Week 2 SEC Impressed/Depressed List: Florida ain’t good

 

 

So my buddy Davis was so excited about Florida this year. Still high from the National Championship in basketball, he’s been full of the joys of Spring. He talked about the speed. The fight. He told me: “This is a year where things are going to be better. We’ve got a lot of speed, we’ll be fine”.

Midway through the USF game, he texted me: “I thought it would take more than 1.5 weeks to turn off the TV during a Florida game”.

While it’s probably early to throw out the death knell for Billy Napier’s Florida career, this result wasn’t good.

SO HERE’S YOUR IMPRESSED LIST

1.  Mississippi State (2-0): We had the Mighty Cowbellers winning this game, but the way that they did with 30 seconds left was just awesome. They harassed Arizona State QB Sam Leavitt to death, and the goalline at the end was immense. We thought MSU would be an easy out this season, but maybe, maybe not…
2. Vanderbilt (2-0): The Commodores went into Hokie Stadium, struggled for a while, got down 10 at half-time, and then blasted 21 straight points in the fourth quarter of the game. That was very impressive Diego Pavia was his usual whirlwind self, throwing for 193 yards and 2 TDs, and rushing for another 61. This team’s gonna be another hard out this year.
3. Oklahoma (2-0): It wasn’t such a great game so much as an Oklahoma domination. John Mateer looks as though he’s going to add a fun element to that offense, Deion Burks is going to be a menace at WR, and OU’s defensive front was plain nasty. But what really added to all of this was the ‘Stripe Out’ in Norman, which just looked gorgeous in the evening sun.
4.  Kentucky (1-1): We had Ole Miss beating Kentucky pretty comfortably (OK, by 14), but UK gave Ole Miss a fright, and that’s all we were asking for. As we’ve said 400 times (already), we think Kentucky is going to be the league’s bottom-feeder, but this was a nice step forward.
5.  Missouri (2-0): The best atmosphere of the college football week is always going to be one where both sides absolutely loathe each other, and College Gameday should have been there instead of Norman. And while people will talk about the day Beau Pribula had, TE Brett Norfleet’s 7 catches for 76 yards and 2 TDs (and his blocking) were immense. Bold prediction: Norfleet will be the best TE in the SEC if not college football this year.
6.  Ole Miss (2-0): Beat a plucky Kentucky team to stay unbeaten – mainly to due to Kewan Lacy’s monstrous 138 yard, 1 TD effort. Kiffin QB Austin Simmons had a weird day, passing pretty badly (13/24 with 2 INTS and 0 TDs), but rushing for a TD in the third quarter.
7.  Arkansas (2-0): This was the ass-whooping that many expected, rather than the entertaining game that we expected. Taylen Green had a monstrous game, throwing for 239 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs, while running for 151 and 1 on just 9 carries. If Green its to clear up the picks, the Razorbacks are going to have a WEAPON. Oh, and big love to Bobby Petrino’s offense, which threw for 321 and rushed for 309 on a good, balanced day.
8.  Texas A&M (2-0): Three words we’ll say all season: Dominant Aggies offensive line. Marcel Reed threw for 220 and 3 TDs, while rushing for another 34 and 1. The defense was dominant against the run. We don’t know how good this Aggies team yet, but we certainly will when they walk into Notre Dame Stadium for the battle with the No.8 Fighting Irish (who we also know little about, by the way).
9. Tennessee (2-0): Smoked ETSU like they were meant to. Georgia coming into town will be a whole other proposition.
10. Auburn (2-0): While everyone’s going to be talking about the Jackson Arnold rehabilitation project, the Tigers look as though they’ve got something on the ground with Jeremiah Cobb, who ran for 121 yards and 2 TDs. Ball State are hardly the second coming of Florida State, but this was a good result that probably would have been more competitive a couple of years ago.
11. Alabama (1-1): Answered the “WOULDN’T BE FUNNY IF ALABAMA LOST THAT GAME?” crowd with a 73-0 slaughtering of UL Monroe. Ty Simpson went a remarkable 17/17 for 226 yards and 3 TDs, and the Tuscalossa crowd went home happy.
12. Texas (1-1): There’s been an awful lot of chat recently about whether Arch was in pain while throwing in the comfortable win over SJSU. I think it’s because many expected 25/30 instead of 19/30 for 4000 yards and 250 touchdowns, instead of 19/30 for 295 yards and 4. He’ll be fine.
13.  LSU (2-0): We talked about LSU struggling a bit in the first quarter before picking up steam, but the Tigers only picked up steam late in the third quarter. Don’t get us wrong – LSU dominated and should have won by more. But the execution wasn’t there offensively, even if the defense was off-the-chain good.
14.  South Carolina (2-0): South Carolina’s offense simply couldn’t get it together against a side they should have thrashed. Vicari Swain took two punts to the house and there was a fumble return for a TD, but the offense was utterly impotent. Not great signs for team ranked No.10.
15.  Georgia (2-0): I called a friend after the game to see how the Dawgs played, and she said: “We played like shit. Crappy on the offensive line, and no-one was doing anything. Anyway, I’m going to have another Jack and Coke.” And by ‘played like shit’, there were fumbles and Georgia had to fend off an Austin Peay drive on the goalline – not something you’d expect from a Georgia team that’s meant to be rocking the world. And with a trip to Tennessee on the offing, things could get very interesting very quickly.
16.  Florida: Awful playcalling, awful discipline, awfully disappointing performance. People will credit South Florida for a punchy performance, but a lot of Florida’s miscues were their own fault. And I’m sorry, but at home you shouldn’t losing to a non-Power 4 team.