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Grading Teams 3 Weeks in
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:39 am
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:39 am
Better Than Expected:
LSU: LSU has an offense, so that seems to be an improvement compared to the previous decade+. The defense might be a bit concerning, and the jury is still out on how big that Texas win actually was.... UT could turn out to be an 8-4 team for all we know. Regardless, while most everyone though LSU would be 3-0 at this point, I don't think anyone thought their offense would have put up these types of numbers.
Auburn: Auburn is only slightly ahead of preseason expectations. The win over Oregon is arguably the most impressive win of any team all season long, so they have that going for them. Nix is young and has struggled like most any true freshmen would, but the offense seems to be a little more fluid that last season, and the play calling seems better from what I've seen. The defense is also living up to the hype.
About what we expected:
Georgia- We'll know more after this week
South Carolina- Worse than we expected against North Carolina, but better than we expected in the other 2 games
Ole Miss- The loss to Memphis is disappointing, but basically already locking up "Not Last" in the West has got to be somewhat comforting
Slightly Disappointing
Alabama: The defense does not look like the typical Alabama defense, and unfortunately for them, you can't blame it on too little data.... they've played a very soft schedule and ought to have much better numbers on that side of the ball at this point. Tua and the receivers are as good as we thought they'd be, but the running game also looks a bit soft compared to usual.
Texas A&M: It's too early to really form an opinion, but in a big game against Clemson, Mond looked horrible. At the beginning of the season, most everyone would have said Mond was the 3rd best QB in the league. I don't see that being the case this year.
Kentucky: Some thought they were being severely underrated in the preseason. But it appears that was not the case. This is not a good Kentucky team.
Vanderbilt: We knew they'd be bad, and they might be a bit worse than we thought.
Missouri: We might be able to chalk it up to Missouri being Missouri and dropping an easy OOC game per usual... but its hard to ignore a loss to Wyoming. Gone is the talk of Missouri being 8-0 heading into the Georgia game, so for that reason, they are so far disappointing.
Way Worse than we Thought:
Arkansas: This is NOT the year they turn the corner.
Mississippi State: They were in quite a few Top 25's during the Preseason. But a narrow win over Louisiana and a loss at home to K-State has me thinking they might just barely eek out a bowl game this year.
Florida: The offensive genius only has Florida at #9 in the SEC in Total Offense... they struggled against two pretty average teams in Miami and Kentucky. This team looks like 8-4 at best and considering their schedule, that's a huge disappointment. This is not one of the 10 best teams in the country as most thought they would be in the preseason. THey'll be lucky to be in the Top 25 come December.
Tennessee: What can I say. Absolute disaster.
LSU: LSU has an offense, so that seems to be an improvement compared to the previous decade+. The defense might be a bit concerning, and the jury is still out on how big that Texas win actually was.... UT could turn out to be an 8-4 team for all we know. Regardless, while most everyone though LSU would be 3-0 at this point, I don't think anyone thought their offense would have put up these types of numbers.
Auburn: Auburn is only slightly ahead of preseason expectations. The win over Oregon is arguably the most impressive win of any team all season long, so they have that going for them. Nix is young and has struggled like most any true freshmen would, but the offense seems to be a little more fluid that last season, and the play calling seems better from what I've seen. The defense is also living up to the hype.
About what we expected:
Georgia- We'll know more after this week
South Carolina- Worse than we expected against North Carolina, but better than we expected in the other 2 games
Ole Miss- The loss to Memphis is disappointing, but basically already locking up "Not Last" in the West has got to be somewhat comforting
Slightly Disappointing
Alabama: The defense does not look like the typical Alabama defense, and unfortunately for them, you can't blame it on too little data.... they've played a very soft schedule and ought to have much better numbers on that side of the ball at this point. Tua and the receivers are as good as we thought they'd be, but the running game also looks a bit soft compared to usual.
Texas A&M: It's too early to really form an opinion, but in a big game against Clemson, Mond looked horrible. At the beginning of the season, most everyone would have said Mond was the 3rd best QB in the league. I don't see that being the case this year.
