Matt Stinchcomb examines Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State in early SEC slate

ESPN college football analyst Matt Stinchcomb helps us make sense of the early SEC season. How good can Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi State be in 2018?

We are only entering Week 3 of the 2018 NCAA season, but it looks to be another great year for the SEC. Five teams are ranked inside of the top-20 of the AP Top 25 Poll. At least three teams in the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers and the Georgia Bulldogs can feel confident about their chances of reaching the College Football Playoff.

Then again, it’s only the middle of September. With a full slate of SEC games left on the horizon in the next two and a half months, ESPN college football analyst and recently elected College Football Hall of Famer Matt Stinchcomb took a few minutes of his time on Thursday to help us make sense of the early SEC slate.

Stinchcomb, who was a two-time All-American at offensive tackle for Georgia in the 1990s, continues to do great analyst work for ESPN, as well as be a huge part of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. He is a former Good Works Team member himself and is one of people in charge of selecting this year’s squad of guys who not only perform on the field and in the classroom, but in their own communities.

When talking about his work with the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, Stinchcomb would say, “It’s always been a privilege to be associated with what I think is the highest honor I think you can receive as a college football player, and that’s recognition for the selfless work that you are doing or do on the behalf of people other than yourself. These are the guys that recognize the opportunities to impact their communities, their schools, the campuses. And they take advantage of those to the fullest extent.”

“Well, if we’re defining “catch” as getting that program on par to where Georgia has built that program, I would say no. We’re not going to see that this season. We might not see that the next couple of seasons.” – Matt Stinchcomb on any SEC East team catching Georgia this season

Georgia placekicker Rodrigo Blankenship was one of the great student athletes to make the 2018 team, and is the lone SEC player on this year’s squad. He is the latest Bulldog to have made this illustrious squad. Hats off to him and all the members of this year’s team.

And with Blankenship’s strong leg and deadly accuracy as Georgia’s All-American hopeful kicker, there is no doubt that Stinchcomb feels very strongly about his alma mater’s chances to make some noise again this fall in the SEC. So we’ll start with the Dawgs.

Georgia handled its SEC East rival South Carolina 41-17 on Saturday in Columbia. While Stinchcomb was one of the many college football analysts that thought the Gamecocks could give the Dawgs a run for their money in Week 2, he too was shocked of how lopsided it got in favor of Georgia.

Stinchcomb attributes much of that to something he may have overlooked heading into the season with regards to South Carolina: their new offensive play caller in Bryan McClendon. “You’re talking about a philosophical shift in a new offensive play caller in Bryan McClendon, calling only his third game ever versus what is an established football program and a pretty talented defense is opposite a threatening offense with playmakers, not only in the backfield, but on the perimeter and at quarterback.

Overall, a hot day on the road in a hostile environment at Williams-Brice Stadium with a defense that needed reloading could have potentially swung the game in South Carolina’s favor. However, the play calling of McClendon was nothing Georgia defensive coordinator Mel Tucker couldn’t handle. Outside of a wide receiver pass for a touchdown by the electric Deebo Samuel, Tucker and his boys kept McClendon’s offense in check all afternoon.

Seeing that Georgia clobbered what many perceived to be its biggest threat in the SEC East, I asked Stinchcomb if any team can honestly challenge the Dawgs in the division. His response was honest, but multi-pronged.

“Well, if we’re defining “catch” as getting that program on par to where Georgia has built that program, I would say no,” Stinchcomb replied. “We’re not going to see that this season. We might not see that the next couple of seasons. But can one of these teams in the East Division catch Georgia, not only on an off-day, but play one of their better games of the season? Yeah.”

He would elaborate on saying two teams down the road could potentially be a road black for Georgia: the Missouri Tigers and the Kentucky Wildcats. Stinchcomb cited how well star Missouri quarterback Drew Lock has looked in new offensive coordinator and former Tennessee Volunteers head coach Derek Dooley’s system. He feels that wide receiver Emanuel Hall is “picking up from where he left off a season ago.”

“He’s having to reap what others have sewn that preceded him. They did not recruit at an elite level and they’re being asked to compete in a conference that does. That’s going to be really, really difficult.” – Matt Stinchcomb on the situation Dan Mullen inherited taking over at Florida.

But perhaps most importantly, Stinchcomb picked up on how the Missouri defense has rallied behind defensive-minded head coach Barry Odom from the second half of last season on. To him, “the defense is much improved and is what’s allowed the Tigers to get to a bowl game for Barry Odom.”

Georgia will have to play Missouri on Sep. 22 for an 11:00 a.m. local time start at Faurot Field. If the Dawgs aren’t awake during kickoff, maybe Missouri has the potential to be a giant killer here in Week 4 of the season?

As for Kentucky, the Wildcats beat the perpetual nemesis that is the Florida Gators for the first time since 1986. When asked if Big Blue Nation’s win in Gainesville was more of a testament to the good job Mark Stoops is doing at Kentucky or the amount of work ahead of Dan Mullen for the Florida program, Stinchcomb didn’t feel it was an “either or” proposition. He likes the job that Stoops has done in Lexington and feels strongly that Mullen will get it right at Florida eventually.

Stinchcomb would put it bluntly that Kentucky probably should have beaten Florida in the last two seasons, citing two plays specifically that a Gator wideout was left uncovered in another heartbreaking loss for Kentucky at Kroger Field in Lexington just a year ago.

As for Florida, Stinchcomb recognizes the mess Mullen has inherited after three rough head coaching exits before him in the form of Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain.

