Marvels and miscues for SEC teams as midseason arrives

The closest thing to the Sunday Scaries that we have in college football is realizing that we’re already at the halfway point of the season. It’s a troubling thought. We always reach this point sooner than expected. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — fall operates at 1.5 speed. It shouldn’t, but it does.

As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, the Sunday Scaries are here. As in, the midway point of the season has arrived.

(I realize that there are some teams who already had their bye and they’ve only played five games, but you get it.)

The good news is that with those Sunday Scaries comes something that’ll give you, the reader of this column, a bit of joy. I suppose it could also bring you a bit of pain depending on your perspective (you know who you are).

At the very least, first-half SEC Superlatives should offer you a bit of entertainment. Here are 10 of those.

Most surprising: Kentucky

I did a mea culpa for Kentucky two weeks ago because I had the Cats going 3-9 with just one SEC win in Year 1 of the Will Stein era. Yeah … about that. I witnessed UK’s fifth win of the season and second win against a top-10 team when it took down LSU in overtime. To say that Stein has already surpassed expectations would be an understatement.

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Will Stein’s Kentucky team beat Lane Kiffin and LSU in a Week 6 overtime thriller, 35-34.

How did he do it so quickly? For starters, he actually believes in his team (unlike another coach we’ll get to in a bit) and is unfazed by big moments. But it’s not just going for two-point conversions. The three key personnel decisions were poaching unproven Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey from Nebraska in the portal, spending to rebuild “The Big Blue Wall,” and hiring Jay Bateman from Texas A&M. Those decisions have helped UK emerge as a true Playoff candidate with a somewhat favorable remaining schedule.

Now, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if UK got an invitation to the 12-team field.

Most disappointing: Texas A&M

It was fair to question a few elements of Year 3 of the Mike Elko era. He promoted a first-time play-caller in Holmon Wiggins to replace Collin Klein. That hasn’t worked out. Elko hoped that continuity would result in another step for Marcel Reed, who led A&M to its best start of the 21st century last year, but has more recently led an offense that ranks in the bottom 10 of FBS in yards per play. A&M would be able to overcome some of that if the new-look offensive line stepped up, but that hasn’t been the case yet, either. Key injuries at receiver haven’t helped.

Defensively, the hope was that Elko would replace a slew of key departures up front and it could keep the Aggies in the hunt. While that unit hasn’t been as disappointing as the offense, ranking No. 97 in yards per play allowed wasn’t the expectation for that group. A&M has lacked an identity in the first half of the season. That’s not been the case for any team that Elko has been a part of, either as a coordinator or as a head coach.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Texas A&M ranks 114th out of 138 FBS teams in total offensive efficiency.

A team with aspirations to reach Atlanta for the first time might just be lucky to play in the postseason.

Best hang: Keelon Russell

There’s something to be said for watching a guy who makes sure that every blade of grass is available. It’s hard to explain, but you know it when you see it. Russell is that dude. More impressively, he’s that dude as a redshirt freshman who is neither reckless nor arrogant with his physical abilities (outside of the first half at Kentucky). Russell has been the best downfield thrower in the sport with an FBS-best 20 completions on passes that traveled 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Perhaps even more impressive, Russell ranks No. 3 among Power Conference quarterbacks with an 80 percent adjusted completion percentage under pressure. The Alabama signal-caller has been everything that Tide fans could’ve hoped for as a poised distributor of the football. While his Heisman Trophy case might’ve taken a slight hit after the loss to Georgia, Russell’s stock is still very much on the rise for an Alabama offense that ranks No. 5 in FBS with 39 plays of 20-plus yards.

Russell is already appointment viewing.

Worst hang: Ryan Silverfield

Does that sound harsh for a Year 1 head coach? I don’t care. It’s warranted. You know what wasn’t warranted? Punting the football away in a seven-point game on 4th-and-10 with roughly 90 seconds to play. That would’ve been an unforgivable offense for a mediocre team, much less one that was in search of its first SEC victory at home in over two years. Yuck.

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Arkansas lost to Tennessee 24-17 on Saturday, marking its fourth loss of the season for a 2-4 record after six games.

Silverfield’s indecisiveness with the quarterback decision was maddening at the start of conference play, but beyond that issue, his team looks lost. It makes undisciplined mistakes — having 12 men on the field to block a field goal against A&M led to that game spiraling — and then it makes baffling personnel decisions like not giving an emerging Braylen Russell more run in critical downs.

Spend enough time watching this team, and you’ll have a hard time buying anything that Silverfield is selling.

Comeback Player of the Year: The Austin Simmons-Cayden Lee combo

As recently as 14 months ago, I liked Simmons and Lee to be one of the top quarterback-receiver connections in the sport. The problem was that prediction came when they were at Ole Miss ahead of the 2025 season. We know how that turned out. Simmons’ turnover-prone ways and an early-season injury opened the door for him to lose his job to Trinidad Chambliss while Lee was a solid player, but was never the true go-to target once his guy Simmons lost the job.

Fast forward to present day, and you’ll see that the Simmons-Lee combo is better than ever, albeit with some new digs. The Mizzou tandem will return to their old digs this weekend as two essential pieces of the No. 13 team in the country. Simmons went from being the guy with multiple games with multiple first-quarter interceptions at Ole Miss to being the guy with a 14-1 TD-INT ratio at the midway point of the season for Mizzou. Lee, on the other hand, is the SEC’s leading receiver with 616 yards and is tied for a conference-best 42 catches.

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Cayden Lee caught seven receptions for 94 yards against Texas A&M, and Austin Simmons went 14-for-28, recording one passing touchdown and one interception.

