Tucker’s Tier Lists: The First Month of SEC Football
By Tucker Harlin
We’re four games (a month) through the college football season, so I decided to assess each SEC team’s August/September performance in a new format.
I’ve always been intrigued by humoristic tier lists people use to rank subjects in topics they’re interested in, so I tried my hand at it for the first month of SEC football. I’ll explain my choices below the list.
Here it is, hopefully I’ll improve at these as time goes on:
PLAYOFF CONTENDERS: ALABAMA, GEORGIA, TEXAS, TENNESSEE
It’s no surprise Alabama, Georgia, and Texas are in the top category. Texas is fresh off a College Football Playoff appearance with two equal options to start at quarterback, and Alabama looks stronger on both sides of the ball than it did in Nick Saban’s last season.
Don’t make a mountain of the mole hill that was the 13-12 survival for Georgia at Kentucky. The Bulldogs usually have at least one game a year in which they aren’t pumped up, but those are generally followed by blowout wins the following week.
Tennessee is the biggest surprise here. The offense was supposed to take a big step forward, but it’s a lethal result when you pair an offense of Tennessee’s caliber with what is very suddenly one of the most fearsome defenses in the country.
WE'RE ASSUMING THEY’RE GOOD- OLE MISS
The explanation for Ole Miss in this category is simple: it hasn’t played anybody.
Lane Kiffin has allowed for his starters to pad their stats in the second halves of games they have no business playing in because they’re all blowouts. An awful Wake Forest team is the best competition Ole Miss has faced this season.
I will elaborate no further.
GOOD, NOT AMAZING: MISSOURI, LSU
Both the Missouri and LSU Tigers are ranked in the Top 25 right now, both have experienced rough patches in the opening weeks of the season.
Mizzou blew through two non-power four opponents the first two weeks, came from behind to beat a respectable Boston College team the third week, and needed some good fortune to take down Vanderbilt last week. The schedule will allow for Mizzou to win 10 games this season, but the college football world needs to see a lot more to call it a playoff contender.
LSU almost fits better into this category than Mizzou.
Garrett Nussmeier is a good quarterback, but he’s nowhere close to a Jayden Daniels. The ACL tear Harold Perkins is going to quell many hopes of a significant defense. The Bayou Bengals are a very pedestrian looking bunch.
BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT: TEXAS A&M, SOUTH CAROLINA, ARKANSAS, VANDERBILT
Some of these programs found their ways into hot seat conversations before the season began, but the first month has changed those narratives in favor of the coach.
The programs I’m referring to are South Carolina, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt.
The Gamecocks haven’t looked the best throwing the football or on the offensive front, but they’ve flexed their muscles by running the football and fielding a stout defensive front with some of their newcomers.
Arkansas has done a similar number with Ja’Quinden Jackson and Taylen Green running the football. Sam Pittman was high atop the hot seat standings when the season started, and who would’ve thought Bobby Petrino would be the man to save him?
Clark Lea’s seat wasn’t nearly as hot as Beamer or Pittman’s, but he’s having a better season than they thought he could on West End. Even though the season’s been up and down to this point, what the Commodores did against Virginia Tech and Missouri caught fans off guard.
Texas A&M is the only team in this group that wasn’t in the hot seat sweepstakes when the season began. The change at quarterback in the win over Florida has boosted the Aggies’ momentum as SEC play heats up.
WINS 9 OUT OF 10 GAMES AGAINST THEIR OPPONENTS: AUBURN, KENTUCKY, FLORIDA, OKLAHOMA
This category is of course in reference to Hugh Freeze’s farcical comments on his weekly radio show following Auburn’s 24-14 loss to Arkansas in Week 4.
This is my indirect description of a “coach on the hot seat” category.
Auburn was thought of as a potential surprise to the rest of the league, but the dreadful play of the Tigers quarterbacks has many questioning if Freeze still has the fastball in his rotation from his time at Ole Miss and Liberty.
Kentucky’s loss to South Carolina put the fan base in a dark place early in the season. Brock Vandagriff doesn’t look like the five star who committed to Georgia years ago, and Wildcat fans are ready to end another long, fruitless marriage with a head coach.
I wouldn’t call Venables’ seat at Oklahoma “hot” but I do think the first year in the SEC is looking like an agonizing one for the Sooners. The lack of proficient quarterback play is irritating for a program that prides itself on the production of day one NFL draft choices at the position.
The Florida seat was one of the two hottest going into the regular season, and the Gators have done nothing to change that idea. Billy Napier only appeared to delay the inevitable with his win last week, which segways nicely into my final tier.
MISSISSIPPI STATE: MISSISSIPPI STATE
Yes, Mississippi State has its own category.
I feel sorry for putting the Bulldogs here because of everything that’s happened to them in each of the last two years, but there truly isn’t a team in a worse state in the SEC right now.
The losses Mississippi State suffered to Arizona State, Toledo, and Florida were all telling of a larger rebuilding project than they were hoping for in Starkvegas.
Add in the loss of starting quarterback Blake Shapen for the season and you’ve got a program and a fan base that just wants the season to end.
