Week 4 What Are We Learning

I won't have a lot to add from the SEC perspective this weekend. Most of the games were trash with very little to be taken away. But I'll try.

I had a lot of kid stuff this morning/early afternoon, so I saw almost zero of the Florida game. Don't think it changes anything. I did see a graphic that showed Miss St's conference road schedule: UGA, Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee. JFC the SEC office did Lebby no favors

I went to a buddy's house for the AU/Ark game, and boy do I have some opinions. It was entertaining in the way that a train wreck is. A lot of bad football. AU is a mess. It's looking increasingly egregious that they didn't get a portal QB, because I think they have some decent pieces on offense. The OL kinda sucks, but they have good WR and and really good RB. And I think their defense is serviceable. This should be an 8-4 type team, but I'm thinking it will be a stretch for them to get to 6-6. They don't play a single home game in October, so it's gonna be an uphill climb from here

I'm out on Mizzou. I get that Vandy is better than we thought, but Mizzou is going to go 10-2 or better and then get blasted in the SEC champ game/playoffs

I'm not ready to move Tennessee into Texas/UGA/Alabama territory, but they're looking like a legit contender. I think we can all make excuses for why they are where they are, but they've been impressive 4 weeks in a row and I think the way their defense is playing gives them a real shot at the playoffs. Schedule is really manageable as far as putting together a playoff resume. Keeping with the same game, I don't think OU has an SEC level roster at this point, at least on offense. Defense has played pretty well, and I do think this new QB that replaced Arnold is encouraging, but they aren't there yet. But I completely expect them to inexplicably beat Texas

Ole Miss continues to roll. They are a playoff contender until further notice, especially with that schedule

I didn't watch one second of the LSU game, but the box score looks like it should have been a bigger LSU win. I'd love to hear from anyone who watched it.

I'm not power ranking the SEC this year, because I'm not sure how useful it was, but I think you can group it into a few tiers:

National title contenders: Texas, UGA, Alabama
Could get in tier 1: Tenn, Ole Miss
CFP contender b/c of schedule: Mizzou
Solid team: LSU, OU
Pre Jan 1 bowl: aTm, Arky, SC, Kentucky
Will scare a bowl bid: AU, Vandy
LOL: Florida, Miss St
 
just got home from the game. i thought uni would play better. But glad for the hawaii win
Terrible situation for UNI

Played in Lincoln last weekend and got beat up pretty badly then the trip to Honolulu.

Their upcoming schedule is awful. They are a great fade for the next month....you don't get to come back from playing Nebraska and Hawaii to NDSU, SDSU NDU in the next month and expect much of anything
 
Was anyone really in on Mizzou? That’s the reason I asked for an LSU/Mizzou line. Both team could lose to anyone with ease. Meaning Memphis/Tulane type teams could get em…

I think Tenny is legit. Kid might have a bump in the road later, but I think they are there in the mix. Miami too, easier road also.

A few teams with the easy schedules we keep talking about that seem to already be “locks” for the playoffs….gonna be a real interesting year
 
I won't have a lot to add from the SEC perspective this weekend. Most of the games were trash with very little to be taken away. But I'll try.

I had a lot of kid stuff this morning/early afternoon, so I saw almost zero of the Florida game. Don't think it changes anything. I did see a graphic that showed Miss St's conference road schedule: UGA, Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee. JFC the SEC office did Lebby no favors

I went to a buddy's house for the AU/Ark game, and boy do I have some opinions. It was entertaining in the way that a train wreck is. A lot of bad football. AU is a mess. It's looking increasingly egregious that they didn't get a portal QB, because I think they have some decent pieces on offense. The OL kinda sucks, but they have good WR and and really good RB. And I think their defense is serviceable. This should be an 8-4 type team, but I'm thinking it will be a stretch for them to get to 6-6. They don't play a single home game in October, so it's gonna be an uphill climb from here

I'm out on Mizzou. I get that Vandy is better than we thought, but Mizzou is going to go 10-2 or better and then get blasted in the SEC champ game/playoffs

I'm not ready to move Tennessee into Texas/UGA/Alabama territory, but they're looking like a legit contender. I think we can all make excuses for why they are where they are, but they've been impressive 4 weeks in a row and I think the way their defense is playing gives them a real shot at the playoffs. Schedule is really manageable as far as putting together a playoff resume. Keeping with the same game, I don't think OU has an SEC level roster at this point, at least on offense. Defense has played pretty well, and I do think this new QB that replaced Arnold is encouraging, but they aren't there yet. But I completely expect them to inexplicably beat Texas

Ole Miss continues to roll. They are a playoff contender until further notice, especially with that schedule

I didn't watch one second of the LSU game, but the box score looks like it should have been a bigger LSU win. I'd love to hear from anyone who watched it.

I'm not power ranking the SEC this year, because I'm not sure how useful it was, but I think you can group it into a few tiers:

National title contenders: Texas, UGA, Alabama
Could get in tier 1: Tenn, Ole Miss
CFP contender b/c of schedule: Mizzou
Solid team: LSU, OU
Pre Jan 1 bowl: aTm, Arky, SC, Kentucky
Will scare a bowl bid: AU, Vandy
LOL: Florida, Miss St
I heard someone make a point that Mizzou started last year similarly to this year...pretty vanilla on offense for the first few weeks, then turned it on with the aggressiveness with Burden and the receivers after that and started scoring a ton. Maybe there's some of that? They obviously miss Schrader even though their new RBs aren't bad. Cook used Burden but they were mostly underneath stuff all day again. Will be interesting to watch.

Arkansas handled Auburn and didn't really look good on offense other than Green running from what I saw. Play the dog in their games it appears(unless it's Mississippi State or Florida)
 
Syracuse / Stanford was a great game. Bottom/middle of the ACC is not that bad. Both teams seem to have bought in to what their 1st/2nd-year coaches are selling. Stanford has a huge tailback who looked like Jim Brown out there.
 
