By: Cole Mantell (@lightningdragon)
Week 2 saw non-conference play continue, with the SEC again playing all three other conferences for supremacy. While last season the SEC was no doubt the best conference in the by the numbers, this season has proved to be a bit more difficult for the conference. Let’s review Week 2 of Season 22 in the SEC.
Colorado and Kentucky Ban Defense
Look, I used to be an Air Raid AD. I also used to look at yearly matchups against other high-octane offense teams and look forward to chaos. My ideal CFSL game includes as much scoring as possible. What Colorado and Kentucky combined to do, on Thursday is ban defense and take my ideas to their extreme.
Let’s just go over the stats first. 105 combined points. 1435 combined yards of offense. That includes over 1200 passing yards combined as well. 7 combined turnovers. And for a game that included that much scoring, over 45% of the points scored came in the 4th quarter. As for the actual game itself, if you didn’t watch this game live, I beg of you to go back and look upon pure chaotic beauty.
This game had everything. You had two quarterbacks combining for maybe their best career games to date. You had two defenses simultaneously giving up as much offense as possible while also combining for spectacular plays on the field. You had wide receivers who had over 200 yards receiving (Daniel Blackmon), but you could argue two teammates were more impactful with two touchdowns receiving each (Marquis Towns and Speedy Hernandez).
After maybe the most chaotic single quarter in CFSL history, Kentucky unfortunately did end up on the side of a 3-point loss. But from a fan perspective, what a show. Kentucky has more than proven they are capable of continuing their high-octane offensive ways under the new coaching staff, and not every team will be able to keep up like Colorado did here. While Kentucky is no stranger to being the top of the class of the SEC, Auburn is going to have more than Alabama to contend with for the SEC title this season.
Tuscaloosa Has the Defense
Switching gears, and speaking of possible SEC contenders, Alabama’s game against Clemson was notable in the fact of how routine it felt. The Crimson Tide demolished Clemson 65-9, played clean football throughout, and by the end of it all the Crimson Tide never felt threatened. Their offense is running great. I don’t want to discount the progress QB Johnny Ray Davis has made as the starter in Tuscaloosa. But maybe even more impressive, is the steps Alabama’s defense has made early in this season.
What Alabama is quietly doing is locking opponents down, and it goes beyond the Clemson game. Entering Week 3, Alabama allows the 4th fewest yards per game. The Crimson Tide have 5 takeaways, tied for 2nd most in the CFSL. In a passing league, they allow the 3rd fewest passing yards per game. And through two weeks, Alabama has allowed 19 points per game. The next lowest number is 22 points per game by Oklahoma. For reference, the 2nd best defense by points allowed in the SEC is Auburn, at 32.5 points per game. Put simply, Alabama’s defense so far is the best in the SEC, period. And maybe contending for the best in the CFSL period.
Tough Week for Non-Conference Play
As mentioned at the start of this article, the SEC has not been the powerhouse in non-conference play they were last season. This week, while there certainly was a lot of entertainment, the conference as a whole went 2-4. Let’s take a look at each conference’s record through 2 weeks.
| Conference | Record Through 2 Weeks | Point Differential |
| BIG 10 | 7-5 | +36 |
| BIG XII | 6-6 | +11 |
| ACC | 6-6 | -32 |
| SEC | 5-7 | -15 |
We like to use the all-important word parity to describe this new era of the CFSL. Well, at least at the conference level, we are there. It’s an extremely close race through non-conference play right now, with the SEC being dead last. I don’t think this trend will continue forever, but for now, the BIG 10 is the conference to beat as a whole. We will keep an eye on this next week as well when non-conference play finishes.
Adding in point differential, you can also see some wild swings in the middle of the chart. The ACC has the worst point differential, with Clemson’s -60 and Notre Dame’s -49 numbers so far dragging the conference down. Meanwhile, despite Alabama’s big win and a point differential of +62 overall, the conference as a whole is in the negative. That is because outside of Alabama, no other SEC team currently has a point differential above 0. That has to change if the SEC wants to compete against the best the CFSL has to offer.
Players Who Stood Out This Week
We’ve already mentioned Alabama QB Johnny Ray Davis and Kentucky QB TJ Cunnington, who were masterful this week. The two lead the CFSL in QB Rating so far. Tennessee HB Kelby Fulton leads all freshmen in rushing so far this season. He has been the engine behind the Tennessee Volunteers offense through two games.
On defense, Georgia junior safety Nic Lee again is having a great start to the season, leading the CFSL with 25 tackles in two games. His teammate, CB Deshoun Catchings, leads the CFSL with 9 TFLs. Kentucky OLB Bear Brown is the only SEC defender and only linebacker with 2 interceptions so far this season. And only one player in the SEC has a defensive touchdown so far this season. Tennessee sophomore 3-star CB Degan Fry got him in a 56-yard pick-six in the loss to Oregon this week.
SEC Results Week 2
Auburn beats USC, 35-28
Florida falls to Oklahoma, 48-10
Alabama beats Clemson, 65-9
Tennessee falls to Oregon, 48-38
Georgia falls to Texas, 59-31
Kentucky falls to Colorado, 54-51
SEC Schedule Week 3
Tuesday, January 21st
Texas A&M vs Auburn (8:30 PM, Twitch)
Wednesday, January 22nd
Ohio State vs Kentucky (6:30 PM, YouTube)
Georgia vs North Carolina (8:30 PM, Twitch)
Florida vs Virginia Tech (8:30 PM, YouTube)
Thursday, January 23rd
LSU vs Alabama (6:30 PM, YouTube)
West Virginia vs Tennessee (8:30 PM, YouTube)
Potential SEC Game of the Week
There is a lot of competition, and it starts with Auburn playing the defending national runner-ups Tuesday night. I think that game and all three SEC games on Wednesday have the potential to be the game of the week, but with all that excitement it makes my job picking one game that much harder. For myself, I am going to go with Ohio State vs Kentucky on Wednesday. The Wildcats just had a crazy offensive game with no brakes, and move on to play what could be another crazy offensive game with no brakes. I’m expecting at least 1200 combined offensive yards, if not more. Kentucky will need to get the win this time, however, if they want to prove they can be the class of the SEC.
