2023 SEC west mid(ish) season report card

[tsweezy]

Hello hello, at the request of @Sargeand to ensure @Ezacomakes his SSEC show I'll do some report cards for the conference in reverse-order of standings.

 

Alabama 

2-6 (1-4)

PPG: 13.25 PPGA: 23.75

Passing YPG: 169 Rushing YPG: 107

Offensive MVP: C Ruben Shazier (6 pancakes, 0 sacks allowed)

Defensive MVP: ILB Weston Shackelford (74 tackles, 11 TFL, 1 FF)

Recruiting Pace: 20th

Season Highlight: Beating LSU 30-14 in Week 9. Taking out a legitimate good SEC West team showed that even in a down year, the Tide can turn the corner and beat anyone.

Season Lowlight: Week 2 being blown out 3-20 by JMU, signifying that Alabama would not be contending for anything serious this season.

Preseason Expectations: Win the conference, contend for playoffs

Season Summary: 

This has been a longgg year for Bama fans. High off of a National Championship last year, most shrugged off the lack of a competent QB and assumed double digit wins were the baseline. Rudely awakened after an opening game loss 0-41 to Colorado where Bama struggled to get a first down, the season started disastrously and it took Alabama 5 games to score their first touchdown, starting 0-6. That 6th loss against Arkansas though seemed to be a turning point. The early season scheme change penalties were gone, they had a good idea of what they wanted as a team, and they dropped 34 in a 3 point loss. Since then they're 0-2 with comfortable wins over UVA and LSU. With an FCS game this weekend, they only need to win out 3 games to go bowling again!

Unfortunately their last 3 games are Kentucky-Tennessee-Auburn so it seems highly unlikely they get to 6 wins. They can still ruin a rivals season, or start playing underclassmen to aim for better progressions depending on coaching priorities. 

Off the field, their senior class looks primed for a few early round picks, and in recruiting they currently have the #20 class headline by #1 prospect Chris McDougald from Alabama who wanted to stay home and become the next Ruben Shazier. They also picked up a top-100 RB, ILB, and 3 other 4-stars as they look to re-tool their team when their current 5-stars go to the league.

Report Card Grade: D

 

Arkansas 

4-5 (2-4)

PPG: 23.8  PPGA: 23.9

Passing YPG: 234 Rushing YPG: 183

Offensive MVP: RB Kurt Odhiambo (857 rush yards, 6.3 ypc, 7 TD)

Defensive MVP: DE Jaylon Atchison (32 Tackles, 16 TFL, 2 Sacks)

Recruiting Pace: 187th

Season Highlight: Week 5 beating TAMU 49-17 on the road

Season Lowlight: Getting boatraced at Ole Miss in week 6 7-34

Preseason Expectations: 2nd in division, get 9 wins

Season Summary: Arkansas games are all over the place. They've actually been stuffing the stat sheets with some great performances, especially defensively, but it is not at all balanced. They beat their G5 OOC teams, and lost to a good Oklahoma team which was expected. Wins over TAMU and Bama would ordinarily be big, but they've also faltered against peers LSU and Ole Miss, and recently gave up 400+ rushing yards to Florida. They need to either upset Auburn, or beat Missouri to go bowling, and I do think the Missouri game will be a win. Overall, an average season with an above-average squad.

Report Card Grade: C-

 

Mississippi State

5-3 (2-3)

PPG: 24.1 PPGA: 18.6

Passing YPG: 260  Rushing YPG: 113

Offensive MVP: QB Mike Hu (2000 yards, 66.7% completion, 15:5 TD:INT)

Defensive MVP: DT Mike Levert (26 tackles, 11 TFL, 2 sacks, 3 FF, 1 INT)

Recruiting Pace: 191

Season Highlight: Week 6 beating Bama 17-13 as new coach @cbreezy's first game. 

Season Lowlight: Week 4 losing to SCAR 21-31. Not that bad of a lowlight, the season has been quite good for MSST. 

Preseason Expectations: Bottom of the conference 

Season Summary: Mississippi State has actually had a solid year. Mike Hu has led a resurgent passing game, they took care of business including a nice big win over Wyoming, and they've either won, or lost close in all their SEC games. This team can hang with anyone, and a few different bounces and they'd easily be playing for #2 in the West during the Egg Bowl (and that's still actually on the table). 4 chances to go bowling and I think they win 2 of them and finish 3rd or 4th in the division. 

Report Card Grade: B

 

Texas A&M

4-4 (3-3)

PPG: 22.1 PPGA: 23.6

Passing YPG:  204 Rushing YPG: 160

Offensive MVP: WR B.J. Barrera (692 yards, 3 TD)

Defensive MVP: CB Gonzalez Elliott (33 tackles, 4 PD, 5 INT, 1 TD)

Recruiting Pace: 107

Season Highlight: Pasting SCAR 41-17 in week 8

Season Lowlight: Being pasted by Arkansas week 5 17-49 at home. 

