Doin’ the SEC shuffle

Greg Sankey is killing the Fabris pick ’em.

The SEC has shuffled its football schedule for this week, resulting in Vanderbilt playing at Missouri on Saturday instead of the Commodores’ originally scheduled home game against Tennessee and the Tigers’ originally scheduled home game against Arkansas.

The SEC said in a statement that the Arkansas-Missouri game was postponed due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Arkansas football program, consistent with SEC COVID-19 management requirements.

The Vanderbilt-Missouri game is a rescheduling of a game postponed on Oct. 17. The game will be played at noon ET Saturday and televised by the SEC Network. Missouri also had its Nov. 14 game against Georgia postponed.

The Tennessee-Vanderbilt game was postponed for the purpose of facilitating the rescheduling of the Vanderbilt-Missouri game, according to the SEC.

Got all that?

The league office is reportedly pondering playing makeup games on December 19th, in the vain hope that every SEC team will finish playing a full 10-game slate.  Good luck with that, Greg.

SEC net ypp, Week 9

Another week, another set of net yardage figures in the book.

Here’s the conference order by net yards per play, with the offensive ypp and defensive ypp, respectively, in parenthesis.

As I’ve been doing, I also show the week-to-week change in the net figure (stats via cfbstats.com.)

1. Alabama:  2.78 (7.92; 5.14) [net change:  +.24]
2. Florida:  1.37 (7.42; 6.05) [net change:  +.07]
3. TAMU:  1.15 (6.71; 5.56) [net change:  DNP]
4. Arkansas:  0.58 (5.92; 5.34) [net change:  +.39]
5. Georgia:  0.49 (5.58; 5.09) [net change: +.10]
6. Auburn:  0.41 (5.84; 5.43) [net change:  -.10]
7. Ole Miss:  -0.14 (7.06; 7.20) [net change:  DNP]
8. Kentucky:  -0.32 (5.03; 5.35) [net change:  -.57]
9. Missouri:  -0.63 (5.23; 5.85) [net change: +.23}
10. Mississippi State: -0.70 (4.71; 5.41) [net change:  -.08]
11. Tennessee:  -.87 (4.98; 5.85) [net change:  +.22]
12. South Carolina:  -.96 (5.44; 6.40) [net change:  +.16]
13. LSU:  -1.49 (5.89; 7.35) [net change:  -.47]
14. Vanderbilt:  -2.19 (4.96; 7.15) [net change:  +.03]

Here’s the current order for turnover margin.

• +8:  Arkansas
• +5:  Alabama
• +4:  Auburn, Kentucky, LSU
• +1:  Florida, TAMU
•  0:  South Carolina
• -2:  Georgia
• -3:  Ole Miss, Tennessee
• -4:  Missouri
• -7:  Mississippi State
• -8:  Vanderbilt

And, observations:

• It was weird last week and it’s even weirder now:  for two straight weeks, the turnover margin numbers have remained unchanged.
• Don’t look now, but Alabama’s looking pretty stout defensively.
• For those who think Florida could give the Tide a run for its money in the SECCG, the numbers above say otherwise.
• Most of the conference is, again, underwater when it comes to net ypp.

SEC Power Poll, Week 9

All but two conference teams played this week, so… that’s better.

1. Alabama.  They’re first in points scored and points allowed.  Yeah, they’re pretty good.
2. Texas A&M.  Sure has been a while since the Aggies played, eh?
3. Florida.  As a Georgia fan, I can live with Trask torching the Dawgs secondary.  It’s seeing Vanderbilt average better than a yard more per play than Georgia against that Grantham defense that really chaps my ass.
4. Georgia.  To answer my question from last week, yes, JT Daniels was all that was standing in the way of 2020 becoming a throwaway season.
5. Auburn.  Tennessee outgained the Tigers by about 80 yards and still lost by double digits.  That’s the kind of year it’s been for Auburn.
6. LSU.  Jeez, does Bo Pelini suck.
7. Arkansas.  For the life of me, I don’t understand why the Hogs ran the ball as much as they did against LSU.  Had they thrown more, they would have won.
8. Missouri.  Say what you will, Mizzou is at .500 today.
9. Ole Miss.  It’s Egg Bowl time, bitchez!  Think Junior’s up for this one?
10. Kentucky.  What do you get when you’re shorthanded and have to play a rested Alabama squad?  Your ass handed to you.
11. Mississippi State.  The Georgia game revealed the method to Mike Leach’s madness.  MSU is going to be a pain in the ass to play in a couple of years when the roster is restocked.
12. Tennessee.  The Vols are learning that November can be the cruelest month.  How cruel?  The line on the Vanderbilt game is the first single digit line the ‘Dores have seen all season.
13. South Carolina.  I had to check the stat line this week:  36 rushes, 33 passes.  Balanced!  I blame Bobo.
14. Vanderbilt.  I know it doesn’t show in the won-loss record, but Mason’s done a pretty good job stabilizing this team as the season’s progressed.

