SOME DAWGS ARE UP AND SOME ARE DOWN
Tuesday 10/09/01
The real SEC game of the week this past weekend was Georgia at Tennessee. What a huge win for first year coach Mark Richt. To go into Knoxville and pull one out is a very tough task. The Georgia Bulldogs just jumped back into the SEC East race and more importantly got a win they can build their new program on. Meanwhile the Big Orange faithful are more than a little upset that this one got away. You look at the stats and you wonder how the heck they lost this game. UT had almost 500 yards of total offense. Clausen had a good day going 24 of 40 for almost 300 yards. Travis Stephens had 176 yards rushing and Kelly Washington had a 100 yards receiving. UT also dominated time of possession holding the ball for almost 40 minutes to Georgia’s 20 minutes.
How did UT lose this game? Everyone who was at the game and saw the game have the same answer… special teams play. Every once in awhile that comes up to bite you and remind you that you can’t neglect it. UT collapsed on special teams play in 3 key areas. One, UT held a 14-3 lead when they allowed a 72 yard punt return for a TD. That helped turned the game around for Georgia. Next, in the crucial third quarter when nobody scored UT slowly lost field position with bad punts. Georgia had a 42 yard punt average while UT only averaged 33 yards a punt. Finally, a bad squib kick gave Georgia awesome field position on it’s last drive. These special teams mistakes dearly cost the Vols and now make a trip to Atlanta only possible if they win out in the conference.
It really may all be a moot point though with the way Florida is playing at the moment. The Gators put on another awesome performance this weekend crushing LSU in Baton Rouge in front of 90,000. Florida rolled up over 600 yards of offense with 500 of that coming through the air. Rex Grossman had his best performance and the school’s best performance passing with 464 yards on 22 of 32 passing. Jabar Gaffney and Reche Caldwell had almost 300 yards of that between them. The Florida defense was also impressive shutting down Rohan Davey and holding LSU to just 15 points. Florida looks unbeatable at the moment. They really look like national championship contenders. Give Spurrier credit he hit a little down time but kept working and now has another great team.
Meanwhile as the Georgia Bulldogs celebrate the Mississippi State Bulldogs have almost been eliminated in the West. Auburn’s Damon Duval kicked an unbelievable 47 yard kick at an angle and into a stiff wind to get the win for the Tigers. It was an exciting end to a pretty ugly game punctuated by several stupid calls by each coach. The dumbest call of the game and one of the dumbest I have ever seen was by Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville. He called for a fake punt on 4th and 16. I think there are times for fake punts but I think the yardage has to be under 10 yards especially if the punter is executing the play. He is already so far behind the line of scrimmage. State stopped the attempt short and scored on the next play. Luckily for Auburn Sherill had been pretty dumb earlier as well. On 4th and 1 from the 1 yard line Sherill went for it rather than kicking the field goal. Yes many times that would be the right call but a field goal would have given State the lead right before the half. In that situation you take the points and get the lead before the half.
However you have to take your hat off to the Auburn defense for that goal line stand. The Auburn defense played very well limiting State to only a little over 100 yards rushing. State was still in a good position to win it but several 3 and outs hurt at the end. The Auburn offense continues to cough and sputter. Freshman Jason Campbell was way off on Saturday. Campbell continues to be hurt by a slow and late release. He keeps throwing the ball too late. Luckily Auburn’s offensive line and running backs were fired up and wanted to atone for Auburn’s 26 yards rushing against State last year. Auburn’s Cas Moore had 160 yards on 20 carries and has taken over as the starter at TB for Auburn. Auburn looks very shaky but sits atop the SEC West at the moment at 3-0.
Meanwhile Miss St is down 0-3 in the conference with games remaining against LSU, Bama, Arkansas and Ole Miss. I think they have a decent team but are definitely not the physical intimidators they have been over the last 4 years. I think the first thing Sherill can do is light a fire under that offensive line and get the running game back up there. I still have no doubts about the ability of Miller and Walker but they are not getting the same blocking this year.
Elsewhere last weekend South Carolina crushed Kentucky and Bama, Ole Miss and Arkansas all scored big wins over weak non-conference opponents.