality to truly sink in. Watching Josh Heupel beat Stoops for the 5th consecutive time in as many chances might be the final dose of reality for Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart to pull the trigger on a $37 million buyout. Sure, Kentucky held its own against Texas with arguably Cutter Boley’s most impressive showing to date … only to watch it end in another depressing manner. That marked the 10th consecutive home loss to a Power Conference foe. Loss No. 11 would be depressing, no matter what it looks like.

That’s the issue here. For all the talk about Kentucky being “a basketball school,” Stoops is in danger of watching his team fall to 2-5 overall and 0-5 in SEC play as his fanbase, uh, stoops even deeper into its already apathetic state. That’s a problem. Anything outside of an upset win on Saturday and one can’t help but wonder if his run in Lexington will end on Sunday.

The post Early thoughts on SEC games in Week 9 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

They break down all of the Week 8 SEC action, which had 6 1-score games. Is Georgia just inevitable? Does Alabama’s win vs. Tennessee erase the last remaining Kalen DeBoer skeptics? Plus, A&M is the last remaining unbeaten, Texas is too casual and much more.

Watch the full episode here:

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The post SDS Podcast: Billy Napier fired, Georgia roars back, scary Bama & casual Texas appeared first on Saturday Down South.

You could argue that “finally” is the wrong word to use there, but given the roller coaster ride that’s gone on for more than 13 months, it does feel like a stomach-churning experience has finally reached its conclusion.

We know why it ended. An 0-14 mark away from home vs. AP Top 25 teams didn’t help, neither did Napier’s 0 wins away from The Swamp against Power Conference bowl teams. Yes, we can already close the book on that stat because Napier didn’t win a game away from The Swamp in the 2025 season. It’s hard to say that would’ve been in play for a unit that suffered multi-score losses in all 3 of those opportunities, albeit against AP Top 10 teams.

Now, we’ve got another search on our hands. Florida AD Scott Stricklin will get to hire a football coach for the 3rd time, which he can credit to Todd Golden and the Gators’ NCAA Tournament title.

If Stricklin is making a short list (one with realistic expectations), here are the first 5 calls he should make:

Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss

Do I think he’ll take the job? Not based on what I’ve heard, and the recent reports that he’s working on a new contract could prevent that from becoming realistic. Does he still need to be called? You bet. There was a sense last year that Florida’s decision-makers believed they’d be able to poach Lane Kiffin, but we never saw that pursuit because Napier was never fired. Would that heat up again this time around? Who knows? What’s undeniable is that Kiffin is still one of the elite offensive minds in this sport, which we’ve seen with his remarkable audible to Division II transfer Trinidad Chambliss, who has become one of the stories of college football. In 6 years at Ole Miss, Kiffin is on his 3rd standout quarterback, which would be welcomed with open arms at Florida.

You’re still talking about poaching one of the top, highest-paid coaches in the sport, which would take complete alignment from the wallets in Gainesville. On top of that, the expanded Playoff complicates the type of pursuit for a team like Ole Miss, which could have that breakthrough season and play deep into December. There’s a chance that Playoff-bound coaches are completely off the market. We saw Brian Kelly take the LSU job before conference championship weekend when his Notre Dame team was still alive for the Playoff. Would Florida be patient enough to wait on a potential Kiffin move if he wanted all of his focus to be on winning a national title? We don’t know. All we know is that there’s no splashier hire than Kiffin that could actually be in play.

Brent Key, Georgia Tech

Our Neil Blackmon reported that Key was the name at the top of Scott Stricklin’s list. He’s a proven head coach who has steadily turned Georgia Tech into one of the tougher programs in the nation with Haynes King, who feels like the perfect representation of Key at quarterback. In some ways, Key would be what Florida thought it was getting in Napier, though without the play-calling. That’s fine. Whether Buster Faulkner would be a packaged deal or not, there’s a ton to like with Key. He spent a decade in the state of Florida on George O’Leary’s UCF’s staff, and he was Nick Saban‘s offensive line coach at Alabama from 2016-18. He knows how to win in the trenches in the SEC, and unlike Napier, Key has a pair of wins away from home vs. AP Top 25 teams. On top of that, Key coached in 3 competitive games with Kirby Smart‘s squad and wouldn’t shy away from that matchup.

The question for Key would be whether he’d be willing to leave his alma mater. He’s making roughly half as much as the aforementioned Kiffin, so the compensation difference could be more appealing, especially if Key feels that the ACC is heading toward a breakup at the end of the decade. You could do a whole lot worse than the man who helped turn Georgia Tech around.

Eli Drinkwitz, Mizzou

I’m not sure the casual college football fan realizes that Mizzou is 26-6 with just 2 home losses since the start of 2023 (maybe both to the eventual Heisman Trophy winners). Eli Drinkwitz did the thing that Napier didn’t do. That is, he recognized that he needed an offensive play caller. Not surprisingly, that 3-year run coincided with Kirby Moore’s arrival. Think about that, and how things could’ve been different for Napier. Florida has had a head coach calling plays the last 8 seasons. It needs someone like Drinkwitz or Kiffin, both of whom oversee the offense but delegate those duties.

You can get someone with a proven offensive scheme in the SEC who has also been exceptional recruiting and evaluating the transfer portal at Mizzou. So far, the Tigers might have the best portal haul of anyone in the SEC. If Florida is going to be competitive in a post-Napier era, you either need Drinkwitz to masterfully recruit his current roster, or he’s going to have to make some big swings in the portal. Also don’t discount that he’s the guy who made 2 phenomenal defensive coordinator hires the last 4 years. It might take a $10-11 million annual investment to poach Drinkwitz from his $9 million annual salary at Mizzou, but he would make a lot of sense.

