Quick thoughts and takes on every Week 5 SEC game.
South Carolina 24, UK 7 | Florida 38, Towson 0
Auburn 56, Miss St 23 | Alabama 59, Ole Miss 31
Texas A&M 31, Arkansas 27
Texas A&M-Arkansas came up with yet another battle that defies logic and reason. The Hogs stepped up their play and energy on both sides of the ball after the embarrassing loss to San Jose State, getting a nice day from both passers to keep the pressure on.
Nick Starkel hit 12-of-17 passes before throwing a pick and getting banged up, and Ben Hicks stepped in and threw for 188 yards and a score. There was just enough of a ground game to help to a bit – Rakeem Boyd had a nice performance – and the Arkansas D stuffed the A&M running attack. But …
Kellen Mond overcame a shaky day with three touchdown passes pitching two to Quartney Davis. This hasn’t been the season so far expected out of the veteran quarterback – Mond hasn’t been consistent enough – but he’s not getting any help from the ground game that managed just 89 yards. He had to come though to pull off the win, and under the pressure of the constant Hog pass rush, he and the team survived. It shouldn’t have taken a late fourth down stop to get by, though.
This was a fun, wildly frustrating game for both teams. Texas A&M continues to sputter a bit with out enough pop or explosion, and Arkansas couldn’t take advantage of its chances to pull this off. At least it was a more-than-competitive game just when head coach Chad Morris needed one. A&M now gets time off to prepare for Alabama, but forget about having any shot of coming up with the upset unless Mond can flip the switch. The Aggies aren’t hitting the 100-yard mark on the ground against the Tide.
Vanderbilt 24, Northern Illinois 18
Vanderbilt won its first game, but it’s not making anything easy. Everything appeared to be fine with a 14-0 lead in the first half, but the O couldn’t put the game away and there was way, way too much drama. Northern Illinois hung around, hung around, hung around, and almost pulled it off late. The Vandy D came through in the fourth quarter when it had to, but it shouldn’t have been this tough.
Finally, the Commodore offensive skill parts stepped it up. Riley Neal hit 21-of-28 passes for an effective 189 yards and a score, Ke’Shawn Vaughn finally went off – having a good day against a 138-yard, one-touchdown performance against a strong NIU defensive front – and Kalija Lipscomb did his part with seven catches for 94 yards and a score.
The pass rush was good, and the D overall did a nice job on third downs, but the offense couldn’t seem to connect on enough third downs after getting up early, and too many drives stalled. The next few games against Ole Miss, UNLV, Missouri and South Carolina are all winnable, but not if the Commodores aren’t far sharper.
South Carolina 24, UK 7 | Florida 38, Towson 0
Auburn 56, Miss St 23 | Alabama 59, Ole Miss 31
NEXT: South Carolina 24, Kentucky 7; Florida 38, Towson 0
South Carolina 24, Kentucky 7
This is when Kentucky really, really missed Terry Wilson. The Gamecocks were able to bother Sawyer Smith all game long with constant pressure and one of the best performances of the season from a defense that generated four sacks and was in his face all game long. UK needed a ground game to carry the load, and it wasn’t there, finishing with just 115 yards, to go along with Smith’s 11-of-32 performance for 90 yards and a pick.
Ryan Hilinski was good enough. He wasn’t consistently accurate, but he didn’t need to be – he got the ground game that Smith didn’t. The USC offensive line was terrific, blasting away for Tavien Feaster and Rico Dowdle – they each ran for 100 yards – and the D took care of the rest. Kentucky finished with just nine first downs and 212 yards of total offense.
This isn’t going to quite turn around the South Carolina season, but it was a must-win with Georgia and Florida up next. The first win over an FBS team keeps bowl hopes alive with Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Appalachian State all winnable, but the Gamecocks have to sweep those three and come up with a massive upside somewhere else – at Texas A&M is the easiest other game.
Kentucky doesn’t have a do-or-die game against Arkansas next week, but lose, and it’ll probably take a clean sweep of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, UT Martin and Louisville to get to six wins.
