It took 14 weeks, but the SEC Championship is set.

Texas-Georgia, Part II. Both teams should already have a playoff spot, but both should have plenty to play for with a first-round bye on the line.

You know it. We don’t know how this game will play out, or how far a loser will fall in the final playoff poll. We will have plenty of time to analyze this this week.

That’s not the only thing that happened during Rivalry Week.

Here are the key takeaways from the SEC.

The way Texas clinched its SEC Championship berth was pretty darn impressive

Before you tell me that Texas didn’t have a busy schedule and the Longhorns just got a favorable first-year draw, tell me this. If the Longhorns were fraudsters, would they have gone to Kyle Field and won by double digits? Would this defense have thrown a shutout (A&M’s only touchdown came on a pick-6)?

No. Give Texas credit.

In a year in which they suffered a multi-game injury to Quinn Ewers and several season-ending injuries in the backfield, the Longhorns continue to be a model of resilience. There was no better illustration of that than seeing Tre Wisner ripping off 33 carries for 186 yards to send Texas to Atlanta.

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Texas will take a trip to Atlanta in year one in the SEC while A&M…you know. Sorry, Aggies fans, Mike Elko didn’t deserve this kind of heat. He led A&M to the final unbeaten mark in conference play, and although that LSU victory was the highlight of the Aggies’ season, simply hosting an SEC semifinal was a victory for the first year of the Elko era.

OK, back to Texas.

This defense can win a national championship. We cannot deny it. Vernon Broughton was everywhere, including at the top of the strip-sack that Trey Moore forced to put the game on ice. This secondary continues to be the best in America. Anthony Hill Jr. could win the Butkus Award as a sophomore and Colin Simmons will make the All-America teams as a freshman.

Go figure, Texas’ defense was considered more of a question mark than the offense after T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy left for the NFL and defensive line coach Bo Davis left for LSU. But heading into Atlanta, Texas’ offense is the group that’s closest to a liability.

Kelvin Banks Jr. getting hurt early wasn’t great, and Quinn Ewers didn’t turn the ball over twice in the red zone either. But thanks to Wisner, who suddenly turned into a bell cow, the Texas offense took over first downs. Shoot, he even had a touchdown run from Arch Manning to get the offense going.

Texas is versatile. Is there any advantage for the national championship? We’ll see. This is a good question to ask yourself at the end of the regular season.

Georgia “clinching” a playoff spot with 8 overtimes felt like a microcosm of the season

You may have rolled your eyes every time Joe Tessitore said a Georgia win “guaranteed” a playoff spot, but think about this: UGA’s 8-overtime marathon clinched the 10th win for a team that was No. 7 heading into the weekend. . Do we really think a loss in the SEC Championship would cause the selection committee to kick the Dawgs off the field and field an inactive team? I would object to it.

What I won’t return to is the idea that Georgia is much more of a wild card than a tone-setter for the future. The Dawgs trailing 17-0 at halftime was, in some ways, stunning for a team that hadn’t lost a home game in 15 years (the broadcast team insisted on making sure you go to bed knowing that UGA has won 30 straight home games). . For the majority of this game, we saw the issues that have plagued this team all year. Georgia couldn’t stop rushing, Haynes King got everything he wanted following his shoulder injury, the Dawgs couldn’t catch passes to help Carson Beck and there was no that sense of urgency on both sides of the ball.

But just like against Alabama and Tennessee, albeit with different results, UGA overcame that double-digit deficit. There will be no unknown scenario for UGA in the Playoffs. The question for the Dawgs is when and if these slow starts will finally cost them a chance at a national title.

That’s what’s strange about Friday night. UGA could have lost this game and still made the playoffs with potentially a first-round bye if they had won the SEC championship. Consider this an unfortunate and bizarre outcome of the 12-team playoff. Luckily for UGA, it didn’t face that scenario.

At the same time, let’s not forget the potential impact of the SEC Championship. At worst, UGA could lose and likely have to travel for a first-round playoff game. Alternatively, he could win and get a well-deserved bye.

Regardless, it’s crazy to think after this up-and-down regular season that UGA can still win its 3rd national title in 4 years.

Tennessee could have been a victim of chaos, but it became (yet again) a benefactor of chaos.

If you had told Tennessee fans at the start of the season that all they would have to do to earn a playoff spot was beat Vandy, they would have snickered and congratulated themselves for making the top 12 teams. We didn’t know it wasn’t your dad’s Vandy team. Damn, it wasn’t even your big brother’s Vandy team. Plus, we didn’t know that Tennessee would give up a touchdown on the kickoff, lose a fumble in its own territory, and fall behind 14-0 on the road.

Chaos stared Tennessee in the face. Then, simply, the Vols laughed and left.

