SEC Mike dives into Week 5 conference matchups on TexAgs Live

Key notes from Michael Bratton interview

• I’m going to be glued to my couch. I ain’t moving, I’m actually missing a wedding this weekend, and there’s no guilt on this end because I looked at this slate when I got invited and said, “Buddy, good luck.” You want to move this thing to Friday, I’ll be there, but otherwise I’m watching football.
   
• If I could just say it simply, I think LSU should win, but I think Ole Miss will win. I don’t have a ton of confidence in that prediction. I think it's a complete toss-up. We don't know who Ole Miss will play at quarterback. There have been reports that it's going to be Trinidad Chambliss. Lane Kiffin is the only coach who is unwilling to play fair when it comes to the injury reports, so who the heck really knows who it’ll be? Chambliss is the hot hand. You play him anyway.
   
• LSU’s defense, I'm not buying that they’re quite elite. I think they’re very, very good, but given that DJ Lagway gave them five interceptions, and we’ve seen what Clemson has turned into, I think it’s fair to question how elite LSU’s defense truly is. We’ll find out on Saturday whether we’re talking about Blake Baker or Lane Kiffin. I like Kiffin, and give him the edge there. I haven’t seen enough from Garrett Nussmeier. I think he might be slightly overrated, and quite frankly, he’s not getting a lot of help. LSU can’t run the football. I think LSU falls just short in this one.
   
• Kirby Smart is the best. I think it’s unquestionable that he’s the best coach in college football right now. I like to call Kalen DeBoer, “DeBoering” because he is very “DeBoering,” but he is a big-game coach. He beat Smart last year. He’s beaten Steve Sarkisian. He’s beaten Dan Lanning. This guy gets up for these big games. I thought FSU was a big game, but apparently, his team didn’t. We kind of left Alabama for dead after that, but they’ve been lights out since.
   
• I actually like Alabama to go into Georgia and beat the Bulldogs this weekend. Not very confident in that pick either, for all the reasons. I get it, Georgia is probably the best team in the SEC, but I wonder how much we are enamored with Georgia after that Tennessee game. Here’s the thing not enough people are talking about, because they are getting swept up in Tennessee’s offense. I think Tennessee’s defense, particularly the secondary, could be awful this year. Everyone is lighting them up, even UAB had success last week, and Syracuse in the opener. I think Georgia might be overrated, and I think Alabama gets that win.
   
• I hate when we get a month into the season and we say, “OK, Georgia or whoever is the dominant team, and everyone is playing for second.” For me, the narrative is so much more fun if Alabama wins this game because we’ll be sitting here saying, “Well, who the heck is the best team in the SEC?” It could literally change week to week, and that’s a lot more fun for me.
   
• It’s way more fun to think of a Vanderbilt and A&M in an SEC title game or a Missouri vs. Tennessee, or Vanderbilt and Georgia. Oklahoma vs. A&M, bring back the 2012 Cotton Bowl. There are infinite possibilities right now for Atlanta. Even if Georgia wins, there still are. I don’t think that makes them the dominant team. I think that makes them one of the favorites to get there. It’s an absolute free-for-all. I don't remember ever seeing it like this, to a lesser degree, last year. When you had divisions, it’s never been this wide open, and when you had Nick Saban, it’s never been this wide open.
   
• If South Carolina loses at home to Kentucky, I think Kentucky is the worst team in the conference. I think the Gamecock fans may pack Shane Beamer‘s bags for Virginia Tech for him. It was not two and a half to three weeks ago that they were No. 12 in the country, which is insane, but that’s the reality of the situation. I think Mark Stoops should’ve been fired a long time ago. I think he’s an average coach. I get it, he’s the winningest coach in Kentucky history, that’s fantastic, but he’s about 30 games under .500 in the conference. This is not a very good team. They have a first-time quarterback on the road.
   
• Again, if they beat LaNorris Sellers & Co., this is a massive, massive issue for Beamer, so I'm pretty confident South Carolina gets it done. There’s no excuse for losing this game. Even though I said every bad thing about Kentucky, I like where they invested in the off-season. They invested in the offensive line, they invested in the running back, and that’s kind of Stoops' bread and butter. They are a very good running team. That’s what killed South Carolina last week against Missouri. They couldn’t stop the run.
   
• I think Auburn at A&M is possibly the biggest coin toss in the conference this weekend. I think Auburn got robbed last week. I think they still probably would’ve lost despite the horrible officiating. Is that still lingering in their mind? Can they run the football on Texas A&M? I think that’s going to be critical.
   
• Jackson Arnold is so dynamic, not necessarily throwing the football, but running. Oklahoma did such a good job corralling that. Can A&M do that? I don't know. I’ve not necessarily seen that. I know they’ve gotten better against Notre Dame, but I don't look at CJ Carr as much of a dual threat, not nearly to the caliber of Arnold. Quite honestly, if I were A&M, I would’ve rather kept playing after beating Notre Dame. Keeping that hot team on the field, a little bit early of a bye, could potentially hurt them in this matchup. This is going to be one heck of a game.
   
• I like Auburn... to lose to Texas A&M, so shoutout the Aggies. I think they keep it going. This really could be the beginning of the end for Auburn. I think they’re a good team, but I really don't think Hugh Freeze is that good a coach. He’s dead last in the SEC among active coaches in one-score ball games right now. I think he loses another one-score game. They've got Georgia next, and they've got Missouri after that, two of the hottest teams in the conference, so I think that fan base can turn on him pretty quickly.
   
• To your point about Auburn, why aren’t they ranked? How dumb are these polls where you go on the road, Oklahoma is No. 11 in one poll, so you drop out by losing to them by several questionable calls? I don’t understand how that knocks you out of the top 25.
   
• I can’t remember in my life that they ever released a statement like the one they did after Auburn-Oklahoma in a conference game, maybe in a non-conference game, but it is ridiculous. We’ve got to do something about the officiating. I think this should be a big priority for Greg Sankey this offseason.