SEC Extra Points: Leonard Fournette's Return to Impact NFL Draft Stock?
The last time the college football world saw LSU running back Leonard Fournette, he was fighting through an ankle injury that he reaggravated late in the loss to Auburn in September.
That will change this week when the junior returns to the field for interim head coach Ed Orgeron's Tigers at home against Ole Miss.
"Obviously, we're going to give him the football—let him do what he needs to do," Orgeron said Wednesday. "He looks like he's full speed from the first two practices."
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As far as Fournette's future goes, though, the hay is already in the barn.
"All I need to see is that his ankle and foot are still attached," Bleacher Report NFL draft analyst Matt Miller said. "He's a rare beast. As long as he can run and cut, he's a first-rounder."
Fournette rushed for 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns a year ago, leading the nation in yards per game at 162.75. He has proved time and again that he can have success in an offense that doesn't give him much help in the passing game.
All that makes Fournette a known commodity to NFL scouts.
Saturday's return, however, will show scouts that Fournette doesn't quit. His future as a professional is as etched in stone as it can be. But with just one conference loss, LSU still has plenty of opportunities in the SEC West race.
These are unsettling times for LSU, following the dismissal of head coach Les Miles. Fournette's coming back with a vengeance against Ole Miss will further prove to scouts he cares for his team, its success and its immediate future.
What will happen Saturday night in Death Valley, though, is a give-and-take between Fournette and Orgeron to prevent the superstar from going too hard in his first game in a month.
"We are going to monitor him a little bit to make sure he's OK," Orgeron said. "He's going to tell me that during the game—when he needs a break, when he doesn't need a break. We plan on using all three backs."
Derrius Guice will likely be the next man up after Fournette and has proved over his first year-and-a-half on campus that he's one of the most explosive players in the SEC. He led the conference in yards per carry last year as Fournette's backup with an 8.5 average and has been better this year, averaging 9.1.
At 233 pounds, Darrel Williams is more of a bruiser than Guice and will provide the between-the-tackles responsibilities if Fournette needs a break.
The two primary backups have used Fournette's absence to prove to scouts that they also have what it takes to play professionally. With Fournette back but being monitored, they can continue to up their own draft stock in front of scouts who already know just how good the leader of the LSU running back corps is.
Separation Saturday
Speaking of SEC West battles, have you noticed what's going on this weekend?
There are three intradivision games—all involving ranked teams—with the landscape of the division at stake.
No. 6 Texas A&M will take on top-ranked Alabama, No. 17 Arkansas will visit No. 21 Auburn, and No. 23 Ole Miss will travel to No. 25 LSU in a weekend that is clearly "Separation Saturday" in the SEC West.
Even if Alabama wins and separates itself from the pack in the race for the SEC Championship Game, the three matchups will have enormous "New Year's Six" bowl ramifications.
Somebody's going to get hot down the stretch. Somebody's going to make a push if for no other reason to keep the Crimson Tide honest as they hunt for their third straight SEC title. Somebody's going to separate.
What's more, it's a showcase weekend for the SEC.
When the best game outside the conference is No. 2 Ohio State at Penn State and no other games around the country involve two ranked teams, the spotlight will be squarely on the SEC.
Expect the conference to put its best foot forward.
Auburn and Arkansas have quietly improved over the last month. LSU has a newfound offensive identity under Orgeron. LSU's matchup versus Ole Miss is one of the nation's most underrated rivalries. And the Aggies and Crimson Tide have already proved to be complete football teams.
It's the SEC's world in Week 8, and the rest of the country is just living in it.
Back to the Drawing Board
Every week, there's something that goes horribly wrong for Georgia.
Whether it's quarterback Jacob Eason's woeful 5-of-17 performance in the win over South Carolina, the kickoff return and coverage issues that popped up in the loss to Vanderbilt last week, kicking problems that were prevalent in every game prior to last week or offensive line inconsistencies that dominated September's narrow win over Nicholls, first-year head coach Kirby Smart has been putting out a different fire every week.
The bye week will provide a much-needed chance for Smart to focus on problem areas for his Bulldogs.
"It's hard to pick just one. But if I had to pick one area, it would be special teams," Smart said. "We've got to get a little more consistency in offense in terms of what we do. Whether it's one game run, one game throw, we have to put that together. I think it's really important to establish an identity because our identity some games has been 'physical, toughness and run.' Some other games, we haven't been able to do that."