Jedd Fisch, Washington

You want a Florida man for the job? Fisch is that guy. The former Steve Spurrier era grad assistant has been everywhere since then, both in college and the NFL. His Florida ties might make a few of those wallets open up a bit more, but this is about someone who inherited steep, uphill battles at Arizona and Washington, who basically started over with its roster after Kalen DeBoer left the runner-up squad for Alabama. Fisch managed to improve by 4-5 wins in Year 2 and Year 3 at Arizona, and he’s in for a nice multi-win improvement in Year 2 at Washington. Can he win big games? Since the start of 2023, here are the only coaches with more AP Top 25 victories than Fisch (6):

• Kalen DeBoer, 13
• Steve Sarkisian, 11
• Kirby Smart, 11
• Marcus Freeman, 11
• Ryan Day, 10
• Dan Lanning, 8
• Jedd Fisch, 6

That’s remarkable company, especially considering the rosters that Fisch did his damage with. Perhaps Fisch could even bring Ryan Walters on as his defensive coordinator after he had a ton of success as Mizzou’s DC before leaving for the Big Ten. Let’s also remember that while all eyes will shift to DJ Lagway’s future in Gainesville, Demond Williams Jr. isn’t draft-eligible until 2027. Perhaps if Lagway chooses another route, Fisch could bring his decorated quarterback to Gainesville and stay with his play caller in his pre-draft season. Keep that in mind for someone who might like the appeal of returning to his alma mater.

Alex Golesh, USF

I realize that Florida might try to avoid going the Group of 5 route to replace Napier after his shortcomings at the Power Conference level, but it’d be a mistake to dismiss Golesh (or Jon Sumrall) for that reason alone. After all, the guy already showed you that he could win in The Swamp. What’s the expression? If you can’t beat them, join them? In college football, the saying should be “if a coach from directional school in your state beats you in your building, seriously consider him as a candidate.” That goes double when the directional school matches the physicality in a game like that.

There’s more to like with Golesh than just that 1 game. USF was 4-29 in the 3 years before his arrival, and he could have that program in the Playoff this season. He brings the play-calling acumen from the Josh Heupel scheme, which is already proven in the SEC. Golesh was the play caller for the 2022 Tennessee squad that had the nation’s best offense. He’s had multiple jobs in the state of Florida, and obviously his ties in the all-important Tampa area would be crucial. He’s done a masterful job at not having his roster get picked apart while developing talent and following a true progression. But perhaps above all else, there’s just a certain edge about Golesh that’s infectious. Golesh is a first-generation American from Moscow who fell in love with college football while watching Florida-Tennessee and Michigan-Ohio State games in his cable-less home in Brooklyn. There’s no doubt that he’d work to the bone to succeed at a job like Florida.

The post My 5 favorite candidates to replace Billy Napier at Florida appeared first on Saturday Down South.

We didn’t have a single SEC team on bye, and we didn’t have any nonconference matchups. That’s the type of stacked slate that we usually only get a couple times a year, and with 10 SEC teams in the AP Top 25, Saturday was monumental as we pass the midway point of the season.

Shoot, we had Vanderbilt hosting a top-10 team as a favorite. If that didn’t illustrate how massive this Saturday was, I’m not sure what could.

These were the biggest takeaways from Week 8 in the SEC:

Is Georgia “the most resilient team in college football?” It’s hard to quantify that nationally, but it’s tough to argue

For the 4th time in 5 SEC games, Georgia fell behind by multiple scores. That’s just not a sentence you say about teams who are 4-1 in SEC play. This time, UGA trailed by 2 scores in the 4th quarter against an Ole Miss team who had won 4 1-score games. Didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter that Ole Miss didn’t even punt until the 4th quarter. UGA just found a way. Once again.

That prompted Kirk Herbstreit to call Georgia “the most resilient team in college football.” One could point out that Georgia was a dropped touchdown pass vs. Alabama from making it a 5-0 mark in SEC play, though you could say a shanked field goal from Tennessee went UGA’s way. Whatever the case, Georgia hasn’t flinched. Gunner Stockton is at the center of that. He played through an oblique injury and missed significant practice time, yet you wouldn’t have known it from what the first-year starter delivered in a shootout with Trinidad Chambliss.

Is Georgia flawed? Absolutely. The defensive struggles to start games is baffling. Even coming out of the break, Ole Miss hit a big 75-yard catch and score in which Georgia’s defensive backfield just took horrible angles. That’s not even mentioning the lack of a pass rush for the vast majority of SEC play so far.

But in a year in which top-10 teams are dropping like flies and there appear to be a lack of invincible teams, is Georgia’s flaw something that could be overcome on that stage? Time will tell. For now, though, a path to the 8th SEC Championship Game berth in the last 9 seasons is wide open.

It’s not just Diego Pavia’s world; it’s Vandy’s world and we’re just living in it

We’re running out of words to praise what Pavia and Vandy are doing. Yes, that was active tense because after beating a top-10 LSU team as a home favorite, we need to have active conversations about what the Dores are capable of in 2025. After all, Pavia converts seemingly every meaningful 3rd or 4th down. And if he doesn’t, he drops one in a bucket or he miraculously escapes a sack to at least give his team a chance. He hit the Heisman Trophy pose after a touchdown on Saturday, and it’s fair to wonder what more he has to do to move into those conversations.

Let’s also not discount how difficult Vandy made life on Garrett Nussmeier, who made plays, but many of them felt like they were highlight-reel throws. That unit needs to get more praise for how improved it is with Steve Gregory as Clark Lea’s defensive coordinator. Even Ty Simpson had some tough moments against that group with the pressure it dialed up.

So let’s acknowledge that at 6-1 for the first time since 1950, Vandy has legitimate Playoff life with 5 games to play. This is what the Dores are looking at:

• vs. Mizzou
• at Texas
• vs. Auburn
• vs. Kentucky
• at Tennessee

Yes, the road trips to Texas and Tennessee stand out. But is it crazy to think that Vandy can earn a split in those games? It shouldn’t be.

