FLORIDA AND AUBURN ONE GAME FROM REMATCH
Monday 11/12/01
The Florida Gators and the Auburn Tigers are one win, over their biggest SEC rivals, from a rematch in Atlanta. However make no mistake about it, Bama and definitely Tennessee are good enough to rain on the parade. The conference race has basically boiled down to 3 teams: Florida, Tennessee and Auburn with Ole Miss and LSU waiting if Auburn stumbles. On the flip side, the Vanderbilt Commodores regained their status as the worst team in the SEC and I think they can retire the trophy. Hal Mumme really killed the Kentucky program but even contending with that UK crushed the Commodores. Kentucky at least has much better facilities than Vandy and maybe a few other teams in the SEC. Vandy on the other hand is just not on the same plane as every other SEC team. The majority of it is high academic standards which they can be proud of but another part of it is their facilities which the worst in the conference.
Looking at the games from this weekend... I guess the most surprising thing was Florida crushing South Carolina at home. I think everybody expected a better game. It was pretty much your standard Florida game. Rex Grossman had 300 yards passing and 3 TDs with Jabar Gaffney catching over a 100 of those yards. Ernest Graham also had close to 100 yards on the ground. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at South Carolina's game plan but I was a little. They tried the
"old-school-keep-the-ball-away-from-Florida-by-running-it" approach. Obviously it didn't work. The Gamecocks ran the ball 43 times and only passed it 17 times. That just isn't going to do it unless you can run like Nebraska or like Miss St did last year. South Carolina could only must 264 yards total on Florida's defense while Florida rolled up close to 500 yards on a good South Carolina defense at home.
Auburn once again beat Georgia in Athens. The streak continues into the 21st century... Georgia has now only beat Auburn at home twice in the last 20 years. The Bulldogs were ready to play this time but Auburn was able to control the ball for longer on the ground. I tell you they talk about these teams being even just about every year but this is getting ridiculous... Auburn and Georgia both had exactly 375 yards of total offense plus the game ended with Georgia being 1 yard away from the score being tied. That is even. Georgia head coach Mark Richt is taking a lot of heat for his decision to take one shot running the ball and letting the clock run out with his team at the Auburn one yard line. It was definitely a bad call but I thought Richt was very open about it. However the exact same thing happened to Auburn in 1992 so I don't think the Auburn fans are feeling too sorry for Georgia.
The story of the game for Auburn was true freshman Carnell "Cadillac" Williams who ran an Auburn record 41 times for 167 yards. A true freshman running that many times is unbelievable not to mention he also caught 4 catches for 71 yards. In fact Williams 67 yard run off a screen pass was the game-winner for Auburn. The kid really looks like something special. Auburn QB Daniel Cobb played his best overall game yet for Auburn despite being sacked 7 times (!!!). The Auburn coaches might want to rethink their constant use of the shotgun formation. Everytime they lined up in it Georgia would change defenses and blitz. I mean it was almost funny after awhile. Auburn's senior OL is probably the biggest factor in their success but young sophomore RT Monreko Crittenden has been exposed as the weak link passing for Auburn. The kid is a good run-blocker but has just been abused by every good pass-rusher Auburn has played.
This loss hurts a good bit in Athens. They really wanted it but they didn't get it and still have plenty of tough games. Georgia has to regroup and go to Oxford to play a rested Ole Miss team and then go to Atlanta to play arch-rival Georgia Tech. I think we will find out a lot about the character of this Georgia team in the next 2 weeks. Both games are very important but
now that Georgia is out of the SEC race I think Tech is the most important. At Georgia a coach is graded on his success against UT, Florida, Auburn and Tech. If Richt can beat Tech he can finish his first year at 2-2 against the "big four".
Elsewhere in the SEC... Bama finally put away some of the demons of last year's season by beating Miss St and stopping their losing streak. Tyler Watts was hurt early and senior QB Andrew Zow came in and led the team to the win. Bama RB Santonio Beard had another good game almost getting 100 yards and getting 2 TDs, one being the game winner. Miss St really looked bad in the first half until Kevin Fant relieved Wayne Madkin at QB. State played a good bit better after that but you really have to wonder how much the State coaches work on penalties. I would think that would really start affecting the players when you have so many good plays nullified by a dumb penalty. Things look pretty bleak for State this year and the heat may be on head coach Jackie Sherill.
The Tennessee Vols broke out on offense after a tough game against Notre Dame last week. WR Dante Stallworth had a career day against Memphis with 7 catches for 142 yards and 3 TDs. QB Casey Clausen also had a career day as he threw for 5 TDs and nearly 300 yards. Travis Stephens had another 100 yards game and the Vols rolled up over 500 yards of offense against Memphis. I will say for the record, people are underestimating this Tennessee team. They are bringing it every week and if not for some bad coaching at the end of the Georgia game they would be undefeated. The Florida game is really shaping up to be one for the ages. I believe this Tennessee team is good enough to go toe-to-toe with Florida.
Well it is finally here... "Rivalry Week". Actually it should be "Rivalry WeekS". Over the next 2 weeks all the great end of the year rivalries will be played plus the cancelled Sept 15 games of UT/Florida and Auburn/LSU. It should be a great two weeks of football...