Paul Finebaum recaps 'terrible' Week 1 for the SEC

Three SEC teams played high-profile out-of-conference games in Week 1, with Florida traveling to Utah, South Carolina facing North Carolina and LSU playing Florida State.

Those three teams went 0-3 on the week, and none of the games were particularly close.

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum joined the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning show on Monday and shared what he thought of the SEC’s performance in Week 1.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It was a terrible weekend. You can look at all the other wins and say, ‘Wow, SEC, SEC.’ But those were the three games that everybody was zeroed in on. Those were the single-digit spread games,” Finebaum said. “Everything else – including Tennessee, Virginia – were into the stratosphere. So how do you come out of the first weekend feeling very good? Especially considering that two of those losses were to the ACC. Especially two schools that many wonder if they could end up being in the SEC at some point. I don’t know how anyone could feel very good.”

The first of the three games was played Thursday night as Utah beat Florida 24-11. The Utes led 24-3 entering the fourth quarter, before the Gators scored late to make the score look a little better. Still, it was an ugly performance for Billy Napier‘s club.

Saturday night, South Carolina and North Carolina met in Charlotte with ESPN College GameDay in town for the matchup. The Gamecocks led late in the second quarter and trailed by only 3 at the half, but UNC pulled away for a 31-17 win.

Then on Sunday, the SEC really had a tough night. LSU is expected to contend for the SEC West this season after winning the division last year. However, Florida State clearly looked like the better team during the meeting in Orlando.

LSU hung around for a while and led 17-14 at the half, but the Seminoles absolutely dominated the final 30 minutes. FSU led 45-17 at one point, before LSU scored late for the final score to be 45-24.

The Tigers getting blown out by Florida State is the game that really hurts the SEC, according to Finebaum.

“The costly defeat of course was last night. Because now LSU, which was the pick of many to be in the playoffs, they’re out of mulligans. I mean they have nowhere to go. They have to win out, unless some crazy circumstance occurs,” Finebaum said. “So I didn’t come out of it feeling great about the SEC. But then again, I think the one last night was probably the fairest comparison. And it came out terrible.”