LSU’s Playoff hopes aren’t dashed, but they might as well be

You could see it all over Nussmeier’s face in the closing seconds. He knew what type of opportunity LSU left in Nashville. And yes, while Vandy absolutely outplayed LSU, there were opportunities on the board when the defense finally got a couple of stops late. But loss No. 2 might as well have come with a “no need apply” letter from the selection committee.

Without Whit Weeks, the defense picked the worst time to have its worst game of the year. Instead of showing up desperate knowing what was at stake in a top-25 matchup, LSU lacked discipline and failed to get off the field far too often. Nussmeier didn’t even have one of those horrendous, costly mistakes and it still didn’t matter. The Tigers couldn’t get that breakthrough score-and-stop sequence to flip the momentum, which feels like a microcosm of this season.

We’ve yet to see LSU score more than 24 points vs. FBS competition this year, and it’s tough to see that changing with how banged up LSU looked on the offensive line. Nussmeier might be over that oblique injury, but you just expect him to limp down the field after every big-time throw he makes. It’s a rough watch.

And now, LSU will go into a pair of matchups vs. Texas A&M and at Alabama, both of whom are capable of ending its Playoff hopes for good. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that Saturday was the most devastating loss of the Brian Kelly era.

Alabama just did something that had never been done in SEC history

That is, win 4 consecutive games vs. AP Top 25 teams without any bye weeks or extra rest. Insane. Here’s perhaps the even more impressive thought. The 4 teams that Alabama beat are 23-1 in non-Alabama games this year, and the loss was Tennessee losing to Georgia in overtime. Yeah, that résumé will give Alabama a whole lot of grace with the selection committee, not that it looks like a team in need of it.

Kalen DeBoer is 19-3 vs. AP Top 25 foes and in home games as a Power Conference head coach, he’s 25-0. Sooner or later, his skeptics will turn into believers. Until then, they can watch a clear path to Atlanta that’s opened up for the Tide without a loss in conference play. Also key is that Oklahoma is the lone remaining SEC opponent who has just 1 conference loss. Alabama will have the head-to-head with Mizzou, Georgia and Vandy if it should come down to that.

Considering where DeBoer and the Tide were after Week 1, that’s hard to fathom.

Billy Napier’s job is __________.

“Uh, TBD?”

After Matt Hayes reported for USA Today that Napier could be fired regardless of the result on Saturday, Florida got a down-to-the-wire game that needed a Machai Boireau big-man interception to close out a Mississippi State team who hadn’t won an SEC game in 2 years. Make of that what you will. If that gave Napier another game to keep his job, that’s a strange basis for a long-term decision. After all, his 3rd-and-1 decision to pass could’ve easily been the difference in that game. It wasn’t.

Napier certainly celebrated like someone who looked like he earned another game in his role, as he should. What’s he supposed to say as his team pulls out an emotional victory?

“Hey, I know I’m cooked. How much is my buyout again?”

That’s not how this works. I can hardly imagine that a 2-point home win vs. Mississippi State changed minds behind closed doors. The hay might be in the barn with someone who has an 0-14 mark vs. AP Top 25 teams away from home. Improving to 3-4 beat the alternative, though. Time will tell if it truly matters.

Hugh Freeze’s job is __________.

“Over.”

That’s my belief after his 3rd consecutive 0-4 start to SEC play. Another game slipped away from Freeze. Imagine that. Fittingly, the game ended in double overtime with his hand-picked quarterback throwing to his own lineman to avoid a sack. It was that kind of night for Jackson Arnold, though at least he finally threw an interception. Unfortunately for Auburn, untimely sacks taken, missed kicks and a failed stand late were at the root of yet another heartbreaker.

It felt like the type of loss that you just can’t suffer in Year 3. Not after the way that Auburn imploded late in SEC play. It’s a team that can’t get out of its own way and simply doesn’t know how to win games. At some point, that’s an indictment on the head coach. Freeze knows it. If that was his last game, he’ll look back on a 2-12 mark in games decided by 10 points or less with just 1 win vs. an AP Top 25 team.

All signs point to Auburn beginning its 3rd coaching search of the 2020s. It’s just a matter of when that’ll be.

Your last remaining SEC unbeaten is … Texas A&M? You bet.

For the second consecutive year, A&M has set itself up with an ideal path to Atlanta. Unlike last year when A&M lost the season opener, though, it’ll take a 7-0 record into the last Saturday of October. The Aggies didn’t play disciplined defensive football, but as we’ve seen for the majority of the year, the offensive line set the tone and Marcel Reed was excellent. Reed wasn’t sacked and the Aggies had 217 rushing yards without Le’Veon Moss, who suffered a significant injury (again) last week. Rueben Owens and the emerging EJ Smith looked the part. A&M just continues to find a way to close games with a multi-faceted attack.

Mike Elko wasn’t pleased with that defensive performance, nor should he be. You know what he should be pleased with, though? A&M is 7-0 for the first time since 1994, and his squad is 4-0 in SEC play for the second consecutive season. In other words, this squad has the makings to do more than avoid 8-4 jokes.

A&M will be a top-3 team heading into Baton Rouge. That’s all any Aggie fan could’ve hoped for 2 months ago.

It’s maddening how casual Texas is

I’ll say it. Texas deserved to lose that football game at Kentucky, and it had been a game against any non-Kentucky SEC team, it would’ve suffered loss No. 3. Yes, that takes into account the defense and special teams that bailed them out. Even the Longhorns’ defense, which stood tall in overtime with that huge goal-line stand, let Cutter Boley bounce back in several key spots.

But above all else, it was maddening to watch this Texas offense operate. A week after a potential breakthrough win vs. Oklahoma, Arch Manning looked like the guy who took the field vs. Ohio State, the offensive line couldn’t get any push and it lacked urgency in key moments. DeAndre Moore got out of bounds when he shouldn’t have, which led to Kentucky having enough time to tie the game on a field goal at the end of regulation. And even after that goal-line stand in overtime, Texas had a holding penalty in overtime to make the kick more difficult.

