One of the many things that non-Florida fans had to look forward to this year was the knowledge that a certain player would be gone. You know, the running quarterback that helped power his team to the national title. The one who was a media darling, whose name rhymed with Schmim Schmebow.
SEC Football Insider: Cam Newton Makes Auburn The Clear Favorite; East Still A Mess
We have a new Heisman-worthy running quarterback in the SEC -- which should make everybody happy -- while the East continues to devolve into some sort of survival experiment. Plus: The game which explains the Vanderbilt phenomenon like no other.
And here we go again. He probably deserves every minute of the attention he’s getting, but we have a new running quarterback in the SEC that’s going to start headlining every game he’s in. And while Cameron Newton is a bit different than Tebow -- Tebow’s was a story of a guy who did all the right things getting a chance to shine, while Newton’s is first and foremost a story of being humbled and then looking for redemption -- he is already on his way to matching Tebow in two categories and maybe a third: SEC Champion, Heisman Trophy winner and potential national title winner.
Not that the race for the SEC West is over, or that there is no chance that the winner of the SEC East will defeat Auburn in the Georgia Dome. Okay, well, at least the first part is true. But if Newton continues to play at the level he’s been playing over Auburn’s first eight games, it’s hard to see anyone stopping Auburn and its quarterback from winning a truckload of hardware.
And he’s a junior who might very well come back to hone his skills and take another shot at glory in 2010. Oh happy days.
RESERVATIONS FOR ATLANTA, OR WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE CARE OF NEW YORK FIRST?
Auburn 24, LSU 17
What more can be said about Cam Newton? Because as much as you want to say that college football is a team sport that has seen few truly transcendent players, Newton is making a strong case for being included alongside names like Vince Young and Tim Tebow as players who seem to will a program to win all by themselves.
You’ve probably heard most of the stats from Saturday’s game, but let’s review just a few of them: Newton rushed for 217 yards against an LSU defense that had not allowed more than 152 yards on the ground to any team it had faced and had in fact held all but two opponents to less than 100 yards. And he did it despite the fact that everyone in the stadium and watching the game on television knew was coming: Removing a sack from the equation, Newton ran on 27 of Auburn’s 68 plays. And when Newton wasn’t running, someone was -- the Tigers only threw the ball 16 times.
That’s the thing about Newton: No one knows how to stop him. He combines the kind of speed threat you had with Michael Vick -- though he’s probably not quite as fast -- with the kind of power we saw in Tim Tebow -- though you could again argue that he’s not quite as strong. He’s run for 1,077 yards, averaging 6.9 yards a carry and setting a new record for rushing yards by an SEC quarterback -- and he’s only eight games into the season.
Not to mention he’s rewriting the Auburn history books as well; Newton set a new school record for total touchdowns responsible for in a single season with 27 during this game, and will almost certainly add to it before the year is done. And it’s not that Newton can’t pass -- he’s third in passing efficiency in the NCAA -- it’s just that he largely doesn’t need to for Auburn to win.
Meanwhile, the rest of Auburn’s run game didn’t exactly look like it was facing a once-formidable defense. The blue-and-orange Tigers ran for 440 yards against LSU, almost triple the previous season high for the Bayou Bengals, at an average of 8.5 yards a pop; the winning touchdown was scored not by Newton, but on a 70-yard run by Onterio McCalebb. On 68 plays, Auburn gained 526 total yards; on one fewer play, LSU gained 243 yard -- marking a new low for an offense that was facing a defense ranked ninth in the SEC in total defense.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an LSU game with Les Miles at the controls if it weren’t for something bizarre happening late in the game, though this time it might have helped cost the Bayou Bengals the game. The ball is on the LSU 30 with Auburn leading 24-17. After an incomplete pass -- which stops the clock on its own -- LSU calls its final timeout with 3:27 remaining in the game. Which is fine if you want to make sure that your final play is all set and everyone knows what they’re doing.
It's not okay if you struggle to get the right number of men on the field, with some of the players who end up taking the field seemingly unaware that they are supposed to be there until seconds before the play. Again, it's now fourth-and-six. We should note here that there has been some debate in both the LSU and broader college football fan community about whether or not Jordan Jefferson is really a running quarterback, though he did quite well running the ball Saturday. There is no debate that Jarrett Lee is not a running quarterback. Jarrett Lee is a running quarterback in the same sense that Michael Vick was a precision passer for the Atlanta Falcons.
But with the final seconds ticking down, Lee is apparently unable to find an open man downfield -- and takes off. He is stopped after two yards to essentially end the game.
And maybe LSU’s chances to win the SEC West. The Bayou Bengals now need to win out and have Auburn lose to Alabama -- if all the other tiebreakers fall in LSU’s favor -- OR win out while Auburn loses to any two of its remaining SEC opponents (at Ole Miss, Georgia, at Alabama). Neither is impossible, but neither is exactly the most likely outcome right now.
