Can LSU win at the Swamp? SEC Week 6 Predictions

October 5, 2018 Alex Haddon

Every week in the SEC, it seems that LSU and Kentucky’s games are on the top of our ‘games you have to watch in the SEC’ list. For us, it’s because LSU (Miami and Auburn) and Kentucky (Mississippi State and South Carolina) have generally played the most interesting opposition thus far, and this weekend won’t disappoint when LSU visits The Swamp to play Florida and Kentucky visits the noisy Kyle Field and Texas A&M.

Elsewhere, Mississippi State and Auburn will be trying to show the critics they are pretty good (by playing each other), while Georiga will try and get rid of a lot of rust with their match-up with Vandy. Missouri and South Carolina should be an interesting battle to see who’ll be the third best team in the SEC East (unless Kentucky falls to pieces), while Alabama and Ole Miss are expected to roll against Arkansas and UL Monroe.

1. No.5 LSU(-2) at No. 22 Florida: A poor showing against Louisiana Tech aside, LSU has had a great season, and a road win at Florida would definitely have people wondering why the Tigers aren’t higher up than No.5. And with an improving Florida team who were excellent at Mississippi State, this will be some victory. LSU will face a spicy Florida defense that’s 3rd in the SEC in sacks and already has 10 fumbles to its name. LSU itself is pretty spicy too (13 sacks, 7 INTs), led by Greedy Williams who is a bona fide first round pick. A lot of pressure will be on quarterbacks Feliepe Franks and Joe Burrow to perform. PREDICTION:This will be a war. Florida in the upset by 3.

2. No.13 Kentucky at Texas A&M (-6): Kentucky fans will talk about a lot of disrespect from Vegas bearing in mind that it’s beaten Mississippi State, Florida and South Carolina en route to a 5-0 start, but this is the Wildcats’ first start away from Lexington, and they’ll travel to a stadium that puts the ‘tough’ in tough environment. Texas A&M will hope to rebound from an awful performance against Arkansas, and to do that they’ll have to continue the form of their excellent 2018 rush defense, which only gives up 85 yards/game. Benny Snell will test them out. Josh Allen boots Kentucky’s strong D…but how will it perform away from home? PREDICTION: Kentucky to win by 3 in a low-scoring cracker.

3. No.8 Auburn (-3.5) at Mississippi State: At the start of the season I was really excited by this game, with two potentially exciting offenses run by two great offensive minds in Auburn’s Gus Malzahn and MSU’s Joe Moorhead. Auburn has had its fair share of injuries lately – RB JaTavarious Whitlow being one of them, while MSU has not excuse – it just hasn’t been very good. We’ve been reminded us that this game is the 10th anniversary of one of the worst games in SEC history – which finished 3-2 to Auburn. This might rank up there. PREDICTION: Mississippi State by 9 in a game decided by field goals. It won’t be pretty.

4. Vanderbilt at No.2 Georgia (-26.5): When this blog said on Twitter that the gap between Georgia and Alabama had widened in the last few weeks, not narrowed, the reply from Dawgs fans was not pretty. But if you’d watched UGA in the last couple of weeks, then you’d know that the scorelines against Missouri and Tennessee masked up how poor they’d actually been. Saying that, Vanderbilt at the way that that team’s playing should cure all problems. PREDICTION: Georgia by 31 in a romp.

5. Missouri (-1) at South Carolina: This game between two teams who might compete for the second/third/fourth spots in the SEC East just really says it all. Missouri is going to be pretty ordinary this year, and sadly for those who said that the Gamecocks could make a run (like us) — so are South Carolina. While on skill alone Drew Lock’s a better QB than Jake Bentley, South Carolina’s passing defense (159.5 yards/game) is better than Missouri’s (293 Yards/game), which could see Bentley come out the winner. PREDICTION: South Carolina in a weird shoot-out, winning by 7.

6. No.1 Alabama (-35) at Arkansas: While Arkansas has improved over the last two weeks, Alabama has maintained its brilliance. Seriously, people are asking whether any team in the country could come within 3 touchdowns of the Tide in the National Championship Game. Sure as hell the Razorbacks won’t come within three touchdowns of the Tide in this game. PREDICTION: Alabama by 45.

7. UL Monroe at Ole Miss (-22.5): Ole Miss’ signature win this season may have come Week 1 against Texas Tech. And yet, the Rebels could get bowl eligibility because they play Arkansas and Vanderbilt and finish 4-0 in non-conference. This week they get a confidence-booster against a ULM team that lost 46-14 to Georgia State last week. Although the 22.5 spread could be in doubt. PREDICTION: Ole Miss by 21.