Kentucky: Some thought they were being severely underrated in the preseason. But it appears that was not the case. This is not a good Kentucky team.
Vanderbilt: We knew they'd be bad, and they might be a bit worse than we thought.
Missouri: We might be able to chalk it up to Missouri being Missouri and dropping an easy OOC game per usual... but its hard to ignore a loss to Wyoming. Gone is the talk of Missouri being 8-0 heading into the Georgia game, so for that reason, they are so far disappointing.
Way Worse than we Thought:
Arkansas: This is NOT the year they turn the corner.
Mississippi State: They were in quite a few Top 25's during the Preseason. But a narrow win over Louisiana and a loss at home to K-State has me thinking they might just barely eek out a bowl game this year.
Florida: The offensive genius only has Florida at #9 in the SEC in Total Offense... they struggled against two pretty average teams in Miami and Kentucky. This team looks like 8-4 at best and considering their schedule, that's a huge disappointment. This is not one of the 10 best teams in the country as most thought they would be in the preseason. THey'll be lucky to be in the Top 25 come December.
Tennessee: What can I say. Absolute disaster.
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Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:41 am to BHMKyle
quote:
Way Worse than we Thought:
Arkansas: This is NOT the year they turn the corner.
No shite, but we're not worse than last year.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:42 am to momentoftruth87
quote:
No shite, but we're not worse than last year.
Maybe. But in the preseason, there was a realistic possibility of getting that first SEC West win in a long, long time. After losing to Ole Miss, that looks unlikely.
And for that reason, this season is so far a disappointment.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:44 am to BHMKyle
Think you may be calling it on Arkansas too early. They needed that QB change, and they ripped up CSU.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:44 am to BHMKyle
Alabama has more freshmen starting in the front seven than they have upper classmen now that Ray is injured. True freshmen at that. Not many teams could pull it off starting four true freshmen like that. We will see how far we go with them. We can just outscore 95% of America but the defense will have to grow up before November. I am not disappointed though.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:44 am to BHMKyle
Lol so just because we lost to OM in week 2 this season is a failure? Bert got his first win beating #17 LSU 17-0. You are dense.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:45 am to BHMKyle
What was your prediction on the UF vs UK game?
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:48 am to BHMKyle
That’s pretty spot on about Bama, but I’d also add the lack of a consistent running game and the inability to block anyone from the guard positions to be a huge concern at this point. Hopefully it will improve.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:49 am to momentoftruth87
A&M has a defense, but the offense is hot garbage. Clemson took out our starting RB, the QB is MIA, and the WR's can't catch a cold
The lack of any kind of consistency is surprising, but maybe the Fisher effect is starting early ... certainly expect to see this team in the WGAF bowl once again
The lack of any kind of consistency is surprising, but maybe the Fisher effect is starting early ... certainly expect to see this team in the WGAF bowl once again
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:50 am to BHMKyle
quote:
Grading Teams 3 Weeks in
Should never be done in any sport.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:51 am to BHMKyle
Pretty decent assessment of the conference to this point I'd say. I do think people need to wait to assess Arkansas. The change at QB is going likely going to pay off for them.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 10:55 am to BHMKyle
quote:
Missouri: We might be able to chalk it up to Missouri being Missouri and dropping an easy OOC game per usual... but its hard to ignore a loss to Wyoming. Gone is the talk of Missouri being 8-0 heading into the Georgia game, so for that reason, they are so far disappointing.
at least Wyoming will end up bowling, still bad tho.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:00 am to BHMKyle
Slightly off topic, but I will give LSU fans a bit of good approval grade.
I happened to be in Baton Rouge on Saturday during lunch(I was driving through). I stopped at a Chik-Fil-A on the way out of town on 12. A Louisiana State Trooper was sitting alone at the table behind me.
It was full of LSU fans obviously. But I was pretty happy to see multiple people go up the Trooper and thank him etc. A Chik-Fil-A employee even went to the guy, and gave him a refill on his drink.
