SEC Preview: Bulldogs roll into Ole Miss, and course, Bama-LSU
Georgia’s off to its second rough road game in three games, this time rolling into Oxford, where expectancy’s back to being sky-high after the Rebs smashed Arkansas on the road. Had they lost that, Lane Kiffin might be facing the hurricane of rage — as well as an almost-certain miss from a play-off spot. It’s gonna be fun in Oxford.
It’s also Bama-LSU weekend, which is going to get everyone very excited. It’s also going to be a lot of fun because of the level of jeopardy on this, with the loser likely not to make the play-off. The atmosphere – even without Nick Saban there as a head coach – is likely to be off the hook (Going to be fun to see how abuse he gets as an analyst though!).
With Billy Napier off the hot seat, Florida fans – and their players – are going to feel a little more freedom when going to No.5 Texas. Oklahoma goes to somehow-still-ranked Missouri in an under-the-radar fantastic rivalry (Did you know they’ve played each other 96 times?), while Tennessee will add some points against Mississippi State, who’ve been playing better lately but are still off the place. Oh, and there’s South Carolina going to Vanderbilt. The Commodores are bowl-eligible now – a glorious feeling for their coaching staff- while Carolina is still smiling over their destruction of Texas A&M on Saturday night.
So here are our very fast predictions. These games – as usual – are in order of what we’re interested in watching.
- No.3 Georgia (-2.5) at No.16 Ole Miss: This was meant to be a battle of Heisman Candidates at the start of the season, but Jaxson Dart’s been by far the better quarterback, throwing for a NCAA-leading 3,210 yards and 21 TDs (No.1 SEC, No.3 NCAA). Carson Beck has thrown 11 picks this season (No.1 SEC) — all in the last five games. And although Beck has made dunderhead plays, he’s been able to get back on the hoss and guide his team to victory, helped by Nate Frazier and Trevor Etienne doing the grunt work behind Georgia’s strong offensive line and the unspectacular-but-still-good wide receiving trio of Arian Smith, Dominic Lovett, and Dillon Bell. Georgia’s got a stupendous defense, and seems to awake like titans for the big games, when they destroyed Texas and will not doubt be drooling at the chance to do the same against Ole Miss. One thing’s for certain, though: Georgia doesn’t want to turn this one into a high-scorer (Vegas are predicting an O/U of 54.5). PREDICTION: I’m going crazy here. Ole Miss with the huge upset. Ole Miss 35, Georgia 31.
- No.11 Alabama (-3) at No.15 LSU: In College Football Play-Off Rankings terms, Alabama’s on the edge of not making it and LSU is looking in, and . What’s going to make this one fun is the amount of jeopardy in this one. If LSU fails to get to the play-off, Brian Kelly might not make it out of Baton Rouge alive. If Alabama doesn’t make the play-off, Crimson Tide fans ain’t going to forget it, and immediately put Kalen DeBoer on the hot seat. With the Nick Saban factor thankfully gone (it got boring), LSU fans should be really excited. But here’s the problem: LSU’s had turnover problems all year (10). Garrett Nussmeier has been dreadful at them (9, No.2 in the SEC), and it’s what killed them at Texas A&M. And although Jalen Milroe hasn’t been amazing with his arm, he’s been a competent passer and an killer runner (12 TDs, 2nd in the SEC, 11th NCAA) and he’s got one hell of a weapon in Ryan Williams, who’s been off-the-charts good. But LSU’s got Death Valley at night, a strong runner in Caden Durham and two good WRs in Kyren Lacy and Aaron Anderson. This should be fun, if not the highest quality. PREDICTION: Brian Kelly to burn. Alabama 38, LSU 28.
- South Carolina (-4.5) at Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt’s bowl eligible. It’s a glorious thing to say for Commodores fans, who had seen their team be the laughing stock of the conference for way, way too many years. But Diego Pavia has brought the team to new heights, with a win over Alabama, on the road to Auburn and Kentucky highlighting a gloriously-unlikely season. Coming in this time to fill the stadium and add to the fun of it all is South Carolina, who scored the second-biggest upset of the SEC season with a 44-20 MAULING of Texas A&M, mainly thanks to the dual threat QB LaNorris Sellers and RB Rocket Sanders, who WENT OFF against the Aggies, running for 144 yards and 2 scores. And although South Carolina’s got a pretty good defensive front, it’s going to be really, really hard to get to Pavia, who runs around like Johnny Manziel. This could well be the funnest game of the week. PREDICTION: Vanderbilt with the ‘upset’. Vandy 45, South Carolina 41.
- Oklahoma (-3) at No.24 Missouri: First of all, we didn’t realize that Missouri had played 96 games against Oklahoma…and that Oklahoma had won 67 of them. Mizzou isn’t going to make the play-off this year unless there are miracles above them, but it could be far worse if Brady Cook’s out for the game and they have to start Drew Pyne, who was predictably awful in the 38-0 shut-out loss to Alabama (he only came along in March after an injury-plagued time at Arizona State). Oklahoma had a ‘get right’ game against Maine, and they slaughtered the Black Bears 59-14. Jaxon Arnold had a game where he didn’t shoot himself in the foot 900 times, throwing for 224 yards and 2 TDs, and Jovantae Barnes ran for 200+ and 3 TDs. The biggest question for us is: Will Brady Cook return? That’s the million dollar question. PREDICTION: If Brady Cook plays: Missouri 38, Oklahoma 24. If Brady Cook doesn’t play: Oklahoma 24, Missouri 10.
- Florida at No.5 Texas (-21.5): Now Billy Napier’s staying , there’s going to be a lot of relief amongst Gators players and fans that something concrete had happened. Now they can go to Austin with a relatively free hit – especially after the way that they acquitted themselves so well against Georgia (something no-one expected). Texas wasn’t great at Vanderbilt (but got by, at least), but don’t want to lose a spot at the SEC Championship Game, let alone the play-off. The Gators are hoping that Napier’s biggest supporter and superstar freshman QB DJ Lagway will play, but it doesn’t look likely after this hamstring strain against Georgia. Florida’s also missing it’s best wide receiver in Eugene Wilson. That means that former Ivy League QB Aidan Warner, who looked out of his depth against Georgia. It’s going to rely on – should he be fit – running back Montrell Johnson. It could well be ugly…unless Quin Ewers is the mistake-prone Quin Ewers that is only a stupid mistake or two from hurting his own team really badly. PREDICTION: Texas rolls. Texas 41, Florida 17.
- Mississippi State at No.7 Tennessee (-24): This is a game that Tennessee should win and win comfortably – especially if it wants to climb the lists in the Committee’s eyes. Expect a lot of gas and not a lot of brakes from the Volunteers. On the other side of the ball, Mississippi State has been far, far better than we saw at the start of the season, but they simply don’t have the talent that UT has. PREDICTION: Tennessee very comfortably, 48-20.