An
attempt at “returning to normalcy”
By
Jeff Sallas
Well... where do you start? I will attempt to not do any commentary on
the events of last week, I think we have more than enough people doing
that. I think we all feel the same
about those events. It will obviously
remain the top and most important issue but as we all know we must go on. Should we have played sports last weekend? I don’t know, I understand both of the
arguments. It probably ended up being
the best thing that we didn’t play.
However it upset me that the people who didn’t think we should play
would criticize their fellow Americans so harshly that felt we should.
It is a moot point now and I can definitely
say for myself that I am ready to watch some football this week. I guess the most direct impact on the
football games will be the increased security measures. Fans will be able to bring less into the
games and will be searched more thoroughly.
Also I think everyone in the stadium for a long time will hold their
breath if they see any kind of airplane.
It is probably a senseless fear but one that you cannot help.
Alright back to football. Everyone has had a week off, a bad week
obviously but a week off nonetheless.
It has made this season a unique one.
All conference games last week were rescheduled for Saturday December 1st
and the SEC title game was pushed back to Saturday December 8th. Those games were UT/Florida, Auburn/LSU and
Vandy/Ole Miss. All the other
non-conference games are to be rescheduled by the individual schools.
It looks as though some of those games will
not be able to be rescheduled and that several teams will probably get a
Division 1-AA team to come in during an open week to regain that home game
payoff. I am not criticizing but just
stating a fact. The only non-conference
game that was not a home game for the SEC team was Kentucky at Indiana. It looks like that game will be made up on
December 1 but it could be made up on October 27 as well when both teams have
an open date.
Let’s look at what we have on tap for this
week...
An old fashioned “slobberknocker”. I don’t know how this game got to be on
Thursday night. It is by far the best
conference game of the week plus both teams are ranked in the top 20. Thursday nights usually do not include
big-time conference matchups. ESPN
really lucked out here. After this game
Miss St will still have yet to play on a Saturday...
This game obviously features 2 tough physical
teams. Their game last year in Columbia
was a classic with South Carolina winning a close one. It was a great game. I look for more of the same this year but I
think both defenses are not quite as good as last year. However both offenses should be better so
maybe we will see more scoring than usual for these teams.
South Carolina enters the game going against
it’s second Bulldog team in a row on the road.
South Carolina won a big one in Athens 2 weeks ago. I think we can glean a lot from that game
about South Carolina’s strategy in this game.
South Carolina ran a very balanced offense running the ball 36 times and
throwing it 29 times. I look for a similar
game plan against Miss St except they might throw the ball more. South Carolina was only able to muster 43
yards against Georgia. That does not
bode well for this week. I think South
Carolina will have to be able to run better than that or it will come back to
haunt them sooner or later.
On the flip side, SC senior QB Phil Petty
played a great game against Georgia. He
went 19 for 29, he didn’t turn the ball over and he didn’t give up any big
sacks. That is another aspect of this
game that really makes it good. You
have 2 veteran senior QBs going against each other with Wayne Madkin on the
other side for Miss St. Both are not
premier playmakers but both have led their teams to great seasons in the past.
Miss St looks to be in good shape against the
South Carolina defense. Georgia had
decent success running against the Gamecocks and they don’t have near the
running game State does. I look for
State to pound away with their two great tailbacks, Dontae Walker and Dicenzo
Miller. I don’t think that is any big
secret but I do think State might try throwing some short passes to these guys
too to get things started early. Miss
St didn’t really get rolling till the 3rd quarter against Memphis
and have probably been focusing on getting a better start offensively.
I am also really looking forward to the chess
match on the field as well with 2 veteran coaches who have been through it
all. This is just a great matchup. I think the teams are about even. I think State has a better running attack, I
think South Carolina has a better passing attack and I think the defenses are
both tough. I give the edge to State
for 2 reasons, they have the homefield advantage and they just have more
playmakers on offense with Walker and Miller.
These guys can blow a game open at any time.
MISS ST OVER SOUTH CAROLINA
This is always a pretty good matchup but this
year does not feature a whole lot of offense.
Bama’s first win for coach Dennis Franchione was a little bigger than
most people think. It wasn’t pretty but
a lost to Vandy would have been devastating for this year. Sometimes a win, no matter how ugly, really
helps. I have seen it many times. It just loosens things up and helps the team
want to get better. Also a conference
win is always precious no matter who it is against.
Bama played it pretty conservative against
Vandy running the ball more than double the times they passed it. I look for more of the same this week. The fans won’t like it but the simple fact
is Arkansas’ offense is so bad that once you get the lead you don’t want to give
them anything. Usually I am against
that kind of thinking, usually I think it causes comebacks like Ole Miss’
comeback against Auburn last week.
However I think it is absolutely the right thing to do against a team as
bad offensively as Arkansas. The last 2
weeks Arkansas has been about as bad offensively as you can be.
