I went 7-0 in my predictions this week so things went pretty much as I expected even if some teams had more trouble (see also: Mississippi State) then I thought they would. So what did we learn this week?
ALABAMA AND LSU ARE THE BEST TWO TEAMS IN THE COUNTRY
Both teams faced teams that we had in our CFBZ Top 15 this week and both came out smelling like roses. For Bama, this was their second “test” of the season and they rode their defense to a win over Bobby Petrino and the Hogs. The Tide held the Razorbacks to just 226 yards of total offense and Arkansas leading rusher had only 35 yards. Bama forced the Hogs to become one dimensional and showed why they might be the most well rounded team in the country. On the offensive end Bama combined 200 yards passing with 197 yards rushing and AJ McCarron put in a great performance by going 15 of 20 with 2 TDs. Most were expecting Bama to win today, but not many expected them to win by 24 over a team that some thought could break-through into the top tier of the SEC West this season.
LSU went into Morgantown and put it on West Virginia 47 to 21. While the game was closer than the scoreboard indicated, the Tigers felt like they had this one in hand for pretty much the whole game. The Tigers took a 14-0 lead to the end of the first and were up 27-7 at the end of the half. Geno Smith and the Mountaineers definitely showed some impressive offense as they put up 533 yards of total offense but it was the Tigers that did the things they needed to do to win the game and put distance between themselves and their opponents on Saturday night.
Both LSU and Alabama look like they have special teams this year and they should be heading for a meeting on Nov 5th to decide the big dog in the SEC.
What’s Next for Alabama? vs Florida
What’s Next for LSU? vs Kentucky
FLORIDA HAS DEMONSTRATED THEY ARE CLEARLY BETTER THAN TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY
But have they proved more? One thing is for sure and that is that I’m a lot more impressed by Florida this year then I thought I would be. However, the fact remains that Tennessee is still a question-mark and Kentucky is flat out awful. I’m impressed by how Florida has gone about their business but we truly don’t learn anything about them until the four game stretch they are about to attempt to weather is over. In the next five weeks, Florida will play Alabama, at LSU, at Auburn and then finish up with Georgia at the Cocktail Party. This is the stretch that decides their season and tells us if they are as good as they have looked so far.
What’s Next for Florida? vs Alabama
SOUTH CAROLINA HAS A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF TALENT
I’ve said multiple times here on this site that South Carolina is stocked and loaded on defense but that their individual parts might be greater than the sum of their parts. This past weekend they put all of those parts together and had a great defensive football game. The Gamecocks held Vandy, yes we know it’s Vandy, to just 77 yards of total offense and totally deflated their moral and self-esteem. The most impressive thing is that the defense had to be that good today or the Gamecocks would have lost. Stephen Garcia threw four interceptions and Marcus Lattimore ran for only 77 yards (although he did take a screeen pass to the house on an incredible run). South Carolina is one of the most talented defensive teams in the country but their ability to play together will decide if they can re-peat as SEC East Champions.
What’s Next for South Carolina? vs Auburn
THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON GEORGIA
For the second straight year Georgia got out of the gates slowly. It should also be noted that they played the toughest first two game stretch in the country to start off. That being said, Georgia seems to be slowly finding their feet but I’m still not sure how good Georgia can be. Despite having injuries at both of their ILB spots they were able to hold Ole Miss to just 34 yards rushing on Saturday. For the upcoming Miss State game, it’s critical that they get Christian Robinson back in the line-up as the Dawgs were slow to line-up on defense throughout the game. On offense, Isaiah Crowell is finding his wings. He ran the ball a Marcus Lattimore-like 30 times for 177 yards. I like that he’s getting the ball, but I think Georgia would be best to keep Crowell between 20 and 25 carries as he seemed to be slowing down towards the end of the game. Crowell is definitely a feature back but I’m not sure he’s ready yet to be toting it 30+ times a game. RB Carlton Thomas also surprisingly looked good as a sub as he had 37 yards on just 5 carries and ran hard. It’s tough to tell how good Georgia is. The biggest issues right now for Georgia remain on the offensive line (don’t even get me started about #79) and injuries in the LB corps. We will find out a lot about Georgia this coming week when Dan Mullen and crew heads into town.
