Halfway through the season, where do we find ourselves?

We've reached the halfway point in the 2007 SEC season, so it's time to review where we are, and what lies ahead.

Surprisingly good

Three SEC teams have been surprisingly good so far:

• Kentucky
• South Carolina
• Mississippi State

Kentucky was expected to have a good season by Kentucky standards, but few expected them to have only one loss after six games. A doormat since the mid-1960's, Kentucky is usually lucky to have two or three wins at this point.

Mississippi State was expected to have a weak team this year. But at 4-2 with a victory over perennial SEC contender Auburn who owns the East's West's only victory over Florida, MSU is looking at a reasonable chance to reach bowl eligibility. They are even picking up AP top 25 votes.

South Carolina was expected to be a mid-pack performer this year, but suddenly finds itself in the lead in the SEC East with 4 conference games under its belt and only one loss to #1 ranked LSU. Spurrier's declaration that his team could contend for the East this year is looking very prescient at the moment. Spurrier is doing so well, USC even changed its admissions policy to make it easier to admit poor students as football players.

Surprisingly poor

Three SEC teams have been surprisingly bad so far:

• Tennessee
• Georgia
• Arkansas
• Vanderbilt

Tennessee was expected to contend for the East, and although they theoretically still can, they have not lived up to pre-season expectations. This team was expected to be very good, and while they may have turned it around, still have a lot to prove, and I think it might take more than 15 minutes.

Georgia started the season strong, but two losses in conference have put it in a tough position. Losing to South Carolina between the hedges and getting crushed by an underperforming Tennessee team do not bode well for the Dawgs chances in the East. Every remaining game for the Bulldogs is losable.

Arkansas, with Heisman favorite Darren McFadden, was expected to push LSU in the West. That hasn't happened, and the Razorbacks current 0-2 mark must have the Fayetteville Faithful concerned about a possible November end to their season. Hog fans are not happy, but as long as they have McFadden, anything is possible

Vanderbilt was supposed to threaten some of the big boys this year with their many returning players and all-SEC receiver Earl Bennett. So far, though, they have failed their only real test in dramatic fashion, being overwhelmed by Auburn, and looking less than stellar against cupcake Eastern Michigan. The loss to Auburn was so utterly devastating that not even a 3-2 record gives the Commodore faithful much to cheer about, and they seem to be doubting if Vandy is good enough to compete in the league this year. They need a win over underachieving Georgia this Saturday to return to relevance.

More about this weekend: Georgia at Tennessee

I would be remiss if I didn't examine the Georgia at Tennessee game and it's aftermath. I did watch about half of this game, and figured (correctly) that the game was over after Tennessee scored 28 points in the first half.

From what I saw, Tennessee dominated Georgia in every meaningful aspect of football in the first half. They ran and scored almost at will, and the UT defense held the Georgia offense to 5 three-and-outs in the first half, aided by numerous untimely drive-killing penalties on the Dawgs. Georgia played ugly football, and looked more like Vanderbilt did against Auburn than anything else. Tennessee racked up yardage on the ground and through the air, almost doubling up the Dawgs in total yards and nearly tripling their ground total.

I was very surprised at the futility of the Georgia ground game, and the sternness of the Tennessee defense. It was a surprise, in every aspect and nuance of the sentiment, to find this Georgia team utterly woebegone against a Vol team that had not proven anything so far this year. Georgia fans must be unhappy, and that's where we'll go next.

The irrepressible Kyle King at Dawg Sports has something to say about everything, and you can bet, he had something to say about this debacle:

What I know, though, is that Georgia went to Knoxville and got embarrassed. The Bulldogs didn't just lose . . . they got embarrassed. I will assume my share of the responsibility---the two times I have declared game co-captains (against South Carolina and Tennessee), the Red and Black have lost; you may rest assured that there will be one and only one honorary game captain from now on---but there were many more problems with such fundamental matters as blocking, tackling, discipline, coaching, and execution.

Indeed. It appeared that the Dawgs either thought this would be no contest, or were simply otherwise preoccupied or simply unprepared to deliver. Senator Blutarsky blames complacency, and fears the '07 version of this team has become irrelevant to anyone but Dawg fans:

Complacency is a bitch. With this loss today, though, I don’t think Georgia has any laurels left to rest on. The shot at the East title is gone. There won’t be a top 25 ranking for this team for a while, if at all, this season. There isn’t a team left on Georgia’s schedule that the Dawgs can’t lose to. The program, in other words, is likely to be irrelevant to everyone except its fan base for the rest of this season. That’s not where anyone wants things to be, obviously.

The loss places Georgia in a precarious position in the East. I'm not ready to declare the patient dead, as Blutarsky seems to, but at this point, they do look like they are comatose and on life support as far as the SEC championship is concerned.

