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Overreacting to everything I saw.
College Football

10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 7 in the SEC

Chris Wright

By Chris Wright

Published:

Apologies to Bill Belichick, but you don’t just erase history by moving on to next week.

Saturday brought more chaos across the country — and even more angst at Alabama, but at least the Tide won. Right?

That’s more than we can say for Ole Miss, Florida and Ohio State.

Those are among the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 7 in and around the SEC.

10. What is Kalen DeBoer’s buyout?

Of the myriad questions that could have been asked through 7 weeks, nobody imagined uttering that one.

Yet here we are … barely a month into DeBoer’s tenure and still weeks from Nick Saban’s Halloween birthday talking about DeBoer’s future more than Billy Napier’s.

Make it make sense.

I wrote last week that the Vandy loss wasn’t a fluke. Vanderbilt … and I still can’t believe I’m writing this … physically had its way with Alabama’s defense.

As surely as you can’t get french fries at Dreamland, there is zero chance any Saban team would have come out the next week and … been dominated up front again like Alabama was against South Carolina.

Yes, Alabama survived. Barely. But the only person in Alabama who was happy about it was the head coach.

That’s the problem, a’ight?

9. Texas is running the table

Pick and picture a recent SEC champion.

They look unbeatable. Not just able to overcome off days and stave off upsets, but undeniably unbeatable.

Texas, in Year 1 in the SEC, already looks the part. More than that, they’re the only team in the SEC that looks the part.

The Longhorns aren’t as automatic or explosive offensively as 2019 LSU, but they are, without question when factoring opponents, the best offense in the SEC. In today’s game, offense hangs banners.

Saturday, they added a wrinkle: Quintrevion Wisner authored the first 100-yard rushing game vs. a Power conference opponent this season.

They host Georgia next week. The Dawgs obviously have been on this stage before, but it’s hard to imagine anything other than a 10-point Texas win.

8. Go for it, Billy!

We’re all busy, so I won’t bore you with Florida’s lengthy list of missed opportunities Saturday at Tennessee.

I won’t even go all-in on how stupid it was to call a jet sweep on 4th-and-1 when DJ Lagway literally could have tripped and fallen forward for a first down.

Suffice it to say: What-ifs outnumbered explosive plays.

But the big takeaway is that the Gators overcame all of that, lost starting quarterback Graham Mertz to injury and still had a chance to stick it to the hated rival Vols in the final seconds.

And Napier refused to go for it.

After Lagway fired an NFL-level strike to Chimere Dike to cut Tennessee’s lead to 17-16 with 29 seconds left, Napier decided to kick the extra point instead of trying to steal a potentially job-saving victory on Rocky Top.

Going for 2 was Florida’s best chance to complete the upset.

Ultimately, Napier didn’t believe enough in Lagway and the offense to let them try.

That’s worse than losing in overtime.

This guy just can’t get out of his own way.

7. Lane Kiffin just can’t win a big game

College football is so much more fun when Kiffin is cracking jokes and taking shots at rivals on Twitter.

That only works when you win, though.

Ole Miss lost a game it should have won Saturday, and the Rebels lost because they unraveled late.

But this 29-23 overtime loss to LSU will sting more than most of Kiffin’s previous losses to ranked teams.

LSU converted 2 4th-down passes on its game-tying drive, including the 23-yard TD pass in the final seconds to force overtime. Garrett Nussmeier then served up the walk-off winner on LSU’s first play of overtime, hitting Kyren Lacy for a 25-yard TD.

This defense was supposed to be different.

Watching Kiffin’s teams is a lot like watching Lincoln Riley’s teams. They’re good right until the moment they need to be great.

Is that really what Florida wants in its next head coach?

6. College quarterbacks, man

Last week, Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava ran out of bounds as the clock expired on Tennessee’s comeback bid at Arkansas. Not ideal, but Iamaleava is a redshirt freshman. So, somewhat understandable.

Saturday, with 6 seconds left when the ball was snapped, Ohio State’s Will Howard scrambled as the clock expired on the Buckeyes’ comeback bid at Oregon. Not ideal, most notably because Howard is a 5th-year senior with almost 1,000 pass attempts on his resume.

He has to know better.

His decision will be the focus of Ohio State’s 32-31 loss to Oregon, which is unfortunate because the Buckeyes were thisclose to pulling off the best road win of the 2024 season.

