SEC Preview: It’s Cocktail Party time!

It’s that time of year again, when drunk visored dudes in red bark at fans in jean shorts wearing orange and blue at The Landing in Jacksonville. The jorted ones then give ’em the chomping motion, and yell ‘Gator Bait’. The visored one, who’s a 50 year old who has a hairdo like Kirby Smart and sells insurance, then takes a swing at the dude in orange and blue because he thinks the dude’s talking about his daughter. They grapple, and then fall over in the street, rolling in cigarette butts, sweat and probably urine.

But the actual Cocktail Party at TIAA Bank Field this year between Georgia and Florida clash isn’t meant to be any sort of fight. It’s supposed to be an ass-kicking, with alligator teeth all over the Florida grass.

Elsewhere, the SEC games are going to be a struggle to watch. There’s South Carolina going to Texas A&M, Tennessee going to Kentucky, Ole Miss hosting Vanderbilt, and a game that’s sure to be hard on the eyes and everyone’s Holding Vomit mechanism: Mississippi State at Auburn.

dSo here we go on order of interest:

1. No.1 Georgia (-14.5) v Florida: The biggest question going into Jacksonville is: ‘How is Georgia going to play without Brock Bowers’. The talisman is out for the season (and we suspect Athens in general as he goes to the NFL) after recovering from high ankle sprain surgery, and Georgia’s going to have to recover, too. We expect Georgia to go more run-centric with Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton turning up the reps, and we’ll also see Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint, RaRa Thomas and Dominic Lovett doing some heavily lifting. The receivers only have 66 receptions BETWEEN them (Bowers in contrast had 41). The defense should be fine. On the other hand, Florida will be praying Graham Mertz continues to improve against the No.1 defense in the SEC, which is top in run and pass yards allowed. It doesn’t sack many quarterbacks, though, you can imagine Ricky Pearsall – by far and away Florida’s top receiver – will get the treatment from Tykee Smith, Malaki Starks and Kamari Lassiter. PREDICTION: No Bowers? No problem. Georgia 38, Florida 14.
2.  No.21 Tennessee (-3.5) at Kentucky: Kentucky’s an incredibly ordinary team…and Tennessee was excellent in the first half against Alabama, and then was utterly steamrolled. We STILL don’t know if we trust Joe Milton, but we KNOW that we don’t trust Devin Leary. Our biggest bet would be that Tennessee’s going to get a big dose of Ray Davis, while Tennessee will use a little bit of Milton, and learn on Squirrel Wright as receiver, who had 111 yards against the Crimson Tide last week. Should be an interesting match-up. PREDICTION: Tennessee 28, Kentucky 25.
3. South Carolina at Texas A&M (-15): South Carolina’s offensive line – held together by sticky-tape at the moment – is going to get another huge test from a Texas A&M front that’s third in the COUNTRY in sacks (29). Even if Spencer Rattler can deal with this potential bloodbath, it’s going to be difficult for him to test A&M’s defense, which is one of the 15 best against the pass. His defense will play an Aggies offense that’s fine with a back-up quarterback, but isn’t amazing. Max Johnson should be able to hit Evan Stewart pretty regularly, and that should be ballgame. PREDICTION: Texas A&M 28, South Carolina 18.
4. Vanderbilt at No.12 Ole Miss (-24.5): Ole Miss may have beaten Auburn by 7 on the scoreboard, but the result was never in doubt as the defense smother Payton Thorne and Co while the offense racked up 425 yards. The last time out, Vanderbilt battled with Georgia, and we were pretty impressed. But as mended-up as the Commodores are, Ole Miss is better. PREDICTION: Ole Miss 31, Vanderbilt 17.
5.  Mississippi State at Auburn (-6.5): Mississippi State 7, Arkansas 3. That’s about how you sum up last week’s Jefferson Sports Pilot game from Fayetteville, and this JSP game, live from Auburn, could be in the same ballpark in terms of offensive skill. The reason is this: Mississippi State is probably going to be without Will Rogers, their starting QB, which means that Vandy transfer Mike Wright will be asked to do the heavy lifting. The problem is is that Wright’s offense (ie his legs) doesn’t marry up with MSU’s offensive plans (pass-first), and so it’ll be ugly. Auburn on the other, is an offensive disaster. Payton Thorne isn’t HIM, but then again nor’s Robbie Ashford. If you want to watch this one, then go ahead, but good luck. PREDICTION: Mississippi State 14, Auburn 10.