Doug at Hey Jenny Slater wants to thank Southern Cal, Wisconsin and UCLA for ringing up so much embarrassment that it distracted the nation from Georgia's calamitous misadventure in Knoxville. He also finds more than a little incredulity at Mark Richt's rather dispassionate evaluation of the loss:

Some of the statements Richt made I had to grudgingly concede were true, but others -- such as the following quote, recounted with no small amount of incredulity by by Jeff Schultz in his dumbfounded column in Sunday's AJC -- made me wonder what a toaster oven would look like if it was hurled out the window of a Volkswagen Jetta traveling through downtown Atlanta at about 85 mph:

“It’s not that surprising to see Tennessee’s D-line handle our guys like that,” coach Mark Richt said Saturday.

Mark, you keep using that word, "surprising" -- I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Now, to the undoubtedly more satisfied Volunteer fans. Jon at Fulmer's Belly says that Knoxville felt just like home for the first time in a while:

That is the Tennessee team that the residents of Knoxville expected to see. The team that came out and passed, rushed and scored at will, and more importantly, the team that tackled, wrapped up, stayed in their gaps, and got off blocks. The defense was markedly better after a mere 15 minutes of tackling practice as mandated by Coach Fulmer. If Fulmer can do that in 15 minutes, the rest of the SEC had better watch out if he ever decides to spend any time on the offense.

Joel at Rocky Top Talk lists some "best of's" and "worst of's" the Georgia game. I liked this one:

Worst response to a spectacular play. Ellix Wilson, whom officials tagged with one of two 15-yard penalties following the blocked punt for removing his helmet in celebration. Son, you don't dance out of the bank you just robbed.

Heh. Finally, Big Orange Michael says that maybe all the coaching staff at Tennessee needs is a little motivation:

If threatening to fire the coaching staff will get the Vols to respond like they did today, then I say we threaten at least one staff member with termination every week....

Congrats to the Vols, condolences for the Dawgs. Keep in mind another Saturday comes again in just a few days, and the season is only half over.

A huge weekend, and the SEC picture becomes more clear

The SEC picture became much clearer this year than it has been up until now as several challengers emerged for the title in the East. Florida, once the clear leader in the East, is now one of three Eastern teams, along with Georgia and Vanderbilt with two losses. LSU continues to make themselves the class of the conference and the outright leader in the West, although Florida's game against them in Death Valley clearly gives some hope to the remaining teams on their schedule, it isn't much hope.

I want to look at a couple of the games here, Vandy at Auburn and Florida at LSU.

Auburn rudely welcomed the Vanderbilt Commodores to the Plains, and this game was, quite frankly, uncompetitive. While some of us expected the #2 ranked defense to put up a fight against the offensively-challenged Tigers, Auburn proved that the days of being a weak sister on offense have come to an end, and Brandon Cox is now firmly in control of this team.

I can't agree with Will Collier at From The Bleachers the Vanderbilt should leave the SEC. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the SEC, and even though it is very difficult for Vanderbilt considering it's academic underpinnings and strange lack of an athletic department, it is as much a part of the fabric and tradition of the league as any other school, including Auburn.

Without malice to Auburn or any other school in the SEC including my beloved Kentucky, Vanderbilt has not embarrassed the league by being placed on academic or athletic probation in memory, and from that standpoint, outshines virtually all of the league's more athletically fortunate members. You could make a case that if Vanderbilt really wants to develop a football program that the SEC is not the best place to do it, and if Vanderbilt wanted to leave the league for that reason, it would be difficult not to respect their decision. But frankly, I think they have earned a place in this league in many other ways than football, and for my money, can stay as long as they want. Besides, who else could Kentucky have a better than average shot at beating in football if Vandy left?

The War Eagle Reader is happy to see the Tigers back in the top 25, and further pleased that Auburn seems to have snapped out of it and wonders what would have happened if the team had played to it's potential all year. Well, there are a lot of football teams that would like to know that right now. I'm afraid the answer is not forthcoming.

PhilipVU94 at Save The Shield takes a fatalistic view that appears in some ways to validate Will Collier's argument:

I realize that no one likes fatalism, but there’s a reason why it really feels like nothing will ever get better in this program. We’ve seen it all before. (Well, except some really wildly exciting offense like June Jones or Mike Leach run. I’d like to see how we’d do with that instead of the conservative back-to-basics approach.) I’m really not sure the solution exists, if the problem is narrowly defined as “getting Vanderbilt to have a winning football season as a full member of the SEC.”

Ouch. Well, we may have to revisit this conversation after some of the hurt feelings wear off on the Vanderbilt side. Obviously, Vanderbilt fans had hoped for a lot more than the pasting the Tigers delivered to them.

