1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …

If you think it’s bad now Florida fans, get ready to experience some harsh reality.

While you might be able to deal with the gut punch of being 3-3 for the second time in four seasons, or choke down the idea that two weeks into October, another season of returning to the nation’s elite has officially come and gone, there’s no way to stomach this:

That’s Will Muschamp and his South Carolina program in the passing lane of the SEC East, roaring right by his former team.

“I can’t say enough about where we are with the culture of this program,” Muschamp says. “Our guys continue to fight and will it out.”

Or, the exact opposite of what’s going on at Florida.

Before we go further, let’s not overlook the success Gators coach Jim McElwain has had in Gainesville as Muschamp’s successor. He won back-to-back East Division titles (something Muschamp never did), and has been the driving force for significant future change to the program’s aging facilities.

Now, the problem: You’re only as good as your last season, and 2017 has exposed many of the problems that back-to-back East Division titles hid. Among them:

— The inability to develop a quarterback.

— An offensive line that lacks physicality and struggles in pass protection.

— Uneven recruiting on the defensive side of the ball that has led to significant issues in the back seven.

Meanwhile in Columbia, Muschamp has a quarterback (Jake Bentley) who skipped his last year of high school and played like an SEC veteran as a freshman in the second half of 2016, and this fall has developed into one of the SEC’s top young stars.

The South Carolina offensive line had three starters out with injuries last weekend at Tennessee, and still rushed for 194 yards in a key road win. The defense has players from Muschamp’s two recruiting classes playing critical spots, and is 24th in the nation in scoring defense. Florida is 50th.

Florida (3-3 overall, 3-2 SEC) will be favored only twice more this season (at Missouri, UAB); South Carolina (5-2, 3-2) is on pace to win at least eight games.

Understand this: McElwain won’t be fired; his $12 million buyout is too steep for a university investing more than $100 million on facilities improvements. But if Muschamp was fired because his staff couldn’t develop a quarterback and couldn’t score points and play an entertaining brand of football, what exactly has changed in the three years under McElwain – other than two East titles and two blowouts in the SEC Championship Game?

In three seasons, McElwain’s offenses – yards per game and scoring — have all been below Muschamp’s final season in Gainesville:

Jim McElwain 2017 106th (351.2) 97th (23.7) Jim McElwain 2016 166th (344.0) 107th (23.9) Jim McElwain 2015 112th (334.0) 100th (23.2) Will Muschamp 2014 96th (367.6) 56th (30.3)

South Carolina, meanwhile, has used Muschamp’s defense-first philosophy to grind out five wins in seven games, despite numerous injuries on the offense line and the loss of its best playmaker (WR Deebo Samuel) for the season to injury.

More important: South Carolina has a quarterback who can raise the level of play around him and push the Gamecocks into the upper echelon of the East Division and the SEC.

Florida has no quarterback, and its defense – full of McElwain recruits (more on that later) — is a shell of its former self. This isn’t a “youth” thing; it’s a development thing.

Gators quarterback Felipe Franks has been in the system for two years, can’t get past his first progression and routinely misses open receivers. That’s coaching, everyone.

If Franks can’t find his way through progressions, make them easier for him. If he can’t find open receivers, make the throws easier for him. Change the way you coach.

As Steve Spurrier, the most famous Gator of all, once famously said of a former 5-star quarterback recruit, “if you’re not playing how we want you to, it’s my fault for putting you in.”

Look, freshmen and redshirt freshmen play well all over the nation, even in the big, bad SEC (Jalen Hurts, Shea Patterson, Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm, Bentley). If your quarterback isn’t playing well, go to the next one, or the next after him.

Unless, that is, they’re not ready. In that case, the blame again rests on coaching and developing the most important position on the field – the very reason Muschamp was fired by Florida.

2. McElwain vs. Muschamp, Part II

For all the grief Muschamp still takes from Florida fans for the way things unfolded in his past two seasons, there is an unmistakable aura settling in around Gainesville.

Florida is no different today than when Muschamp was fired.

Muschamp and his staff couldn’t develop a quarterback, McElwain and his staff can’t, either. Worse, McElwain began his tenure by proclaiming his dog Clarabelle could play quarterback at Florida and have success – a throwaway line for laughs that will end up haunting him if he can’t get it corrected.

