I went to the Alabama game and had a bunch of family stuff yesterday, so I'm still catching up on what happened elsewhere in the conference. Some thoughts:
Good lord Florida. As I mentioned in the WDWL thread, I was eating and the game was on mute, so I assumed Mizzou was just dominating the Gators. Had no idea until later. Saw on ESPN that night that teams that give up 120 yards or less on defense are something like 167-2 the last 10 years. Both losses are UF under Muschamp. Not that it is groundbreaking, but Muschamp is gone.
UGA is quietly rounding into form as one of the legit contenders (and only East team) for the SEC. I would not be shocked to see them beat the West winner in the SECCG. They appear to be one of the more well-rounded teams in the conference and the nation. That SC loss is still awful, and they haven't really played much since, but they are quietly going about their business and could very well have a lot to say about who from the SEC makes the playoff. Have heard (maybe here) that they expect Gurley to be back by UK on 11.8. Gurley and Chubb would be a handful for anyone
Ole Miss is starting to remind me of the AU teams of last year and 2010 in that they keep winning and keep covering in difficult situations. A great defense will certainly help, and maybe Bo turned a corner. Still have 4 tough conference games coming up, and I wouldn't bet on them staying undefeated, but I'm done putting my money against them
Arkansas and Tennessee are similar in that they are improved with nothing to show for it. Arkansas could still knock off one of the Mississippi teams, but UT's only chance of an SEC win is Vandy IMO.
I'm not going to go into the Alabama game much, and I'm not going to put too much into beating a tired and not very good aTm team. The things I take away from Alabama is that they probably still have the best defense in the conference. Ole Miss is awesome and is better at creating turnovers, but I think Alabama's is better overall. The offense is good at destroying bad defenses, especially at home. I don't think any team can single cover Amari Cooper, so to contain him you have to play press man with safety help. That should open up the run game, but we struggled there in both the road games. If the UT game was in Tuscaloosa, it would be similar to this past game. They're going to have to show me something on the road before I believe they are an elite, title contender. One thing that wasn't as evident on TV as it was live, was how much energy, emotion, and dare I say, fun, the team had during the game. From the moment they walked out of the tunnel until the game was over, the whole team was jumping around and having fun. Something I haven't seen in Saban's 7 years. If that translates into the team playing fast and loose, they may have turned a corner, and certainly Saban would have.