SEC Football Re-Established Its Dominance in Week 1
Reports of the SEC's death have been greatly exaggerated.
The conference once known for its dominance on the national stage—including seven straight national titles from 2006 to 2012—had gone winless in major bowls in each of the last two seasons, including Auburn's national title loss to Florida State following the 2013 season and Alabama's loss to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl semifinal following the 2014 season.
During the first weekend of the 2015 season, the Tide turned.
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It wasn't the 12-1 overall record and unblemished Saturday that was impressive, although it certainly looks fantastic on paper. It was the way several teams with lingering questions answered the call against tough competition.
Remember the last time Texas A&M had a defense?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Arizona State does. The Aggies held the 15th-ranked Sun Devils and their high-flying offense to just 291 yards, notched 14 tackles for loss and sacked quarterback Mike Bercovici nine times.
As Gabe Bock of TexAgs Radio noted after the game, the new-look Aggies under first-year defensive coordinator John Chavis were flying all over the field at NRG Stadium.
Does it matter that an Aggies team that has predictions all over the map dominated one of the best teams from the Pac-12 South—one of the best divisions in college football? You bet it does. Especially since that Aggies team did it primarily with its defense, which has been its sore spot for years.
Remember when Alabama had massive offensive questions, no quarterback and would struggle to replace former wideout Amari Cooper? All Alabama did was roll up 502 yards on a good Wisconsin defense as quarterback Jake Coker solidified his starting role and got nine receivers involved in the passing game, while running back Derrick Henry announced himself as the best running back in the SEC.
Oh, and of course, the defense is still legit. The Crimson Tide held the 20th-ranked Badgers—a team known for its success on the ground—to just 40 rushing yards for the game.
"We kind of dominated the line of scrimmage, were able to stop their run," head coach Nick Saban said in quotes released by Alabama. "I thought we played really well defensively. Didn't get the turnovers like we wanted. Never got off the field always on third down like we wanted. But I thought our guys really competed and played hard, and I was really proud of the way we came out, especially in the second half on both sides of the ball and kind of dominated the game."
Auburn is known for offense, and that clearly was a struggle Saturday thanks to first-year starting quarterback Jeremy Johnson's three picks. Defensively, though, the Tigers were solid. Led by defensive tackle Montravius Adams and "Buck" Carl Lawson, the new-look Tigers defense under defensive coordinator Will Muschamp was all over Louisville early.
"I am very excited about this season and what the defense can do," Adams said. "We forced a lot of turnovers and got a lot of sacks. That shows people that we are getting better."
No, not all the wins count toward SEC dominance.
Mississippi State sleepwalked through a road win versus Southern Miss, Kentucky let Louisiana-Lafayette hang around for far too long and UT-Martin and Southeast Missouri didn't exactly pose challenges for Ole Miss and Missouri, respectively.
But instead of rolling snake eyes in its biggest games, the SEC hit the point with money backed up on the pass line. The wins in big games have changed the narrative back in the SEC's favor, provided a slightly bigger cushion over the conferences nipping at its heels, including the Pac-12, and given its heavyweights a little house money for the conference to play with for the rest of the season.
It was needed.
I wrote earlier this summer that, in terms of seeding within the College Football Playoff, the SEC has lost the benefit of the doubt. Teams within the conference won't be given an automatic bump simply because of that SEC patch on the jersey, like Alabama did when it was ranked No. 1 heading into the College Football Playoff a year ago.
That won't change in 2015, because one weekend doesn't form a narrative or set a perception in stone—as we learned last year when the Big Ten was "down and out" with no shot for the CFP after Week 2. It will, however, serve as a solid foundation to return that benefit of the doubt if one or more SEC teams can make major waves on the national stage this January.
Perception is reality in college football, and if a conference has the perception of being the unquestioned No. 1 conference in the country, it helps all of its teams. The SEC did all it could to re-establish that perception in Week 1.
Not a bad debut.
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.
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