College Football Week 9 Round-Up: SEC Winners and Losers

With a wild Week 9 in the books—which featured two Top 10 teams falling in stunning blowout losses, and some surprises in the initial College Football Playoff Rankings, it’s time to reflect with the winners and losers from the SEC—the best conference in college football.

 

Winner: High-flying, top-ranked Tennessee

Heisman favorite Hendon Hooker and the quick-strike Volunteers are firing on all cylinders, coming off a 44-6 beatdown of No. 19 Kentucky. Hooker now boasts an eye-popping 21-1 TD-INT ratio, ranks 2nd in passer rating (191.6) and leads the nation with 10.7 yards per attempt (among passers with at least 25 attempts).

They’re now the top-ranked team in the country heading into the de facto SEC East title game, where they’re eight-point underdogs against the defending national champions in Athens, GA.

The offense rightfully gets most of the attention, as the Vols are averaging 49.4 points per game, but the defense is quietly taking names. Tennessee’s allowing just 21.0 PPG and constantly harassed star QB Will Levis last Saturday, picking off the likely 2023 first round pick three times and holding him to just 98 yards through the air.

 

Loser: Still paying Gus Malzahn, Auburn cuts ties with Bryan Harsin

Off the heels of a 41-27 loss to Arkansas and a four-game losing streak, the Tigers parted ways with head coach Bryan Harsin and his short, tumultuous era.

Harsin, who previously spent all but four years of his career at Boise State, struggled with recruiting and was a strange hire to begin with last year under athletic director Allen Greene, who stepped down in August.

He’s already the sixth college football head coach to be fired this season. Harsin’s tenure ends with a 9-12 record (4-9 in the SEC) and his termination comes with a hefty $15.3 million buyout.

Former Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen, who just took over the same position at Auburn, will have plenty of intriguing options to launch a new era.

 

Winner: Birthday Bash from Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins

Ole Miss kept is slim playoff and national title aspirations alive with a hard-fought 31-28 win in College Station, as the Rebels relied heavily on the success of Freshman RB Quinshon Judkins, who rushed for a whopping 205 yards (151 yards after contact) and a touchdown on his 19th birthday.

“That’s very unusual to turn 19 today and be at A&M and carry the ball 34 times,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said, per CBS Sports. “That’s like Derrick Henry carries when he was winning the Heisman three years older. That’s really special.”

Judkins has already rushed for 13 touchdowns (tied for third in the nation) and 1,036 yards, which is 8th-most in the country and the most ever by a freshman in school history.

“Q is special,” Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo said. “He’s probably like a once-in-a-lifetime-type player. It’s crazy that he’s a freshman because we get to have him for at least another two more years.”

 

Loser: South Carolina

The Gamecocks cracked the Top 25 for the first time since 2018 following an impressive four-game win streak, but that came to an end in a brutal loss at home to Missouri.

“Every single week you have to be at your best, and we weren’t at our best as coaches or as players,” Gamecocks coach Sane Beamer said, via CBS Sports.

It won’t get any easier for Beamer and company, as they cap off the season with brutal tests against top-ranked Tennessee and No. 4 Clemson.

 

Winner: Texas A&M Freshman QB Connor Weigman puts on a show in debut

Plagued with penalties, injuries and issues facing the aforementioned rising star Freshman RB Quinshon Judkins, the Aggies were unable to pull off the upset and put an end to their losing streak.

But head coach Jimbo Fisher finally gave Freshman QB Connor Weigman an opportunity to prove himself and he took full advantage, completing 28 of 44 passes for 338 yards and four touchdowns in an SEC West thriller.

“To go out and do what he did, I thought he had an outstanding game,” Fisher said of Weigman’s debut, via CBS Sports. “He gave us a chance to win the game in the end.”

It’ll be very interesting to watch his development down the stretch this season.

 

Loser: Gators chomping at the bit to turn things around

The Gators barely covered as 23.5-point underdogs, the largest spread in the history of the rivalry dubbed “the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”

Florida rallied to bring it within one score in the third quarter but collapsed in the fourth against Georgia’s prolific ground attack.

First-year head coach Billy Napier is now 1-4 in conference play, the program’s worst start since its winless 1979 campaign. They’ll look to get things back on track in College Station for their second clash in three years against Texas A&M. The Aggies won 41-38 in 2020.

 

Winner: Georgia

They took their foot off the gas in the third quarter, but it was still a dominant win for the defending national champions in a possible trap game in Jacksonville ahead of the biggest and most-anticipated regular season game in all of college football against top-ranked Tennessee. That incredible 73-yard acrobatic touchdown catch from Sophomore tight end Brock Bowers will have to go down as one of the Top 10 plays of the season.

The Bulldogs have a huge test ahead against top-ranked Tennessee on Saturday but their offense is still rolling, averaging 42 points per game. And the defense, which has held opponents to just 84 points all year (10.5 PPG), will be up for the task.

 

Loser: Kentucky

It was billed as a high-stakes, highly-anticipated showdown between two Heisman hopefuls and likely 2023 NFL Draft first-round picks in Hendon Hooker and Will Levis. But it quickly turned into a beatdown, as the methodical Kentucky offense was overwhelmed by a feisty, swarming Vols defense and couldn’t keep pace with a high-flying, quick-strike Tennessee offense.

 

Michael Gartman is a contributor to TheInscriberMag.com. Follow him on Twitter and follow us on Facebook.