Auburn takes that trip to Oxford next week and will try to avoid becoming Houston Nutt’s annual upset special; LSU takes the traditional pre-Alabama bye.
DID THAT GAME ACTUALLY END?
Arkansas 38, Ole Miss 24
The official time of game in this one was a relatively brisk three hours and 24 minutes. The official time of game is a liar. Two lightning delays actually meant that the few fans that remained for the entire game were sitting in the stands for almost five hours when a game that kicked off at 11:21 a.m. local time finally came to an end at 4:14 p.m. At least they had a lot of time to consider how much they hate Houston Nutt. By the way, did you hear that Houston Nutt was coaching against Arkansas this weekend?
Say what you will about the Rebels in this game, but the problem they had was not really offense. Ole Miss piled up 512 yards of total offense, including 425 by quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, but couldn't overcome the expected virtuoso performance by -- um, Arkansas running back Knile Davis?
Yes, Davis ran for 176 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries Saturday as Bobby Petrino apparently realized that running backs can be used for more than pass blocking. Ryan Mallett left the game during the second weather delay with a bruised shoulder, the second time he has exited early in the last two contests. We are assured that this is nothing to be alarmed about.
For whatever reason, this game was one of the rare contests where you will see Arkansas’ opponent outgain them through the air (327-267) while Arkansas gets more out of its ground game (197-185). It is Bobby Petrino coaching the Razorbacks and Houston Nutt coaching the Black Bears Rebels, right? They didn’t, like, switch places when I was watching another game? (This is always a good question to ask when Petrino is involved. Just in case.)
The key moments for the Ole Miss offense came in the first half, when they twice got the ball in Arkansas territory. Both resulting "drives" lost two yards, with one ending in a fumble and the other in a field goal, putting Ole Miss in an early 21-3 hole. The lead for Arkansas came in the form of two quick-strike touchdown drives in the first quarter and a 97-yard punt return by Joe Adams, which goes at least part of the way to explaining the yardage gap in this one.
Ole Miss did make things interesting after halftime, getting to within seven before a 71-yard touchdown run by Davis gave the Razorbacks a 31-17 lead. When Mississippi cut the lead to 31-24, Davis again ran for a touchdown, this one from 22 yards out. That score held.
For Ole Miss, the game just made the climb to a midtier bowl game that much higher, even if it’s really all this team has left. Dreams of a New Year’s Day bowl for Arkansas could hinge on whether Mallett can stay in for an entire game in the near future, and if he’ll be the same quarterback whenever he does.
But that’s just part of what Razorback fans are left wondering about, as Mallett isn’t the only one ailing.
Mallett's status isn't the only question hanging over the Hogs as of now. For starters, how serious are the injuries suffered by Greg Childs and Joe Adams? And why does Arkansas consistenly look, well, kind of terrible in the second half?
Arkansas hosts Vanderbilt this weekend, while Ole Miss returns to Oxford to face Auburn. Have fun with that one.
THE FOURTH SATURDAY IN OCTOBER -- FOR TENNESSEE, MUCH LIKE TWO IN SEPTEMBER
Alabama 41, Tennessee 10
Surely, Tennessee fans are used to the basic outline of this game by now. The Vols held their own for the first half of the game, trailing just 13-10 at halftime, before Alabama’s offense broke out for 28 unanswered points to annihilate Tennessee in Knoxville. In other words, just like Florida did. Or Oregon. The good news is that the Tide is likely going to be the last ranked team to visit Tennessee this year.
If only Alabama had never come through Knoxville at all. Julio Jones had 12 catches for a school-record 221 yards -- the dozen receptions was just one short of tying that record -- Trent Richardson ran for 119 yards and a touchdown while Mark Ingram added 88 yards and two scores and Greg McElroy was an efficient 21-of-32 for 264 yards after some Alabama fans had questioned whether he should remain the starting quarterback. About the only positive number of the night for the Vols was Tauren Poole's 117 yards rushing, meeting his goal for the game and breaking a long string of games in which the Tide have not allowed a single runner to pass the century mark.
Really, the formula for this game was pretty simple: Alabama got a big lead when the Vols’ lack of depth showed up, and once the Tide had that lead, Tennessee simply didn’t have the tools to catch up. The Vols haven’t scored more than 17 points in an SEC game this year, and have one of the worst offenses in the league. It didn’t help that their one score in three red-zone trips was a field goal, and that Tennessee had the ball in Alabama territory five times in the second half and came away with zero points.