Muschamp arrived in Gainesville in 2011 and cleaned up a cesspool of drugs, entitlement and roster/scholarship manipulation left behind by Urban Meyer, and then did the worst possible thing: won 11 games in Year 2.

Suddenly, all was well in the eyes of spoiled Florida fans. Only it wasn’t. Year 3 bottomed out with the worst record (4-8) since 1979, and Year 4 was a slow climb back (6-6) that cost Muschamp his job.

When he left, Muschamp said the next coach was set up to win big, and that wasn’t window dressing. It was the foundation of McElwain’s two East Division titles.

In the past two years, Florida has had 12 draft picks on defense, including three first-round selections and three second-round picks. Those players were recruited and developed by Muschamp, and were the backbone of 19 wins in McElwain’s first two seasons.

Muschamp also left Will Grier, who then won his first six games at Florida before being suspended for a year by the NCAA for taking a banned supplement. Eight weeks after the NCAA suspension, McElwain told Grier it was best for all involved if he moved on.

Grier, now a star at West Virginia, had five touchdown passes last weekend against Texas Tech. The Florida quarterbacks have combined for four this season – one on a Hail Mary heave on the last play of the game, and two on plays when Kentucky failed to cover receivers.

Two and a half seasons into his tenure in Gainesville, McElwain has a 22-11 record – the same record Muschamp had after 33 games.

3. The mean media

Here’s when you know you’re too damn good: The biggest battle of the season for Alabama isn’t against another opponent, it’s against the fourth estate.

Only this time, Tide coach Nick Saban is playing both sides.

A week after proclaiming positive media attention was like rat poison to his team, Saban took another run earlier this week at the analogy and came up with an interesting twist.

It seems as though the positive press for Alabama could mix with the negative press for Tennessee and embattled coach Butch Jones, and turn the Third Saturday in October into the biggest upset of the season.

How good must life be when you’re literally fabricating ways to keep your uber-talented team motivated to play week by week?

“Why can’t that be a motivating factor for (Tennessee), and they play their best game of the year?” Saban said. “Y’all ever think about that?”

Yes, Nick, I have.

I’ve also considered Alabama is far and away better than Tennessee at every position on the field, and the Tide coaching staff is playing chess while the Vols staff is playing chutes and ladders.

4. Going back

The drama has been full-tilt in Baton Rouge all season. Why not another week of nonsense?

Ed Orgeron returns this week to Ole Miss, the school that gave him his first head-coaching job – and the program where he won just three of 24 SEC games in three seasons before getting fired.

“This is not about me,” Orgeron said about this week’s game at Ole Miss. “This is about our team.”

Truer words could not have been said. Who cares what happened a decade ago; the only thing LSU should recognize is Ole Miss’ ability to score points – and the classic letdown game staring it in the face.

This is where we’ll find out just how galvanized LSU became after those two team meetings prior to victories over Florida and Auburn. LSU QB Danny Etling told me on last week’s First and 10 The Podcast that those meetings got everyone straightened out on the talented but wayward team.

If that truly is the case – and right now, we can only go on two gutsy wins in the last two weeks – LSU can’t blow it this week by looking past Ole Miss and toward No. 1 Alabama on Nov. 4.

The Tigers proved they could deal with adversity the last two weeks. Can they now deal with success?

5. The Weekly 5

Five picks against the spread

Kentucky (+10) at Mississippi State

Tennessee at Alabama (-34)

Auburn (-13) at Arkansas

LSU (-7.5) at Ole Miss

Idaho at Missouri (-14.5)

Last week: 4-1.

Season: 20-15 (.571)

6. The argument for the audible

Ask any coach at any level, and nearly every one will tell you the No. 1 value in a quarterback is a player who can get to the line of scrimmage and see the offense is in a bad play – and change to a better play.

The idea of the audible is simple, really. The quarterback is on the field; he sees the defense and the fronts and pre-snap movement. He hears defensive signals called.

In a perfect world, he’s the extension of the play caller. Now consider this: last weekend, after Auburn blew a 20-0 lead to LSU, Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham said he’s not allowed to audible.

Stidham said he gets the play from offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and, “I’m just doing what I’m told to do and I’m trying to execute at a high level.”