Yes, Texas is in survive-and-advance mode right now as a 2-loss team. But even Steve Sarkisian has to be beside himself trying to figure out this team. The offense is still stuck in the mud heading into late-October. Sooner or later, this offense needs to find a pulse against SEC competition.

Tory Blaylock fueled a much-needed Oklahoma bounce-back win

With John Mateer still working his way back after the thumb surgery, you knew that Brent Venables wanted to feed his tailback in a matchup like that against a vulnerable South Carolina run defense Saturday. You heard the Oklahoma coach turn a question about the mysterious lack of touches for decorated transfer Jaydn Ott into a reason why he loves Blaylock. The true freshman rewarded his coach with a career-high 101 rushing yards on 19 carries while Xavier Robinson had 11 carries for 58 yards.

That was a welcome sight after the Sooners had struggled to find any sort of backfield identity outside of Mateer. On Saturday, he carried the rock 19 times, which 4 more than the most carries by an OU running back this season. Perhaps of equal importance, the Sooners rolled while Mateer only had 7 rushing attempts. The hope was that he wouldn’t be subjected to unnecessary hits as he continues to work his way back from injury. While Mateer wasn’t perfect throwing the ball — he could’ve been picked off multiple times — he still made enough plays with the elusive Isaiah Sategna to keep the Sooners out of a deficit on the road.

The remaining schedule is nothing but ranked foes, but watching a bell-cow back of sorts emerge felt like an important step for the OU offense.

The post The biggest SEC takeaways from Week 8 of 2025 appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Four games, 4 weeks, 4 wins vs. AP Top 25 foes without any bye or extra rest in between. DeBoer became the first coach in SEC history to do that (H/T Chuck Dunlap), and he did it in convincing fashion on Saturday by closing out a lopsided 37-20 Alabama victory against No. 11 Tennessee.

It’s a feat that his predecessor, some guy named “Nick Saban,” never accomplished. To be fair, there’s a reason for that. Saban didn’t get the opportunity. In his 3 chances to earn 3 consecutive wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (without any byes), he was 1-2 in those stretches. In the lone instance that Saban reached a 3-week stretch with 3 consecutive wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (2016), he did actually get that 4th consecutive win against a ranked foe, but it had a bye week preceding it.

Don’t get it twisted. That’s not my way of saying that we need to bust out side-by-sides of DeBoer and the G.O.A.T. We’re decades from entertaining such a thing.

But let’s put things into perspective for a second. DeBoer is now 19-3 vs. AP Top 25 teams as an FBS head coach. Yeah, he’s got more losses to unranked foes during his time at Alabama (4) than he has lifetime losses to AP Top 25 teams. Weird. I won’t try to explain that one.

I do know that as part of this 4-game streak of AP Top 25 wins, 1 of them was against the most successful coach in the sport (Kirby Smart) against a team that hadn’t lost a home game at night since 2009, while another came against a Mizzou team who hadn’t lost a home game in 2 years. What about the other 2, you ask? Double-digit home wins in revenge games.

Oh, and did I mention that 1-loss Tennessee was the only team in that stretch who had a loss before the Alabama game? And that it was an overtime loss to Georgia? Yeah, those teams are 23-1 vs. the non-Alabama teams on their schedules in 2025.

Poke holes in the 4-game stretch if you want. I’ll instead default to that.

DeBoer handled the type of stretch that’s supposed to chew coaches up and spit them out. Look across the conference and you’ll see plenty of examples of that. Instead, look at an Alabama team who continues to rise to the occasion.

You can point to the massive strides made by Ty Simpson, who again delivered another poised performance, albeit with some imperfect moments. He’d be the first to admit that. He’s a cut off the old Saban block.

You can also point to a defense that, while also imperfect, has learned how to make the crucial play to flip momentum. On Saturday night, that came in the form of a 99-yard interception by Zabien Brown at the end of the first half that completely derailed Tennessee’s chances.

That felt eerily similar to the 2019 play that Trevon Diggs made with a 100-yard fumble return as Tennessee was about to make it a 1-score game. Nobody will confuse this era of Alabama football with that one. Go tell anyone from that 2019 Alabama coaching staff that the 2025 Tide would allow at least 6 yards per carry in all 4 of those games and still beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 times. Different times, these are.

They were always going to feel different. Shoot, we’ve got an Alabama head coach who is following trends on his sideline attire choice (DeBoer is 14-2 in the black hoodie now). If that doesn’t tell you how different Alabama is under DeBoer, I don’t know what will.

But the common denominator is that, much like the golden age of Tide football, the path to Atlanta is there for the Tide’s taking heading into the last weekend of October. That’s all anybody in crimson could’ve asked for when this stretch began.

Again, it began with handing Georgia its first home loss at night since 2009. Have I mentioned that yet? Just a couple times? Good. It’s worth repeating.

It’s also worth repeating that DeBoer was written off before the calendar turned to September. If he had lost any 1 of those 4 games for Alabama’s second loss, you can bet his buyout that he would’ve heard about, well, his buyout.

That’s now the last thought that should be on the minds of Alabama fans. Instead, we should probably acknowledge that against Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee, DeBoer is 5-1. He’s the one with the quarterback at the top of the Heisman Trophy odds and he’s the only one in that group who has yet to suffer an SEC loss in 2025.

All of that is relevant context for DeBoer, who still hasn’t lost a home game since he became a Power Conference head coach. He’s in Year 4 of that, yet there are still skeptics that he’s not cut out for this.

It was fair to be skeptical of his team’s outlook after Week 1. Seven weeks later, any skepticism about DeBoer and his 2025 squad should fall on deaf ears.

Those words can fade into a haze of smoke.

The post Appreciate what Kalen DeBoer just capped off with this 4-game stretch vs. ranked foes appeared first on Saturday Down South.

