GOOD MATCHUPS TURN TO BLOWOUTS
Monday 10/28/02
Just when you thought there was a weekend of good SEC games… All four games were blowouts. First up in Knoxville, Bama finally got over on Tennessee. Bama played a very solid game and was definitely the better team. Bama won the battle up front on both sides of the ball and finally got the job done. Franchione did a good job of with the QBs using Croyle as the “passing QB” and Watts as the “running QB”. That was proven by the fact that Croyle had just about all of Bama’s passing yards.
On the other side of the field, Tennessee is just in shambles. Everyone who has watched football has seen it happen before, a team just implode. The chemistry is not there, the controversy starts, throw in some injuries, pile on the losses and you have a bad year getting worse. UT is just a play away from being 0-4 in the SEC. Arkansas could have easily beat them but as it stands they are 1-3 and have to go to Columbia this week and Miami comes in the week after. It could real ugly up in Knoxville.
One of the biggest stories out of the game was the worst officiating call just about anyone has ever seen. UT was just about stop Bama for a long field goal attempt with the score 14-7. Brodie Croyle drops back to pass and is sacked but after he is clearly down he flips the ball to Santonio Beard who was also clearly down. Somehow the refs saw neither and Beard was credited with a 20 yard gain or something like that. Bama kicked a chipshot field goal and that was pretty much it.
It probably wouldn’t have effected the outcome but before Bama fans pooh-pooh UT’s complaining too much I think they need to think about what would have happened if the shoe was on the other foot. Oh my gosh. If it would have been Bama down 14-7 in Tuscaloosa just about to stop UT this year and the refs made that call… It would have been Armageddon. I am not sure the refs would have made it out of Tuscaloosa alive. People would be losing their minds and the conspiracy theories would have gone on for years. The NCAA, SEC and UT would all be in on it. The sports talk shows would have gotten weeks or months out of it. It would have been really really bad. That is the way to find out how bad something really is, think about if it had been on you. Thinking about it that way really shows how bad that call was.
In the most surprising game of the day, Auburn blew out LSU playing their best game in 2 years. Just about everyone including me looked for LSU to win but they were never really in the game as the Auburn defense jumped all over the 10th ranked Tigers and never let up. It was obvious that the way to beat LSU was to stop their running attack but that was equally obvious 2 weeks ago against Arkansas and it didn’t help Auburn. So it looks like the Auburn defense has learned and improved since that disastrous game. Another big factor for Auburn was the play of new QB Jason Campbell. He didn’t have great stats but he made several key plays running and passing to keep scoring drives alive and didn’t turn the ball over.
Many people were picking Kentucky to upset Georgia and it was close for awhile but the Dawgs turned it on in the 3rd quarter and coasted to the win. The injuries are piling up for Georgia though. With Fred Gibson and Musa Smith already out, they lost their second leading WR in Damien Gary for maybe the season. Gary was a very important part of the Georgia offense and he will be missed. Finally, Ole Miss was blown out for the second week in a row at Arkansas. Eli Manning threw for over 400 yards but the Rebels turned the ball over 5 times. The heat is being turned up on Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe.
Which brings us to the current “hotseat report”. Who is on it and who is off it this week? As I just mentioned, David Cutcliffe is definitely on it after getting blown out 2 straight weeks in a row. However he could get right off it if he could somehow beat Auburn this week. I would say Jackie Sherill is still on it. The only escape I see for Jackie right now is to win 3 out of his last 5 SEC games to finish at 6-6. I definitely don’t think that is probable but I think it is possible. He won’t beat Bama but he might possibly could get 3 out of 4 against Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Ole Miss.
Elsewhere in the West I think Tommy Tuberville has gotten off the hotseat with 2 solid performances in a row and I think Houston Nutt is OK at the moment. Nick Saban is still good despite this weekend and Dennis Franchione is the “king of the world” in Tuscaloosa. In the East, Ron Zook even during a open week is definitely on the hot seat. He is joined by Mr. Fulmer as the UT nation is pissed. Meanwhile Guy Morriss is good and Mark Richt is THE MAN in Athens. As for Bobby Johnson at Vandy, he will be good for another 4 or 5 years till they decide to changes coaches again.