Nebraska going to Nebraska; strike one for Ruhle, sending a backup kicker for a 39 yard FG was poor, but then the timeouts to conserve time for Illinois is unexplainable.

OLIne got pushed around and the secondary is clueless or poorly coached or a combination of the two.

In fairness, this is a 7 win team and they still are likely going to win 7 but the market is way too high on this team. They haven’t played anyone.

Raiola is legit and very poised but it is still his first road start following a loss with natives a bit restless. I need to look into Purdue’s DLine but 9.5 seems like way too much.
 
Cyclones will be favored to enter November undefeated. That's when the schedule gets tricky but still a great opportunity to make the 'ship game

At Utah will be tough, we'll likely fill half of Arrowhead against KU
 
No more Clemson TT unders

Impact of pace of play rules changes is really subjective based upon specific teams, making totals more challenging. And the 4th quarter can really slow down now, more like the NFL.

I love Curt Cignetti, IU and Vols have been best teams for me to back so far.

Lane is trying to get some Dart Heisman buzz going so their offense for TTs and player props has been solid.

Looking to back SMU after the QB change.

I normally think that Air Force is a team that will just reload and not drop off too much from a PR perspective, they are more immune to variability from portal, but man have they fallen off a cliff this year.

Texas was great to back full-game with Ewers then Arch off the bench, but so long as Arch is in, think they are more of a 1H team.

Wisconsin doesn't have the players it needs to run Longo's offense, and Purdue doesn't have the players to run it's super aggressive defense that Walters wants to run. Expect some ugly results from each the rest of the season, esp when they are overmatched, there is no floor to how bad things could get for either.
 
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I won't have a lot to add from the SEC perspective this weekend. Most of the games were trash with very little to be taken away. But I'll try.

I had a lot of kid stuff this morning/early afternoon, so I saw almost zero of the Florida game. Don't think it changes anything. I did see a graphic that showed Miss St's conference road schedule: UGA, Texas, Ole Miss and Tennessee. JFC the SEC office did Lebby no favors

I went to a buddy's house for the AU/Ark game, and boy do I have some opinions. It was entertaining in the way that a train wreck is. A lot of bad football. AU is a mess. It's looking increasingly egregious that they didn't get a portal QB, because I think they have some decent pieces on offense. The OL kinda sucks, but they have good WR and and really good RB. And I think their defense is serviceable. This should be an 8-4 type team, but I'm thinking it will be a stretch for them to get to 6-6. They don't play a single home game in October, so it's gonna be an uphill climb from here

I'm out on Mizzou. I get that Vandy is better than we thought, but Mizzou is going to go 10-2 or better and then get blasted in the SEC champ game/playoffs

I'm not ready to move Tennessee into Texas/UGA/Alabama territory, but they're looking like a legit contender. I think we can all make excuses for why they are where they are, but they've been impressive 4 weeks in a row and I think the way their defense is playing gives them a real shot at the playoffs. Schedule is really manageable as far as putting together a playoff resume. Keeping with the same game, I don't think OU has an SEC level roster at this point, at least on offense. Defense has played pretty well, and I do think this new QB that replaced Arnold is encouraging, but they aren't there yet. But I completely expect them to inexplicably beat Texas

Ole Miss continues to roll. They are a playoff contender until further notice, especially with that schedule

I didn't watch one second of the LSU game, but the box score looks like it should have been a bigger LSU win. I'd love to hear from anyone who watched it.

I'm not power ranking the SEC this year, because I'm not sure how useful it was, but I think you can group it into a few tiers:

National title contenders: Texas, UGA, Alabama
Could get in tier 1: Tenn, Ole Miss
CFP contender b/c of schedule: Mizzou
Solid team: LSU, OU
Pre Jan 1 bowl: aTm, Arky, SC, Kentucky
Will scare a bowl bid: AU, Vandy
LOL: Florida, Miss St
I don't think Mizzou has shown their hand on offense whatsoever. I actually think they're better than I expected and sadly are a true playoff contender. The victory against BC was pretty huge and they played very vanilla on offense. Cook and Burden are going to have highlight reel games.
 
Every week we learn that coaching matters -
- Illinois....Somewhat unprecedented in today's football world, but a DC who blltzes when every other team plays prevent? Hats off for taking the game to Nebraska in overtime and winning it as a result.
- USC...No need to comment a ton. Tackling, it's sort of important.

- Horns are good, probably very good. We won't really know until Oct 19.
- Really surprised that Heupel didn't run it up on OU. Had the chance but went totally vanilla 2H.
- Sonny Dykes continues to be an unbridled dick.
 
Every week we learn that coaching matters -
- Illinois....Somewhat unprecedented in today's football world, but a DC who blltzes when every other team plays prevent? Hats off for taking the game to Nebraska in overtime and winning it as a result.
- USC...No need to comment a ton. Tackling, it's sort of important.

- Horns are good, probably very good. We won't really know until Oct 19.
- Really surprised that Heupel didn't run it up on OU. Had the chance but went totally vanilla 2H.
- Sonny Dykes continues to be an unbridled dick.
I kind of agree with you on Tennessee. They were the physically superior team from the start. I guess Heupel felt (and I think it's probably the right thought) that with the OU defense playing pretty well and Nico in his first road start, that the only way OU gets back in it is if Tenn turned it over. Honestly, if OU hadn't given the ball right back after the turnovers Tenn did have, especially the one at the 5 yard line, this game may look a lot different. With the new playoff system, I wonder if we'll see a more NFL mindset, where teams just try to get out of the game with a W. Style points aren't necessary anymore. At least not for the P4
 
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