Here are the best and worst coaching decisions from around the SEC in Week 13:
GOOD MOVE
It seems ironic Florida coach Will Muschamp could be cited for a good coaching move less than a week after being fired from his job with the Gators, but he managed his quarterbacks brilliantly in Florida’s win over Eastern Kentucky, warranting recognition among this week’s best coaching decisions.
Gators starting quarterback Treon Harris opened Saturday’s game a putrid 2 of 6 passing against Florida’s FCS foe, and the Gators offense struggled as a result. To compensate, Muschamp turned to former starter Jeff Driskel to elevate Florida’s passing game, even though Muschamp had benched Driskel earlier this season.
By game’s end, Driskel completed 9 of his 11 passes for 164 yards and three touchdowns, while Harris completed just 4 of his 12 pass attempts. The decision to work Driskel back into the offense didn’t make or break the Gators’ chances of topping the Colonels (Florida won by seven touchdowns), but it did keep the offense afloat in UF’s final home game of the year.
Florida only ran for 104 yards against EKU, its worst rushing output of the season, and had Harris been tasked with single-handedly leading the Gators passing game the final score might have been closer than necessary. Muschamp didn’t let Driskel’s early-season struggles dissuade him from making a bold in-game adjustment, and it paid off in a big way.
BAD MOVE
Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze has been able to mask his team’s lack of an adequate backup quarterback for much of the season, but he couldn’t hide that deficiency in Saturday’s embarrassing loss to Arkansas.
Starting quarterback Bo Wallace went down with an ankle injury in the first half, forcing him to miss two series before returning to the game. During those series, Freeze alternated between two freshman signal callers — DeVante Kincade and Ryan Buchanan — and neither was able to find a rhythm before Wallace returned to the action. With the game out of reach in the second half, Freeze sat Wallace and again rotated Kincade and Buchanan, who once again struggled to command the Ole Miss offense.
This is more of a season-long bad coaching move than it is specific to Saturday’s game, but the loss to Arkansas showed just how vulnerable the Rebels are when Wallace isn’t on the field. Freeze’s indecisiveness in choosing one backup to develop has left both backups underprepared, and the rest of the offense has yet to find a rhythm with either signal caller. If Wallace goes down again before the end of the year, Ole Miss will have to fight an uphill battle to keep the bottom from falling out on its season.
WORSE MOVE
Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen didn’t make many errors in the Bulldogs’ 51-0 rout of Vanderbilt on Saturday, but he did take a bit of a risk when both teams returned to the field to start the second half.
Leading 37-0 at the time, Mullen chose to leave many of his starters in the game to open the half, including star quarterback Dak Prescott. None of those key starters sustained an injury, but had a star like Prescott taken a bad hit with the game already in hand Mullen would be at the eye of a storm of criticism this week leading up to a huge showdown with Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.
Mississippi State had nothing to gain by leaving its starters on the field with a five-touchdown lead, but it had everything to lose. Mullen must understand that his team is still alive for a national title, and he must gain a better understanding of the big picture when managing his team down the stretch this regular season.
The Bulldogs are healthy and in line to make a run at an SEC West title in this week’s finale, but Mullen deserves to be questioned for his game management in a tune-up game against an underwhelming opponent in Week 13.
