SEC Football: Week 3 Wrap Up

Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Week Three of SEC football is in the books. So what can we take away from the third week of this young football season? That Tennessee folds like origami at the first sign of adversity? That ULM wants to annex themselves into the SEC to become the league’s 14-and-one-half member, a la Notre Dame? That Ole Miss fans would rather crash the Catalina Wine Mixer than watch their school play football?

Perhaps. There’s only so much information we can siphon from a weekend like this. Nearly everyone in the conference were playing in cupcake games. Some teams even played the part of the cupcake(be patient UK fans, basketball’s coming). In any case, it was a college football weekend in the SEC, so there is always something to talk about.

Quarterback Play

In the SEC, we love our defense. It has separated us from the rest of the conferences in the country. But right now we may be in the midst of a golden age of SEC quarterbacks. It has been a while since I have seen this many genuinely talented quarterbacks in the league at once.

• Tyler Bray: 900 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions this season (beer bottle stats unavailable). Unfortunately for the Vols, both picks came in the 37-20 loss to Florida. Bray has a big arm, and can make huge plays down the field. Might be the league’s most talented quarterback.
• Arron Murray: 842 yards, 8 touchdowns, 2 interceptions this season. Completed over 73 percent of his passes in Georgia’s 56-20 win over Florida Atlantic, Alabama’s next sacrifice to the football gods. Murray shows poise and composure, and with his talent, that’s a dangerous combination.
• AJ McCarron: 607 yards, 7 touchdowns, 0 interceptions this season. A.J. probably gets more mileage out of his talent than anyone on this list. He plays solid and mistake free. Had a nice performance in the 52-0 Hog slaughtering, but left the game early with a hand injury. Should be fine for next week.
• Zach Mettenberger: 609 yards, 4 touchdowns, 2 interceptions this season. The Georgia transfer is still growing into his role as the signal caller in Baton Rouge, but all of the talking heads say he’s the real deal. He is more of a wait-and-see player.
• Johnny Manziel 467 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions this year. Also has over 200 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns. These stats are from only two games he’s played this year. Manziel is shaping up to be pretty special, and he is reminiscent of dual-threat tough guy playmaker Collin Klein of Kansas State. This kid is a comer.
• Tyler Wilson: 563 yards, 5 touchdowns, 1 interception in two games this season. The best quarterback in my opinion in the SEC, and probably the toughest. As soon as he is able to play, the Hogs can be feared again. But not a moment before.

Having an elite quarterback as opposed to an average one in college football is worth about 4-5 wins, and in some cases more. There are obvious exceptions: teams like Alabama and LSU would still be viable with the loss of its’ signal caller, but they certainly wouldn’t be the same.

The position is so important that one injury can turn a hopeful season into a throwaway – just ask any Razorback fan. It’s easy to pile on the Hogs for their performance this weekend, but any reasonable football fan knows the loss of Tyler Wilson doesn’t get any bigger for a team like Arkansas. You could make the argument he is the most valuable player to his team in the SEC. With him, Arkansas is an 9 or 10 win team. Without him, they’re not even bowling.

First Year Coaches

The Gators made a statement in Knoxville on Saturday night, beating Tennessee 37-20. I always thought Will Muschamp got a little undue criticism for the Gators lackluster season a year ago. Many college football pundits believe he is on the hot seat this year, which is a ridiculous notion. Every first-year head coach is going to have difficulties with implementing a new system. Even great coaches can struggle their first year on the job:

• Pete Carroll: His first year at Southern Cal he went 6-6. He went on to build a dynasty, but alas, it no longer exists.
• Nick Saban: Everyone remembers Saban’s first year at Bama – 6-6, including the loss to ULM. But no one panicked. We knew it was a process.
• Urban Meyer: At 9-3, Meyer fared better his first year than most, but did it with talent already in place. He still got his SEC comeuppance his first year in the form of a 31-3 beatdown in Tuscaloosa.
• Jim Tressel: Went 7-5 his first year at Ohio State. The next year he led the Buckeyes to an undefeated national championship season.

Muschamp needed some time, just like every other coach does, to put his system into place. Florida now controls its’ own destiny in the East, and the Georgia game will be the biggest test for the Gators this year.

Trouble on the Plains

Attention all fair-weather Auburn fans (you know who you are): If you were wondering when would be the most appropriate time to jump off the bandwagon, the time is now.

The ragged bunch in orange and blue almost got Warhawked this weekend, but escaped in overtime, winning 31-28 over Louisiana-Monroe. They pulled out their typical tricks from the Auburn voodoo bag: a Hail Mary completion along with a Kiehl Frazier double pass, both for touchdowns. It’s called strategery.

A week ago Pat Dye was on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network, extending his world record of awful radio interviews. Finebaum tweeted something that I found very telling about the state of the Auburn football program:

Programs that handcuff themselves to a certain type of thinking are seldom able to move forward. After Gene Stallings left, Alabama wanted to hire a Paul Bryant disciple. We obsessed for years over hiring someone from the Bryant mold, or at least getting an “Alabama guy.” That sort of thinking limits you. There are good coaches outside the Bryant/Alabama network. We’ve got one now.

If Pat Dye is the representative voice of Jay Jacobs and the Auburn athletic administration, the Tigers are in big trouble. I am all for loyalty, and I think it is an important virtue. But in the coaching business, loyalty between the coach and the school is always conditional. A coach can leave a school just as easily as a school can fire him.

If Auburn thinks they have to keep Gene Chizik as their head coach because he won them a national championship, they will continue to be limited. So, Coach Dye, you can hang on to yours as long as you want. We’ll do the same.

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