SEC Co-Players of the Week – Kentucky guard Koby Brea and Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier were named SEC Co-Players of the Week. Brea, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound graduate student from Washington Heights, N.Y., helped the Wildcats to a win over their third Top 10 opponent of the season in a dramatic 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida to open SEC play. Brea scored a career-high 23 points and drained a career-best seven 3-pointers to help UK down an undefeated Gators squad in the first-ever Top 10 matchup to begin league play in UK history. Lanier, a 6-foot-5, 207-pound fifth-year player from Nashville, Tenn., led the Volunteers with 29 points in a win over No. 23 Arkansas. Lanier made 10-of-20 of his shots from the field, including an efficient 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from 3-point range.

SEC Freshman of the Week – Alabama guard Labaron Philon a 6-foot-4, 177-pound freshman from Mobile, Ala., scored 16 points to go with five assists, four rebounds and two steals in a win over No. 10 Oklahoma. He shot 50 percent (5-of-10) from the field. Philon has dished out 11 assists without a turnover in the last two games.

· Tennessee is the final undefeated team in the nation. The last three undefeated teams in the nation were all from the SEC (Florida, Oklahoma and Tennessee).

· Four of the top five teams in KenPom’s Adjusted Offensive Efficiency are from the SEC: Auburn 1st, Florida 3rd, Alabama 4th and Kentucky 5th.

· The SEC leads the nation with four teams (Auburn 1st, Tennessee 3rd, Florida 8th and Alabama 9th) ranked in the Top 10 of the NCAA’s NET rankings.

· The SEC leads the nation with seven teams ranked in the Top 25 and 14 in the Top 50 of the NET.

· SEC teams have amassed 31 Quad 1 wins (31-25). They have a 57-30 record against Quad 1 & 2 teams combined.

· The SEC is the only conference to have a winning record against Quad 1 teams (31-25).

· The SEC’s +20.22 KenPom rating is the highest rating by a conference in more than 20 seasons.

· Four SEC teams are ranked in the Top 10 of KenPom’s team rankings, seven are in the Top 20, 13 are in the Top 50 and all 16 teams rank in the Top 75.

· Six SEC teams are ranked in the Top 10 of the latest Associated Press poll and nine total are ranked in the Top 25.

· Tennessee is ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for the fifth consecutive week while Auburn held on to the No. 2 position for the sixth week in a row. Alabama is ranked No. 5, Kentucky is No. 6, Florida 8th, Texas A&M is 10th, Mississippi State is 14th, Oklahoma is 17th, and Ole Miss is 23rd. Additionally, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri and Vanderbilt are among teams receiving votes.

· The SEC’s 10 teams ranked in the Dec. 23 and Dec. 30 polls are the most by a conference since the Associated Press began compiling a weekly poll during the 1948-49 season.

· Kentucky’ Koby Brea and Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier were named SEC Co-Players of the Week while Alabama’s Labaron Philon was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week.

· SEC teams won 88.9 percent (185-23) of their non-conference games this season. That tops the nine-team ACC in 2003-04 that had a 88.2 winning percentage (75-10) in games before New Year’s Day.

· SEC teams are 59-19 (75.6 percent) against teams from the ACC (30-4), Big 12 (14-2), Big East (5-4) and Big Ten (10-9).

· SEC teams posted a 21-7 record against non-conference teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, including a 6-2 mark against teams ranked in the Top 10.

· The SEC’s 21 regular-season, non-conference Top 25 wins were eight more than any other league has ever had in a season (per former ESPN researcher Jared Berson).

· The SEC entered conference play 51-22 (69.9 percent) vs. Top 100 teams in Bart Torvik’s ratings system. No other conference was better than .500 against the Top 100.

· The SEC dominated the second annual SEC/ACC Challenge, winning 14-2. The average margin of victory in the 14 SEC wins was 16.2 points while the margin in the two losses was 3.5 points.

· Five SEC teams won MTE titles this season: Auburn (Maui Invitational), Florida (ESPN Events Invitational), Oklahoma (Battle 4 Atlantis), Tennessee (Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship), and Texas (Legends Classic).

· Three SEC coaches rank among the winningest active coaches in the nation: John Calipari (1st/824 wins), Rick Barnes (2nd/820 wins) and Bruce Pearl (11th/675 wins).

· Twenty-two percent of the players on NBA Opening Day rosters that attended college went to SEC schools. The SEC led all conferences with 103 players on NBA Opening Day rosters.

· Nine of the 16 current SEC schools (56 percent of the conference) are coming off an NCAA Tournament berth.