What a great game it was between LSU and Florida last night! I stayed up and watched the whole affair, even though I had an early tee time on Sunday. And boy, was it worth it. Les Miles, with this game, has clearly established himself as a coach to be reckoned with as he clearly and convincingly outcoached Urban Meyer in this game. Not only did Miles show tremendous faith in his team when Meyer didn't, his team delivered in spades.

Florida fans will correctly point out that this game proves that there is far less difference between the Gators and the Tigers than many had supposed, and I think this is true. Florida has a very strong offense, and to their credit, they have a very decent defense. But LSU is simply indomitable defensively, and they proved it to my satisfaction in the fourth quarter when they held that powerful Gator offense to next to nothing -- the entire 4th quarter for Florida consisted of an interception, a 3-and-out, and one first down in a final, futile effort to create a drive.

Richard Pittman at Geaux Tuscaloosa was enthralled by the game and especially by the result:

But let's get one thing straight right now. We outplayed Florida. We were the better team over the course of the 60 minute game. Florida outplayed us in the first quarter, but we outplayed them the rest of the game. Florida almost won anyway, in part because we missed field goals and in part because of penalties. But let's be clear about that. We outplayed them.

Richard gets this absolutely right. A look at the stats proves it, although LSU didn't really dominate in any areas -- they were just superior in most of them, and that will usually get you the win.

GatorPilot of Orange and Blue Hue says the LSU game is the end of the world as he knows it, but he feels fine:

I give high grades to this entire team. Can you even imagine how good they’re going to be? How good they already are?

An SEC championship is still in the cards. A rematch with LSU would, in my opinion, favor Florida. They made LSU’s life hell when they played ‘em on the road. Imagine what it would be like in Gatlanta.

This can still be a great year for Florida. Rivalry games remain. We still have Georgia and FSU to look forward to. A BCS bowl is very possible, even with two losses, if LSU goes on to the BCS title game.

We'll have to wait and see if Florida can even win the East before Gator fans can be thinking about Catlanta Atlanta. Henry Gomez at Saurian Sagacity explains that this pretty much ends any hope of a repeat of 2006, however unrealistic those hopes may have been for Gator fans. Mlmintampa at Alligator Army also thinks Meyer was outcoached by Miles, and points out that Meyer guaranteed the Gators would be back -- but when was apparently an open question.

No matter what, kudos to two great SEC teams for giving us a battle for the ages. It was one of the better college football games I have seen in quite a while.

Best of the SEC: Thursday and Friday all wrapped into one.

I just had too much going on this week to get to the blog yesterday, so naturally, I suck. But when it comes to making $$ or blogging, well, it's not that tough a choice. But here we go for "Make up" Friday.

Seems there was a pretty big game last night in Columbia, and my Kentucky Wildcats got beat by the South Carolina Gamecocks. Yeah, the Cats turned the ball over, but that's part of football. Let's see what the blogs have to say about it:

Memphis Tider thinks order has been restored to the universe:

Ahhh yes. Kentucky is, and always will be, Kentucky. Look for them to just get absolutely lit up at home next week by LSU, who dismantled South Carolina, who dismantled Kentucky.

Andre Woodson definitely looked human. Say bye-bye to the Heisman, sir.

I personally think he's just happy the Tide won't be playing the Wildcats this year.

Garnet and Black Attack explains the game, and gives five good reasons why the Gamecocks whipped the Wildcats -- Norwood, turnovers, and more. Go read it for the rest.

Matt Jones at Kentucky Sports Radio says this was a golden opportunity missed:
Sometimes big events end not with a bang, but a whimper. Last night's UK-South Carolina game got the masses hyped and ready for a big event that would be an exciting step in the continued upward mobility of Kentucky football. Instead, we were treated to a poor performance that left most wondering what might have been.

Mergz at Saurian Sagacity looks at the stats, and sees that Kentucky played a very competitive game, beating out South Carolina in many statistical areas. But not the one that counts, which is the score at the end of the game.

Thats enough about last night. Now, what about the big games this week? Diezba at Star and Stipe wonders if the media thinks there is an upset brewing in the Vanderbilt-Auburn game:

It's interesting to read through the coverage of the Auburn-Vanderbilt game today.

Everyone keeps saying, "Auburn had better be careful, or those pesky Commodores may try to pull an upset -- but don't worry, the Tigers will win."

I think this could definitely be called "damnation by faint praise".

Jerry Hinnen at The Joe Cribbs Car Wash thinks he knows what Auburn wants:

If you believe the rumors and rumblings, one plan calls to hire celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse to remake the Foy Student Union cafeteria into 'Emeril's BAM!-eteria.' Auburn wants students and staff will be able to watch Lagasse personally cook up all their favorite dishes, from pizza to country-fried steak to pizza, in a giant glass kitchen in the center of the complex.

