It’s early, but not that early.
We’re heading into the second week of October, which means we’ve already seen multiple Power Conference games out of every SEC team. Yes, it’s strange that Texas has only played one SEC game while half the conference has already played three. I don’t understand it, but here we are.
So yeah, it’s early, but it’s not too early to grade the Year 1 SEC coaches.
I used to say that I don’t judge Year 1 coaches. Why? Well, once upon a time, this thing called “the transfer portal” didn’t exist. Or at least in its early stages, you still had to sit a year after departing if you were an underclassman. Now, a Year 1 coach can replace his entire roster.
If you recall, this was a historic year in the conference because six teams had new coaches. Granted, Pete Golding coached all three games of Ole Miss’ 2025 Playoff run, and while nothing is “new” about Lane Kiffin, he was indeed new to LSU.
These new coaches have been on the job for essentially 10 months. We’ve gotten more to judge them on than if they said the right thing in an offseason press conference — Jon Sumrall said all the right things — or if they added a splashy transfer. Games have been played, so naturally, grades should be handed out.
Here are those early grades for the SEC’s six Year 1 head coaches:
Ryan Silverfield, Arkansas
Grade: D-
It’s bad. Real bad. Maybe it would’ve been this bad for 95 percent of the coaches who inherited the situation that Silverfield did, but there are certain things that are hard to ignore. Like, in three games against Power Conference competition, the Hogs have been outscored 122-34. Woof. Or rather, oink.
Silverfield got completely dominated in the Week 2 trip to Utah, and then after saying all week that KJ Jackson was still the starting quarterback, he tried to operate a two-quarterback system after two possessions against Georgia. Against A&M, his team blew its chance at keeping things close in the first half by sending 12 players out to block a field goal, which led to A&M extending the drive and putting the game away before halftime.
This is a sloppy team that can’t do anything right. Well, former A&M receiver Chris Marshall is awesome. He’s perhaps the only reason why Silverfield didn’t earn a failing grade on his early report card. The issue is that Arkansas hasn’t been able to tap into those key behind-the-scenes dollars, and there was hope that a frisky Year 1 would turn that around.
It’s early, but vibes couldn’t have been worse for Silverfield’s SEC debut against Georgia. It’s hard to imagine any world in which piling on losses — and kicking off basketball season — turns that around.
Alex Golesh, Auburn
Grade: C-
If you haven’t watched the Auburn offense this year, good. I don’t recommend it. The unit that Alex Golesh was expected to instantly overhaul after transporting Byrum Brown and a slew of his key USF players has been a rough hang. The Tigers look a whole lot closer to the Hugh Freeze offense than anyone could’ve anticipated. Instead of wondering if Brown has a path to become Auburn’s second All-SEC quarterback since Cam Newton, it’s now fair to wonder if he should be benched.
That’s a tough pill to swallow for Golesh, who preached about “identity” more than anything else this offseason. The hope for the former USF coach was that he'd show his up-tempo, high-powered offense would translate in the SEC and that he’d become an ideal transfer portal destination. So far, Golesh’s team only has a backbone because he got D.J. Durkin to stick around as the defensive coordinator.
It’s also worth noting that Golesh already has as many wins in one-score games (2) as Freeze had in his entire Auburn tenure. Granted, beating the likes of Baylor and Vanderbilt by narrow margins in lackluster offensive showings didn’t exactly confirm that times have changed on The Plains.
It didn’t help that he watched Sumrall come into Jordan-Hare Stadium and light up the scoreboard with a more explosive, versatile offense to kick off SEC play (that game wasn’t as close as the final score suggested). The side-by-side with Sumrall that will inevitably follow Golesh clearly favors the former.
Now, Golesh will need a minor miracle to avoid a four-game losing streak with a trio of top-10 foes on deck.
Jon Sumrall, Florida
Grade: A-
If we had done these grades a week ago, Sumrall would’ve gotten an A+. Then we watched his team get run off the field at Mizzou immediately after getting a top-10 ranking, and we were reminded to pump the brakes on the “Florida is back” talk.
Still, though. Sumrall has seemingly done everything else right during his 10 months in Gainesville. He nailed the all-important offensive coordinator hire of Buster Faulkner, his famous Christmas Eve visit to Jadan Baugh’s house kept perhaps the future Doak Walker Award winner at Florida, and his team already had a blowout win against a top-five team in his first SEC home game. If you would’ve told any Florida fan last November that Sumrall’s first team would crack the top 10 at any point in the 2026 season, they would’ve signed up for that 10 times out of 10.
Is the defense a work in progress? Absolutely. It entered the season ranked No. 1 in the country in ESPN’s percentage-of-returning-production metric, which was a testament to Sumrall and new defensive coordinator Brad White getting experienced players to stick around. Sumrall’s ability to troubleshoot those issues will determine his team’s Year 1 ceiling.
