Week 6 Overreactions: Conner Weigman, Texas A&M are legit SEC contender, Alabama flaws exposed, Michigan, USC and Mizzou are cooked

The chaos has arrived. After the doozy’iest weekend of the 2024 season, it’s time for a new set of overreactions. 

The Week 6 overreactions:

If Texas A&M has *this* version of Conner Weigman, then the Aggies are a legitimate SEC contender 

Conner Weigman missed the last three weeks with a shoulder injury, leading many — including Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz apparently! — that the Aggies had moved on to backup quarterback Marcel Reed. 

The redshirt freshman seemed like a better fit in Collin Klein’s offense. He was a number in the Aggies’ run-game. He was, after all, 3-0 as a starter in Weigman’s place. 

But head coach Mike Elko was insistent that Weigman remained QB1 so long as he was healthy. And in re-watching the tape, it was evident that Reed had missed several wide open receivers in the wins over Bowling Green and Arkansas, and it wasn’t as if Texas A&M’s offense was exactly humming. 

So Weigman’s return to action against Missouri was interesting, but after the way he played against the Tigers, he had me doing my best

Leo DiCaprio impression.

You had my curiosity, Texas A&M. But now you have my attention, Aggies.

It was as if Weigman’s shoulder injury suddenly gave him the powers of a bionic arm like the kid from The Rookie of the Year, as the former 5-star recruit was nearly flawless in the rout over the Tigers. He led four scoring drives to start the game, and he finished with more throws over 20 yards (five) than incompletions (18 of 22). 

Weigman was precise, decisive and confident. It’s easily the best he’s ever looked. Considering how the rest of the Aggies’ team is playing right now, if they get that kind of QB-play on the regular, this is a scary SEC and College Football Playoff contender. 

Behind Le’Veon Moss, Texas A&M has the No. 2 rushing attack in the SEC. The Aggies have an elite defensive line and a secondary that’s slowly starting to coalesce. They have an excellent game-day head coach and they suddenly have a runway to a double-digit win season. 

There’s no Alabama, Georgia or Ole Miss on the schedule. They get LSU and Texas in College Station. 

Saturday was the first time all year A&M has looked dominant, and much of that had to do with that play from 15. Their upside — as an SEC contender and playoff hopeful — hinges on Weigman repeating such performances. 

Can he?

The Crimson Tide’s flaw have been exposed

Alabama has faced Vanderbilt three times as the No. 1 team in the country. In the two games with Nick Saban, the Tide out-scored the ‘Dores 100-0. 

On Saturday, they lost 40-35. 

There are a slew of takeaways from Saturday’s historic upset, but from a macro perspective, the most notable aspect of the loss for Alabama was that there was absolutely nothing fluky or accidental about it. 

Vanderbilt led wire-to-wire. 

They dominated time of possession by converting 12 third-downs (more than doubling Alabama’s season total allowed the previous four games). 

Diego Pavia, not Jalen Milroe, looked like the Heisman Trophy frontrunner. 

With the alien named Ryan Willians, Alabama is capable of scoring in a flash, but they couldn’t run the ball against Vanderbilt’s front (21 carries for 84 yards).  Also, as was the case in the second half against Georgia, if Milroe can’t get the edge in the read-option game, he’s still a fairly one-dimensional player. 

Defensively, Vandy gave Alabama fits with all its motion, eye candy and horizontal run game. The Tide were so scared of Pavia’s ability to break off a big run (which he never did actually), that it opened up vertical lanes for his teammates. 

This is a SWEET Power Shovel Option! pic.twitter.com/T0hBUKo1al

— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) October 5, 2024

The Commodores didn’t have a run longer than 13 yards, but they were able to churn out small gains that setup so many short third-down conversion opportunities. 

It was death by a 1,000 cuts, with Pavia slicing up Alabama’s young secondary for six throws over 19 yards (the 36-yard dot on 4th-and-1 for a touchdown was a bananas pass) for the fatal blows.  

When you then add in the fact that Alabama has been an undisciplined team for most of the season (104th in penalty yards in 2024 with another six penalties for 57 yards, all of which proved critical), Kalen DeBoer’s team has some real issues to sort out. 

The Crimson Tide played the most flawless first half imaginable last weekend against Georgia, but otherwise, they’ve looked like a mortal team for much of the rest of the season. 

A young defense can’t get off the field. The right tackle position is still a concern. Milroe remains a feast-or-famine playmaker. All of the Tide’s goals and aspirations remain attainable, but only if they find some answers on both sides of the ball — fast. 

I’m done with Missouri, Michigan and USC as serious teams in 2024

With the whiffs of 2007 getting stronger and stronger this season, there’s a notion that just because your favorite team has a loss or two already that they remain alive potential spot in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. 

That’s technically true. Come December, much of the field is likely to have around two losses apiece. 

R.I.P. to an undefeated champion anymore. 

But the other side of that equation is that a team like Michigan or USC has zero room for error now, and what evidence is there that either team is capable of suddenly running the table and making noise for a CFP run?

These teams are cooked, and I’m done with them. 

Laughably, the Wolverines remain ranked, but that could come to an end soon with games remaining against Illinois, Oregon, Indiana and Ohio State. Sherrone Moore could be looking at a 7-5 year and a very uncomfortable offseason in Ann Arbor. 

USC looks like a better team than the 2023 Trojans, but Lincoln Riley still can’t stop losing games (he’s 5-7 in his last 12, the same as Billy Napier, Sam Pittman and Hugh Freeze). The upset at Minnesota has completely squandered all the early goodwill he reestablished with the win over LSU. The Trojans’ offensive line is going to get Miller Moss decapitated, and the defense is still struggling to stop the run. 

In what world is this team winning six-straight against the likes of Penn State, Rutgers, Washington, Nebraska and Notre Dame?

As for Missouri, they’ve proven to be the most fraudulent of paper-tigers. Eli Drinkwitz’s team has just the one loss, but unlike even Michigan or USC, they don’t have a single noteworthy win. Brady Cook completed just 13 of 31 passes against Texas A&M, and his yards per attempt, completion percentage and yards per game are all down from last season. 

The Tigers *technically* have a cushy schedule by SEC standards, but perhaps that should be recalibrated considering Mizzou’s lack of quality, too.