The
battle for the state of Florida…
By
Jeff Sallas
Miami at
Florida – The game of the week (Saturday at 4:00 CDT on CBS)
The defending national champion invades the Swamp to battle for the state championship. The old series picks up again and the trio is now complete. Florida, Florida St and Miami are all playing each other. If there is a winner of this state championship then that team will probably be playing for the national championship.
The big
storyline for this game is simple, the two QBs. These two QBs are probably the best in college football. Ken Dorsey led Miami to a national
championship while Rex Grossman has won an SEC title and had one of the best
seasons in college football history last year stat-wise. Both are Heisman candidates and that trophy
is usually won or lost in games like this.
Both teams
lost quite a few playmakers and impact players last year but still return a lot
of talent. Both teams are still very
good offensively but this game ought to show how good both defenses are. Both teams feature solid running games which
are overshadowed by the QBs. Converted
WR Jason Geathers had over 200 yards rushing last week for Miami while steady
senior Ernest Graham got close to 200 for Florida. I think both teams will make considerable effort to establish a
running game early but the big plays will probably come through the air. Man this should be an interesting game.
Obviously a
tough pick and I have gotten burned the last couple of years picking Florida
over Florida St but… I gotta go with
the Gators at the Swamp with Rex Grossman…
FLORIDA OVER
MIAMI
Bama at
Oklahoma – (Saturday at 2:30 CDT on ABC)
Another
candidate for game of the week. What
Florida/Miami is to offense this game will probably be to defense. Most people nationally are looking for a
Sooner blowout but the Sooner offense has been extremely inconsistent since the
national championship season. Oklahoma
only beat a very average Arkansas team 10-3 in the Cotton Bowl last year. Against Tulsa last week Oklahoma didn’t
score a TD in the first half. They woke
up in the second half but the jury is still out on QB Jason White. However they do have a great RB in senior Quentin
Griffin who rushed for 237 yards averaging 14 yards a carry (!!!).
Obviously the
Bama defense will be poised to stop the run and they are much better at
that. Different people have listed
different reasons for Bama’s run to end last season. To me it was very simple, they stopped playing passing
teams. Against teams that could pass
the ball pretty well last year, i.e. South Carolina, Ole Miss, Tennessee and
LSU, Bama lost. Against teams that
could not pass the ball very well, i.e. Arkansas, Miss St, Auburn and Southern
Miss, Bama won handily. I don’t think
it was coincidence. This group of
defensive players is much better against the run than they are the pass.
Oklahoma is
going to have to make some big plays through the air to take out the Tide. On the other side of the ball, Bob Stoops is
calling this one of his best defenses ever.
That is high praise when you consider some of the units he has led at
Florida and Oklahoma. They are very
very good. I don’t think they have a
glaring weakness against the pass or run so I think Bama should just do what
they do best and that is run the ball.
They were the top rushing team in the SEC last year, they have a big
physical OL and they have a stable of RBs.
I would just keep pounding on the Sooners. I would not run a whole lot of options, that is not going to be
effective against Oklahoma. Watts
should pass enough to keep the Sooners honest in my opinion. If Bama tries to trick or finesse the
Sooners I do not think they will be too successful.
I am tempted
to pick the upset here. I think Bama
can win this game if Watts can play a turnover-free game. I think it will be very close but it is very
hard to pick against the team that is at home and has the best defense plus the
best coach on the field…
OKLAHOMA OVER
BAMA
South
Carolina at Virginia – (Saturday at 6:45 CDT on ESPN)
The last big
game of the week. There was a lot of
unsatisfied players, coaches and fans after South Carolina’s lackluster opener
against New Mexico (of course they need to remember 3 years ago). Offensive coordinator Skip Holtz has
promised to open up the offense and let senior QB Corey Jenkins pass more. However he did rush for over 100 yards last
week while RB Andrew Pinnock came in just under a 100.
However the
offense wasn’t really the problem it was South Carolina’s defense. New Mexico ran up 400 yards of offense and
led the game in time of possession.
Things have gone even worse for Virginia. After losing a close game to Colorado St the Cavaliers were
thumped by Florida St last week. As
with all ACC teams they have a pretty good offense but their defense is giving
up nearly 40 points a game.
This could
actually turn into a shootout. I guess
the deciding factor is that Virginia let Florida St. run up about 300 yards on
the ground last week. I don’t think
Florida St is as good a running team as South Carolina and that spells trouble
for Virginia…
SOUTH
CAROLINA OVER VIRGINIA
Memphis at
Ole Miss (Saturday at 11:30 CDT on Jefferson Pilot)
Memphis is no pushover so this should be fairly tough game. However I wouldn’t want to watch it. Every time Memphis plays either Ole Miss or Miss St it is usually an extremely ugly low-scoring affair. Two years ago Ole Miss won 3-0 I believe. I look for more of the same this go-around. No matter how bad it looks, if Ole Miss can escape with a win and Eli Manning uninjured it will be a successful game…
OLE MISS OVER
MEMPHIS
Middle
Tennessee St at Tennessee (Saturday at 6:00 CDT)
MTSU gave Bama quite a scare last week. It won’t happen two weeks in a row. MTSU ran up almost 400 yards against Bama so the Vol defense will have to play. It should be an interesting test for the Vol defense. Meanwhile the Tennessee offense ran and passed the ball 42 times last week. That is what I call balanced! I look for more of the same as they continue to get young WRs and RBs playing time.
TENNESSEE
OVER MTSU
And man does it
get ugly from here… This may be the
worst list of bow-wows I have seen in awhile.
I guess every team has to have a few and it looks like a lot of them are
scheduled for this weekend…
LSU over The
Citadel
Auburn over
Western Carolina
Arkansas over
Boise St
Kentucky over
Texas El-Paso
Vandy over
Furman (maybe???)
Georgia and
Miss St are open this week.
***I went 8-2 last week missing the Kentucky upset of Louisville and the Auburn/Southern Cal game.