Scoring 36 of the next 39 points, the Vols all but clinched a playoff spot. Mind you, this was accompanied by a pre-game injury to Bru McCoy, an in-game injury to Dont’e Thornton after cooking Vandy for 2 touchdowns and Squirrel White and Dylan Sampson getting hurt. struggling on the same play and left the game with 2:25 to play. But with 3 weeks left, the Vols have plenty of opportunities to recover as the scoreboard watches throughout next week.

Tennessee puts itself in position to win a home playoff game if it can keep one of these top 8 seeds.

South Carolina?!?

I don’t know what’s in store for South Carolina in the playoffs after beating Clemson…all I know is that the LaNorris Sellers-led Gamecocks have been a revelation.

Here is what I believe.

The sellers are awesome. This South Carolina defense is awesome. This South Carolina team is awesome, and if the selection committee decides to reward a team that has won 6 in a row – which hasn’t happened since 2013 – with 4 against teams in the AP Top 25, that would be a terrifying team to face.

I also know that Shane Beamer got his wish by knocking out Miami in Syracuse. It remains to be seen how much benefit of the doubt the selection committee will give the Canes after blowing a 21-0 lead and falling to an unranked team for the second time. But there’s no denying it’s a better outcome for the Gamecocks, who won’t have to worry about Clemson coming in as an at-large team.

Playoffs or not, this remains a remarkable way to end the regular season. Sellers’ brilliance was the difference as South Carolina won 9 regular season games for the first time in the playoff era. Beamer not only did that, but he also became the first trainer to win in back-to-back trips to Death Valley since…Spurrier. It matters. So does the fact that Sellers and Dylan Stewart will return as two of the most popular players in the sport.

This will count regardless of the selection committee’s decision. What is clear is that anyone watching South Carolina can see an even better team than that 9-3 record suggests.

Alabama, 3 losses, didn’t do enough to be a playoff team, but at least it avoided a new low

That would have been losing to Auburn at home. Like this Auburn team. As in who was 5-7 and 2-6 in SEC play with Payton Thorne at quarterback.

Alabama wasn’t about football, it was about business. Jalen Milroe’s legs were an asset again and Kane Wommack’s defense was especially impressive after losing Deontae Lawson to a season-ending injury last week in Norman. That’s the good news. For a team that will endure the opening of the transfer window as it spends SEC Championship Weekend at home for only the second time in the 2020s, losing to Auburn for an 8-4 season would have brought even the Kalen DeBoer’s biggest supporters are wondering where this is all headed.

The Tide will face a ton of questions this offseason, especially regarding quarterback with Milroe. His future in the NFL remains to be determined. He still has one more season of eligibility remaining after an eventful regular season, which saw him tie Cam Newton with 20 rushing touchdowns in his second Iron Bowl victory.

But unfortunately for Milroe and the Tide, losing 3 games, 2 of which were to unranked teams, will likely prevent Alabama from playing for a national title.

Hugh Freeze deserves to be on every favorites list in America this offseason

It just didn’t work. Not the Iron Bowl effort. Year 2.

A 5-7 season wasn’t just the result of playing against a ton of underclassmen. This doesn’t explain some of the decisions Freeze made, both at quarterback and as a playmaker. The 4th-and-2 decision to try to get an offside penalty and score a basket instead was infuriating, as was the overall game plan. A week after Alabama allowed 257 rushing yards to a lifeless Oklahoma offense, Freeze had Thorne attempt 41 passes while Jarquez Hunter had 13 carries for 56 yards.

Mind you, Alabama was without linebacker/defensive signal caller Deontae Lawson, who suffered a season-ending injury last week at Oklahoma. Auburn hasn’t tested this enough. Instead, 23 of the first 33 offensive play calls were passes. Even though Alabama put 9 defenders in the box, it looked like a coach trying to run his offense instead of paying attention to what his team actually needed.

Shoot, even Hunter was asked to throw the ball on a trap play…and was intercepted. Here’s what Freeze had to say about it:

Freeze says Jarquez Hunter should have thrown the ball back to Payton Thorne on the double pass, with Alabama having a deep safety. Freeze said they “clearly” didn’t train Hunter well enough.

ALL RIGHT.

– Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) December 1, 2024

Weak. Hunter instead had to wonder why he had fewer than 15 carries in 5 of Auburn’s 9 Power Conference games in 2024. Freeze’s usage of the All-SEC running back was infuriating, to say the least.

Freeze deserves an 8-month offseason after an 11-14 start, including a 5-11 mark against SEC competition. Elite recruiting class or not, we still don’t know if he’ll shed his in-game decisions that have proven costly in a handful of games, nor do we know he has the answers at the position of quarterback.

Year three will be everything for Freeze on The Plains.