Schedule/Results (All Times Eastern):

Saturday, January 4

at #10 Kentucky 106, #6 Florida 100

at #24 Ole Miss 63, Georgia 51

at #1 Tennessee 76, #23 Arkansas 52

at #17 Mississippi State 85, South Carolina 50

at #2 Auburn 84, Missouri 68

Vanderbilt 80, at LSU 72

at #5 Alabama 107, #12 Oklahoma 79

at #13 Texas A&M 80, Texas 60



Tuesday, January 7

#1 Tennessee at #8 Florida ESPN2 7:00p

#6 Kentucky at Georgia SEC Network 7:00p

LSU at Missouri SEC Network 9:00p

#2 Auburn at Texas ESPN2 9:00p

#14 Mississippi State at Vanderbilt ESPNU 9:00p



Wednesday, January 8

#23 Ole Miss at Arkansas ESPN2 7:00p

#5 Alabama at South Carolina SEC Network 7:00p

#10 Texas A&M at Oklahoma SEC Network 9:00p



Saturday, January 11

#2 Auburn at South Carolina SEC Network 1:00p

Vanderbilt at Missouri SEC Network 3:30p

#8 Florida at Arkansas ESPN 4:00p

#17 Oklahoma at Georgia ESPN2 6:00p

LSU at #23 Ole Miss SEC Network 6:00p

#1 Tennessee at Texas ESPN 6:00p

#5 Alabama at #10 Texas A&M ESPN 8:00p

#6 Kentucky at #14 Mississippi State SEC Network 8:30p



Tuesday, January 14

Ole Miss at Alabama ESPN2/U 7:00p

Mississippi State at Auburn SEC Network 7:00p

Texas A&M at Kentucky ESPN2/U 7:00p

Missouri at Florida ESPNU 9:00p

Arkansas at LSU SEC Network 9:00p



Wednesday, January 15

Texas at Oklahoma SEC Network 10:00p

South Carolina at Vanderbilt SEC Network 6:00p

Georgia at Tennessee SEC Network 8:00p



Saturday, January 18

Alabama at Kentucky ESPN 12:00p

Auburn at Georgia SEC Network 1:00p

Texas at Florida ESPN/2 2/4:00p

Tennessee at Vanderbilt SEC Network 3:30p

South Carolina at Oklahoma ESPN2/U 4:00p

Arkansas at Missouri SEC Network 6:00p

Ole Miss at Mississippi State ESPN/2 6:00p

LSU at Texas A&M SEC Network 8:30p

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Would be a solid backup

Hope they win 42-3

Nm

Obviously s

My wife was laid off from her job in East Memphis (part of a massive layoff at a Fortune 500 company, not fired with cause). We have been fortunate that neither of us have been in the job hunt for a while. Obviously we are using indeed to search for jobs since they sponsor MPW. Where else do people have luck finding jobs nowadays? I have heard of ZipRecruiter. Some people say use LinkedIn. What works?

Pretty good run so far.!

January 1, 2024
December 31, 2024

Watching Auburn at Texas and it’s shocking how quiet it is in Austin. I’m guessing students are out of town because that section is filled with people who look like our club section.

Dammit

Insane

…but we got a bunch of dumbasses on here calling him overrated. Truly remarkable.

These dawgs are all over the glass and dominating Kentucky physically. Just goes to show we are capable of being a competent rebounding team.

I was going to wait until after the bowl game to post this, but I got an invite from a friend who is a Notre Dame fan to attend the CFP playoff game against UGA, so, since my team didn't make the cut, I am going to go. Not sure who I am going to root for...but hopefully it will be a fun time. I will break this post down into 3 basic categories, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Ugly (I have decided to go in reverse order)

1. Game preparation - I am going to start here because I believe that all of the things that I will talk about in this category originate from the lack of attention to detail with game prep, particularly offensive game prep. Other than the UGA game, which I thought was a great example of what can happen when our team, coaches, and fans all focus on the same things and pull the wagon in unison, I thought our game prep, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, was downright lazy and lacked imagination and creativity. The playcalling...was at best suspect for most of the season. I am sure the inability to control the LOS and run the ball contributed to this, but dang...we had some calls that made me grab my head in disgust. Did we run a draw play all season? The route concepts that we ran in most of our games were, I thought, simple and failed to use most of the field, particularly the middle. We had no screen game for the most part, unless you want to count throwing the ball quickly to the WR out in space and let him beat his guy 1v1 as a screen. We seemed lost and unsure where to turn when we lost Tre Harris. We had what I (and others) thought was a stable of thoroughbred receivers, but we didn't seem to target our concepts to best accent their talents. Juice Wells, for example, is not completely to blame for his lack of productivity. He is a YAC guy, yet we didn't make bonafide efforts to get him the ball in space and let him cook (I am NOT talking about the ill-fated jet sweeps either). He never seemed to get in sync with the offense, and the offense never seemed to try and dial him into what we were doing.

