SEC Football: The game each SEC East team must win

For every SEC football team, every season, there is a game (and sometimes a couple more) that is a must-win. In the particular game, a loss would either signal a team’s inability to compete or worse, the game could be the pivot point when a season is defined as a failure.

Some teams, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs, for example, have so few losses, that a single loss usually does not derail a season.

For teams struggling to better a poor record from the season before, like the Vanderbilt Commodores, multiple games become ‘the game’ as the season unfolds.

In the list of SEC East teams below, one or two games are picked for each team – except Vandy. Any chance for the Commodores to win a game – is ‘the game’, even if it happens four or five times in a season.

SEC Football East Division

Vanderbilt Commodores – Label the Dores as the oddity in the list, as they are among SEC football teams almost every season. Clark Lea needs to improve on a 2-10 season, with an acceptable achievement of at least four wins.

The Dores have one comfortable win on the schedule against Elon. Vandy might be the favorite in Hawaii, but the Rainbow Warriors will be tough to beat. Even more difficult will be Northern Illinois, but Vandy must win both those games. Otherwise, to show progress in Year 2 for Lea, the Dores must with either against Missouri, on the road, or against South Carolina in Nashville.

South Carolina Gamecocks – With Shane Beamer having the Gamecocks trending up after a 7-win, 2021 season, 2022 will be very interesting. Maintaining an upward momentum is not guaranteed, even with Beamer more than solving last season’s QB problem with Spencer Rattler

For Beamer and Rattler to lead South Carolina to at least seven wins, Missouri at home in late October appears to be a must-win.