The second week of the college football season was supposed to be the boring week, right?
Nobody gave SEC teams that memo.
Arkansas lost to Toledo, Auburn was taken to overtime by Jacksonville State, Arkansas State pushed Missouri and East Carolina gave Florida a game.
A week that wasn't supposed to present any questions generated thousands, so I'll attempt to answer a few of the biggest ones in this week's SEC football Q&A.
Oh it's legit, for sure.
Ole Miss is going to be criticized for topping the 70-point mark against weaker competition, but what's really impressive for the Rebels is their success on the ground. They lead the SEC with 276.5 yards per game on the ground, and the trio of Akeem Judd, Jordan Wilkins and Eugene Brazley have performed well between the tackles without the benefit of tackle Laremy Tunsil in the lineup.
That matters, despite the fact that it has come against UT-Martin and Fresno State.
Ole Miss struggled to run the ball vs. air last year, and the simple fact that they're doing it against real teams without Tunsil—its best player—should give the Rebels a ton of confidence heading into the big road trip to Tuscaloosa this weekend.
Quarterback Chad Kelly has looked like a Heisman Trophy candidate, the defense has been strong and there's very little to criticize through two games.
With that said, though, I do think they fall this weekend to the Crimson Tide. Alabama's front seven is loaded, and Kelly hasn't seen anything like what's coming his way on Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.
Will that eliminate the Rebels from the division title race? Of course not.
It would eliminate a margin for error and give Alabama a critical head-to-head tiebreaker, and that would leave head coach Hugh Freeze and his crew an uphill climb the rest of the way.
But at this point, they look like they're up for the challenge to at least contend. If they spring the upset on Saturday night, they'll be considered the favorite.
Georgia's quarterback "problem" isn't nearly as glaring as others in the SEC (looking at you, Auburn). But it is still concerning.
Greyson Lambert struggled against Vanderbilt, completing 11 of his 21 passes for just 116 yards in the 31-14 win. Lambert has completed 57.6 percent of his passes on the year (19-of-33) and the Bulldogs haven't stretched the field like they needed to during the first two games of the year.
Cause for concern?
Sure, because whether Lambert keeps the job for the remainder of the season or Brice Ramsey eventually takes over, Georgia is going to have to at least pose a downfield threat if it wants to win the SEC East.
Lambert and Ramsey each have two completions of 20 or more yards—tied for 16th in the conference with LSU's Brandon Harris, who has only one game under his belt.
This is what Georgia is at the moment. It's a run-based team that features Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and Keith Marshall, and Lambert's primary responsibility is to be a game manager.
"My goal is to get in the best play possible and get the ball into their hands," Lambert said last week, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. "Just managing the game, just to help the team win and leading them into every situation that I can."
I thought Ramsey was a better option for Georgia before the season, but it's clear that the coaching staff has more faith in Lambert to not make mistakes. So far, he's proven them right, and the next step is to try to stretch the field when appropriate.
Why shouldn't Georgia roll with that for now?
If the defense lets the Bulldogs down and they get forced into a hole that they have to throw out of, and Lambert can't handle it, then maybe you give Ramsey a shot since it appears that he's the more high risk/high reward of the two.
I think both of those two teams will be undefeated when they meet in College Station on Oct. 17, so there's at least an outside shot that they'd be ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, if things get incredibly weird elsewhere in the world of college football.
That level of bizarre is not attainable.
With that said, though, they should both be in the top five at that time if people have paid enough attention to Texas A&M. Will they though?
Alabama sits there now at No. 2, and Texas A&M chimed in at No. 17. That's far too low for the Aggies. I had them sixth on my ballot on the Bleacher Report Top 25.
Will others join me on this bandwagon and push the Aggies into the top five?
It's hard to imagine Ohio State, Michigan State, Baylor or TCU losing, so this boils down to style points for Texas A&M. They'll get them against Nevada this weekend, but can they get enough against Arkansas and Mississippi State? Are those teams good enough for style points to even matter?
I don't think so.
I'll say Alabama is No. 2 and Texas A&M will be No. 9 when they meet in mid-October, behind all of those teams and perhaps a few others that are above the Aggies right now.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Statistics are courtesy of CFBstats.com.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
via http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2566944-sec-football-qa-can-ole-miss-win-the-sec-west
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