The national championship is still more than 3 months away. How’s that for perspective? Three months from now is a lifetime away. Shoot, that’s basically a full season. Three months is basically like the time between the NFL Draft and the start of fall camp. That’ll take forever to get here.

OK, do you feel comforted? Good.

The not-so-comforting thought as Week 8 approaches is that we’re already halfway through the regular season. The coaching carousel is whipping around, key players are emerging, key players are fading and Bobby Petrino is an interim SEC coach.

Welcome to life at the halfway point of 2025. This season is already a drunken mess that needs to mix in a water.

In honor of that, I thought it’d be an ideal time to hand out some midseason superlatives. For those who haven’t read a senior yearbook, superlatives aren’t exactly awards. They can be, but they’re a touch cheekier than that.

So here are your 2025 SEC Midseason Superlatives:

My worst preseason take — Garrett Nussmeier is QB1 in college football and he’ll lead LSU to a national title

Let’s start this with an “L.” Technically, this is a premature take because LSU is a 5-1 team with 1 narrow loss. But I’d be lying if I told you that I was perfectly fine with that take, which could’ve have started better. The LSU offense is a rough watch in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated, even after preseason whispers that Nussmeier had suffered a serious knee injury. He doesn’t look right, and he knows it. It’s hard to imagine him getting healthier with the schedule that remains, and for a team that doesn’t look like it wants to run the ball, that’s troubling. Also troubling? LSU has the No. 86 scoring offense. Sure, LSU can lean on that defense to do the heavy lifting, but the only national champion in the last 20 years who failed to have a top-25 scoring offense was 2015 Alabama … who still had Heisman Trophy-winning RB Derrick Henry and the No. 30 scoring offense. Yeah, you get it. LSU lacks championship DNA with this version of Nussmeier.

My best preseason take — We needed to be talking more about Ahmad Hardy

He was a member of my annual All-Bang The Drum Team, but Hardy was also my answer to the broad preseason question “who in college football should we be talking about more in the preseason?” Hardy was the guy. Coming off a 1,300-yard season as a true freshman at Louisiana-Monroe, he was an ideal fit in the Eli Drinkwitz/Kirby Moore offense. All Hardy has done is sprint out to the SEC rushing lead by a whopping 195 yards. In fact, Hardy has more rushing yards after first contact (606) than any SEC running back has in total rushing yards, and he’s the Power Conference leader with 49 missed tackles forced (Cam Skattebo and Ashton Jeanty were the only running backs who had him beat in that area last year). He’s been as advertised, which is why his 12 carries in the 3-point Alabama loss was a source of frustration. Still, his 13-game pace is 1,694 rushing yards and all signs point to him running away with the SEC rushing title, perhaps en route to the Doak Walker Award.

My biggest team surprise — Tennessee has the No. 1 scoring offense in America

I wrote about how insane it is that Tennessee owns the nation’s top scoring offense after an offseason in which it lost its:

• A) QB1 Nico Iamaleava post-spring
• B) Top 3 leaders in receiving
• C) SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson
• D) 4 offensive line starters
• E) All the above

It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”

That’s wild. Even if you think the Vols haven’t had a gauntlet defensive schedule yet, it’s a shanked kick away from being 6-0 with a 41-point effort vs. Georgia under its belt. That’s remarkable for a team that basically hit the reset button on offense. It’s riding a 3-headed backfield attack and a prolific passing game with Joey Aguilar, who has found a true go-to guy in Chris Brazzell. Go figure that Mississippi State gave Tennessee’s offense the most trouble, but it’s still a unit that averaged 6.5 yards/play in every game so far. Whether the Vols have a Playoff future remains to be seen because of those defensive issues, but it’s hard not to appreciate the job that Josh Heupel has done to rebuild that offense.

My biggest individual surprise — Trinidad Chambliss

I could’ve easily listed “Austin Simmons is a dark-horse Heisman candidate” as my worst preseason take, but I wanted to instead praise the emergence of Chambliss. After all, his play is why Simmons didn’t get his job back after his injury. Well, a pair of first-quarter interceptions in his first starts of the season didn’t help, but watching Chambliss take over the Lane Kiffin offense has been a revelation. The Division II Ferris State transfer came out of nowhere and has since risen into the Heisman discussion. Why? He can do it all. In addition to his 10 touchdowns (7 passing, 3 rushing) with the 3rd-best adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards downfield among Power Conference quarterbacks, he’s been extremely successful with 33 gap-designed quarterback runs (Haynes King is the only Power Conference QB with more). Nothing about Chambliss suggests he was playing in front of hundreds of fans last year.

Biggest team bummer — The LaNorris Sellers surroundings

Here’s the best stat that I can show to illustrate the Sellers experience in 2025:

On top of that, he had 12 (!) missed tackles forced in that LSU game and only 19 rushing yards to show for it. Dude is running for his life far too often. He’s been pressured on 48.7% of his dropbacks, which is the highest among the 137 FBS quarterbacks with at least 30 pressured dropbacks. We already saw Sellers get knocked out of the Vanderbilt game because of a free rusher. On top of that, the Gamecocks are averaging 3.2 yards/carry, which ranks No. 125 in FBS. Consider all of that why South Carolina already fired its offensive line coach after 6 games this season. It doesn’t help that South Carolina’s pass catchers only have 7 contested catches, and the decorated Nyck Harbor has just 61 YAC yards on the season, which is No. 42 among SEC receivers. Shane Beamer vowed to get more help for Sellers in hopes that he wouldn’t have to be Superman every week. So far, that hasn’t been the case.