But even after the first loss of the Sumrall era, it’s hard to be anything but bullish on the early returns.
Will Stein, Kentucky
Grade: A
Relative to expectations, I’m not sure how much more impressive Stein could have been through five games. Despite the bizarre drop-out of the AP Poll after the win at South Carolina, consider what we’ve already seen him do. He ended a four-year losing streak at South Carolina by overcoming a 17-0 road deficit, and he did so because he dialed up the perfect two-point conversion play in overtime. That’s the type of “because of me” swagger that he was brought in to provide.
Of course, that was on the heels of Stein leading a statement victory at Texas A&M in his first SEC road trip. That included his all-important defensive coordinator hire, Jay Bateman, sending a loud message to his former team. Stein’s squad already has two road victories in the SEC — he’s the first coach in program history to do that — which matched the total that Mark Stoops had in his final two seasons in Lexington. Stein is already doing things that one-upped his predecessor, and it’s wild to think that he’s the first UK coach to start 4-1 since Paul “Bear” Bryant.
Did UK collapse in the second half against Alabama? Sure. So far, that’s been the case for everyone. His lone loss also came after he went into the break with a halftime lead against a team that’s now No. 6 in the AP Poll with a historically prolific offense. That’s really the only knock on Stein’s résumé so far. Spending big on rebuilding “The Big Blue Wall” was a smart move, as was going all in to get Kenny Minchey out of the transfer portal even though he had never started a college game.
Stein has the Bluegrass State buzzing. If he can knock off Kiffin’s LSU squad on Saturday night at Kroger Field, he’ll be firmly in the “National Coach of the Year” discussion.
Speaking of…
Lane Kiffin, LSU
Grade: B
Look. If I’m an LSU fan, I feel encouraged by Kiffin’s start. The offense has a true identity with a revamped running game, and Kiffin keeping Blake Baker as LSU’s defensive coordinator has yielded tremendous results. For all the talk about LSU having a reported $40 million roster (or more), what got overlooked was the notion that putting together a team like that was exactly what Kiffin was brought in to do. That opener against Clemson was as one-sided a game as you’ll see, and to be in the top 10 in the second weekend of October is nothing to scoff at.
But yeah, Kiffin hasn’t exactly won the breakup with his former school. Losing that game at Ole Miss was a brutal pill to swallow, especially after Kiffin’s, uh, “controversial” offseason comments about his former school in “Vanity Fair.” Kiffin took a big, fat “L” on that by losing to the program that he left before its Playoff run.
It doesn’t help that Trinidad Chambliss looks like the one that got away from Kiffin. Would anyone take Sam Leavitt over Chambliss? I certainly wouldn’t, and Leavitt not being healthy early in the season doesn’t feel like an issue that’ll go away. Perhaps that’s why Kiffin & Co. were so aggressive in overhauling the entire quarterback room. You could argue that they were aggressive in adding depth everywhere … even if it meant trying to get NFL players to come to Baton Rouge.
The irony is that Kiffin’s team is already dealing with a wrath of injuries, which has led to him complaining about the nine-game conference schedule. That’s a tough look for a coach on a nine-figure contract who got that type of budget and is just two games into conference play.
For a guy who spent all offseason saying “it’s just different,” the Kiffin experience at LSU looks awfully similar to Ole Miss.
Pete Golding, Ole Miss
Grade: B+
Let’s give credit where credit is due. Golding won the all-important showdown with LSU in fitting fashion by getting a stop on Kiffin’s offense to close it out. You could argue that Golding is responsible for the best moment that Vaught-Hemingway Stadium has ever seen. Beating LSU, as well as the season-opening walk-off win vs. Louisville, gave Golding four ranked wins in his first five opportunities. That, of course, included his pre-Year 1 wins against Georgia, as well as the victory against the aforementioned Sumrall in the Playoff.
But it was Sumrall who reminded Ole Miss that this schedule is no joke. Golding’s squad couldn’t avoid the letdown at Florida — Ole Miss probably would’ve lost to Florida even if they played McNeese the previous week — and we saw cracks in the foundation. That game showed why it’s not enough to have perhaps the best quarterback in the country. As brilliant as Chambliss is, he can only do so much. That team needs Kewan Lacy to be healthy, and it needs to figure out its run-stopping woes.
Golding’s defense being the Achilles’ heel is why he’s not worthy of an “A.” As troubling as it’s been to watch Ole Miss tackle in space, it’s also worth remembering that his squad faced three of the five best offensive minds in the sport: Jeff Brohm, Kiffin and Faulkner. There’ll be more favorable matchups for the Ole Miss defense.
Can Golding right the defensive ship and get Ole Miss its first-ever trip to Atlanta? That’s a massive unknown. At the very least, though, he’s done enough to help Ole Miss take an early lead in the Kiffin breakup. That’s about all the Oxford faithful could’ve hoped for.