Florida 38, Towson 0
And that’s why you play Towson. Florida didn’t need a week to get everything sharpened up in a light scrimmage, but it got it. Kyle Trask hit 18-of-20 passes with two scores and ran for a touchdown – one of his misses was a drop – the backups got in, and there wasn’t any drama in a go-through-the-motions performance. The defense come up with three takeaways, and pitched the shutout, but …
The offensive line had a rough day. The Tigers were able to get into the backfield way too often, generated a good pass rush, and held its own relatively well against the run. It wasn’t a miserable performance – the Gators were able to bust off a few big runs – but the line wasn’t a force. The quarterbacks played just fine under the pressure.
And now it’s Game On. The Gators got their warm-up in, and now Auburn comes to town on a roll. With the trip to LSU to follow, and with three straight games away from Gainesville, the light and breezy part of the schedule is over. They got to this point unbeaten, but with Gameday in town, the hype is there.
Texas A&M 31, Arkansas 27 | Vandy 24, NIU 18
Auburn 56, Miss St 23 | Alabama 59, Ole Miss 31
NEXT: Auburn 56, Mississippi State 23; Alabama 59, Ole Miss 31
Auburn 56, Mississippi State 23
You wanted to see Bo Nix crank it up a few notches, here you go. The freshman turned it loose hitting 16-of-21 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns, and he led the way with 56 rushing yards and a score on seven carries. Throw in the JaTarvious Whitlow 55 yards and three touchdown runs – and the 42-9 halftime lead – and this is exactly what the team has been building towards. This offense to go along with the great line play makes the Tigers a real-deal factor in the SEC title chase, even with the murderous schedule coming up.
Mississippi State doesn’t have the firepower. The defense of last year is long gone, QB Garrett Shrader couldn’t get the O to keep up the pace once the game got out of hand, and there was no hope of getting back into the game even with the help from three takeaways. The passing game wasn’t miserable, and the Bulldogs kept pressing, but this was Auburn’s day. The Tiger offense was just way too good.
Mississippi State will go bowling, but there can’t be any major misfires. With LSU, at Texas A&M, and Alabama ahead, there’s little room for another big loss. With Tennessee and Arkansas still to go – those are on the road – along with Ole Miss and Abilene Christian, the Bulldogs will get to six wins without too much of a problem, but it would’ve been nice if the team could’ve built off the win over Kentucky.
Auburn is about to get all of the national attention. Gameday will be in Gainesville for the Florida showdown next week as part of a run of three straight road games that includes the date at LSU, but the Georgia and Alabama games are at home. At the moment, it really is a one-game-at-a-time thing. The schedule is too daunting, but just beat Florida, then move on to Arkansas, and then it’s really going to get fun.
Alabama 59, Ole Miss 31
Tua Tagovailoa is toying with the college football world. He was beyond brilliant with a 26-of-36 day for 418 yards and six touchdowns and a rushing score. Yeah, he might have the greatest receiving corps in the history of college football to throw to – he really might – but he’s putting the ball in the right spots time and time and time again.
Of course, it helps when the third or fourth-best receiver – depending on how you want to rank the corps behind Jerry Jeudy – catches 11 passes for 274 yards and five touchdowns like DeVonta Smith did.
Is there any real reason to get into a twist over the 31 points the Tide allowed? A little bit. There wasn’t any real drama after a 31-point Bama second quarter, but the special teams were a bit sloppy early on, the offense could’ve hit at least 70 if it was just a wee bit sharper, and it’s Alabama – it’s not supposed to allow close to 500 yards of total offense. This is the best team in college football right now, but it’s due for a complete game from the defensive side, too.
Ole Miss kept fighting and did what it could, but it needed a special teams break to get going early. The passing game didn’t quite do enough until late, but the ground attack had a few nice moments. There was no keeping up with the machine that is the Alabama offense right now – it’s way too sharp – but …
At 2-3, the Vanderbilt game next week is everything for the Rebels. Win that, and with New Mexico State still to play, getting to four wins won’t be a problem. It’ll take two shocking upsets to get to six wins, but after the disappointments against Memphis and Cal, and now this, there hasn’t been a whole lot of fun – or luck – so far.
The Alabama schedule will get dogged with Duke and South Carolina the two best teams on the slate so far, and with two weeks off before getting Texas A&M, Tennessee and Arkansas. It’ll all set up for the showdown agains LSU in early November and the road game at Auburn at the end. It’s not the killer slate overall that it appeared to be before the season, but compared to what Clemson gets to face, it’s tough enough.
Texas A&M 31, Arkansas 27 | Vandy 24, NIU 18
South Carolina 24, UK 7 | Florida 38, Towson 0
