SEC Football Unfiltered

SEC Football Unfiltered•www.usatoday.com

SEC Football Unfiltered features hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams of the USA TODAY Network serving opinion, debate and analysis on trending college football topics within the Southeastern Conference. No subject is off limits, and no one is above rebuke. Take off the filter and revel in the banter.

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Episodes

Fact or fiction: On Georgia football's dominance, Alabama's quarterback and the SEC's hot seat

Who will be Alabama's starting quarterback , and how long will he remain the starter? Will this be the first season since 2018 that no SEC coach is fired? Will anyone test Georgia? And, in the 10th and final season of the four-team College Football Playoff, will the SEC qualify two teams for the third time ? These are questions on our mind as Week 1 nears kickoff. It's about to get real, starting with Florida's game at Utah on Thursday. South Carolina will clash with North Carolina on Saturday n...

Aug 29, 2023•56 min

Why we're second-guessing these SEC football predictions

Prediction season is nearly finished. Games are nearly here. That leaves one last chance for preseason takes – or, in our case, second-guessing predictions. As kickoff nears, we're changing our opinion of a few teams. We haven't scrapped any predictions at the top of either division, but the middle of the SEC East and the bottom of the SEC West could use re-evaluation. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams revisit some of their preseason predictions that are giving them second...

Aug 22, 2023•48 min

Why four SEC football teams are poised to play spoiler to the frontrunners

Voters in college football's two major polls agree : Georgia, Alabama, LSU and Tennessee are the SEC's top teams entering the season. That's two teams per division. Outside of that quartet, who are the SEC's party-wreckers? We're talking teams that can finish better than their division projection, spring a couple of upsets and maybe even spoil the College Football Playoff hopes of a preseason frontrunner. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams examine the credentials of four po...

Aug 15, 2023•52 min

SEC football doesn't have to fear the Big Ten – yet. What if the ACC fractures?

The Big Ten can compete with the SEC on the financial ledger, and the conference will span from coast to coast after the arrival of four Pac-12 teams. But, the SEC isn't in danger of getting passed on the playing field – not yet, anyway. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams discuss what the Big Ten’s additions (and the Pac-12’s demise) mean for the SEC and whether the SEC needs to craft a rebuttal expansion. Their verdict: While the SEC would have preferred for the Pac-12 to ...

Aug 08, 2023•47 min

Adios, Missouri. Hello ... UCF? We suggest a four-team swap between SEC and Big 12

The Big 12 looked in dire straights two years ago after the SEC’s heist of Oklahoma and Texas . The conference endured, and it’s enjoying a renaissance. Colorado became the Big 12's latest seizure. We’re so intrigued by this alignment of Big 12 programs, we’re eyeing a four-team swap with the SEC. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams engage in a thought exercise: If the SEC was required to swap four teams in an exchange with the Big 12, which quartet should it say farewell to...

Aug 01, 2023•54 min

Offering our lukewarm SEC football takes; plus, Nick Saban gets philosophical

Five credentialed media members think Vanderbilt will win the SEC Championship. Now that's a hot take. We can't match that boldness – or, is lunacy a better word? – but we do have a few against-the-grain SEC football predictions. Call them lukewarm preseason takes. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams offer their predictions that swim upstream against the votes cast at last week's SEC Media Days. From the last-place debate in the SEC West to the SEC East's sleeper team to a q...

Jul 26, 2023•48 min

Imagining if Tennessee football had hired Shane Beamer, Billy Napier or Hugh Freeze

Phillip Fulmer didn't want to fire Jeremy Pruitt after the 2020 season, but if that's the direction Tennessee chose, Fulmer had a plan to replace the embattled coach. Fulmer was UT's athletics director at the time, and he drafted a list of 16 possible candidates. Fulmer's list of names ranged from the unimaginative to the unqualified to the unreal. (One of Fulmer's listed names, Alex French, is not a football coach.) However, his list also featured a few possibilities that other SEC schools woul...

Jul 18, 2023•51 min

When will LSU football contend for national title? Brian Kelly weighs in

After a banner year for LSU athletics, is Brian Kelly's football program next in line for a national championship? Hang on just a second. Kelly, in a recent interview with the USA TODAY Network , identified 2024 as the season his Tigers should be expected to seriously contend for a national championship. Nonetheless, hype builds for Kelly's second season after the Tigers won the SEC West in his debut. On today's episode, hosts Blake Toppmeyer and John Adams dissect Kelly's comments and what they...

Jul 11, 2023•48 min

What Missouri, Aggies will think of OU, Texas being in SEC; plus, which SEC QBs impressed at Manning camp?

The SEC is one year away from hosting something of a Big 12 reunion, but don’t expect Missouri and Texas A&M to offer any welcoming hugs for their old conference rivals, Oklahoma and Texas. The Longhorns were a polarizing presence in the Big 12, and their actions more than a decade ago (along with Oklahoma's maneuvers, to a lesser extent), contributed to Missouri and A&M leaving the conference in favor of the SEC. On today's episode, host Blake Toppmeyer is joined by PowerMizzou.com’s Ga...

Jun 27, 2023•46 min

Which four SEC teams will have toughest time making 12-team College Football Playoff?

This season marks the 10th and final year of the four-team College Football Playoff , a format the SEC has dominated. Alabama, Georgia and LSU combined for six national championships during the past nine years. But those three teams are also the only three SEC teams to qualify for the playoff. Although Tennessee, Florida and Auburn won at least one BCS national championship, they’ve been shut out of the CFP. Insert the 12-team playoff, which will debut in 2024 and will offer a broader playoff op...

Jun 22, 2023•54 min

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