Weekend Summary
I checked twice so I am in the right forum. Most important statement, it is great to have the SEC back. Yeah, I know others outside the conference hate it, but it is what we love. This felt like a real weekend of football.
Although early season rankings are meaningless, except for Clemson and Bama, we had the rarity of two unranked teams beating top 10 teams. Arrrrr, the Pirate aka Mike Leach, debuted his "air raid" offense in Red Stick against the champs. Stanford transfer KJ Costello (who stated it does mean more in the SEC) threw for a record 623 yds as Miss ST shocked LSU 44-34. LSU only had 4 of 18 starters from last season, but this was still a surprise. Kansas St, who lost to Arkansas St, was down to OU 35-14 in the 3rd Q. The Wildcats stormed back to tie using a blocked punt (OU does not use this play much) and then tacked on a FG to stun the Sooners 38-35.
Florida had some preseason hype for the first time in 10 years and it may be real. QB Kyle Trask threw for over 400 yds and 6 TDs (Burrow did the same last year), 4 to TE Kyle Pitts who almost made himself a top 10 pick. However, love him or hate him. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin made the Gator defense look silly, and that is the main question mark. Florida won 51-35 in Oxford to open. The other great game was in Lubbock as Texas Tech came back for a 56-41 lead late over Texas, but bungled an onside kick recovery. The Horns tied it and then won in OT 63-56 to maybe keep the Big 12 in the playoff hunt.
Bama is still Bama handling Mizzou easily. Auburn had a tough start but beat Kentucky late. Georgia was horrible on the offense early but pulled away from Arky to extend the Hawgs SEC losing streak to 20. A&M had trouble with Vandy, so we'll see if the preseason hype is real. Tenn outlasted SC in Cola.
Finally, Miami may be a good team as they beat FSU 52-10. FSU has the worst talent in forever for them and may not be able to afford a new coach anytime soon. Mike Norvell has given them nothing to engender confidence. The Canes will know how they stack up when the they visit Upstate SC in two weeks.
Man, it's great to have a bit of normalcy in the fall.