SEC West

Alabama — Grade: A

Bama over Penn State, 24-3

The rest of the teams in the SEC are begging for Mark Ingram to come back. Maybe it will mean the lightening of the load of Alabama’s best running back- you know…the one named Trent Richardson that doesn’t have a Heisman sitting on his dresser at home? The Crimson Tide defense baffled Penn State and their freshman quarterback Robert Bolden all day. Bama picked the youngster off three times. Their offense, while not flashy, was ruthlessly effective. Bama averaged over five yards per carry and almost ten yards per pass attempt. If there is a complaint, it would be their third down conversion which was only 3 out of 10. But that’s nitpicking for the best team in the nation, isn’t it?

Auburn — Grade: B

Auburn over Mississippi State, 17-14

The Auburn Tigers won a game in a very pedestrian manner against Mississippi State. The highly touted Auburn offense was held mostly in check by a stingy Bulldog defense. Cameron Newton wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t real good. More disturbingly, the Tigers are still having significant problems on the defensive side of the ball. If MSU had a quarterback that was capable of throwing a 15-yard out pattern, there is no telling how many points the Bulldogs could have scored. Even still, winning on the road in the SEC is never a given, and they did enough to get an early jump in the SEC West Standings.

Arkansas — Grade: B

Arkansas over Louisiana-Monroe, 31-7

The best kept secret in the SEC might be the Razorback defense. In two games the Hogs have only given up a grand total of 10 points. Granted, the two games weren’t against world beaters, but the defense has obviously improved from last year. They get a bit tougher test next week when they travel to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs. And while Ryan Mallett put up Heisman-esque numbers with four total touchdowns and 400 yards passing, the offense is the side of the ball with question marks. The best crew of wide receivers in the conference had a bad case of the dropsies against ULM, and for the second game in a row, the Arkansas offensive line failed to dominate in the run game.

LSU — Grade: B+

LSU over Vanderbilt, 27-3

Les Miles’ Tigers looked a lot like the LSU Tigers of last year against Vanderbilt on Saturday. That’s quite an improvement from the LSU Tigers of last week. LSU reminded college football fans what LSU does best, and that is play great defense. LSU dominated Vanderbilt defensively and ran the ball effectively all night. The Tigers are still struggling in the passing game. Jordon Jefferson completed only 40% of his passes, didn’t throw a touchdown, and got picked off once. As good as the defense might be, the offense still has a ways to go to be balanced enough to compete with the best teams in the SEC.

Ole Miss — Grade: D+

Ole Miss over Tulane, 27-13

This just in: Ole Miss is not a good football team. Sure, at first glance winning by two touchdowns looks like a solid victory. In reality, Ole Miss just got lucky to find a team worse than they are. Tulane nearly got beat by Southeast Louisiana last week. Granted, that’s better than actually losing to Jacksonville State. Even still, Tulane’s offense was actually more effective against Ole Miss than it was against Southeast Louisiana. They had 60 more yards against Ole Miss. They averaged more yards per rush and more yards per pass attempt. And while the Rebels can celebrate a passing game that wasn’t as anemic as one might suspect, they only averaged 2.2 yards per rush. If this Houston Nutt team can’t even run the ball effectively, Ole Miss fans will be talking basketball by early October.

Mississippi State — Grade: D

Auburn over Mississippi State, 17-14

What a difference a week makes. Last week against Memphis, the Mississippi State Bulldogs looked like an offensive juggernaut scoring 49 points and racking up nearly 600 yards total offense. On Saturday, they looked like the Bulldog offense of old…and against Auburn no less. The opportunities were there, but it would seem that MSU had the wrong quarterback in the game. Tyler Russell filled up the stat sheet against the Memphis Tigers last week, but barely saw action against the Tigers of Auburn. Mississippi State fans were scratching their heads as Chris Relf’s passes fell short, fell wide, fell everywhere but in the hands of his receivers. And the kicker was that these were easy passes- passes Tyler Russell would have likely completed. On the bright side, they did show the rest of the SEC how to contain Cam Newton and that Auburn offense.