Cutting it close

Mmmm… this sounds a little bit dicey.

Mississippi State-Georgia is on for Saturday, sources tell @SINow.

The Bulldogs are leaving to travel to Athens. A new round of testing produced more positives, as @mzenitz reported, and so they are very thin, but they are playing.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) November 20, 2020

According to Dellenger, MSU is down to around fifty players.  (SEC rules allow a team to play with less than 53, if it elects to do so.)  You wonder how many more can drop before Leach is forced to cry no mas.

************************************************************************

UPDATE:  Yikes.

We're told 49 available scholarship players made the trip. https://t.co/XxLQLOQoJZ

— Robbie Faulk (@robbiefaulk247) November 20, 2020

Their special teams are going to be a disaster.

One other note about this week’s opponent

They’re a little shy on the numbers front.

Pickering, a 2019 SEC All-Freshman team member is Mississippi State’s fourth player to officially opt out and the second in the last week. He joined junior safety Marcus Murphy, junior cornerback Tyler Williams and junior running back Kylin Hill on that list.

The list of Bulldogs who have left the team this season is much longer than just the ones who have opted out, though. Since the start of the season, wide receiver Tyrell Shavers, defensive end Tre Lawson, offensive lineman Nick Pendley, linebacker Jamari Stewart, cornerback Javorrius Selmon, running back Kareem Walker, quarterback Jalen Mayden and quarterback-turned-receiver Garrett Shrader have entered the NCAA transfer portal.

Before the season even began, defensive lineman Fabien Lovett, defensive back Jarrian Jones, offensive linemen Stewart Reese and Brevyn Jones and quarterback Keytaon Thompson all transferred to other schools. Freshman defensive back Javorrius Selmon transferred to Jackson State days before Mississippi State’s season opener.

Opt outs, transfers and injuries have left Mississippi State in a tough spot concerning the SEC’s protocols for playing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A team must have 53 scholarship players available to compete. The Bulldogs were below that threshold last week and their game against Auburn was subsequently postponed.

All the more reason to think this isn’t a week Georgia needs to get cute to win.

His-toe-ree

This strikes me as a good question.

Free college football TV story idea for somebody who wants it:

CBS is (reportedly) in the final month of it's SEC football contract. As of now, they seem to have lined up….nothing to replace it in 2021.

What…uhh…is going on over there?

— PodKATT (@valleyshook) November 17, 2020

You know what would make for a good troll?  CBS re-running classic games from their archives every Saturday at 3:30PM during next season.  I’d bet they’d stand a 50/50 chance of being better than the games ESPN shows in that same time slot.

And the hits just keep on coming.

NEWS | The Ole Miss at Texas A&M FB game of Nov. 21 is postponed due to the continued quarantine of individuals within the Texas A&M FB program.

The action is consistent with SEC COVID-19 management requirements.

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) November 16, 2020

What are the odds that’s this week’s sole postponement?

Is LSU the Baylor of the SEC?

Sure is a lot of denial going on in Baton Rouge.

LSU’s failure to adequately address sexual misconduct goes beyond one star running back, a USA TODAY investigation found. Officials in the university’s athletic department and broader administration repeatedly have ignored complaints against abusers, denied victims’ requests for protections and subjected them to further harm by known perpetrators.

At least seven LSU officials had direct knowledge that wide receiver Drake Davis was physically abusing his girlfriend, a different LSU women’s tennis player, but they sat on the information for months, while Davis continued to assault and strangle her. In another case, the school determined that a fraternity member had sexually assaulted two women, but it refused to move him out of classes he shared with one of them and altogether ignored an allegation against him by a third female student.

USA TODAY also found three cases in which, rather than expelling or suspending male students found responsible for sexual assault, LSU allowed them to stay on campus. The men, non-athletes, received “deferred suspensions,” a probationary period during which they must stay out of trouble.