2. Running game - I just don't know what to write here that has not already been said...again, and again, and again... I will make this point short and concise with one question and one statement.
Question: What in the entire....world... was the Micah Davis thing in the Florida game? I feel for the player. He just did what he was told, and he has taken heat for it somewhat akin to Matt Luke taking heat for being offered his dream job when his resume said he wasn't ready for such a challenge.
Statement: The situation with last year's RB1 probably cost us the playoffs. This may be petty, but I have held to my vow not to say his name on this board this season, and I won't now. I will not root for him nor them (not that I ever did anyway). Honestly, it is just a tragedy for the kid. He would own the school record book and be celebrated and remembered here forever if only he (and his family/handlers etc) had not been so selfish and greedy. What should have been a win/win became a lose/lose as a result of their actions.

3. Kentucky game - I was there at VHS on September 28th, sitting with a friend (thanks @pontguy) who had an extra. It was painful to watch. We played flat, uninspired, and took more than we gave from a physicality standpoint. U-G-L-Y, it didn't have an alibi, it was UGLY! I couldn't help feeling uneasy all day about how the game was playing out right in front of my eyes, but I held out that we would continue to find a way to pull the win out of the fire at home as we had done so many times before during the CLK tenure. The bottom line, the 4th and 7 call that Kentucky converted, coupled with the recovered fumble at the goal line, was just karma for us stealing one from them in 2022. What I mean is, the better team lost both games.

The Bad
1. Offensive Line - We struggled all season long to find any cohesiveness, consistency, and ability to impose our will on anyone who wasn't an FCS opponent (or should be an FCS team). The offensive line is a UNIT position. You must have chemistry with your teammates to be successful. Plugging and playing in this position group is just not a good course of action, IMHO. I thought that the OL had good outings at Arkansas and against UGA. Other than that, I thought we left a lot to be desired. I am not going to get into who played vs who didn't. I have already beaten that horse to death. IMHO, IOT be successful in this position group long term, you must recruit HS talent, develop HS talent together, and keep them together for several years, ala Texas (180+ starts as a unit). The portal should be used to supplement depth and to fill OCCASIONAL UNEXPECTED departures/missed evals.

2. Team Chemistry - I am going to venture into this topic with NO DIRECT KNOWLEDGE of what actually happened, only what I deciphered based on past experience, common sense, etc.
A. RB situation - I have already hit on this topic, but it deserves a 2nd look as to how the failure to establish an RB1 that the team believed in was evident. HPJ did about what I expected him to do, based on his previous stop at OM. He was not physically equipped to handle the pounding of RB1 in the SEC, and eventually, he got hurt. Our failure to utilize other players for any substantive snaps before his injury is a serious dereliction of responsibility by the responsible coaching staff members. The bottom line, our team believed in one guy, and he didn't play in more games than he did. He had the only 100-yard games we had this season. He had the only 2 runs from scrimmage of more than 40 yards. Our coach(es) did not believe in him enough to play him. I have heard stories as to why, and if they are true, It is a serious indictment on the maturity/judgment of our coach(es).
B. OL - Again, already talked about. The situation with Micah Pettus reared its ugly head again this year. Who is in charge here, the horse, or the cart? We had 4 of 5 starters back from last year, but they didn't seem to be good enough to play this year, even when they got seemingly healthy. Insert shoulder shrug gif (with frustrated facial expression) here.
C. DL - There were some rumblings of prima donna/jealousy activity with this group early on, but whatever happened to work it out, seemed to work, at least from a productivity standpoint. I am not sure what happened at halftime of the Oklahoma game, but it was different from that point on. A potential setback turned into a comeback in this group, at least on the surface.
D. QB - There is no bigger fan of JD on this board than me. That said, he did not seem to be himself early. Again, I have no direct knowledge, but it seemed that he got a little complacent and lacked true chemistry with the receivers on the team not named Tre Harris. He seemed to return to his old DOG self during the 2nd half of the Oklahoma game.
E. Coaching/personnel decisions - Wrap all of the aforementioned potential chemistry issues up with this point. I was going to save this for a future post dedicated strictly to coaching, but I will say it now. CLK is the BEST COACH Ole Miss has EVER HAD!!! We are living in the good ole days, primarily due to his presence in Oxford. That said, he does things that make my head spin sometimes. He reveres Nick Saban, understandably. However, he has not proven that he has learned the nuances of tempering expectations and reigning in egos IOT get everyone focused on the task at hand. CNS was a master at keeping guys with huge egos who were used to hearing how good they were reigned in and playing with the same intensity against Kentucky that they did against Georgia. Last statement about this point: Most of our team drama occurred on offense this season. ???

