Quick thoughts and takes on every Week 11 SEC game.
Florida 56, Vanderbilt 0
That’s what you do if you’re pushing for a New Year’s Sic bowl game. Florida needed a quarter to get going, and then it got over the loss to Georgia with a thumping performance from both sides. The ground game only came up with 150 yards, but it pounded for over five yards per carry. It wasn’t a problem because …
Kyle Trask took target practice. He he 25-of-37 passes for 363 yards and three scores. He threw two picks, but he ran for a score and backup Emory Jones ran for three touchdowns. The defense did the rest.
Down to third-string QB Deuce Wallace, Vanderbilt managed just 128 yards of total offense, turned it over three times, and it had no prayer against the Gator defensive front. Wallace completed 7-of-18 passes for 60 yards with a pick.
Vanderbilt locked down a losing season at 2-7. It has Kentucky and Tennessee to play, but it’ll get at least one more win with East Tennessee State on the slate. Florida is a mortal lock for a New Year’s Six game if it wins at Missouri and beats Florida State.
WKU 45, Arkansas 19
If that’s not it for the Chad Morris, it’s not a positive. Losing is bad, losing to a Conference USA is worse, losing to a Conference USA team 45-19 is even worse, and losing to a Conference USA team 45-19 at home is even worse. Losing to ex-Arkansas QB Ty Storey takes things to a whole other level.
Storey threw for 213 yards and a touchdown and ran for two scores for the Hilltoppers. Arkansas QBs? John Stephen Jones hit 3-of-10 passes for 27 yards and a pick, and KJ Jefferson hit 36-of-15 passes for 60 yards with a pick. Rakeem Boyd ran eight times for 185 yards and two touchdowns, but the Hogs were down 35-7 at halftime.
WKU is bowl eligible now after rolling by Arkansas on the road. The Hogs? They’ve lost their last seven games, only score more than 27 points once, and are destined for a 2-10 record with at LSU and Missouri to close.
NEXT: Ole Miss 41, New Mexico State 3; Georgia 27, Missouri 0
Ole Miss 41, New Mexico State 3
Ole Miss needed this. After three straight losses and four in the last five, this cleansed the palate before closing out against LSU and at Mississippi State. The Rebels were able to move the ball without any issues in the first half, got up easily, and cruised from there because …
The running game was supposed to work against the miserable Aggie D, and it did. It was expected to run for over 400 yards, and it ripped off 447 yards and five scores. QB John Rhys Plumlee ran 12 times for 177 yards and two scores, and Snoop Conner ran 13 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
Plumlee and the passing game worked, too. He hit 11-of-17 passes for 124 yards and spread the ball around well. There wasn’t any drama, and the team and fans finally got to have some fun again.
Georgia 27, Missouri 0
That’s what Georgia does. It wasn’t anything special, and it wasn’t anything spectacular, but the Dawgs got up, Missouri didn’t have any offense, and so it was a slow, methodical blowout win. Jake Fromm only hit 13-of-29 passes for 173 yards and two scores, the running game only came up with 166 yards, and Georgia Pickens made two touchdown grabs. That was all they needed to do, because …
Kelly Bryant was out, and Mizzou didn’t go anywhere. The running game was held to 50 yards, Taylor Powell strutted in place of Bryant, and Connor Bazelak had a few moments, but the drives didn’t lead to points. Mizzou is now on a painful power outage of 21 points total in the last three games.
The Tigers can still make some noise. They’ll close out with a win over Arkansas – they won’t have a losing season – but screwing up Florida next week and beating Tennessee will have to the goal now.
Georgia has the big date at Auburn up next. Win that and the College Football Playoff dream really is on. Texas A&M, and the rivalry game at Georgia Tech won’t be easy, especially considering the lack of overall explosiveness. But the Dawgs keep on rolling – the defense has been incredible.
NEXT: Appalachian State 20, South Carolina 15; Tennessee 17, Kentucky 13
Appalachian State 20, South Carolina 15
Really, South Carolina? Now all hopes of going to a bowl game are reasonably gone – it’s not going to win at South Carolina and beat Clemson. After all the positives from the win over Georgia, everything has crashed and burned with three losses in the last four games. This was a tough, nasty schedule, but losing to a Sun Belt team – even a great one – isn’t okay.
The offensive line got manhandled. ASU kept the Gamecocks to just 21 rushing yards, nothing more than six yards on any carry, and the passing game couldn’t quite make up for it. Ryan Hilinski threw for 325 yards and a score, but drive after drive ended with nothing, or a field goal. Appalachian State bent, but rarely broke.
The USC D was fine. It allowed just 202 yards and gave up just 20 points. It held the Mountaineers to a mere seven second half points, and the offense couldn’t do its part to take advantage of its opportunities. And now …
The buyout is massive, but South Carolina fans are going to be screaming for this to be the end of the Will Muschamp era. Now 26-23 in his four years, this will likely be his first year without a bowl trip, and it should be his second career four-win season – he had one of those with 2013 Florida.
Tennessee 17, Kentucky 13
Tennessee was able to rally, and outugly Kentucky. The Vols were down early – a blocked punt didn’t help – but Jarrett Guarantano stepped in, completed 7-of-8 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense dropped a hammer. Kentucky ran well, but went nowhere after a long early drive.
This is where the lack of a passing game turned into a huge problem. UK’s Lynn Bowden ran for 114 yards, the team rumbled for 302 yards and two scores, but there wasn’t anything late out of all the yards. Bowden completed just 4-of-7 passes for 25 yards with a pick. The O had the ball for almost 42 minutes, but the stall ball style didn’t do much to tire out the Tennessee D.
And now, after all of the issues early on, Tennessee is 5-5 and just need to beat either Missouri – who can’t score lately – or Vanderbilt to get bowl eligible. It might not be like pushing for the SEC title, but after losing to Georgia State and BYU to start the season, the Vols will absolutely