In a fourth case, LSU deferred the suspension of a man who stalked and sexually harassed a fellow student, even after he’d pleaded no contest in court to telephonic harassment.

The article is pretty damning and so is the school’s reluctance to provide information about the incidents.

Sadly, the NCAA has already indicated with Baylor that it’s not willing to go very far in confronting its member institutions over this, so that leaves things up to Greg Sankey.  One wonders if he’s prepared to be as stern with LSU as he was with, say, Hugh Freeze.

SEC net ypp, Week 8

Again, lots of cancellations make for little updated data.

Here’s the conference order by net yards per play, with the offensive ypp and defensive ypp, respectively, in parenthesis.

As I’ve been doing, I also show the week-to-week change in the net figure (stats via cfbstats.com.)

1. Alabama:  2.54 (7.95; 5.41) [net change:  DNP]
2. Florida:  1.30 (7.36; 6.06) [net change:  -.47]
3. TAMU:  1.15 (6.71; 5.56) [net change:  DNP]
4. Auburn:  0.51 (5.81; 5.30) [net change:  DNP]
5. Georgia:  0.39 (5.42; 5.03) [net change: DNP]
6. Kentucky:  0.25 (5.29; 5.04) [net change:  +.45]
7. Arkansas:  0.19 (5.65; 5.46) [net change:  +.09]
8. Ole Miss:  -0.14 (7.06; 7.20) [net change:  +.20]
9. Mississippi State: -0.62 (4.59; 5.21) [net change:  DNP]
10. Missouri:  -0.86 (5.37; 6.23) [net change: DNP]
11. LSU:  -1.02 (6.17; 7.19) [net change:  DNP]
12. Tennessee:  -1.09 (4.74; 5.83) [net change:  DNP]
13. South Carolina:  -1.12 (5.54; 6.66) [net change:  -.12]
14. Vanderbilt:  -2.22 (4.81; 7.03) [net change:  -.15]

Here’s the current order for turnover margin.

• +8:  Arkansas
• +5:  Alabama
• +4:  Auburn, Kentucky, LSU
• +1:  Florida, TAMU
•  0:  South Carolina
• -2:  Georgia
• -3:  Ole Miss, Tennessee
• -4:  Missouri
• -7:  Mississippi State
• -8:  Vanderbilt

And, observations:

• Granted, there were only three games played, but there were no changes in turnover margin this week.  Weird.
• Todd Grantham may not be the best defensive coordinator in the country, but he’s certainly the most fortunate.  It’s a damned shame Georgia didn’t get better quarterback play against that defense.
• Ordinarily, I’d say South Carolina’s shoddy defensive play this season would be a black mark on Muschamp’s future hiring chances, but who am I kidding here?
• For the first time all season, exactly half the conference is in the black on net ypp.

SEC Power Poll, Week 8

When less than half of the conference manages to get in a game, it feels kinda silly to run a power poll, but I’ll carry on.

1. Alabama.  You know if the Tide looks the slightest bit rusty this week, Saban’s gonna bitch about having that double bye, right?
2. Texas A&M.  Don’t even think about a bye week bounce for the Aggies.
3. Florida.  I hate to say it, but Dan Mullen is now the leading candidate for SEC Coach of the Year.
4. Georgia.  Is JT Daniels all that’s standing in the way of 2020 becoming a throwaway season?
5. Auburn.  The only thing better than a bye week is getting to play a reeling Tennessee squad.
6. Arkansas.  Didn’t get the turnovers they needed to win, the Hogs still managed 13.2 yards per pass attempt, 6.5 yards per rush — and lost by four touchdowns.
7. LSU.  The Tigers get the coveted bye week bounce.
8. Kentucky.  You want proof there’s no defense in the SEC this year?  The ‘Cats gave up 35 points to Vanderbilt.  Sheesh.
9. Ole Miss.  This is easily the most entertaining team in the conference.  It would almost be a shame if Junior ever gets a defense.
10. Missouri.  The Tigers get to play South Carolina, post-Boom, this week.
11. Tennessee.  Currently 2-4, with three ranked teams left on the schedule, the Vols’ chances for a winning season look slim.
12. South Carolina.  Let’s welcome the Mike Bobo era in Columbia!
13. Mississippi State.  Who would have thought before the season that a Leach-coached offense would be last in the conference in scoring?
14. Vanderbilt.  Don’t look now, but the ‘Dores are showing signs of life on offense.