Biggest individual bummer — Besides unhealthy Garrett Nussmeier? Unhealthy DJ Lagway

Pick your poison. Watching those talented quarterbacks limp around the field with limited offenses has been a brutal hang. They’re clearly not right, but they’re both still out there in hopes that they can make enough plays in the intermediate passing game to prevent their respective teams from falling apart. When they faced off with one another in Week 3, it was a stomach-churning experience to watch both passing games look lost. Nussmeier got the last laugh, but it hasn’t exactly been good times for an LSU passing attack that ranks No. 82 in FBS in yards/attempt (7.1). Lagway has had moments in which he’s looked the part like the Texas win with Dallas Wilson’s debut, and facing 4 consecutive top-10 opponents was brutal, but we’re still talking about a preseason Heisman candidate who is leading the No. 96 offense in yards/play. It’s impossible to get excited about watching either banged-up quarterback.

The Week 1 thing that might as well have happened in a different life — Alabama getting pounded at Florida State

What if I told you after that game that one team would rip off 3 consecutive wins vs. AP Top 25 teams and another would lose 3 consecutive games in conference play. Who would you think that I was talking about? Yeah, that might as well have happened in 1995. But in 2025, it’s now Alabama who looks like the juggernaut who can’t be stopped while Florida State has the coach who could be receiving a hefty buyout in the near future. It’s been such a week-to-week season so far. This game threw out 8 months of takes about both programs, and the last 3 games then erased what happened in Week 1. Kalen DeBoer is now trying to accomplish something that Nick Saban never even got the opportunity to do. That is, win 4 consecutive games vs. AP Top 25 foes without any bye weeks. Meanwhile, Florida State is just trying to avoid its 4th consecutive loss when it travels to Stanford. Just as we all predicted.

“Man, I’m glad I called that guy” — Mario Craver & Mansoor Delane

Shoutout, Billy Madison. Also, I already shouted out Hardy, so we’ll diversify a touch here. This is the superlative for the most valuable transfers so far, which is why I don’t feel like it’s a cop-out to highlight 1 from each side of the ball. Craver came to Texas A&M after showing promise at Mississippi State, but nobody could’ve predicted that he’d have a commanding lead on the SEC receiving race at the midway point of the season. His ridiculous 86-yard catch and run against Notre Dame was one of the plays of the year of the first half of the season, and it fueled his FBS-best 391 YAC yards.

Delane has had plenty of big-time moments himself for a thriving LSU defense. The Virginia Tech transfer had that huge interception in the Clemson win, and he’s got just as many pass break-ups (6) as he has catches allowed on 22 targets in coverage. Quarterbacks have a 22.7 NFL QB rating when targeting him, which ranks No. 1 among SEC corners with 30 coverage snaps. Delane’s emergence has been monumental for the blitz-heavy Blake Baker defense, which needs outside corners who can handle their business in single coverage. Alongside fellow newcomer sensation DJ Pickett, LSU is finally getting back its “DBU” moniker.

The anti-Arch Manning storyline, AKA the thing we should be talking about more — Vandy still has a legitimate Playoff path

I realize that everyone was talking about Vandy going into the Alabama game, and if Diego Pavia had repeated last year’s feat, these conversations would be happening outside of Nashville. But nationally, not enough people seem to care that a ranked Vandy squad is favored vs. top-10 LSU. In other words, there’s a good chance that Vandy will have a 6-1 record with a pair of top-15 wins. Sure, South Carolina is now unranked, but too many people seem to be ignoring Vandy’s Playoff path with a win on Saturday. The latter half isn’t a picnic, but those 5 post-LSU opponents are currently 4-9 in conference play and only 2 road games remain. If the biggest knock is not winning in Tuscaloosa — a place where the Tide have only lost once in the 2020s — that’s hardly a deal-breaker on one’s Playoff chances. The No. 5 offense in FBS in yards/play isn’t just Diego Pavia. It’s an improved defense who can pressure the quarterback (18 sacks) and get takeaways (10). Stop sleeping on Vandy.

Class Clown — SEC Officiating

OK, I thought we’d end with at least 1 real superlative. It goes to SEC Officiating, which has had no shortage of blunders this year, including notable mistakes with:

• The TD catches that Barion Brown and Nyck Harbor had inexplicably wiped off the board in Week 1
• Oklahoma’s illegal non-substitution vs. Auburn … which led to an official correction from the SEC
• Jackson Arnold’s goal-line “fumble” vs. Georgia
• Officials stopping South Carolina plays late post-Sellers injury and during the fake punt attempt at LSU
• The offensive pass interference that wiped off a Chris Brazzell TD at Mississippi State
• Kirby Smart’s “clapping” even though he was clearly trying to call timeout at Auburn

Those are just a few of the officiating blunders that come to mind in the first half of the season, all of which were in crucial moments. Yet, as Josh Pate likes to say, were any officials subjected to post-game questioning? Nope because we still don’t believe in accountability for that all-important area. The SEC can’t even get on the ACC’s level with its replay center.

There’s absolutely zero reason that the SEC shouldn’t adopt the same policy next season. At the very least, there would be more transparency into what in the world is going on with some of these head-scratching officiating blunders.

Until then, SEC Officiating will continue to be clowned.

The post My 2025 SEC Midseason Superlatives appeared first on Saturday Down South.

Jesse Simonton joined the show to discuss a bunch of midseason storylines in college football with some predictions for latter half of the year.

The guys close with Lad of the Week!

Watch the full episode here:

Subscribe to The Saturday Down South Podcast here, and subscribe to Saturday Down South on YouTube for all the latest video content!

The post SDS Podcast: Revenge for Georgia & Alabama? Will 2 SEC coaches get fired? Midseason storylines with Jesse Simonton appeared first on Saturday Down South.

There’s no world in which you could’ve convinced me in August that, heading into the Third Saturday in October and at the midway point of the season, Tennessee would own the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense. None.

I say that as someone who has praised Josh Heupel for the whale of a job he’s done as the best post-Phil Fulmer coach in Knoxville, which was a low bar that he’s wildly exceeded. I also say that as someone who looked at this team in August with a question that plenty of Tennessee fans had to ask — who’s the best offensive player on this team? Miles Kitselman?