This is unnerving on many levels, but none more than the idea that your starting quarterback doesn’t have input into play calls. Whether a coach is on the sideline or up in the box, he doesn’t see what the quarterback sees on a play-by-play basis.

Many teams use a “look at me” approach to audibles, where quarterbacks get to the line of scrimmage and look to the sideline at the offensive coordinator (if he’s on the sideline) or at an offensive assistant signaling in plays (if the coordinator is up in the box). But at the same time, there are specific situations where quarterbacks are given the ability to change plays: with the play clock running down, or after a defensive adjustment to a change.

If Stidham is walking to the line of scrimmage and running whatever play is called – before or after the “look at me” — that’s will eventually become a significant problem. That might lead to, say, an offense calling 17 straight first down runs – 13 of which came after a 20-0 lead.

This leads to a lack of imagination, which leads to predictability, which can eventually lead to a 27-23 loss and your quarterback throwing for nine yards in the second half.

Auburn is too talented to let something as vital as allowing more minds into the play calling routine ruin what could be a championship season.

7. Saving Sumlin

The old coaching adage is one player doesn’t make a difference. Think about this: one player might just save Texas A&M coach Kevin Smulin’s job.

Freshman quarterback Kellen Mond has played so well since replacing injured Nick Starkel in the season opener, his presence not only has led to wins (over Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida) that might not have happened with Starkel, it has underscored the ability of the Aggies staff to get a freshman ready to play in the toughest league in the nation.

That can’t be overlooked (see: Florida), and is directly related to Sumlin’s choice two years ago of Noel Mazzone as offensive coordinator and Sumlin’s ability to mesh his scheme with Mazzone’s.

Texas A&M likely still must beat Auburn or LSU, and win out in its remaining games (Mississippi State, New Mexico, at Ole Miss) for Sumlin to keep his job. But the play of Mond – and the potential of what could be under Sumlin and Mazzone – might be too much for the Texas A&M administration to ignore.

Mond has the skill-set to be a once in a 10- or 20-year player. He has a strong arm, is dangerous in the run game and is fearless. Those three qualities will win a lot of games in College Station, especially with the defense finally making a turn under coordinator John Chavis.

8. Ask and you shall receive

Hey Matt: Every year we hear Dan Mullen is a candidate for this job or that job, but he’s making over $4 million at State. Why would he leave if he knows he can keep winning eight or nine games and no one complains? If he goes to a bigger school, maybe eight wins isn’t enough!

Christopher Morgan, Memphis

Christopher: The easiest way to explain this is 99.9 percent of coaches have egos. It’s what drives them to win, what fuels their obsessive personalities. It’s what pushes them to constantly think how much better can I be?

Mullen is no different, and frankly, that ego has hurt him in previous job interviews. He wants it how he wants it – and that’s it.

He’s in the middle of Year 9 in Starkville, remarkable staying power in this age of college football where someone is calling for your job on a game-by-game basis.

The Bulldogs are going to win seven or eight games in the regular season, and there will be teams coming after him (Nebraska, for starters). If he’s going to go, now is the time to do it before things get stale like they always do for coaches who stay too long.

He’s young (45) and he could decide to ride it out at Mississippi State until he retires. But I’m betting his ego (just like every other coach) eventually wins out.

9. Numbers game

9: The last time Kentucky won nine games in a football season was 1984, a feat so spectacular, it has been accomplished all of seven times since 1892.

Laugh all you want, but this UK team – which should be unbeaten if it could remember to cover a receiver (twice!) in a loss to Florida – has a strong chance of getting there this fall. The first key step – and hardest game – is this weekend at Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs have a better team, and they’re playing at home behind all things Clanga Clanga. But if UK can find a way to win that game and move to 6-1, there’s a strong chance the Wildcats will have nine wins by the time they play at Georgia with the SEC East Division on the line. Seriously.

The next three games after Mississippi State: Tennessee (a dumpster fire), Ole Miss (see: Tennessee) and at Vanderbilt (has lost four straight by a combined 199-73).

10. Quote to note

“There’s a lot invested in this game more than the game itself,” – Arkansas coach Bret Bielema on Saturday’s game against Auburn, which beat the Hogs 56-3 last season.