Notes: It was a rough first weekend for SEC football in marquee games

Random college football notes for your Labor Day:

▪ It was not a great Week 1 for SEC football.

To be sure, No. 1-ranked Georgia dominated Clemson 34-3 in Atlanta, but the conference came out on the losing end of the other three marquee matchups. Florida was blitzed by visiting Miami 41-17. Texas A&M lost 23-13 to visiting Notre Dame. And LSU lost to USC 27-20 on Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Most of the rest of the league rolled in nonconference guarantee games. Arkansas trounced Arkansas Pine-Bluff 70-0 and Missouri routed Murray State 51-0 last Thursday. On Saturday, Alabama ran away from Western Kentucky 63-0, Ole Miss obliterated Furman 76-0, Mississippi State rocked Eastern Kentucky 56-7, Auburn beat Alabama A&M 73-3 and Tennessee thrashed Chattanooga 69-3. SEC newcomers Oklahoma and Texas easily won their openers, the Sooners topping Temple 51-3 on Friday and the Longhorns taking down Colorado State 52-0 the next day. Also, Vanderbilt beat visiting Virginia Tech 34-27 in overtime and South Carolina squeaked past visiting Old Dominion 23-19.

▪ Saturday’s Kentucky-Southern Miss game was the shortest game in Kentucky football history. Or at lest recent history. The game was called because of weather with 9:56 left in the third quarter and Kentucky leading the visiting Golden Eagles 31-0.

Back in 2012, Kentucky lost 49-7 at Arkansas in a game that was called with 5:08 remaining in the third quarter because of lightning near Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Despite not even playing a full four quarters, Arkansas gained 533 yards of total offense. That season turned out to be Joker Phillips’ last as UK’s head coach.

▪ Heading into Monday night’s game, Kentucky’s Brock Vandagriff is ranked 23rd in pass efficiency with a rating of 189.43. Vandagriff completed 12 of 18 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns with one interception against Southern Miss.

▪ With the NFL giving players the Labor Day weekend off before the start of the regular season this week, several ex-UK players were at Saturday night’s opener. The list included Wan’Dale Robinson, Will Levis, Josh Hines-Allen and Ray Davis.

▪ Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath will be the ABC broadcast crew for Kentucky-South Carolina on Saturday. It’s a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.

▪ ABC says last Saturday ranked as its second most-watched Kickoff Saturday on record. The Texas A&M-Notre Dame game drew 8.2 million viewers. Georgia-Clemson drew 7.9 million. Florida-Miami drew 6.6 million.

▪ UK quarterback Beau Allen and tight end Josh Kattus have started a podcast called “Field Vision.” You can get it wherever you listen to podcasts.

▪ Bush Hamdan’s star running back at Boise State came roaring out of the gate in 2024. Ashton Jeanty rushed for 267 yards and six touchdowns on 20 carries in Boise’s 56-45 win at Georgia Southern. Jeanty had a 77-yard run in the game.

▪ Ohio running back Anthony Tyus II rushed for 203 yards on 16 carries in the Bobcats’ 38-22 loss at Syracuse on Saturday. That ranked third nationally behind Jeanty and San Diego State’s Marquez Cooper, who rushed for 223 yards on 27 carries in the Aztecs’ 45-14 win over Texas A&M-Commerce. Kentucky plays host to Ohio on Sept. 21.

▪ In his third season, Billy Napier is now 11-15 at Florida.

▪ Brian Kelly was not a happy camper after LSU’s loss to USC.

▪ Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia rushed for 104 yards on 26 carries and completed 12 of 16 passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns in the Commodores’ 34-27 upset win over Virginia Tech in overtime.

▪ As if Georgia needed more players, the Bulldogs now have speedy wide receiver London Humphreys, a transfer from Vanderbilt. Humphreys caught two passes for 63 yards, including a 40-yarder, against Clemson.

▪ Give new Murray State coach Jody Wright credit for daring. He started his tenure as Racers’ head coach with a failed on-side kick at Missouri, then a failed fourth-and-1 on Murray State’s own 34-yard line. Third possession, Murray threw a pick-six, which gave Missouri a 21-0 lead with 9:41 left in the first quarter.

▪ New Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough was 18-of-24 passing for 232 yards and four touchdowns in the Cardinals’ 62-0 rout of Austin Peay.

▪ In a reserve role, ex-Kentucky quarterback Kaiya Sheron was 3-for-3 passing for 11 yards in UT Martin’s 41-6 loss at Kansas State on Saturday.

▪ Former UK running back La’Vell Wright carried seven times for 23 yards in Austin Peay’s loss at Louisville.

▪ Jon Sumrall had an impressive debut as Tulane’s head coach. The Green Wave routed SE Louisiana 52-0. Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah completed 10 of 12 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns.

▪ Sumrall’s successor did not fare as well. Former UK receiver Gerad Parker lost his head coaching debut at Troy. The Trojans fell 28-26 to visiting Nevada.

▪ Former Cincinnati Reds TV play-by-play man Thom Brennaman made his return to national broadcasting last Saturday when he did the Oregon State-Idaho State game on the CW.

▪ Not-so-fun stat: Since its 41-38 win over Alabama in 2021, Texas A&M is 2-14 in games decided by 10 points or less.

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