Despite multiple postponements and rearranging amid this coronavirus pandemic, the Southeastern Conference has staged 60 of a possible 70 regular-season football contests and has established its league championship pairing of Alabama and Florida in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 19.
Kentucky and South Carolina were the only SEC programs to play all 10 games on their scheduled dates, and any COVID-19 spikes within a league roster this week could introduce cancellations for the first time. Vanderbilt wasn’t healthy enough to travel to Georgia on Saturday, and if the situation doesn’t improve for the Commodores, this week’s Tennessee-Vandy contest in Nashville could get axed altogether.
The SEC has been the most successful league in navigating the dangers and unknowns COVID-19 has provided by using the combination of patience during the summer and flexibility during the fall. As a result, there have been no known instances of players having to be hospitalized as a result of this virus – everyone can agree that is the most important stat of all – and the conference continues to dominate the sport.
Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida and Georgia comprised half of the top eight teams in last week’s College Football Playoff rankings, and the SEC’s ability to combat the coronavirus has produced an even more profound impact on the Heisman Trophy front.
Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields entered this season as the two decided favorites for college football’s top individual award, but Lawrence missed two games due to a positive COVID-19 test, while Fields and his Buckeyes have played just four out of a possible seven games to this point due to cancellations. Florida quarterback Kyle Trask and Alabama quarterback Mac Jones were the betting favorites last week, with Lawrence and Fields third and fourth, and with BYU quarterback Zach Wilson fifth and Alabama receiver DeVonta Smith sixth.
Don’t sleep on Smith.
In Saturday night’s 55-17 dismantling of LSU in Baton Rouge, the 6-foot-1, 175-pounder who grew up less than an hour away from Tiger Stadium racked up eight receptions for 231 yards and three touchdowns. No player nationally is on more of a roll than Smith, who has 35 catches for 749 yards and 11 touchdowns in his past four games.
“I don’t see every player who plays in the country,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said late Saturday night. “I love Smitty, and I think he is an outstanding player for our team. He’s probably done as much for our team this year as any player that we’ve ever had, and he’s a great leader.
“It’s not fair for me to compare him to somebody else I haven’t even seen, but I don’t think there are many players in the country who have done more for their team than Smitty does for our team.”
Smith certainly checks a lot of the Heisman boxes, beginning with his 1,305 receiving yards this season and his 38 career touchdown catches, having shattered the previous SEC mark of 31. There has been a career achievement element to the Heisman on occasion, with Smith’s career having been launched with the winning touchdown reception in the national championship game of the 2017 season against Georgia.
His one-handed touchdown catch before halftime at LSU gives him the eye-popping Heisman highlight, and there is the storyline of Michigan’s Desmond Howard being the last receiver to win it in 1991.
“With quarterbacks, there are more things that you can do and more stats that you can add,” Smith said. “Ultimately, I’m here to win a championship. If I’m in the Heisman race, then I’m in it, but I’m really not focused on that too much.”
Should Trask and Alabama’s duo of Jones and Smith represent the top three vote collectors in some particular order, it would mark the first time one conference swept the top three since the former Big 8 in 1972 with Nebraska receiver Johnny Rodgers, Oklahoma running back Greg Pruitt and Nebraska defensive lineman Rich Glover.
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Alabama won its 97th consecutive game over an unranked opponent by thrashing Ed Orgeron’s Tigers, a fact that only enhances one of the strangest dynamics going in the SEC.
The more amazing Saban becomes, the more comfort that somehow provides for Gus Malzahn at rival Auburn. Malzahn has a competitive 3-5 mark against Saban’s Crimson Tide since taking over on the Plains in 2013, while the rest of the league is a helpless 3-59 in that same stretch.
Yet Malzahn’s ability to hold his own in the Iron Bowl is not accompanied by truly elite seasons, which his Tigers last enjoyed in his first year, when Auburn won the “Kick Six” thriller, ran past Missouri in the SEC title game and lost the national championship in the final 13 seconds to Florida State to finish 12-2. Auburn has endured at least four losses in every year since, clinching a seventh consecutive such season Saturday, when a 31-20 loss to visiting Texas A&M saddled the Tigers with a 5-4 mark.
“I want to make sure it’s very clear – our expectations are to win championships here at Auburn,” Malzahn said Sunday night. “I’m extremely excited about next year. We have a majority of our guys coming back.”
Auburn’s streak of seasons with at least four losses is its longest since a stretch from 1938 to 1952. Ralph “Shug” Jordan became Auburn’s coach in 1951 and built a program that would claim the 1957 national title.
Unless Auburn draws a ranked opponent in a bowl game, this will be the first year under Malzahn in which the Tigers don’t defeat a Top 25 foe.
“It’s not like we have a bad team by any means,” sophomore quarterback Bo Nix said. “We’ve battled and competed. It’s definitely a learning year.”
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South Carolina sophomore running back Kevin Harris is certainly the SEC’s most unheralded player of the year.
Playing on a team that lost 41-18 Saturday night at Kentucky to close a disastrous 2-8 season, the 5-foot-10, 225-pounder from Hinesville, Georgia, rushed for 210 yards to complete a 1,138-yard season in which he averaged 6.15 yards per carry. His efforts occured through the firing of coach Will Muschamp and the interim role of Mike Bobo that preceded Sunday’s announcement of Oklahoma assistant Shane Beamer as the new head coach of the Gamecocks.
“Of course it matters, and it felt pretty good,” Harris said of the yardage milestone, “but it’s kind of bittersweet.”
Kentucky made changes as well on Sunday, with Mark Stoops parting ways with offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw.
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The SEC revealed its television schedule on Sunday for next weekend’s games, which includes Alabama at Arkansas at noon on ESPN, Georgia at Missouri at noon on the SEC Network, and Tennessee at Vanderbilt at 4 on the SEC Network.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.