Week 1 SEC Preview

Welcome to the Week 1 SEC Preview. This week marks the official start of the college football season, with Week 0 serving as a pleasant appetizer. Sam Hartman and Notre Dame punched their ticket to the playoff in Dublin. USC discovered that its offensive line has as much trouble blocking as its defense has tackling. Brady Hoke finally beat Ohio, no not that Ohio (State). In the SEC, Vandy waited out a thunderstorm and then held on for a 35-28 win over Hawaii. With the appetizer behind us, we can now move to the main course. There will be no shortage of games this week, with games kicking off Thursday through Monday. Let’s prepare you by taking a closer look at the SEC action this weekend.

Week 1 SEC Preview

All 14 teams in the conference play this weekend. The competition on the field will be light this weekend; six teams play FCS opponents, and five teams are favored by an average of 33.6 points per game. The storylines surrounding the games are more interesting than much of the action on the field. Kentucky and Auburn will hope that the transfer portal stabilizes their quarterback room. Carson Beck takes over in Athens to potentially lead Georgia to history. Nick Saban has not yet tipped his hat on who will lead the Tide in Week 1. Zach Arnett makes his SEC debut, and Hugh Freeze makes his (triumphant?) return. We’ll save these eleven teams for a future preview and keep our attention on the three most competitive and interesting SEC games this weekend. Here’s the Week 1 SEC slate.

All times are EST. The visiting team is listed first. Lines are current as of publishing.

*The game is in Nashville. **The game is in Charlotte. ***The game is in Orlando

Week 1 SEC Preview

Florida vs. Utah

The Gators travel to Salt Lake City on Thursday night to complete the second part of the home-and-home series. Florida is almost a full touchdown underdog to the two-time defending Pac-12 Champion. Anthony Richardson’s fourth-quarter heroics last year kept Billy Napier from starting his Gator career 0-1. The Utah win was one of Flordia’s few bright spots in 2022. The Gators finished a disappointing 5-7 and fell further behind Georgia.

Richardson is gone to the NFL and Napier now turns to Graham Mertz to lead the Gators. Mertz comes in from Wisconsin where he struggled to live up to his four-star rating and early 2020 success. The Gators have the nation’s sixth toughest schedule and will need Mertz and the defense to show up to keep Napier off the hot seat and a second consecutive season from derailing. Utah may be without tw0-year starting quarterback Cam Rising. The quarterback tore his ACL in last year’s Rose Bowl. This bodes well for the Gators, whose defense is assumed to be the team’s strength in 2023.

UNC vs. South Carolina

South Carolina is also an underdog in their opening game matchup against North Carolina in Charlotte. South Carolina seized momentum last season under second-year head coach Shane Beamer. The Gamecocks ended their year with upset wins over Tennessee and Clemson to end the season. Success in 2023 will depend on quarterback Spencer Rattler and receiver Juice Wells. Rattler had a successful first year in Columbia. He set three of the top-18 single-game passing games in school history in 2022, including the fourth-highest mark against Tennessee at 438. After transferring in from James Madison, Wells was Rattler’s favorite target in 2022. As a junior, he earned First-Team All-SEC honors from the SEC Coaches. He made 68 receptions, totaling 928 yards and six touchdowns, surpassing the combined totals of the next two top Gamecock receivers.

The Gamecocks face a tall task to slow down the Tar Heels Drake Maye. He is on the Heisman watchlist for 2023 and will likely be one of the top quarterbacks taken in the 2024 NFL Draft. This game has bragging rights on multiple fronts for both schools. The winner can lay claim as “Carolina’s” team, and it’s an important matchup in the ACC-SEC games this season. The Gamecocks have won four of the last five meetings.

LSU vs. Florida State

The must-see matchup in the SEC and college football comes to us from the Bounce House in Orlando on Monday night. The top ten matchup pits two teams with their eyes on securing a conference championship and returning to the College Football Playoff. LSU last made the College Football Playoff in their historic 2019 season led by Joe Burrow and Co. Florida State has not made the playoff since the playoff expanded in 2014. This is the second straight year the two teams will open up against one another at a neutral site. Last year, the Seminoles capitalized on a comedy of errors and sloppy play to defeat the Tigers in New Orleans. A blocked LSU extra point sent Flordia State to a 24-23 victory. This year’s game should be just as entertaining, but hopefully not as sloppy.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels, linebacker, and pre-season All-American Harold Perkins will lead the Tigers in 2023. Daniels is arguably one of the top returning quarterbacks in the SEC this season. Ranked second to Oregon’s Bo Nix (47) and Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman (45), Daniels is one of the most seasoned quarterbacks in college football, boasting 43 career starts. He threw for over 3800 yards last season and put up 29 combined touchdowns. Perkins burst onto the scene last year as a freshman. He proved to be unstoppable and an unblockable force for the Tigers. Perkins had 72 tackles, a team-high 7.5 sacks, and 13 tackles for a loss. LSU will look to lean on Perkins again against Florida State, as they will be without defensive lineman Maason Smith, who was suspended for illegally signing autographs.

🍿 Grab your popcorn and enjoy the games this weekend. College football is officially back!

Photo courtesy: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports