the biggest difference between this years sec and why sec has dominated in the past is the trenches. Don't see it. wouldn't be surprised if both bama/lsu end up with an L or 2. Think auburn may get bama and georgia ripe to win the sec championship game. Feels like Georgia usually has a moment where they turn it on 2nd half of the season.
utah is live. baylor is live.
michigan couldn't move a very lackluster army team off the ball and then pushed a top 5 dline off the ball in penn state and did what georgia couldn't think of vs nd. Can't help but believe the installation of a new offense/line gelling to the scheme took time.
As it stands today I am not sure there is 1 team out of ohio state I would place money on to beat michigan straight up. And by the last game of season they may be able to challenge ohio state with continued improvement.
Missouri I am sure would of beat vandy/kentucky by 50 at home.
You are right about the trenches in the SEC. There are some great players, and a few elite units, but overall it's not near what it has been. AU has an elite DL. UGA supposedly has an elite OL, though I question it. But neither team does enough on offense to be a championship contender. AU offense is just bad, and it's probably mostly due to inexperience at QB, but their skill talent is very average as well. UGA has a good QB, experienced OL, and a good RB, but their WR are not good. Neither one of them can overcome offensive ineptitude for 4 quarters against an elite offense like LSU or Alabama IMO. AU's defense definitely played well enough to win last weekend, but even the best defenses are going to yield when the offense can't get a 1st down. I woudn't bet on UGA to "turn it on" this year. I've said it a few times, but something is just off with them.
Other things I learned this weekend in the SEC:
Arkansas is historically bad. If they had kept Bielema, they are an 8-9 win team this year. But they fired him because Miss St and Ole Miss had great runs. He would be mopping the floor with them this year
Alabama can win any game left on their schedule with Mac Jones, but I don't think they can win all of them with him, if that makes sense. They are just an above average team without Tua, though I don't think that's a shock to anyone and the same is true for most teams concerning their starting QB
I think things are turning for Tennessee. They are playing hard and starting to buy into Pruitt. He's probably 2 seasons away from being competitive in the conference, but the team appears to believe in him.
Mentioned it a couple of paragraphs ago, but AU is severely limited on offense. Championship level defense, at least on DL, wasted on a bottom tier offense. They've become Florida under Muschamp. Given what they lose after this season, next year may be rough
Joe Burrow may be the most confident player in college football. I thought he played extremely well against AU in a game where he likely got hit and confused more than in any other game this season. I think he has a limited ceiling, but his floor is as high as anyone playing the position. Absolute gamer
Bottom 8 teams of this conference are a mess with very little to separate them, though Arkansas is by far the worst
Non-SEC thoughts:
Wisconsin is who we thought they were pre-season. But Ohio St is playing unbelievably well. Crazy what a culture change can do for a team
OU losing was a blow to the conference's CFP hopes, but I don't think they ended them. Getting that game back to one score keeps them alive, a 20+ point loss would probably disqualified them, fair or not. But OU hasn't forced a TO in 4 straight games, that's tough to overcome. I don't see them running the table if that doesn't get fixed.
Oregon needs to be part of the CFP discussion until they lose again. I get the arguments against them, but if you are going to penalize a team for playing an OOC game against a legit opponent, why even play them?
that way everything you want to ask in one question gets contained in one message