Think about this. As heralded of an offensive mind as Heupel is, there are elite coaches who would’ve wilted with this type of turnover:

• SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson gone
• Top 3 in receiving yards gone
• 4 starting OL gone
• QB1 gone … post-spring

Any one of those things could be considered a lot to overcome, and all Heupel has done at the midway point of the season is overcome all of them with a scoring offense that’s averaging 48 points per game. Not too shabby.

And sure, take away the 4 non-offensive touchdowns and it’s more like 43.5 points per contest. Fine. It’s still a unit that’s averaging 7 yards per play that can score points in a variety of ways and is a shanked field goal from being undefeated heading into a pivotal showdown at No. 6 Alabama. For now, let’s ignore the fact that Heupel is trying to become the first Tennessee coach since Fulmer to win in Tuscaloosa, or the fact that in those 10 losing, smokey-filled trips to Alabama, none of those offenses scored more than 24 points.

(It was Heupel who delivered that 24-point game in Year 1, which felt a bit like the coming-out-party for the Vols and their new-look offense even though it was in a losing effort.)

Let’s instead shine a light in a team that recognized it needed to adjust — both with personnel and schematically with the type of routes being run — and turned into a more explosive version of itself.

Like, the type of version of itself that put up 41 points against a Kirby Smart defense and has averaged a minimum of 6.5 yards/play every game en route to a 5-1 start. Just for a little context, Georgia hit that mark once this season. Shoot, even that decorated Alabama offense is only averaging 6.2 yards per play with the emerging Ty Simpson.

Of course, part of the reason that the Vols have needed to be more explosive this season — they rank No. 3 in the SEC in 20-yard plays after finishing No. 10 in 2024 — is because of the unit that Simpson will see on Saturday. Tennessee’s defense has been … not elite. Whether you can pin that on the injuries at corner or not, it’s clear that Tim Banks doesn’t have a unit as reliable as what he had the last 2 years when it often did the heavy lifting. It wasn’t long ago when the Vols got shut out in the first half in 3 consecutive games, but managed a 2-1 mark in that stretch.

This year, the pendulum has swung back to Joey Aguilar and a new-look Tennessee offense

It’s been more versatile than anybody could’ve imagined in fall camp. Sure, we could’ve assumed that Tennessee would successfully get back to a more traditional Heupel backfield split, which has played out this year with DeSean Bishop, Star Thomas and Peyton Lewis all between 43-63 carries and 4-5 touchdowns. After all, Heupel ground attacks always find a way to average 200 yards per game.

What we couldn’t have assumed was that this new-look offensive line would be so steady. In addition to paving the way for that prolific rushing attack, that unit only allowed 4 sacks in its first 6 games. There are units like Auburn and Texas that have allowed that in a half. Aguilar has only been under pressure on 23.7% of his drop-backs and just 4.3% of those pressures have turned into sacks against him, which is easily the best rate among SEC starting quarterbacks.

That’s exactly how you’d like to protect someone who was thrown into the fire with this offense. As a result, it’s allowed Aguilar to be the field-stretching signal caller that Heupel hoped he’d be after his well-documented swap with Nico Iamaleava. Aguilar has 14 completions on passes 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, which trails only Arch Manning among SEC quarterbacks and ranks No. 8 among Power Conference signal callers. He’s also No. 6 among Power Conference quarterbacks with a 63% adjusted completion percentage on those throws.

And just in case you were wondering, not all of those completions were to Brazzell … just half of them. Seven such grabs is best in the SEC, as are Brazzell’s 7 touchdown catches. A year after Brazzell was part of a group that failed to produce a 700-yard receiver, he’s No. 2 in the SEC in receiving with a 12-game pace of 1,072 yards. If they can stay healthy, it’s not crazy to think Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews could all finish with more receiving yards than any Tennessee player last year.

Sustaining this early offensive success isn’t a given, but it’s a feat worth acknowledging at the midway point of the season. It’s reminiscent of what Heupel did in Year 1 when he inherited a seemingly disastrous post-Jeremy Pruitt roster and turned it into the No. 7 scoring offense in America.

It’s possible that the Vols will come up short against a red-hot Alabama team, and we’ll hear more reminders about Heupel’s issues on the road or Tennessee’s historic issues in Tuscaloosa. That’s the way this sport works.

But at a time in which we’re seeing roster turnover like never before, one shouldn’t look past how impressive Tennessee’s offense has become with so many different contributors than last year’s Playoff team. It was fair to wonder if Heupel and Co. were in for a transition year, especially when fall camp began with a quarterback battle and a flurry of injuries at receiver. A couple months later, Tennessee has an offense that’s established itself among the toughest in the country to slow down.

If you’re not at least drinking some orange Kool-Aid, well, you should be.

The post We need to put some respect on Josh Heupel’s No. 1 scoring offense in America appeared first on Saturday Down South.

That’s reality for a pair of coaches at premier SEC jobs. Losing in front of the home fans to teams without the same prestige as their respective programs would be, in every way, the nail in the coffin for Freeze and Napier.

It’s simple. If Florida loses on Saturday to Mississippi State, Napier will be out on Sunday, and if Auburn loses on Saturday to No. 16 Mizzou, well, you get it.

That should be understood.

For what it’s worth, the Gators are 9-point favorites and Auburn is a slight 1.5-point underdog (via bet365) after opening as a 1.5-point favorite. There’s at least a decent chance that the outcome for these matchups is that Napier and Freeze both show up for work on Sunday, business as usual. This also isn’t some sort of a “next loss and you’re out” situation because with all due respect to Florida and Auburn, neither one of those teams is running the table.

This is specific to this weekend and the stakes that’ll be felt in their respective home venues.