Preseason Expectations: Middle of the pack: 7 wins

Season Summary: The TAMU players and fans took it hard when long-time coach gigemags stepped down before the season to focus on his family. The interim coach has done ok, but they've hit a few rough patches. They started the year off with a bad L to Louisville, but bounced back with a feel-good Bama win. Their mid-season hurt as they got smoked by Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee in consecutive weeks. Since then they've had dramatic improvement as they blew out a ranked South Carolina squad and upset Ole Miss just last week. If they keep this trajectory they could be a 7 win team by the end of the year, but certainly need to be hunting for a new coach ASAP.

Report Card Grade: C+

 

LSU

4-4 (3-3)

PPG: 21.9 PPGA: 18.5

Passing YPG: 179 Rushing YPG: 179

Offensive MVP: WR Marvin Thomas (593 yards, 23.7 YPC, 5 TD)

Defensive MVP: CB Stansly Alvarez (23 tackles, 1 TFL, 9 PD, 1 INT)

Recruiting Pace: 117

Season Highlight: Week 1 ODU 31-13 win

Season Lowlight: Week 9 14-30 loss at Bama.

Preseason Expectations: Challenging for 2nd in the division: 8-9 wins

Season Summary: Oh what might have been this season. LSU has a very talented team and started off the year with a tough OOC, beating ODU and losing 14-17 to a top-5 TCU team. Despite the loss, fans felt good as LSU whipped ARK and Missouri. The offense faltered in 6-10 loss to Ole Miss, but they were still 7 points away from being undefeated. 2 weeks ago they hosted Auburn with a chance to take the lead in the SEC West and took the Tigers to OT, before losing by 1: 29-30. The team had an emotional hangover after that, and just lost at Bama 14-30 as they've seen a potentially top-15 type season slip away into .500 territory. All the rest of their games are winnable, so still in the mix for 7-8 wins, but this was almost the year for them.

Report Card Grade: C+

 

Ole Miss 

5-4 (4-2)

PPG: 23.6 PPGA: 18

Passing YPG: 269 Rushing YPG: 127

Offensive MVP: QB Klay Castillo (2355 yards, 61%, 15:9 TD:INT)

Defensive MVP: ILB Brad Rudolph (52 tackles, 13 TFL)

Recruiting Pace: 15

Season Highlight: 

Season Lowlight: Week 1 losing at SDSU 21-30

Preseason Expectations: Lower-mid class team, goal was to go bowling

Season Summary: Nobody knew what to expect from Ole Miss this year. With a potent offensive backfield and a seemingly wide-open conference, the hope for some fans was division title contention, and those fans almost had their wishes. Ole Miss spent their OOC finding their identity, losing to SDSU and Minnesota but beating WMU. After that they rattled off wins over LSU, ARK, and Bama before a showdown with Auburn for the division lead. They couldn't stop Moncrief, losing 20-39, and just recently lost to TAMU to have any chance of a division title slip away. They will likely be the 2nd West team to become bowl-eligible when they play FCS Grambling on Saturday and then will put all focus on winning the egg bowl to finish the year on a high note. 

Off the field, @SlapYourBasil has been putting in work. The Rebels have a top-15 class that includes three high-end 5-stars, and an additional two 4-stars. Very good quality coming on down in the coming years and the trajectory for the program looks up.

Report Card Grade: B-

 

#1 Auburn

8-0 (5-0)

PPG: 39.5 PPGA: 16.5

Passing YPG: 506 Rushing YPG: 77

Offensive MVP: QB Andrew Moncrief (3854 yards, 72% completion, 30:4 TD:INT)

Defensive MVP: ILB Beau Oh (41 Tackles, 11 TFL, 2 FF, 1 safety)

Recruiting Pace: 183

Season Highlight: Beating UGA Week 5 54-24

Season Lowlight: Espacing LSU 30-29 in OT

Preseason Expectations: Minimal, Predicted 5th in the division

Season Summary: Wow. What a year for the tigers. Moncrief has been out of his mind, leading them to a #1 ranking, Heisman frontrunner status, all the school records that exist, and an 8-0 record. The Auburn offense is almost doubling up the PPG compared to the rest of the division, and they also lead the division in Points allowed to boot. They may have only played 1 team with a winning record, but it was a top-10 team and they won by 30 so not really sure there are any knocks on this squad. They did have that OT escape against LSU, but the rest of their schedule consists of FCS (Win), Vanderbilt (Win), and Arkansas (95% win). They will be 11-0 as they go into an Iron bowl with really nothing on the line as they'll have locked up the division crown already and then will wait to see if they'll play Tennessee or rematch UGA in Atlanta for the SEC CG.

Report Card Grade: A+

[alexfall862]

Quote

 it took Alabama 5 games to score their first touchdown, starting 0-6

Absolutely brutal.