2025 College Football Review: SEC

Photo by Todd Kirkland from Getty Images

What does more mean?

It means 5 teams in the college football playoff.

There is just under a 50% chance the national champion will be an SEC school, and that’s great news for all the conference superfans.

You weirdos.

Biggest Surprise: Arkansas Razorbacks

There weren’t really many surprises in the SEC this year, so I’ll give a shoutout to Arkansas.

Arkansas ended the season with a -11 point differential.

Not positive, obviously, but that’s not terrible! You look at that and assume they were around the 5-7 wins range.

They went 2-10!

That’s incredible!

Biggest Disappointment: LSU Tigers

7-5 with this roster and the high expectations at LSU are just flat out not good enough.

It was so bad that LSU was forced to bite the bullet and fire Brian Kelly, even with his massive buyout.

Now, this rabid fanbase has Lane Kiffin in charge going forward.

Oh boy…

What I Got Right

Hugh Freeze wasn’t good to begin with at Auburn, and it never got better.

The farther away we get from Gus Malzahn’s Auburn tenure, the more it looks like firing him was a mistake.

Every hire since has been an abject disaster.

What I Got Wrong

I didn’t believe Vandy would make a bowl game.

Well, not that I didn’t believe per say. Just that I needed to see them do it again before I bought them as being out of the basement in the SEC.

Not only did they make a bowl game, they went 10-2 and fought for a playoff spot.

Just incredible.

Coach Of The Year: Clark Lea

In the NIL era, Vandy now has the ability to get good football players and improve the squad. All they need is a coach to put it all together.

We saw this year that Clark Lea is absolutely the man for the job.

Vandy, in the NIL era, might start making a lot more noise in the SEC.

Player Of The Year: R. Mason Thomas

Diego Pavia made it to New York as a Heisman finalist, and I know I said previously that being a Heisman finalist is a sure fire way to be player of the year.

But I had to give some love to the leader and best player of a dominant Oklahoma defense, which was one of the best defenses in football this year.

Thomas was a wrecking ball all year long.

Team Of The Year: Vanderbilt Commodores

The leap from 7-6 a year ago to 10-2 and a college football playoff contender this year was a huge leap for Vandy.

There were lots of good teams in the SEC this season, but Vandy stood out as the most impressive to me.