Growing pains with Eason were expected, but the pendulum for the true freshman from Lake Stevens, Washington, has swung back and forth on a game-by-game basis. Some weeks, he's come through with clutch touchdown passes late in games, like he did at Missouri and at home against Tennessee (before the Vols' Hail Mary to win it). Other weeks, he has struggled with basic routes, easy throws and the simple things.
"We've given him a list of four or five things that we want him to work on and harp on," Smart said. "The biggest thing is communication to the group, making sure that everybody gets the call and knows where they're supposed to be—that he can fix any mistakes and errors that are there. Then to settle his feet in the pocket and read coverages."
It's a learning process for Smart and his young roster. After losing three of the last four games, the bye week couldn't have come at a better time.
Practice Makes Perfect?
The rise of the spread—in particular, mobile quarterbacks—has changed the college game forever.
Including the way some of the best teams practice.
Alabama true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts has burst onto the scene this year with nine passing touchdowns and eight rushing touchdowns. He displays a comfort level that's rare for veterans, much less young men who were playing high school ball a year ago.
What Hurts has also done is help his team's defense prepare for what it's more likely to face in the new era of college offense.
"It's always very helpful because, when you play an outstanding quarterback like we're going to play this week who can make plays with his feet, it creates a tremendous amount of awareness for players who have practiced against it quite a bit," Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said.
That outstanding quarterback is Texas A&M's Trevor Knight. He's the man who first made a splash on the college football scene in January 2014 when he lit up the Alabama defense with four passing touchdowns in the Sugar Bowl as a member of the Oklahoma Sooners.
While Knight's heroics in that game will be a talking point, Alabama had dropback passer AJ McCarron at quarterback during the lead-up to that game when the Tide went "ones vs. ones" in practice.
The memory of that Sugar Bowl is in the back of Saban's mind because what he's seen on tape from Knight this season with the Aggies has jumped out this week.
"He played a great game against us, and he's played great for them all year long," Saban said. "But I think our players see what he's done this year in terms of their preparation and what they've done and have a tremendous amount of respect for what he can do. I'm not sure we need to go back to that."
Noise, Not Rivalry
When Bret Bielema and Gus Malzahn were in their early years as SEC head coaches a few years back, Arkansas and Auburn had a budding rivalry.
Some of it stemmed from Malzahn's history as a legendary high school coach in Arkansas at Shiloh Christian High School and Springdale High School, coupled with his one year as the Arkansas offensive coordinator in 2006. Some of it stemmed from the offseason "10-second rule" controversy that pitted old-school coaches such as Bielema against new-school, tempo coaches such as Malzahn.
Consider that rivalry dead, at least for the obvious reasons.
"I get it," Bielema said Wednesday. "I think from the outside world, maybe that's what you're driving at. I realize Gus played a couple years here, and you have [Auburn running backs coach] Tim [Horton] and you've got their offensive coordinator [Rhett Lashlee] and all those things that tie into here. But our kids don't know anything. That's like noise our kids don't hear."
Save for one season as the Arkansas State head coach in 2012, Malzahn has been coaching out of state since the start of the 2007 season—when he served as the offensive coordinator at Tulsa. As time has passed, so has the importance of the rivalry from a personal perspective.
"I thought more about it in the first days when I was at Tulsa or when I was a coordinator here [2009-2011]," he said. "It's a big game, but we kind of just look at it like it's another game on our schedule. They're a good team, again. And, traditionally, we've had a lot of good games with them."
Another QB Switch?
Perry Orth started the season as South Carolina's quarterback. True freshman dual threat Brandon McIlwain quickly replaced him and has played the majority of the last three games.
Since losing to Kentucky on Sept. 24, it's been Orth back as the primary signal-caller for first-year head coach Will Muschamp's Gamecocks.
Now, is it on to plan C?
Josh Kendall of The State reported that true freshman Jake Bentley—who reclassified from the 2017 class to the 2016 class this spring—could burn his redshirt this week when the Gamecocks host UMass.
"We've got a good plan going into Saturday as far as our quarterback situation is concerned," Muschamp said on the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday. "We've repped all three guys, and we'll see what happens on Saturday."
When you read between the coachspeak, it's clear what's going on here. Muschamp and the staff love Bentley's upside, what he could do for the offense and how far he's come in a few short months on campus. Despite that, he's supposed to be a senior in high school right now, and burning his redshirt for half of what essentially is a lost season might not be the best idea.
Gut feeling: Bentley will play.
If he does, I get it.
South Carolina is building for the future, and getting the future quarterback reps in live-game situations will help the offense evolve in the offseason, even if it's at the expense of one year of eligibility.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.com. Odds provided by Odds Shark.
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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