That was pretty cool, I give LSU fans an A+ on it.
But there was also a little bitching going on about other LSU fans. The Trooper was mentioning he was on his way to work the stadium for the game. He said the FCS opponent games(just said "this game") would be easy to work, but the bigger games like Alabama and Auburn were a huge pain and he didn't care for it. The fan he was talking to said he quit going to those games and didn't miss it one bit. I guess those games bring out the worse in fans.
Anyway, my wife and I just thought it was really cool how well he was treated.
I happened to be in Baton Rouge on Saturday during lunch(I was driving through). I stopped at a Chik-Fil-A on the way out of town on 12. A Louisiana State Trooper was sitting alone at the table behind me.
It was full of LSU fans obviously. But I was pretty happy to see multiple people go up the Trooper and thank him etc. A Chik-Fil-A employee even went to the guy, and gave him a refill on his drink.
That was pretty cool, I give LSU fans an A+ on it.
But there was also a little bitching going on about other LSU fans. The Trooper was mentioning he was on his way to work the stadium for the game. He said the FCS opponent games(just said "this game") would be easy to work, but the bigger games like Alabama and Auburn were a huge pain and he didn't care for it. The fan he was talking to said he quit going to those games and didn't miss it one bit. I guess those games bring out the worse in fans.
Anyway, my wife and I just thought it was really cool how well he was treated.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:06 am to 3down10
quote:
Louisiana
Like everyone else I poke fun at our neighbors to the South but most folks I've met from Louisiana are friendly people.
As to Arkansas, I would say the jury is still out on this team. We are bad, don't get me wrong, but we are an extremely young team. Arkansas right now is likely not going to look anything like Arkansas at the end of the season... barring a team collapse we should be much improved.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:07 am to mizslu314
quote:
at least Wyoming will end up bowling, still bad tho.
There are worse losses to have, trust me on that one. Wyoming is really difficult to play if you've never had a game at that elevation.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:09 am to Arksulli
being the first game of the year is sometimes a crapshoot
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:09 am to Commander Data
quote:
We can just outscore 95% of America but the defense will have to grow up before November. I am not disappointed though.
Yes, Tua and the Wide Receivers are good enough that Bama could still destroy about 125 out of 130 teams in FBS without breaking a sweat.
But if you take away that edge that Saban teams have always had in terms of defense, I think Bama becomes very beatable for any team with an elite defense that can limit Bama's passing game.
The other concern is the running game. Bama is just #76 in the nation in terms of explosive running plays of 10+ yards or more.... Yet two of those runs were for 74, and 75 yards, respectively against New Mexico State.
If you take out those two long runs that skew the data, Bama's RBs have had 80 other carries for a measly 347 yards (4.34 yards/carry). When you've only faced Duke, New Mexico State, and South Carolina, that's a problem.
Not saying it can't be fixed, but I would think most any rational Bama fan would have been slightly disappointed had they been shown these Defense and Rushing O stats before the season.... anyone that says otherwise is just not being honest.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:09 am to BHMKyle
quote:
The win over Oregon is arguably the most impressive win of any team all season long, so they have that going for them.
How?
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:10 am to thunderbird1100
quote:
Think you may be calling it on Arkansas too early
I agree, I watched that game and in the 4th qtr when the game was tied the new QB stepped up and started leading the team. His passing improved and you could see a difference with the offense and their confidence. Then the tight end caught a pass, broke like 8 tackles scored and the arse kicking was on. The entire team started playing better, could be the spark that turns the team around. That 4th qtr was impressive.
Posted on 9/16/19 at 11:11 am to roadGator
quote:
What was your prediction on the UF vs UK game?
I thought Florida would win a close one.... but I was also far more bearish on Florida in the preseason than the average fan.
I thought Florida would beat Kentucky by a Touchdown or so. The score of the game isn't all that surprising, it was how poor Florida looked that surprised even me.
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