You could argue that Simmons and Lee are the ultimate “post-hype duo,” but whatever you want to call them, make sure they’re part of every All-SEC discussion.

Most promising stat: Gunner Stockton has a 151.4 NFL QB rating when blitzed (No. 2 in FBS), even though no Georgia player has more than 15 catches.

Before the Alabama game, I said that Stockton needed an alpha receiver to emerge if the Georgia offense was going to take down the Tide on the road. Then all Stockton did was complete 18 passes to 10 different players, beat Alabama with clutch throws to close it out, and flush my take down the toilet. Stockton has become a guy you can trust when the bullets are flying, which is why I’m calling him “Stetson Bennett, The Fifth.”

That stat against the blitz proves such a thing, and it’s even more impressive that he accomplished that feat without a true go-to receiver. That’s a different story than the only guy with a better NFL QB rating against the blitz, Darian Mensah, who has the luxury of hitting the Malachi Toney button whenever he’s under duress. Stockton’s start is reminiscent of what the aforementioned Chambliss did last year. A mobile quarterback who thrives under pressure and always seems to find the open guy is the toughest player to game-plan against.

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Georgia beat Alabama in Week 6, 20-17. The win propelled Georgia to the No. 1 ranked team in the country in the AP Poll.

Stockton was the difference in the win at Alabama. He might just be the difference in Georgia winning a national title.

Most alarming stat: John Mateer has a Power Conference-high 10 turnover-worthy plays in just five games.

I know, I know. He made key throws late against Texas, and he avoided the thing that plagued Oklahoma’s start. Credit Mateer for being poised in ways that Arch Manning wasn’t. It’s what helped the Sooners take down the No. 1 team in America. So what is there to be alarmed about? For starters, OU also only won that game because it got a pair of non-offensive touchdowns.

The bigger issue is that Mateer is still a low-floor, low-ceiling player. He had a pair of turnover-worthy plays against Texas that didn’t prove costly, but it’s still a question with Mateer. This is an Oklahoma team that has seen 10 of its last 11 Power Conference games decided by the turnover battle, and the Sooners have the quarterback who has put the ball in harm’s way more often than any other Power Conference signal-caller in 2026. That feels like a bad omen for a team that still has a difficult back half of the schedule, including this Saturday against a Kentucky team that’s +7 in turnover margin.

Most confusing team: Florida

As recently as two weeks ago, Florida was arguably underrated as the No. 8 team in the country after it pounded a top-five Ole Miss team. At the time, it had a better résumé than several teams ranked higher, and it was fair to wonder if Jon Sumrall had a Playoff-worthy squad in Year 1. Of course, we know now that a 4-4 start is more likely than a Playoff berth after the Gators were walloped by a combined score of 83-36 against Mizzou and South Carolina.

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After rushing for 142 yards and three touchdowns vs. Ole Miss, Florida running back Jadan Baugh recorded 72 rushing yards and one touchdown against Missouri and South Carolina combined.

What’s confusing is that this offense looked unstoppable in the first four games that it played, including two against respected defensive minds in D.J. Durkin and Pete Golding. Jadan Baugh went from looking like the top running back in the country to being a non-factor in the last two games. It’s not fair to attribute Florida’s regression entirely to not having Vernell Brown III, though it’s undeniable that Aaron Philo looks like a different guy when he doesn’t have his go-to weapon.

Like many squads with Year 1 head coaches, Florida is a walking, talking head-scratcher of a team.

Most maddening team: Texas

You’re going to tell me that Texas is less maddening than someone like Auburn or A&M, but you’ll be wrong. To be maddening is to have all the pieces in place and still feel underwhelming. That’s Texas. The team that stormed back against Ohio State to earn the No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll still doesn’t have an offensive identity at the midway point of the season, and the special teams are a mess.

Through Week 6, Texas ranks No. 104 in yards per play. Sure, the backfield has been slightly banged up. That’s inexcusable for what the Longhorns invested in that group in Year 2 of Manning as a starter. Speaking of Manning, there are 89 FBS quarterbacks who have accounted for at least 14 passing plays that have gone for 20 yards, and he’s not one of them. Mind you, he got his contested-catch guy Cam Coleman this offseason. And while Coleman has five such grabs, Manning has also thrown four interceptions when targeting Coleman, including that maddening pick-six against Oklahoma.

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Against Oklahoma, Arch Manning went 19-for-31 with two interceptions and three touchdowns.

Texas coughed up that double-digit lead, and it nearly blew a 10-point lead late at Tennessee even though it sacked Faizon Brandon 10 times in his first SEC start. The Longhorns came into the year as a no-excuses offense, and after suffering their first loss in devastating fashion, it’s maddening to see how mediocre they’ve looked far too often in 2026.

Best game: LSU vs. Ole Miss

With all due respect to a Georgia-Alabama game that was a bit tainted by the non-defensive pass interference call late, this was always going to be the answer. You knew that. Well, let’s back up. You knew that it had more buildup than any regular-season game since Johnny Manziel vs. Alabama, Part II. What you didn’t know is if it would live up to the hype. Somehow, Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford did just that. A raucous Ole Miss crowd endured an LSU comeback, but then was elated to see Golding’s defense get the late stand to survive Kiffin and the Bayou Bengals.

The images and quotes that came from that night felt old school in the best way. Kiffin was and is public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of both Ole Miss fans and college football fans. Hence, why college football fans far and wide rejoiced to see that Kiffin didn’t prevail in his return after leaving a Playoff-bound Ole Miss squad. While it’s certainly possible that both Ole Miss and LSU are on the outside looking in at the Playoff by season’s end, the magnitude of that night shouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon.

That’ll be a tough one to top in the second half of 2026.