Around the League: Week 3

Vanderbilt didn’t play on Saturday, but everybody else in the SEC did. Here’s a look around the SEC as... oh, why were there so many FCS games?

Georgia 55, Arkansas State 0

Snore. The highlight of this one was Georgia honoring Wendy Anderson, the late wife of Arkansas State head coach Blake Anderson, who recently lost her battle with cancer. Anyway, Georgia averaged nearly 10 yards per play.

Tennessee 45, Chattanooga 0

The Vols get a brief reprieve from the snickering of the other 13 schools in the SEC, but only brief (did you notice that Georgia State lost to Western Michigan by a score of 57-10 on Saturday?) Anyway, at least they didn’t lose to Chattanooga.

Kansas State 31, Mississippi State 24

This was an evenly-matched, back and forth affair that Kansas State won on a late touchdown. Mississippi State hadn’t looked overly impressive in getting to 2-0 and, as it turns out, there was a reason Tommy Stevens couldn’t win the starting job at Penn State.

Alabama 47, South Carolina 23

It’s, uh, worth wondering whether Alabama getting 76 rushing yards on 25 carries is a reason to be concerned, and of course Alabama still can’t find a competent kicker. South Carolina actually put up 459 yards of total offense, though they needed 86 plays to do it.

Ole Miss 40, SE Louisiana 29

Ole Miss’s defense allowed 23 points, total, against Memphis and Arkansas (Memphis got a safety and Arkansas got a defensive touchdown, if you’re wondering), and then a directional Louisiana scored 29. (And the Lions also averaged 5.4 yards per play, just slightly less than Ole Miss’ 5.7, in case you were wondering if this was some weird fluke. It wasn’t.) I mean, it’s not a loss to an FCS team, but it’s hard to see this as a good performance.

Arkansas 55, Colorado State 34

Chad Morris appears to have selected the wrong quarterback coming out of fall camp; Nick Starkel led the offense to 7.4 yards per play after not being the starter in the first game of the season. Then again, Colorado State is awful.

Auburn 55, Kent State 16

And speaking of awful teams, Kent State. Auburn did basically whatever they wanted to the tune of eight yards per play and oh my God why were there so many cupcake games this week.

Florida 29, Kentucky 21

Yep, we’re right back to Kentucky blowing winnable games against Florida. This is how you end up with another 32-year losing streak. (On the other hand, if you watched any of this and are still convinced that Florida is a top 10 team... well, you probably have a vote in the AP poll.)

Texas A&M 62, Lamar 3

oh my God why

LSU 65, Northwestern State 14

The box score doesn’t really reflect how much time LSU spent playing with its food. Northwestern State actually held the lead at the end of the first quarter and doubled its point total from the previous week (against Division 2 Midwestern State.) Of course, LSU stopped screwing around in the second half and turned what was a 24-14 game at halftime into a 65-14 laugher.

Missouri 50, SE Missouri State 0

What is even the point of this?