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Inside the SEC East: Bulldogs send a message to rest of division

Ryan Black

By Ryan Black

Published:

The SEC East is Georgia’s division to lose.

That’s no hot take. It’s a reasonable conclusion to draw after Saturday’s showings from the rest of the division.

And isn’t it funny how perceptions can change so quickly?

Two weeks ago, I thought South Carolina was well-positioned to challenge Georgia. But then South Carolina suffered a pair of losses at home last week: all-everything weapon Deebo Samuel got hurt and will be out for an extended period of time, and then it went on to fall to Kentucky.

That led me to conclude that the Wildcats could end up being a legitimate contender for the division crown — along with Vanderbilt, which topped No. 18 Kansas State at home.

But that was a lie.

The Commodores, at least this season, are not the cellar-dwellers they have come to be known for during their history in the the SEC. But unless something unforeseen happens — like Georgia suffering a slew of injuries — Vanderbilt won’t be in the running for the chance to play in the SEC Championship Game. The Commodores will go to a bowl, which is always cause for celebration at a program where losing has been the norm for generations (the James Franklin era notwithstanding).

Kentucky is in the same position. Saturday represented arguably its best chance in ages to snap a 30-game (!!!) losing streak to a far-from-vintage Florida squad. The Gators are solid but not spectacular. The Wildcats were playing in front of a sold-out home crowd. And they were coming off a nice road win over a then-undefeated Gamecocks squad.

But there was one thing not working in their favor: They’re the Wildcats. And as the past three decades have showed, every year without fail, Kentucky will not beat Florida on a football field. Simple as that. End of story.

Elsewhere in the division, Tennessee scraped past Massachusetts 17-13 at Neyland Stadium. Keep in mind that UMass entered Saturday 0-4 overall. To put in perspective how unimpressive this victory was for Tennessee, consider this: Coastal Carolina beat UMass 38-28. Old Dominion topped the Minutemen 17-7.

Let that sink in.

Once you’re done, start your countdown on how much longer Butch Jones will last at Tennessee.

The answer? Probably a bit longer than Barry Odom at Missouri.

Odom’s squad once again served as barely a speed bump for an opponent — unless that speed bump is considered a launching pad, “Dukes of Hazzard”-style, to showcase said opponent’s offense. Saturday, that was Auburn, which came to Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field for its SEC opener. An offense that has had its issues this season, especially its running game the past two weeks, resembled the explosive unit that became Gus Malzahn’s claim to fame in an easy 51-14 victory.

If I was giving Odom career advice, it would be this: Start updating the resume — if you haven’t done so already.

And I haven’t forgot about South Carolina, even if I didn’t mention its game Saturday earlier in this piece. It’s just that there’s not much to say about the Gamecocks now. With Samuel gone, the offense is going to feel like it’s pushing a boulder uphill on a path layered with grease. (Basically, it’s going to be a struggle of epic proportions.)

Perhaps the one bit of good news for South Carolina is that its upcoming schedule features teams that are far from world-beaters, including Texas A&M, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Florida and a guaranteed-win in Wofford.

Notice I left Georgia off that list. The Bulldogs may just be world-beaters this season.

They will be favored in every remaining regular-season game, including Auburn, given Georgia’s recent domination of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, with nine wins in the last 11 meetings.

Georgia Tech is the obvious outlier, if for no other reason than its always-hard-to-prepare-for offense.

But when it comes to SEC East competition, it doesn’t appear Georgia has much of any this fall.

Of course, given the wild swings in perception we’ve already seen the first four weeks of the season, I may end up being wrong. Again.

Now let’s take a look at what else is going on around the SEC East:

Florida

What can you say? The Gators pulled out yet another nail-biting win under Jim McElwain. It was simply the latest entry in the book of dramatic wins during McElwain’s tenure, writes Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun.

And the Orlando Sentinel offered up three things it learned about Florida in the 28-27 road victory.

Georgia

Nick Chubb had a fairly ho-hum outing by his standards, carrying 15 times for 81 yards and two touchdowns. But as detailed by the Athens Banner-Herald’s Marc Weiszer, the Bulldogs also found other ways to feature him Saturday.

And after all the talk of how little the tight ends had been utilized this season, they finally found their way into the game plan, as Isaac Nauta scored on a 41-yard reception. Jason Butt of The (Macon) Telegraph caught up with Nauta afterward.

Kentucky

It was such an agonizing loss for the Wildcats, even Sports Illustrated weighed in with its thoughts.

Jon Hale, the Courier-Journal’s Kentucky beat writer, handed out grades in the wake of the defeat.

Missouri

Not sure anything needs to be said or linked here.

Let’s just allow Odom to speak his piece on the “state of the program.”

Please note that Odom uses language some may take issue with, so viewer discretion is advised.

(Video below courtesy of KRCG 13, a CBS affiliate based in Columbia/Jefferson City, Missouri.)

South Carolina

As if the Gamecocks weren’t already hard-hit on the injury front with Samuel out, coach Will Muschamp said after Saturday’s victory that senior linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams would miss the remainder of the season due to a shoulder injury.

Ben Breiner, who covers the team for The State, gave “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” to various aspects of Saturday’s game. The State also provided Muschamp’s view of what went right and what went wrong.

Tennessee

To try to explain how lethargic the Volunteers appeared Saturday, John Adams, a senior columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, posed a question: Was Tennessee just caught looking ahead to next week’s game versus Georgia?

Wes Rucker, the senior writer at Tennessee’s 247Sports site, put forth a far more declarative explanation, which doubles as his headline: Maybe these Vols just aren’t good.

Vanderbilt

Let’s cut to the chase here and simply feature how things went Saturday for the Commodores’ offense:

And these in-game, not-quite-final stats:

Plus:

In light of all that, Adam Sparks, the Vanderbilt beat writer for The Tennessean, shared the five things he learned about the Commodores coming out of the lopsided defeat.

Tweet of the week

This one is too easy. In the middle of Alabama’s 59-0 annihilation of Vanderbilt, CBS zoomed in on one lone Commodore fan, sitting alone in the stands, appearing sullen and shell shocked by what was transpiring  in front of him. In short, he found out the Commodores didn’t really “want Bama” as much as one player said they would.

Aforementioned sad fan then quickly got the meme treatment from savvy social media users, so pick your favorite. I’ve included a few of mine below.

https://twitter.com/KofieYeboah/status/911723437458182144

https://twitter.com/TheDirtySports/status/911720595376578560

Quote of the week

The easy answer here is just to say the entirety of Odom’s impassioned speech (or rant, depending on how you classify such things) should get the nod here. But since we’re not going to take the easy way out, let’s turn it over to McElwain.

After his team rallied from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, McElwain was asked why Florida constantly has to have its back against the wall before it starts to come alive — and whether there’s a limit to it.

His reply?

“Good question.”

And I say that’s a good answer.

Ryan Black

Ryan Black covers Georgia football for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @RyanABlack.

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