SEC Week 1 Recap - Trojans slay Wildcats in Colosseum

[Sarge]

Week 1 SEC Recap!

Crazy week of football for week one for the boys down south (and I guess Missouri) with lots of the SEC taking on premiere opening out of conference away games to create a statement heading into the season.

UF  (0-0) 23  @ CLEM (0-0) 20
First one we'll look at is the Gators going to Death Valley (SC edition) to take on the Tigers. This wasn't the prettiest of games but it was incredibly fun to watch. Florida squeaked this win out by opportunistic defense and some backbreaking turnovers from QB Tony Palardy. Florida controlled the clock a lot attempting to keep it a low scoring game and rushed for 313 with 5 different backs. The biggest question after the three point win isn't the defense but how effective is Shareece Kelly going to continue to be going forward. He showed his inexperience in this game completing less than 50% of his passes and only averaging 3.12 YPC ub 16 attempts. Weeze needs more from that QB position in the Double Wing or he's in trouble. Otherwise, a fantastic win to set the tone for Florida this week.

NW (1-0) 36 @ SCAR (0-0) 48
The Cock Commanders choked Northwesten out with absolutely stellar QB play from Pivetta. He was efficient and kept the offense churning and getting first downs when he needed to but the real hero was Valverde who ran it to the house FIVE times. Things got hairy in the fourth as South Carolina prematurely seemed to put in their backups after getting a lead of 41-23, letting Northwestern scrap back until the clocks hit zero. I think South Carolina is a formidable team but their defense has to do better. They only survived this game thanks to the 4 turnovers. NW QB Diaz nearly threw for as much total offense as South Carolina had, but also threw it to the gamecocks DBs three times really sealing any chance they had at winning.

UMD (0-0) 7 @ #3 TENN (0-0) 45
Tennessee, who's now the #1 team in the country at the time of this article took the Terps out to dinner and never called them back. The Vols went all the way down to their third string depth in this game after the performance touted QB Brandon Savage put up. The big news here is the huge injury to WR Will Jackson who's going to miss the FSU game and the next six weeks. Siri and Edwards are going to continue to be the studs that are running circles around people and will always be Savage's favorite targets but Jackson will bbe missed. Vols defense was stellar but the ground game was incredibly disappointing. Savage is exceptional but as Tennessee gets into conference play and even before hand with their 1v2 matchup with FSU, Tennessee is going to have to figure out some magic to help easy the pressure on Savage.

#17 LSU (0-0) 31 @ ODU (0-0) 13
This game was closer than the box score lets on but LSU's defense is not to be trifled with as it blanked QB Eli Bell for three consecutive quarters until ODU found life in the fourth. The Tiger's front seven will continue to be their strength as they hope to keep offenses frustrated. LB Matt Dunbar was a tackling machine and DE Tyler Tonkin had timely TFLs to stall out a couple drives for ODU. I don't think RB Luis Ladler replicates his performance of 4 catches for a 100 so LSU needs to find answers at WR soon.

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Will update with more tomorrow.