The Razorbacks have only gained barely over
200 yards on offense in 2 games. They
have run for 44 yards on 52 carries for a total of –6 yards. Ouch.
The running attack was supposed to be the strength of the offense with
Cedric Cobbs but their total inability to pass has killed them. Houston Nutt went with JUCO transfer Ryan
Sorahan all the way last week against UT after using 4 QBs against UNLV. He went 8 for 16 for only 73 yards and 2
INTs. A driving rainstorm didn’t help
either.
I would say QB Zak Clark should be
through. He has been terrible in just
about every game he has played in this year and last. The Razorbacks desperately miss last year’s starter Robby Hampton
who is hurt. He wasn’t great but he was
solid and miles ahead of anything they have at the moment. I am not sure what the Razorbacks are going
to do against Bama. I guess I would
look for them to try and throw some short passes to try and loosen things up for
the running game.
Meanwhile the Bama offense was not able to
put it in the end zone against Vandy.
They once again rolled up almost 400 yards of offense but have yet to
just drive it down and put it in.
However things sure look better than Arkansas. Tyler Watts has been steady rolling up over 300 yards passing in
2 games and Ahmaad Galloway has established himself as the main running back
rolling up 144 yards last week. I
wouldn’t look for a big breakout game this week since Arkansas’ defense has been
pretty good but I would look for more confidence.
I just don’t see how Arkansas can score
enough points to win this game. I look
for a close low-scoring game unless Bama can blow it open...
BAMA OVER ARKANSAS
The young Tigers head to New York to play
Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Another
good out of conference game in a year full of them. Syracuse is the favorite last time I saw by a point and a
half. This will be the only the second
time these 2 teams have played. The
first was the infamous 1988 Sugar Bowl where Pat Dye went for the tie instead
of the win. I have never understood the
Syracuse reaction to that game. I can
understand Auburn fans criticizing the call but how can the opposing team say
anything? The other team can do
whatever they want.
Well back the present, Auburn brings in a
tough defense that should give the Orangemen problems. Syracuse is primarily a running team as
evidenced by their 42 rushing attempts against UT. They were only 6 for 21 passing against the Vols. Auburn’s weakness on defense as shown
against Ole Miss is their passing defense.
It doesn’t look like Syracuse will be able to exploit that. That doesn’t bode well as Auburn has been
awesome against the run this year and last.
However, Syracuse has been very good on
defense as well. They held a very good
Georgia Tech offense under 20 points and held the Vols in Knoxville under 20
points for 3 quarters. This is stacking
up to be a low-scoring defensive slugfest.
I think Auburn will come in with a game plan to utilize some of their
speed guys on the Carrier dome turf.
I look for offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone
to get the ball in the hands of WR Tim Carter and RB Cas Moore a good bit this
week. Meanwhile Auburn starting
tailback Ronnie Brown should get plenty of work as well. I also think true freshman Carnell
“Cadillac” Williams will get some PT this week as well to utilize his
speed. I think Auburn will try to get
the ball in the hands of these playmakers with hand offs and short passes and
see if they can break one.
Auburn also gets back from injury starting
WRs Marcel Willis and Jeris McIntrye this week which should help as well. Auburn has yet to establish a long range
passing game. They will need a hit a
few of those to loosen up that Syracuse defense. I think one of the most important factors for Auburn will be to
get that early lead. That helps a young
team so much. If Syracuse gets some
cheap points early then that could really swing the game in their favor.
This is a close call with Syracuse being at
home but I think Auburn’s defense is as good as Syracuse’s defense and I think
Auburn has more playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.
AUBURN OVER SYRACUSE
The Gators invade the Bluegrass State looking
to pad their stats. Hmmm... I will go
out on a limb and say Rex Grossman will have at least 300 yards passing and
Jabar Gaffney will have at least 100 yards receiving. That will be 3 games in a row for them to start the season. These guys are quickly growing into one of
the great QB/WR combinations. Grossman,
Gaffney and Caldwell really are starting to look like Wuerffel, Hilliard and
Anthony.
Meanwhile the UK fans will actually be happy
to see the Gators as they will remind them that All-SEC point guard Teddy Dupay
got kicked off the basketball team thus making it easier for the Wildcats to
win the SEC East in basketball. The
football game? Hey you gotta do
something before basketball season starts...
FLORIDA OVER KENTUCKY
This is actually a tough game to pick. I think Vandy is better but they seem to
really play down to their competition plus their loss to Bama was a real spirit
breaker. They had 1st and 10
at the Bama 20 yard line with 1:30 left and only down by 3 points. They came away with nothing and lost the
game. Vandy looked like a broken team
to start the season and I don’t think the close loss to Bama helped. It was the same old story under Widenhofer,
close but no cigar.
However Vandy better get it together to at
least win this one because there isn’t any more gimmes down the road except
maybe Duke and they have to play them on the road. I guess the fact that I have never heard of a football team from
Richmond bodes well for the Commodores...
VANDY OVER RICHMOND