October
closes with some big games
By
Jeff Sallas
Bama at
Tennessee – The game of the week (Saturday at 6:45 CDT on ESPN)
One of the
SEC greatest rivalries, Bama and Tennessee will mix it up under the lights this
year in Knoxville. In the state of
Alabama and probably Tennessee there has been talk of how this is the SEC’s
greatest rivalry this week. Well the
two teams involved might be the conference’s two most storied schools over the
years, that is a strong argument.
However I don’t know a series that has been so devoid of classic games
in recent times. There have been a few
here and there but mostly over the last 30 years this series has been
completely dominated by one team or another.
The last
seven games of this series have of course been won by the Vols. Other than a tie in 1993, Bama dominated the
series from 1986-1994. Tennessee won
three in a row from 1982 to 1985 while Bama won 11 in a row before that. An unbelievable series of streaks. Could the current one end this year? There looks to be a very good chance. For the first time in a long time it looks
like Bama is stronger in the trenches than UT and has the better running backs. Also the Bama WRs, a weakness coming into
the season, have played better. The
best player on UT’s offense might just be TE Jason Witten. He has definitely appeared to be the leader
of that unit.
Both defenses
are very tough. UT’s defense did the
job again against Georgia, keeping them out of the end zone in the first half,
but the offense couldn’t capitalize.
Meanwhile Bama’s secondary, another weakness coming into the season, has
improved a good bit over last year. I
look for this to pretty low-scoring in the first half. As for the intangibles, UT has the home
field but I think Bama wants it more.
This is the perfect opportunity for Coach Dennis Franchione to get his
signature win. Beating a ranked and
desperate Tennessee team in Knoxville should more than do. Heck it will probably get Franchione another
couple mil on his new contract... I
also think Bama has more playmakers and think a new streak starts this year.
BAMA OVER
TENNESSEE
LSU at Auburn
(Saturday at 11:30 CDT on Jefferson Pilot)
The battle of
the Tigers in Auburn. There has been a
lot of talk over the last few years of Auburn wanting to take advantage of
Bama’s coaching and NCAA problems especially after Auburn went to the SEC title
game in 2000. Bama has won the West
more than anyone and Auburn was second.
With Bama out of the way, it was Auburn’s turn or so it seemed. This looked to be exactly what was happening
till about this time last year. Auburn
was undefeated in the SEC and LSU had 3 losses. There seemed to be no way LSU would win the SEC West but they
did. LSU caught fire and Auburn
completely went into the tank. The
trend has continued this year. Now it
is LSU that comes in undefeated in the SEC while Auburn already has 2 losses
and is down to it’s last chance to stay in the race...
A pretty good
backdrop for what could be a heck of a game.
The question is will Auburn show up and not make a bunch of
mistakes? The last 2 games against
ranked SEC opponents for Auburn have resulted in two blowouts for the
visitors. This LSU team also features
some big strong guys down in the trenches.
Auburn better be ready to play or this could be more of the same. Both teams have gotten out to slow starts in
most of their games this year. I would
look for more of the same this weekend.
Both teams
have their share of injuries. Auburn
has lost MVP RB Carnell Williams and could go into this game with a new QB and
a new kicker to go along with a new RB.
LSU has also lost their starting QB and RB in Matt Mauck and LaBrandon
Toefield. It appears they have also
lost senior safety Damien James who has apparently left the team. If Auburn can hold the line then this one
could go down to the wire, If not... It
could be another tough week for Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville.
LSU OVER
AUBURN
Georgia at
Kentucky (Saturday at 2:30 CDT on CBS)
This game has
gotten much more interesting as Georgia has lost RB Musa Smith and gamebreaker
WR Fred Gibson. A lot of Georgia people
are worried and they should be.
Kentucky is coming off a huge win over Arkansas and will look to get
their first big SEC win at home in a long time.
The first
thing I would have worked on in practice if I was Georgia would be special
teams. Kentucky’s Derrick Abney had
another punt return for a TD to help them win last week and had a kickoff and a
punt return for a TD against Florida.
Mission #1 should be to stop this guy.
Meanwhile senior QB Jared Lorenzen and senior RB Artose Pinner continue
to lead the Cats on offense.
Kentucky has
been much better on defense this year but gave up a whole lot of yards to
Arkansas last week. I am betting we see
some offense in this one as has frequently happened the last few years in this
series. Georgia will need David Greene
and senior WR Terrence Edwards to make some big plays to pull this one out. Georgia definitely has their hands full but
I think they come out on top again.
GEORGIA OVER
KENTUCKY
Ole Miss at
Arkansas (Saturday at 1:00 CDT)
Neither of
these teams had good weeks last week.
Ole Miss was blown out by Bama and Arkansas stumbled against Kentucky at
home. The biggest storyline in this
game will probably be last year’s game when they went 7 OTs to decide it. It was definitely a turning point in each
team’s season. Ole Miss completely went
into the tank after that game and Arkansas rallied to make it to the Cotton
Bowl. It could be another defining
moment for each team in this season as well.
If Ole Miss
can win they can stop the bleeding from the Bama debacle last week and stay in
the SEC West race. If Arkansas can win
they can get that much close to going bowling again. The other storyline would of course be the QBs. Ole Miss QB Eli Manning will face another
tough defense this week. I think
Cutcliffe and Co. really need to open up the offense. The Rebels just don’t have a great RB this year and they have yet
to really get their good young WRs going.
I would come out passing and see what happens.
Meanwhile
Arkansas and QB Matt Jones will do what they do best and that is run the
ball. After watching Bama completely
trample the Ole Miss defense Arkansas has to be salivating. I think this will be where the game is won
or lost. If Ole Miss can slow down
Arkansas and get a lead then they have an excellent chance to grab this
one. On the other hand if that big Razorback
OL gets the upper hand it could be a long day for Ole Miss. I am leaning toward that scenario...
ARKANSAS OVER
OLE MISS
Elsewhere...
Vandy over
Connecticut (maybe...?)
Florida, Miss
St and South Carolina are open this week.
Overall picking SEC vs. SEC/BCS opponents I went 4-1 last week missing the Kentucky win over Arkansas. Overall I am 26-9. Overall including patsies I went 5-1 and am at 50-11.