If there’s anything we’ve been reminded of so far in the first half of the season, it’s that apathetic home stadiums are the worst possible optics for a coach. Mike Gundy, DeShaun Foster, Sam Pittman, Trent Bray, Brent Pry and James Franklin were all fired after embarrassing home losses. Each one of those coaches had that happen with multiple losses already under their respective belts in the first half of the season. On second thought, check that. Gundy only had 1 loss under his belt, but it was a 69-3 loss to Oregon. His second loss was at home to Tulsa on a Friday night, which was basically worth 3 losses.

You get it.

That’s what Freeze and Napier are desperate to avoid. It’s one thing to go on the road and lose in a hostile atmosphere, much like Napier did last week at No. 5 Texas A&M. It’s another to have your own fanbase look restless in the midst of another disappointing loss.

But what about these athletic directors who love them, you ask?

Some might assume that Auburn AD John Cohen and Florida AD Scott Stricklin won’t fire their respective head coaches because of how desperately they want to see their hires work out. Two things can be true at the same time. One is that they have more grace for coaches they hired than they would for coaches they inherited. The other is that they cannot possibly watch Saturday losses play out and avoid the undeniable truth that this isn’t working out.

For Napier, that means not letting Jeff Lebby get his first SEC win against you. Can’t happen. Not in your own building. Shoot, not on Mars.

And yes, we can acknowledge that Mississippi State is a better team than it was last year when Napier led the Gators to a blowout win in Starkville, which was 1 of 5 wins away from The Swamp that he has at Florida. The Bulldogs are no slouch defensively, which we saw when they surrendered just 1 offensive touchdown in the first 58 minutes against Tennessee‘s No. 1 scoring offense in the SEC. At A&M 2 weeks ago, Mississippi State held the high-power Aggies offense to 7 points in the first 41 minutes before the wheels fell off late. That was more than Florida could do at Kyle Field a week later.

To lose to an improved, but still developing Mississippi State squad at home would all but erase that Texas win. How? As great as it was to watch the Gators beat the preseason No. 1 team in every phase, it loses its significance if 2 conference losses follow. It would also mean that the 2 home games the Texas win was sandwiched between are a historic loss to USF and Mississippi State’s first conference win in 2 years.

If Napier falls to 2-5 on Saturday, gone is any chance of him improving on last year. He’d be staring at a steep uphill climb just to get to a bowl game considering that future matchups against top-10 foes Georgia and Ole Miss are both away from The Swamp, where Napier has yet to beat a ranked team in 14 attempts.

You know. In case you haven’t heard.

That’s the issue. This isn’t a punishment for losing a game that Florida shouldn’t lose. We’re way past that. He’s 21-23. He’s 11-16 vs. SEC competition. He’s had tens of millions of dollars put into his surroundings, both with his roster and his support staff. If the takeaway is “Florida is still too impatient,” ask yourself this. Is that coach supposed to get a decade? Like, is Florida supposed to stomach embarrassing losses when the ceiling has been a 7-5 regular season with 1-2 upset wins? That’s not how this works in this era.

Freeze is still trying to get to a Year 4, but he’s running out of time after his 3rd consecutive 0-3 start to SEC play

Sure, you could point to a few (controversial) plays shaping that start. You could also point to his 2-8 record at home vs. Power Conference teams and the fact that Freeze is now 2-11 in games decided by 10 points or less. Officiating issues aside, there continues to be a sense that Freeze’s team won’t make critical plays to win close games.

There also continues to be a sense that Saturday cannot be more of the same. Cohen spoke with AL.com and offered up a rather sheepish vote of confidence for Freeze.

“I don’t know if I’m going to walk outside and my car is going to start or not, I think it is,” Cohen said (via AL.com). “I have an expectation it will. But if my car doesn’t start enough, then I will evaluate that and make decisions about my car. But that’s not my expectation at this point about our football program.”

Uh, OK.

So if the car doesn’t start on Saturday vs. a Mizzou team who is 26-6 since Freeze’s arrival at Auburn, think about those optics. Freeze will have lost to a Mizzou quarterback that Auburn could’ve pursued in the transfer portal, which would be a year removed from losing a double-digit lead late to a Mizzou quarterback who spent part of the game in the hospital.

To be fair, Mizzou winning doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll strictly be the doing of one Beau Pribula, who has been a better transfer addition than Jackson Arnold. It could be the byproduct of another big day from Mizzou star running back Ahmad Hardy, AKA the Power Conference leader in rushing who spent last year racking up 1,351 yards at Louisiana-Monroe. Freeze and Auburn should know that because much like Diego Pavia, he played at Jordan-Hare with his Group of 5 school before he entered the portal and transferred to a non-Auburn SEC school (Auburn held him to 60 yards and a touchdown).

Auburn’s backfield, on the other hand, just watched captain Damari Alston get kicked off the team. That led to an outpouring of support from teammates, who didn’t exactly seem to agree with whatever led to him not being a member of the program anymore. Whatever happened, all it means for Saturday is that Auburn has 1 less ground game option for a coach/play-caller who has a propensity to ignore his backfield in critical moments.

Weird times, these are.

So how does Saturday shake out?

Oddly, Auburn has been an easier team to predict than Florida. As frustrating as another 0-3 start to SEC play has been because of how it unfolded, the Tigers won the 3 games they were favored in and lost the 3 games they were underdogs in. Make of that what you will. That spread could move in a variety of ways by the time Saturday night rolls around, so don’t assume anything just yet.

And when Florida loses as a 3-score favorite against USF, let’s just say assumptions are out the window there, too.

If Freeze and Napier are going to weather their respective storms and return in 2026, they’ll both have won on Saturday, and perhaps convincingly. That’s the best prediction I can offer up. Well, there’s 1 other prediction that I’ll take into Week 8 for Freeze and Napier.

A Saturday that ends with a loss means a Sunday meeting with the boss.

The post Why with a loss on Saturday, Hugh Freeze and Billy Napier would be fired on Sunday appeared first on Saturday Down South.