SEC Football Q&A: Todd Gurley's Heisman Hopes, Can West Team Run the Table?
Another one bites the dust.
Well, two, in fact.
Texas A&M and Alabama each took a loss this weekend—to Mississippi State and Ole Miss, respectively—leaving the Rebels, Bulldogs and defending SEC champion Auburn as the only three remaining undefeated teams in the SEC.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Which has the best chance of going undefeated? Will a player from the SEC win the Heisman Trophy? What's going on in Florida? We'll answer all of those burning questions in this week's Q&A.
Despite the caveat of "keeping the schedule in mind," it's still Auburn. Before the season and even as recently as last week, the entire college football world looked at Auburn's schedule with jaws on the floor thanks to the high ranking of all of the remaining teams on the schedule.
It's not as difficult as it appears, and unless there's some catastrophic injury or something bizarre that happens, Auburn will likely be favored over every team remaining on the schedule save for—maybe—Alabama in Tuscaloosa. South Carolina and Georgia can't cover anyone and will certainly struggle with Sammie Coates and Duke Williams. Texas A&M struggles to stop the run between the tackles, which is a staple of head coach Gus Malzahn's offense. Ole Miss struggles along the offensive line, and Auburn's front four has been getting progressively better throughout the season.
The Mississippi schools don't have that luxury.
Despite being co-No. 3 with its intra-state rival, Ole Miss is a three-point underdog at Texas A&M this week, according to Odds Shark, and still has to play Auburn and Mississippi State. Mississippi State is an underdog to Auburn this week and has to travel to Tuscaloosa and Oxford.
Auburn is the most complete football team in the SEC. Its running game hasn't missed a beat, quarterback Nick Marshall has stepped up his game as a passer, the run defense is stifling, and the Tigers are getting hot at the right time.
The Georgia running back certainly has a better chance now than he did a week ago, that's for sure.
When the favorite—Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, in this case—goes down for the first time, the door swings wide open for contenders to step up and make their Heisman case. Gurley did that this weekend against Vanderbilt when he rushed for 163 yards and two touchdowns, caught two passes for 24 yards and completed a pass for 50 yards—Georgia's longest completion of the season.
Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott, Notre Dame signal-caller Everett Golson and Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall have stepped up their respective Heisman games to join Gurley in the Heisman discussion, but Gurley has been the one constant.
Either Prescott or Marshall will lose this weekend, and despite Golson's stellar play this year—he's thrown 13 touchdowns and only three interceptions this season—voters will hold the dreaded "character card" against him after he missed the 2013 season after having "poor judgement on a test," according to The Associated Press (via ESPN.com).
It's going to be hard for Gurley to top a quarterback and win the Heisman, but as long as he stays healthy, he'll be in New York as a finalist. If the top signal-callers in the country continue to play "musical quarterbacks" in the Heisman polls, Gurley's chances will increase.
He just needs to keep doing what he's doing and hope the dominoes fall in his favor.
No, even though, if he is let go after the season, it probably would be viewed as the game that forced athletic director Jeremy Foley to make the move.
Foley told Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel (subscription required) last month that Muschamp will get the entire season and then Foley will evaluate the state of the program.
Besides, what purpose does firing Muschamp midseason serve?
The Gators aren't going to hire a replacement right away, so recruiting is going to be affected regardless. Florida certainly wouldn't be swimming the in same coaching poll as Kansas, which fired Charlie Weis earlier this season. Even if Michigan shows Brady Hoke the door, the Gators and Wolverines will probably have a much different pool of candidates.
But what about Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen?
The former Gators offensive coordinator is sitting at 5-0 and has his Bulldogs ranked No. 3, which would surely be attractive to Michigan.
If Mullen is a legit candidate for Florida and Foley wants to talk to him, it can wait. In fact, given the current state of Mississippi State's program, Mullen would likely prefer that conversation to start after the season to prevent any distractions.
No, losing to LSU doesn't earn Muschamp the boot right away. It might be the game that causes Foley to show him the door after the season, but there's no reason to fire him during it.
Barrett Sallee is the Lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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