Big picture? It probably won’t matter. Oregon and Ohio State clearly are the 2 best teams in the Big Ten and nothing that happened Saturday suggested they won’t meet again in the Big Ten Championship.

On a day when so many Playoff contenders looked meh, Oregon and Ohio State solidified themselves as near-locks for the Playoff.

5. Nice play. Also … why are you playing them?

At least Alabama rebounded from its humbling loss last week by beating an SEC team.

Mizzou? It beat a team that has an S, an E and a C in its name. Not quite the same.

4. 4 potential 10-2 teams that shouldn’t sniff the Playoff

1. Indiana: Why? The Hoosiers’ schedule not only is arguably the worst among power conference teams, it’s among the worst in the country. Going 10-2 with losses to Ohio State and Michigan — the only teams closed to being ranked — shouldn’t impress anybody outside of Bloomington.

2. Missouri: Why? To get to 10-2, the Tigers presumably would have to beat Oklahoma, which might or might not be ranked at kickoff. If the Sooners aren’t ranked, there’s not much to fall back on, and there’s a disastrous 31-point loss to Texas A&M overcome.

3. Alabama: Why? Have you watched the Tide this season? Admit it, if you’re an Alabama fan, you are scared to death every time that defense is asked to make a critical stop. If they lose at Tennessee next weekend, which is quite likely, they’ll have to beat Mizzou, and LSU and Oklahoma on the road, just to get to 10-2. Finishing 8-4 hasn’t looked this realistic since 2007.

4. Clemson: Why? The only way Clemson gets to 10-2 is if it suffers a big upset or loses its only other game against a ranked team: at Pitt. If that happens, the Tigers would be 0-2 against ranked teams. Keep in mind, even if that happens, the Tigers still could make the ACC Championship Game, win that and possibly sneak in as 1 of the 5 highest-ranked conference champions. So we’re not quite done with Dabo, yet. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t think Clemson loses again. But if they do …

3. The SEC’s 3 Playoff teams are …

1. Texas, 2. Georgia, 3. LSU.

Tennessee obviously has a chance to give the SEC 4 Playoff teams, but the Vols haven’t looked good for 3 consecutive games. Alabama, in theory, still is in the mix, too, but that defense isn’t scaring — or stopping — anybody. Next week’s showdown in Knoxville will eliminate the loser.

Why LSU? Simple. It’s easier to believe in Brian Kelly and Garrett Nussmeier than it is any of the HC/QB combos below them.

2. He’s not wrong …

Alabama rebounded Saturday. Somewhat.

But everybody spent all week reacting to Vanderbilt and the stylistic differences between DeBoer and Saban.

There are a lot of ways to win. Legend has it Tony Dungy won a Super Bowl without ever uttering a curse word. Saban won 7 national championships and never got through a rant without cursing. Heck, he couldn’t even make it through his first segment on College GameDay without drawing a flag for foul language.

Point being: There is no one size fits all approach to winning.

There are stark differences, though, and that can be tricky to navigate.

DeBoer is not Saban and has never tried to be. That’s fine, but he’s coaching Saban’s team.

We’ve already seen the culture start to shift — and that’s not necessarily a good thing. We saw it in the spring, when DeBoer told Jalen Milroe it was OK to smile and celebrate after a nice play. We saw it during the embarrassing Vandy loss, when DeBoer gave an aww-shucks, everything will be fine interview to start the 4th quarter; pick any Saban interview and the contrast couldn’t have been any more stark.

And then we saw an undisciplined Malachi Moore — a team captain, for Saban’s sake — lose his mind in the final seconds.

It’s Moore’s actions that bothered former Alabama standout Damien Harris the most.

Check this out …

That’s real talk from somebody who grew up in Saban’s demanding culture, understanding that there is no parade without The Process.

I’m sure DeBoer has a process, too.

But these players are acting like their parents went away for the weekend and good ol’ Uncle Kalen is there to babysit.

Bottom line: Losing is easy. It’s so easy anybody can do it.

Winning? That requires all of the intangibles Saban preached forever: preparation, accountability, maturity, attention to detail and so much more that we haven’t seen yet from DeBoer’s squad.

1. “Strike freaking 1, dude!”

So many classic lines from the Legend, but this one got me:

“Forty years, dude. Forty years! … You been here 4 weeks, and you already lost to Vandy. Strike freakin’ 1, dude. Strike freakin’ 1!”

I speak for everybody when I say … I can’t wait for Monday’s show …

Chris Wright
Chris Wright

Managing Editor

A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.

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