Alabama still has only allowed one team to gain more than 320 yards this year -- Arkansas -- so Tennessee’s 315 yards of total offense is still the second-most the Tide has allowed all year. But if that’s as bad as your defense is going to get, it’s a pretty good formula for winning a lot more games than you lose. That said, the run defense could probably use some tightening up after allowing a season-high in yards and yards per attempt.
Roll Bama Roll is hoping that Poole’s night will give the team a reason to focus on fixing things.
And though I hate to see it fall at the hands of Tennessee, nevertheless consider me somewhat pleased that it is finally over. Streak or not, for the most part we really have not consistently stopped the run all season, and with the streak over perhaps everyone, players included, will start focusing on what needs to be done to correct the problems with the run defense instead of spending all of their time focusing on some ultimately meaningless and misleading streak.
Tennessee fans, like Joel over at Rocky Top Talk, are left to ponder how frustrating it can be to watch a team rebuild.
In another sense, though, “rebuilding” isn’t really an appropriate metaphor, not unless the builder and his delegates are opposed in every goal by someone taller, faster, stronger, and more experienced whose own pursuit of success must necessarily come by depriving you of any visible means to measure your own progress. ... So are we getting any better? How can we possibly know when each Saturday someone’s dropping by to shred our blueprints, take advantage of our deficiencies, and impede our progress?
The Vols now head to Columbia to try to keep their blueprints intact against South Carolina, while the Tide takes their own bye week before LSU. It’s so unfair for a team to have seven extra days to prepare for their next opponent.
THE ODD ARITHMETIC OF PLAYING AGAINST VANDERBILT
South Carolina 21, Vanderbilt 7
The next time a fan from another conference wants to know what it is that makes Vanderbilt different from any number of cupcakes or lower-tier teams from another conference, simply show them a replay of this game. South Carolina gained 484 total yards of offense to 250 for Vanderbilt, turned the ball over once, limited to Vanderbilt to less than 20 yards on nine of the Commodores’ 13 drives ... and won by 14 only after rallying from behind 7-0 near the end of the first half.
Some of this was the classic case of a team sleepwalking through the first half of a game through a team they should wax; the Gamecocks set up a fourth-and-42 at one point when a snap from inside Vanderbilt territory went sailing past Stephen Garcia, who was far enough away from the end zone to realize that a safety was not an option. Some of this was Vanderbilt's ability to force errors on the part of its opponents, including a blocked field goal. And part of it was just the inevitable result of playing the Commodores, something that has been more difficult for the Gamecocks over the last four years than it should be.
As for how the Gamecocks ground attack would fare without Marcus Lattimore? It depends on who is playing instead. Kenny Miles, who started the game at running back for South Carolina, lost two yards on his first two carries. He then ran for zero and one yards. A four-yard effort on his fifth carry gave him a positive rushing total for the first time. By the time he had put together 20 yards on his next four carries, Steve Spurrier had had enough.
Enter Brian Maddox, who closed out the first half with 23 yards on five carries and then began running away with the game in the second half, carrying the ball 19 times for 123 yards and touchdown. Seven of Maddox’s runs Saturday night picked up first downs.
Not that Vanderbilt didn't do its part to keep the game close. Larry Smith lead the Dores on an 12-play, 83-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter for Vanderbilt's only points of the night. And the Vanderbilt defense sacked Garcia four times in the first half, controlling the line of scrimmage for longer than they probably should have against the supposedly more talented team.
The inevitable end of the game, though, came on a 72-yard touchdown strike from Garcia to Alshon Jeffery with less than seven minutes in the game. Jeffery ended up with 158 yards on nine catches, Tori Gurley had 13 grabs for 109 yards and touchdown of his own and Garcia actually had a pretty good night (31-of-39, 355 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) despite the team's offensive struggles -- though he was helped by a second-half game plan that relied heavily on wide receiver screens.
At this point, there are no style points needed for the Gamecocks. The only objective is to be the last Yugo standing in the SEC East Demolition Derby. And South Carolina was looking for their first conference road win since 2008, so there are few reservations about finally getting that victory.
I know a lot of us were hoping to blow Vandy out, but, at the end of the day, a road win is good news in the SEC, especially when you struggle on the road as much as we do. Plus, I think we played a bit better than the score indicates. We had nearly 500 total yards and could have very well scored 35 or so if not for some missed opportunities.
Vanderbilt fans, meanwhile, were left with the usual post-loss soul-searching about the team’s offense.
Offensively, the problems that have haunted this team all year reared their ugly head again; a lack of protection for Smith, faltering accuracy in the passing game, and an inability to properly block for the team’s running backs. ...
It was a definite step up from last week’s debacle at Georgia, but moral victories are a stale taste for this team by now.
South Carolina returns home next week to face Tennessee as the beginning of a critical three-game stretch that also includes a home game against Arkansas and a potentially season-defining showdown with Florida at the Swamp, while Vanderbilt goes to Arkansas to play the Razorbacks.
WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH GEORGIA?
Georgia 44, Kentucky 31
There has actually been a pretty noticeable pattern of letdowns this year in the SEC. Alabama followed up a strong win against Florida in Tuscaloosa with a loss to South Carolina on the road. South Carolina followed up its convincing upset of Alabama in Columbia by losing to Kentucky on the road. The letdown game chain now passes to Georgia, which defeated Kentucky and now travels to Gainesville to take on Florida. If there is anything that Georgia can hang its hat on, it’s that the Dawgs’ win against the Wildcats happened in Lexington. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. (And Florida’s next opponent, in case you were wondering, would be Vanderbilt. 2007 redux, indeed.)
In any case, you might look at the score and think that Georgia had some sort of offensive outburst in Lexington. That's not really the case; the Dawgs only gained 290 yards of total offense, but part of the problem is that the rules do not allow you to run past the end zone. Georgia had drives that began on the Kentucky 23, 33, 39, 5 and 46. (That doesn't count a meaningless play at the end of the game.) In the first quarter, Georgia's average starting field position was the Kentucky 24. Washaun Ealey had a great game, rushing for 157 yards and a school-record five touchdowns on 28 carries.
Three of four Kentucky turnovers came in the first half, and Georgia built up a 28-10 halftime lead. At which point, Kentucky players likely thought something along the lines of: “We’ve got them right where we want them.” After all, Kentucky has made a habit in its home conference games of going into halftime down by a solid margin and then rallying back either for the too-close-for-opponent’s-comfort loss (see: Auburn game) or the upset (see: South Carolina).
Give them credit for trying. After a Mike Hartline interception ended the first drive of the second half, Kentucky reeled off scoring drives of 66, 79 and 59 yards. Kentucky outscored Georgia 21-16 in the second half. But by the time the last touchdown drive ended with the Wildcats behind by 13 -- their lowest deficit of the night since early in the second quarter -- there was only about a minute and a half left on the clock. The Wildcats recovered the on-side kick but couldn't score -- and probably wouldn't have won even if they did.
So while the obvious offensive renaissance is a nice positive for Georgia to take away from this game, there are a few problems that showed up on defense. Hartline’s 353 passing yards are more than the Dawgs have allowed to any other quarterback besides Ryan Mallett (380), and his four touchdowns are the most any opponent has scored through the air all year. On the positive side, the Dawgs clamped down on the ground game for the third straight week, limiting Kentucky to 70 yards rushing.
But Dawgs fans will take their third straight win, which against all odds makes Georgia the hottest team in the SEC East. The Mayor, T. Kyle King:
While the defensive lapses ought to give the ‘Dawgs pause, the ‘Cats are a second-half team, and this game much more closely resembled the 2008 Georgia-Alabama game (in which the second-half scoring made a would-be blowout look closer than it was without the outcome ever being in doubt) than the 2010 Kentucky-South Carolina game. At the end of the night, a Bulldog team that opened the autumn by losing three straight SEC games in which the Classic City Canines never led won its third straight SEC game in which the Athenians never trailed.
For Glenn Logan at A Sea Of Blue, it was a game that Georgia deserved to win and a game Kentucky deserved to lose.
For Kentucky, well, they just made a mess of things. The defense could not stop the run, so Georgia saw no need to pass. That is just good football. Kentucky threw the ball pretty well, and ran it okay, particularly in the second half, but that was nowhere near enough. In the end, Kentucky simply gave the game away as if they didn’t want it, and Georgia thanked them and took it.
Georgia next heads to Jacksonville to face Florida in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, which should continue to be called the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party no matter how often the combined officialdom of the SEC, Georgia and Florida try to persuade us not to call it the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Kentucky goes to Starkville for a game against a different brand of Bulldogs -- this time the ones from Mississippi State.
CARDIAC CHECK FOR STATE FANS
Mississippi State 29, UAB 24
Give UAB this: For a two-win Conference USA team, they sure do a good job of giving SEC fans heart attacks. This is the same UAB team, you might remember, that took Tennessee to a second overtime before the Vols managed to win the game; this week, they scared a Mississippi State team that was a strong candidate for the conference’s surprise of the year.
Granted, UAB only led the game for about three and a half minutes. However, when those three and a half minutes begin with a little more than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, you can see why State fans were getting a little bit nervous about this team with the odd color scheme and the dragon mascot. The Western Division Bulldogs did outgain the Blazers -- barely (378-354) -- and got a nice day from LaDarius Perkins, who rushed for 131 yards and a touchdown and added a touchdown reception.
But winning what should be an easy game by five points despite the other team fumbling the ball away three times is not exactly a way to instill confidence. Kentucky comes to Starkville next week for a game that could have some mid-tier bowl ramifications.
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