SEC East

Florida — Grade: B

Florida over South Florida, 38-14

Gator fans were pulling their hair out in the first half. It was eerily similar to the putrid offensive showing of last week against Miami, Ohio. This week was a little different, however, as the Gator offense got their bearings and put on a clinic in the second half. Jeff Demps ripped off a 62 yard touchdown run en route to his total of 139 rushing yards on the day. John Brantley finished strong after a shaky first half with a couple of touchdown passes. The Gators are still playing fantastic defense. They gave up more rushing yards (244) than they would like against Skip Holtz’s Bulls, but the five forced turnovers more than make up for it. The Florida defense is extremely tough against the pass. South Florida completed only 6 passes on 23 attempts.

Georgia — Grade: D-

South Carolina over Georgia, 17-6

The Bulldogs got bullied. South Carolina ran the ball, ran it again, and kept running it. The Georgia defense simply could not stop freshman running back sensation Marcus Lattimore. The freshman carried the ball 37 times. To put how dominating this performance was, Georgia ran a total of 48 plays. Not only did Georgia get roughed up by the Gamecock rushing attack, their offense shared the same fate. The Bulldogs averaged a paltry 2.3 yards per carry. Georgia finished with only eleven first downs and were horrendous in their third down conversion rate. Both sides of the ball have some serious tweaking to do before the Razorbacks visit next week.

Kentucky — Grade: B+

Kentucky over Western Kentucky, 63-28

The Kentucky Wildcats can score some points. They might just have the most electrifying playmaker in the SEC in Randall Cobb. Cobb scored in three different ways against Western Kentucky. He caught a touchdown pass, threw a touchdown pass, and scampered 50 yards for a punt return touchdown. If we were only grading on point production, Kentucky would get an easy A+. But defense is sort of important, especially in the SEC. For the second week in a row, a team thrashed their defense running the ball. The Hilltoppers banged out 187 yards, a couple of touchdown runs, and did it to the tune of almost six yards per carry. Three of the next four games for the Wildcats include contests against Florida with Jeff Demps, Auburn with Cam Newton, and South Carolina with Marcus Lattimore. UK better get on the stick and figure out how to slow down some of these rushing attacks.

South Carolina — Grade: A+

South Carolina over Georgia, 17-6

The score doesn’t tell the story. The Gamecocks wore the Georgia Bulldogs out. They took Georgia to the woodshed, got bored, and took them back again. And Marcus Lattimore was leading the way. The freshman phenom carried the ball a ridiculous 37 times and did not disappoint. The Gamecocks simply manhandled the Bulldogs, opening up rushing lanes and room for the freshman to run. The defensive line for South Carolina prevented Georgia from doing the same to them. South Carolina was 9-14 in third down conversions. Stephen Garcia completed 70% of his passes and was used mostly to keep the chains moving and to keep the Bulldogs from stacking the box. Sophomore wideout Alshon Jeffery has 100 yards receiving in both football games so far this year.

Tennessee — Grade: F

Oregon over Tennessee, 48-13

If it is any consolation, the Volunteers had a B+ at halftime. Unfortunately, when a team travels to the other side of the country to play you on your home turf and they score 45 unanswered, the grade tends to plummet. The Vols were 2 for 15 in third down attempts. Awful. They gave up an 80 yard punt return for a touchdown. Awful. The Vols threw a pick-six that went back 76 yards. Awful. They averaged 5.6 yards per pass. Awful. The Volunteer defense allowed Oregon to have 26 first downs. Awful. Did I mention the Ducks scored 45 unanswered points? Awful times 45. The Volunteers can’t afford to slouch and feel sorry for themselves. They host their good buddies from Gainesville in less than a week’s time.

Vanderbilt — Grade: F

LSU over Vandy, 27-3

The only thing worse than Vandy’s rush defense against LSU was their offense. Vandy let LSU scorch their defense to the tune of 280 yards rushing. The Commodore offense made their defense look adequate. Vanderbilt was horrible on third down, converting only 2 of 13 attempts. They netted only 135 yards total offense, averaged less than 5 yards per pass, and only 2 yards per rush. Their best chance at a conference win comes next week when they travel to Oxford to take on the floundering Ole Miss Rebels.

SEC Stud of the Week

Marcus Lattimore — RB South Carolina

  • 37 carries, 182 yards, 2 touchdowns
  • 1 reception for 16 yards

SEC Dud of the Week

Mike Simms — QB Tennessee

  • 15/29, 151 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT
  • 3 carries, -11 yards