“He’s having to reap what others have sewn that preceded him,” Stinchcomb put it honestly. “They did not recruit at an elite level and they’re being asked to compete in a conference that does. That’s going to be really, really difficult. Until they get acclimated not only to a new culture, but until they are able to recruit into that program for a couple of seasons, I think it’ll be a challenge for Florida to compete at a high level consistently, relative to a Georgia that’s got a two-year head start on them.”

While Mullen doesn’t exactly have the best crops to harvest down in Gainesville, he did leave the Mississippi State Bulldogs down in Starkville in a better place than he found it. This is to the benefit of new head coach in former Penn State Nittany Lions offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead.

For a team that lost arguably its best coach ever for a perceived better job in the conference, Stinchcomb is not alone in his praise for what Mississippi State could accomplish in 2018. “I think Mississippi State is going to be pretty good. Coming into the season, I wasn’t alone. A lot of people felt that they were going to be one of the contenders in the SEC West for what could be second place.”

With a proven star at quarterback in Nick Fitzgerald, an emerging playmaker at running back in Kylin Hill and two absolute monsters along the defensive line in Montez Sweat and Jeffery Simmons, Stinchcomb would not be shocked if Mississippi State won nine or 10 games in Moorhead’s first year leading the program. However, Mississippi State needs to finish above .500 in SEC play to do that, something that only happened once during Mullen’s nine-year tenure leading the Bulldogs.

Of course, we wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we didn’t spend a few minutes on the three other strong teams in the SEC West in Alabama, Auburn and the LSU Tigers. Alabama already looks to be the best team in the Power 5 heading into Week 3. The Crimson Tide have already buzz sawed the Louisville Cardinals Week 1 in a neutral-site affair in Orlando.

When asked if there could be a weakness for the Crimson Tide this season, Stinchcomb offered us a pretty interesting nugget and one we need to pay great attention to in Saturday’s road game against the high-flying offense of the Ole Miss Rebels.

“Well, the question mark has and I think somewhat remains the secondary, a rebuilt secondary at that for Alabama. Will anyone be able to test it? Well, they will certainly get tested this week. You’re talking about an Ole Miss offense and an offensive unit in the passing game that has serious weapons.” – Matt Stinchomb on Alabama’s perceived weakness and how the Ole Miss offense could exploit that.

“Well, the question mark has and I think somewhat remains the secondary, a rebuilt secondary at that for Alabama. Will anyone be able to test it? Well, they will certainly get tested this week. You’re talking about an Ole Miss offense and an offensive unit in the passing game that has serious weapons.”

Ole Miss has let it rip offensively with Jordan Ta’amu as its starting quarterback. With elite receivers in A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf, the Rebels do present an interesting case study for how to exploit the Alabama defense. It’s a reason the Crimson Tide are on upset alert. However, Ole Miss looks like SEC Texas Tech, as the defense has been largely horrendous in the first two weeks. Frankly, that probably hurts Ole Miss’ chances at a huge upset on Saturday versus the No. 1 team in the nation.

While many will be tuning in to see the potential barn-burner between Alabama and Ole Miss in Oxford, the SEC Game of the Week on CBS will be between two ranked teams in Auburn and LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Stinchcomb has often been critical of LSU getting too much early season hype. Though he likes Nick Brosette at running back, Stinchcomb feels that graduate transfer quarterback Joe Burrow “will have to play the game of his life” to beat Auburn down on The Plains on Saturday afternoon.

Stinchcomb really likes Auburn’s front-seven, believing that linebacker Deshaun Davis will be the difference maker for how good this Auburn team can be. The defense would have to lead the way for Auburn to run the gauntlet that is its SEC slate to even think about making it back to Atlanta. Though he likes Jarrett Stidham at quarterback, a lack of weapons causes Stinchcomb to believe that Auburn will have to win with defense this year, something that isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

So whichever team does come out of the SEC West this fall will be battle tested. Four of those teams are ranked in the top-20. Ole Miss should be a fun watch, though the Rebels aren’t bowl eligible thanks to a scandal that took place under the previous coaching regime. Even Jimbo Fisher should have the Texas A&M Aggies as a seven-win team in his first year in College Station.

However, Stinchcomb feels that one SEC West team won’t be sniffing a bowl game this year. That would be Chad Morris’ Arkansas Razorbacks. When asked how rough it might get for the Hogs this fall, Stinchcomb’s response put it all in perspective with regards to amount of philosophical changes on offense that have occurred in Fayetteville the last decade.

“You look at Arkansas and it is somewhat of a whipsaw where you’re going from a Bobby Petrino offensive approach to a Bret Bielema power run game with heavy boxes. That evolved somewhat when [former offensive coordinator] Dan Enos got there.

And now you’ve got a departure there, a pretty distinct one at that to what Chad Morris wants to be offensively with a commitment to uptempo and pace. I feel confident that they’re not comfortable with how that’s performing so far.”

Just imagine going from a pro-style offense under Petrino to old school Big Ten football under Bielema with some modern concepts sprinkled in from Enos to an uptempo spread under now Morris. Simply put, Arkansas needs to find an offensive identity and stick to it if the Razorbacks don’t want to be stuck in the SEC West basement for years on end.

Next: Top 25 NFL players from SEC

Overall, it’s always good speaking with Stinchcomb. He offers great insight to the SEC landscape, often pointing out interesting wrinkles with each team that might be getting overlooked otherwise. The SEC looks to be the best conference in the Power 5. It should be fun to watch how it all unfolds down south this fall. Can the SEC get two teams into the Playoff again? We’ll see.