Miami
crashes the party
By
Jeff Sallas
Miami at
Tennessee – The game of the week
(Saturday at
2:30 CDT on CBS)
The
Hurricanes storm into Knoxville this week miffed that they are #3 in the
BCS. Interesting trivia for you, A very
good Miami team in 1985 came into the Sugar Bowl whining about not being
respected and didn’t take Tennessee very serious. The Vols then nearly ran them out of the Superdome. The moral of the story is don’t worry about
that stuff till you have won all your games.
Before the season this game was supposed to be a matchup of national
championship contenders. It is still a
big game but not quite as big as it was expected to be.
The best
matchup of the game will be the Hurricane offense against the Vol defense. This should be a real fight. I expect the Vol defense to come out and
play well as they have each week.
However they will certainly have their hands full with Heisman hopeful
Ken Dorsey, super RB Willis McGahee and another awesome Hurricane OL. When the Vols have the ball it doesn’t seem
like it will be that even. Miami has a
very good defense and it sure doesn’t seem like the Vol offense can score
enough points to win this game.
The Vols
rolled up a lot of yards against South Carolina but was still only able to
score 18 points. I just don’t know how
Tennessee can score enough points to hang with the Hurricanes. And to make things worse, Tennessee has been
the one making all the mistakes at Neyland Stadium this year. Against Florida and Bama I think the Vols
totaled almost double-digit turnovers.
Gotta go with...
MIAMI OVER
TENNESSEE
LSU at
Kentucky
(Saturday at
11:30 CDT on Jefferson Pilot – regional)
The
first of 3 big West vs. East matchups to look at this week. LSU after a week off returns for their
stretch run. Last year the Tigers
destroyed everything in their path.
They are in control of their own destiny and simply have to win out to
get back to Atlanta. They start off
with a tough one in Lexington.
Kentucky
comes in after a win over Miss St last week.
The Wildcats didn’t play particularly well but capitalized on 4 State
INTs. The Wildcats didn’t even total
300 yards total offense while State rolled up nearly 400 yards on
Kentucky. The Kentucky defense that was
tough early on looks to be wearing down fast.
Arkansas, Georgia and State have all rolled up big yards on the Cats the
last 3 weeks.
I look for
LSU to have their usual slow start but sooner or later I think they will wear
down Kentucky and break through.
LSU OVER
KENTUCKY
Ole Miss at
Georgia
(Saturday at
6:00 CDT on ESPN2)
Maybe the
most critical game of the week. Georgia
has to win it or they miss out on Atlanta again. The Dawgs will try to get back on their feet after a tough tough
loss to Florida. It doesn’t sound like
anybody connected to Georgia took that loss very well. Georgia is still beat up also.
Ole Miss
comes in after watching their season pretty much go down the tubes the last 3
weeks. They have lost 3 consecutive
games to divisional opponents who completely shredded their defense. If it is possible their defense might be
worse than last year. The really sad
thing is the coaching is so bad that it hurts the players. Ole Miss continues to play a 4-2-5 “nickel”
defense against big strong running teams.
In the last 3 weeks Bama, Arkansas and Auburn all rolled up around 250
yards rushing. These 3 teams are about
1-2-3 in the SEC in rushing. Why in the
heck would Ole Miss try to implement a defense that is much better against the
pass when they play in a division that runs the ball??? I just don’t understand it.
Last year
Mark Richt didn’t even try to pass the ball very much. In fact he ran the ball an unbelievable 49
times. I look for more of the same and
I look for the Ole Miss defense to get shredded for the 4th week in
a row.
GEORGIA OVER
OLE MISS
Arkansas at
South Carolina
(Saturday at
11:30 CDT on Jefferson Pilot – regional)
A great
matchup. We should see plenty of it as
these two teams will be the permanent “other-division” team on the SEC’s new
schedule next year. South Carolina once
again comes in out of the divisional picture but simply playing for a good
bowl. Arkansas on the other hand is
still in it in the West.
Both teams
are tough running teams with playmakers at QB.
For South Carolina it is Corey Jenkins and for Arkansas it is Matt
Jones. The Arkansas offense is a real
mystery. They absolutely run over
Auburn, Kentucky and Ole Miss but are held to only 6 first downs and 125 yards
total offense by Troy St (???!!!???).
Unbelievable.
South
Carolina also got shutdown last week by the Vols. I expect a low scoring close game which I believe is about par
for the course in this series. Last
year Arkansas upset South Carolina when the Gamecocks were #9 in the
nation. I think Lou Holtz and Co will
return the favor this year and knock the Razorbacks out of title contention...
SOUTH
CAROLINA OVER ARKANSAS
Elsewhere...
Bama over
Miss St
Florida over
Vandy
Auburn over
La-Monroe
Overall picking SEC vs. SEC/BCS opponents I went 3-2 last week missing Florida and Tennessee winning. Overall I am 32-12. Overall including patsies I went 4-2 and am at 58-14.