Who knew they were into haute cuisine on the Plains?

Mlmintampa at Alligator Army says it's up to Urban Meyer to defeat the LSU Tigers:

This is the team we have and that isn't going to change. That's why the coaches are so important. Maybe since I'm only a year out of school, I have more sympathy for a college athlete than their coach. But last I checked, none of the players are getting $3.25 million a year. So those coaches have to put the players in a position to win. And so far in road games, they haven't done that.

Meanwhile, Henry Gomez at Saurian Sagacity claims that the Worldwide Leader is treading in Bill Clinton territory when it talks about the Gators beating a #1 ranked team. When Bill Clinton makes an appearance in a blog post, you know some parsing of words is going on.

Purple Reign of And The Valley Shook gives us some various takes from around the Internet on the Florida at LSU game. Meanwhile, LaLover at New Orleans Love thinks he knows 5 ways the Tigers can stop Tim Tebow. What's his advice? Well, you'll have to read the post to see them all, but one of them is "Blitz often". Surprised?

Wednesday: Best of the SEC blogs part II

In part I we looked at Kentucky at South Carolina and Florida at LSU. So now, we'll have a look at the other two big games of this weekend, Georgia at Tennessee and Vanderbilt at Auburn.

Quinton McDawg thinks that Neyland Stadium in Knoxville isn't quite as scary this year, despite the 102,037 screaming orange maniacs likely to be there this weekend. He also wonders about Vol attire:

Neyland does still deserve a couple of accolades. It is still home to the largest concentration of orange track suits on the planet. Why do Vol fans so adore orange track suits? Is it because Phil wears one to, uh, conceal things?

RustyTanton at Rocky Top Talk notes that Mark Richt has never lost in Neyland, and thinks that if LaMarcus Coker can get going, things might turn around. He also quotes Orson Swindle of EDSBS:

Tennessee's defense has been a "polite audience" for opposing offenses this year (h/t Orson Swindle for that phrase).

Diezba writing for Star and Stripe notes that Vanderbilt is getting noticed for its defense, second in the SEC overall. He realizes that Auburn is a "huge test" for the 'Dores on the Plains this weekend, but he just isn't sure Auburn is really better than Vanderbilt. the 'Dores biggest test so far this year. He may be right, we shall see.

Meanwhile, Jay Coulter of Track Em Tigers sees danger this weekend coming off the huge upset of the Gators, and notes that Tommy Tubberville is concerned as well. Injuries to key players and some other factors are conspiring to make the Plainsmen nervous, and Earl Bennett of Vandy is a big reason as well.

Wednesday: Best of the SEC blogs part I

So let's see. We have #8 Kentucky vs. #11 South Carolina on Thursday, we have #1 LSU vs. #9 Florida on Saturday in Death Valley, we have #12 Georgia at Tennessee, and Vandy at Auburn. These are the big games this week. The rest of the conference is out of the conference against unranked teams.

I'll handle the first two now, and the last two later.

Chuck at TheCoolChicken says that he is very impressed with Kentucky and doesn't take this game lightly, but still cannot believe that UK vs. USC is a big game. It's understandable given Kentucky's *ahem* rather pedestrian history in the SEC. TCC picks the Gamecocks in a close one.

Shawn Bridwell at Kentucky Sports Radio takes an in-depth look at the Gamecock's defense, and notes that a rugged defense like USC has shown is not something the Ol' Ball Coach has been noted for in the past. He think's UK will win because of their balance. I think he might be right.

LaLover at New Orleans Love looks at why the Gators lost to Auburn last Saturday, and he thinks it was Flordia OC Dan Mullen's stomach, namely an appendectomy he had just prior to Saturday's game. LaLover notes that Mullen is a tough guy, but I have to agree, this is way above and beyond the call -- of sanity, that is.

Mergz at Saurian Sagacity says he was to blame for the Florida loss to the Tigers, and asks the Gator Nation for forgiveness.

Tuesday Morning Quickies

• Paul Westerdawg says it's never too early to hate the Gators.
  
  
• Senator Blutarsky shows us some damned ugly uniforms.
  
  
• Sylvester Croom says MSU is getting way too many penalties. Maybe, but not as many as Tennessee, Alabama or Georgia. Correction to my goof (obvious if you followed the link) -- MSU is the 4th best in penalties, so I don't really know what Croom is complaining about.
  
  
• Arliss at Mississippi State Basketball is counting the days until basketball season, currently at 11 days, 12 hours and some odd minutes.
  
  
• Eric at DeepSouthSports one-ups ESPN on the whole "______________ Saturday" thing.
  
  
• Tuberville to TAMU? Wouldn't shock me.
  
  
• Will Collier says that Auburn has its mojo back. Certainly had it on Saturday.