3. The schedule - 4 cream puffs to open the season was about the worst thing that could have happened to this team, as it turned out. We could have used a good punch to the mouth before we played Kentucky on September 28th. As it was, Kentucky was the 1st punch to the face, and we weren't ready to respond properly. The LSU game in Baton Rouge on October 12 to close out 7 straight games with no open date to start the season was not helpful either.

4. Injuries - Tre Harris, stop. I don't need to say more. We had several other key, untimely injuries (Princely vs LSU, Jordan Watkins, several OL at different times during the season etc) that hurt, but Tre Harris was the biggie. That is all I have to say about that.

The Good

1. UGA game - We brought it that game. Everyone. It was a look at what our team, coaches, staff, fans, etc could be if we could consistently reach that level of focus and intensity. It was the most fun I have had at an Ole Miss game in a long time (LSU 2023 was right up there too, but still). We just dominated them. 28-10 was the LEAST the score could have been. Against eventual SEC champion UGA. Let that sink in.

2. The USCe game - I am going to put this here because it was the road trip that the Nettleton Legend and I made this year in our quest to hit all SEC stadiums and it was a big win. We presented a lot of matchup problems for USCe and our defense really dominated USCe that day. I don't think they could score a touchdown on us if we were still there playing that game right now. The game turned on a couple of USCe turnovers early, the fake punt and the fumble by backup QB Ashford. We converted both into TDs and the game was pretty much over from that point.

3. The Defense - The most fun I have ever had watching an Ole Miss defense. It felt really good to know that we had a chance in every game because we had a defense that could line it down with anybody! Walter Nolen is so disruptive. That guy is what I thought Big Rob would be here. Give me Nolen all day every day. JJ..., love that guy. Glad he came home and cemented his legacy. He will be fondly remembered. Ivey, Princely, Harris, Brown, Stone, etc. What a DL!
Poo Paul, what an intense LB! I have heard he is not a particularly good practice player. That can really frustrate a coach, but all is usually forgiven when the player turns it on with the lights on! Dottery was solid all year, particularly against the run. Perkins is a freak! STUD!
Amos was a true shutdown CB. I agree with @tsiskey about Canady. He is a player. He just got better and better as the year wore on. Washington and Saunders were solid but unspectacular. That is a good thing. Banks was making a solid contribution to the team until he got hurt at Florida. Hopefully, Hamilton will build on his performance against MSU.
I reiterate what I said in a previous post about CPG and the defensive staff, BEST. ASSISTANT. HIRE. EVER. Insert Teddy KGB gif here.

4. Special Teams - Masin and Davis deserve a mention in the good category. Masin consistently flipped the field when called on and Davis, other than a couple of misses that happened to be in big moments, was consistent and was huge in his ability to kickoff into the end zone.

5. QB1 - I am not sure what level of praise I can heap on JD that would be higher than what I have said about him already. He won the job in 2022 when he arrived here, beating out a player I have a personal connection with (Go Illini), and immediately won me over. I think it was the play at Georgia Tech where he ran right over a defender when most would have stepped out of bounds. Yeah, I think that is where he got me. Intense, Passionate, Leader, Warrior, Legend, Winner. Dog. Take your pick, because they all fit JD. Thanks for the memories.

12 personnel, TEs to the play side, pull both guards to the play side. Those that are covered, block down (backside OT, C, playside OT). Those that are not covered, pull, with first puller getting the widest defender. Textbook pin and pull. And it worked just how you draw it up. Bentley wasn't even touched.

Seems like something we saw a lot of from 2020-2023. Maybe not the 2 TEs, but certainly the pins and pulls. But not so much this year.

Very odd. Maybe they like it best against a 3 man front, as thats what State was giving us. Or maybe it works better when you have a back with a little bit of foot speed, as thats what Bentley gives us. Or maybe they didn't have a backside guard that they trusted to pull across the formation, and we had Jeremy James in the game on that play.

Oh what could have been.

He’s freaking terrible.