Week 1 of the 2024 season is in the books, for the SEC at least, and it was an overall shaky debut for one of the nation’s premiere conferences. Though plenty of the 16 schools beat up on lesser opponents, the SEC had a more difficult time leaving an impression against more equally matched Power Four foes.
In fact, SEC teams went 1-3 against ranked opponents in Week 1. Now, to be fair, a couple of those losses were expected: unranked Florida lost at home to No. 19 Miami, and No. 20 Texas A&M had No. 7 Notre Dame locked in a defensive battle until the Irish pulled away at the end. But No. 13 LSU lost in Las Vegas to No. 23 USC as a neutral-site favorite, dropping to 0-5 in its last five season openers. And it is important to mention that Texas A&M was favored over the Irish.
Otherwise, the SEC was spotless. A majority of those wins came against either FCS or Group of Five opponents, but No. 1 Georgia handled business against No. 14 Clemson and Vanderbilt started its year off with a bang by beating Virginia Tech, earning its first win against a power conference opponent since Nov. 19, 2022.
With all 16 SEC teams kicking off their respective seasons in Week 1, there’s plenty to take away — even from the non-competitive tune-up games. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from each SEC program in the first week of the 2024 season.
The good: Physicality wasn’t an issue for Kalen DeBoer’s debut. Some were worried that Alabama would lose its edge when it hired DeBoer from Washington. Though Western Kentucky was hopelessly overmatched, the Crimson Tide still looked plenty aggressive — especially on defense. They only had one sack, but managed seven tackles for loss and four quarterback pressures while limiting the Hilltoppers to a paltry 1.6 yards per carry.
The bad and ugly: The Kadyn Proctor injury. It’s never good news when you lose your franchise left tackle before the first game of the season even kicks off. He spent Saturday on the sidelines in street clothes and a sling on his left arm after suffering an apparent upper body ailment in warmups. Thankfully for Alabama, Proctor is going to be OK as 247Sports reports he’s week-to-week and could suit up against Wisconsin in two weeks. Still, it was a scare that soured what was otherwise a party of a Saturday night.
