This Week In SEC Football - Week 6

Quick previews and picks for Week 6 of SEC Football

Arkansas (3-1) at Auburn (5-0) - 12:00 pm
I'm not giving away too much here to say that I don't expect my Hogs to win this one, but I'm expecting the spread to be covered at the least. Final score and real preview coming up in a later post.

Vanderbilt (2-3) at Ole Miss (1-4)- 2:00pm
Has there been a bigger dissapointment in the SEC than the Rebels? They need to go at least 5-2 to be bowl eligible at this point. That's just not going to happen. As for Vandy, isn't this pretty much what you would have expected from them? They've fought hard in losses to Michigan, Alabama, and Arkansas. They've blown up Temple and Tennesee State. Ole Miss looked ugly beating a bad Memphis team and has looked worse each week. Was David Cutcliffe really so bad? Final Score: Vandy 14 Ole Miss 10

West Virginia (4-0) at Mississippi State (1-4)- 2:30pm
Yikes. It's gotta be hard to be a Bulldog fan. I like Sly Croom. And while they finally appear to have discovered the end zone the past couple of games, they are still only average something like 12 pts a game. West Virginia, on the other hand, has an offense averaging over 40. It'll be a beating. It won't be pretty. Turn your heads Bulldog fans, you likely won't want to see this. Final Score: WVU 49 MSU 14

LSU (4-1) at Florida (5-0) - 3:30pm
Here it is. Game of the week. Florida is undefeated, but hasn't looked that great doing it. I grew up with those Spurrier Florida teams that would be 5-0 by a combined 225-50 at this point. Florida has their win over UT, but the win over Bama wasn't what I expected it to be. LSU lost what was either a defensive masterpiece or an offensive atrocity to Auburn earlier this year. None of their wins are particularly special either. I'm giving the Gators the slight edge here. Mostly because this is at the Swamp. And also because when teams appear to be so even, I go with the coach. I trust Urban more than Les Miles. And I trust the LeakBow QB combo over JaMarcus. Final Score: UF 24 LSU 20

South Carolina (3-2) at Kentucky (3-2) - 7:00p
Spurrier is pissed. He knows they could have beaten Auburn last week. Kentucky knows they let my Chippewas put up tons of yards on them and didn't put them away until the end of the 4th quarter. CMU runs a variation of the spread with a mobile QB. Oh yeah, SC is using a mobile qb now and I think Spurrier knows how to run a passing offense. And the Gamecocks, as well as about 90 other teams, play much better D than the Chips. You know what that means? Bad news for the Wildcats. Final Score: SC 38 UK 17

Duke (0-4) at Alabama (3-2) - 7:07pm (wha?!?)
This would be a much better basketball game. Now that Bama has a three named QB once again, they might just end up with a decent offense by years end. JPW has looked good for a first year starter. However, Mike Shula remains the head coach so anything is possible. On the other hand, Duke remains the opponent. Duke shames the ACC far worse than Vandy could ever shame the SEC. Teams like Duke,Temple, etc make me think the NCAA should adopt rules similar to the Premiership. The worst of teams go down to 1-AA for a year or two until they show they deserve better, and the best 1-AA teams get to visit 1-A and get a share of big money until they play their way back to 1-AA. Temple would be in the NAIA by now. Duke, a power of the Colonial league. Final Score: Bama 34 Duke 7

Tennessee (4-1) at Georgia (5-0)- 7:45pm
This is hard for me. I generally like Georgia. Good team every year. Quality fans. Their players spoke highly of Arkansas after beating my Hogs the past two years. Richt seems to run a quality program. Hard not to respect what he does there. On the other hand, I loathe Tennessee. My Hogs may have been 4-7 last year, but Fat Phil's gang went 5-6 and lost to Vandy as well to keep from being bowl eligible. Loved it. Their fans are more hill-folky than even the most hill-folky fans you could hope to find. They wear enough bright orange so that they can go a coon huntin' right after the game. Fulmer runs such a thug laden loose program that the good folks at EDSBS created the Fulmer Cup to chart offseason arrests for teams. (Only 3 pts last year for Arkansas--we could win that damn thing if Danny Ford was still around). I hate Tennessee. And naturally, they seem to own the Hogs. Kinda like why we Hog fans hated Texas so much back in the day. Didn't beat them often, came close a lot, but when we did win - it was like a state-wide orgy. The fact that both teams are UT and wear a variation of orange is not lost on me. But I digress.

If Georgia wasn't one of the worst looking 5-0 teams in the nation, I'd go out on a limb here. But stuggling to put away terrible teams like Colorado and Ole Miss will take you only so far. UT has lost only a game they should have won against Florida. Granted they let Air Force nearly take them out, but Air Force is probably better than Colorado and Ole Miss. I don't want this to be true. I really, really don't. The Vols appear to be back. And UGA appears to be waiting for that first loss to go ahead and put them in pseudo-rebuilding mode. I'm afraid...Final Score: UT 30 UGA 21