What’s Next for Georgia? vs Mississippi State
MISSISSIPPI STATE HAS TAKEN A STEP BACKWARDS
The Mississippi State team that took the field this weekend against Louisiana Tech is just not the same team we saw last year. They have lost their swagger and seem to have lost their way. First they got stood up on the goal-line against Auburn as time expired, then they got handled by LSU. This week they barely survived against Louisiana Tech. The biggest concern for Bulldogs fans right now has to be that Dan Mullen has lost all confidence in Chris Relf. He replaced Relf in the LSU game and wouldn’t allow him to attempt to win the game against La Tech (instead deciding to play conservatively and go into OT). Dan Mullen has made some questionable calls over the last three weeks as Mississippi State has come crashing back to earth. This upcoming game against Georgia will tell us a lot about Mullen and the Bulldogs of State. Can he get them re-energized or will they fall to 0-3 in the conference next week?
What’s Next for Mississippi State? at Georgia
ARKANSAS HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
Arkansas is a tough one to review this week. They came into the Alabama game untested as they had played Missouri State, New Mexico and Troy before facing the Tide. This might work in 2010 when your first “tough” game is against Georgia, but it ain’t working when your first game is at Bama. Bad, bad scheduling by the AD and/or Bobby Petrino. Add to that the loss of stud RB Knile Davis and not having your best pass rusher in Jake Bequette (who actually won the Georgia game for you last year by abusing Washuan Ealey and forcing an incompletion on a 3rd down play late in the game and giving Ryan Mallett the ball back so he could complete THAT wheel route play). Arkansas still has a chance to be very good this year but they’ve got another test this coming week against Texas A&M. A&M is coming off of a loss of their own and this game will be the defining point in both teams seasons. Which one can come back from a hurtful loss?
What’s Next for Arkansas? vs Texas A&M
VANDERBILT IS NOT READY FOR PRIME-TIME
Vandy came into the South Carolina game riding high with victories over Elon, UConn and Ole Miss. But they encountered talent in Columbia that they had not faced in the previous three weeks. If not for Stephen Garcia this game would have been a lot worse. Vanderbilt is going to be a tougher win than in previous years but their offense is still light years behind where they need it to be. South Carolina (a team that allowed Georgia to pick up 436 total yards and allowed Navy to rush for almost 300) held the Dores to only 77 yards total offense and only 4 of those yards came running the football. Back to the drawing board for Vandy. Vandy fans, at least you are not Kentucky or Ole Miss…
What’s Next for Vandy? at Alabama (Oct 8th)
OLE MISS AND KENTUCKY ARE JUST FLAT OUT AWFUL FOOTBALL TEAMS
Ole Miss is the worst. They are undisciplined, pooly coached and they don’t have an FBS level Quarterback. Every time Ole Miss seemed to break a play it’s because they had held a Georgia player in order to spring a runner or a receiver. The only plays where I could call Ole Miss successful on Saturday was when they ran a “gadget” or “trick play”. Their “best” play of the game was where Randall Mackey took a reverse and threw the ball against his body while running to a wide open Donte Moncrief for a 38 yard TD. Moncrief was wide open because of the deception that they reverse had caused. The only other play Ole Miss was able to score on was a reverse on a punt return where Nick Brassel took it 81 yards to the house. I will note that there was a blatant hold on that play that went uncalled but if you look for it you could probably find holding on every play. The real problem at Ole Miss is that they don’t make adjustments. Ole Miss came out and moved the ball down the field on Georgia in the first drive but after that Georgia made adjustments (I know Georgia fans will be shocked to hear me say that) and Ole Miss didn’t. Another factor is that the talent at Ole Miss at the QB position is just not there. Mackey was 3 of 7 with half of his yards coming on that trick play and he missed recievers high and wide. Stoudt was also really bad as he hit just 9 of 23 passes. Ole Miss has talent at RB (Scott and Bolden) and WR (Moncrief) but they don’t have anybody to get the ball to them. Ole Miss flat out stinks. Georgia missed 3 FGs that are usually chip shots for Blair Walsh or the score would have matched the results on the field and been 36-13.
What is there to say about Kentucky? When they lost Cobb, Hartline and Locke I knew they would be in for a long season but I didn’t know they would be this bad. They gave up 405 yards on the ground to Florida and the defense was supposed to be a strength of this Kentucky team. I’m not going to waste my time writing about Kentucky or your time having read about them because they simply don’t deserve it. Put a fork in Kentucky, at 2-2 and 0-1 in the conference their season is over.
What’s Next for Ole Miss? at Fresno State
What’s Next for Kentucky? at LSU
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