Hello out there in SEC Nation. I hope that everyone enjoyed a fun filled weekend of SEC football. I fell a little short of a good mark on my picks this weekend but was able to keep it above .500 at a record of 4 - 3 so I guess I should be thankful. Everyone has an off week right? When it comes down to it, I will take a 4 - 3 record every weekend if the Rebels can get a “W”.
Ole Miss 23 – Arkansas 20: Emotions were high as Houston Nutt went back to Arkansas this
weekend. This time as the head coach of Ole Miss and he was in the other dressing room and sidelines. This game was a hard fought victory for Ole Miss; my opinion is that it was a game of answers. The Reb’s scored early on a Joshua Shene field goal to take a 3-0 lead. Arkansas answered when head coach Bobby Petrino made a gutsy call; having already missed a field goal earlier on, he opted to go for it on 4th and 1 from the Ole Miss 13 yard line, Michael Smith took the pitch and ran untouched for the first answ
er of the game and a 7-3 Arkansas lead. Ole Miss answered that though with 10 points in the final 2 minutes of the 1st half. I won’t re-cap the entire game as there are plenty of those kinds of articles all over the internet, but I think you see what I mean by a game of answers. Looking at the stats I see that the Hogs actually out gained Ole Miss with 386 yards to UM’s 369 yards, but 3rd down conversions is a huge stat in this one. UM converted on 3rd down 52.9% while Arkansas only managed a 21.4% mark in that category. Once again the Rebel “D” played the run well holding Arkansas to only 104 yards rushing. Michael Smith had almost 4 times that many yards by himself in his last two outings. In Summary the Rebels kept mistakes to a minimum with only one turnover and the penalties at 6/45 yards. This formula spelled victory. Congratulations to Houston Nutt for surviving his much anticipated return to Fayetteville.
Alabama 29 – Tennessee 9: Well Tide fans, you can breathe easy for another week. Your Crimson boys protected the № 2 ranking for another week. This is a special game for these two schools; it’s the annual “Third Saturday in October” rivalry that has had so many memorable moments. Although Alabama never seemed in danger of losing this one unless you count being tied at 3 in the first quarter, it is still an energy packed, rock-em sock-em SEC game. UT’s defensive unit actually played well enough to keep their team in a position to win; they held Alabama out of the end zone once from inside the red zone and twice outside of it, the Tide having to opt for field goals on those drives. In the end though the stats tell the story of just one team holding the football and winning the game. Alabama out gained the Vol’s with 366 total yards to UT’s 173 yards. The Vol’s could only manage 36 yards on the ground and 10 first downs. Another big stat is penalties. UT was penalized for 60 yards in this game and a couple of those penalties came within the red zone. I don’t know Phil, your days of glory at UT may be over, and there is probably room for you in Peyton’s entourage if you want to reminisce. I shouldn’t have said that.
Kentucky 5 – Florida 63: WOW!!! What can be said about this? I predicted a Gator victory but I had no idea it would be like this. I have searched my memory for a game that was so one sided, I haven’t found it yet. Florida had 28 points before Kentucky got their first 1st down of the game. The Gators dominated in every aspect of the game, Offense…obviously, Defense…obviously, Special Teams…..Obviously. I am telling you sports fans, there is nothing I could write here that could put this game into perspective. The stats look just like the scoreboard, one sided. One trick stat in this one though is the time of possession. Florida made such quick work out of their scores that Kentucky had the ball longer by almost 5 minutes. Tebow looked awesome and my prediction that he still had Heisman in him is looking more like a prophecy. We shall see.
Georgia 52 – LSU 38: Well I predicted LSU to protect their yard and I was wrong. Georgia is attempting to match last years late season surge and doing a pretty good job of it. This game was a showcase game for two of the best SEC running backs. Knowshon Moreno of Georgia and Charles Scott of LSU. Both backs had huge games. Moreno rushed for 163 yards and Scott rushed for 144 yards. A leader at the quarterback position is what the Tigers are missing though as Georgia’s Matthew Stafford led his team to victory in front a hostile crowd of Cajuns. LSU holds the statistical edge in total yards and first downs but turnovers and 3rd down conversions are in the Bulldog favor. We all know how important it is to hold onto the football not only by not turning it over, but by making 1st downs. I won’t continue to state the obvious. Georgia deserved a victory and they got one. I just wish I would’ve picked them on Friday so my record could be better, oops! There I go stating the obvious again.
Auburn 17 – West Virginia 34: Auburn handed me my first loss of the weekend, I picked them to prevail over WVU simply because I am a conference first kind of guy. That is why I don’t bet on football my friends. I can never get away from picking with my heart. Early on I thought the Tigers would make good on my promise of an SEC victory, jumping out to a 17-3 lead. The Mountaineers had other plans, scoring 31 unanswered points to win this one big. WVU out gained the Tigers with 445 total yards to Auburns 260 total yards. Auburn held the ball for almost 11 minutes longer than the Mountaineers but that is misleading. AU was penalized 5/49 yards while WVU only had 1 penalty for a net 7 yards.
Middle Tennessee 22 – Mississippi State 31: “At home against a weaker opponent, the SEC will always prevail.” That was my statement on Friday’s blog entry for this game. MSU tried to make a liar out of me as MTSU made it interesting. Interesting indeed after a 14 play , 67 yard drive capped off with a 23 yard field goal to take a 16-14 3rd quarter lead over the Bulldogs. MSU had an answer for it though by scoring 17 straight points for a 31-16 lead. MTSU would add a late 4th quarter TD but fail on its 2 point conversion attempt. Statistically speaking it was a very tight ball game. Mississippi State has a slight 18 yard lead in total yards, but if you look closer at the stats you can see that MSU was a much more balanced team that the Blue Raiders. 197 yards in the air coupled with 169 yards on the ground combine to make up the Dawgs 366 total yards. MTSU was much more effective through the air than on the ground. Football fans will all tell you that a balanced attack has a much better chance of winning the tight ballgames. Whew! A win for me, but barely.
Duke 10 – Vanderbilt 7: Turnovers and missed scoring opportunities tell the story of the Vanderbilt loss to Duke. I know all too well what happens to a team that cannot hold on to the football. The offensive line of Vandy also failed to protect Mackenzi Adams as well, allowing 4 sacks in the contest. It is awful hard for a quarterback to perform when he is worried about being hit. You have to give credit where credit is due, and the Blue Devils defense got it done against a good football team. I know Vandy has now lost 3 games in a row, but sports fans, I am telling you they are a good football team. Here is an interesting bit of information I didn’t know about David Cutcliffe: Coach Cutt is now 24 – 2 against the Commodores, this record as the Tennessee OC and the Ole Miss HC, and he is 6 – 0 versus Bobby Johnson. Congratulations to a good man! The Commodores though have got to get back up off the mat and correct their ship or they may not get that elusive 6th win that will get them to bowl eligible for the first time since 1982. They have an off week to prepare for their home match-up with Florida on November 8th. Boy! It just doesn’t get any easier in this league, but they have got to find a way to make it happen.
Well that’s all the games for this past weekend. I finished up the week with a 4 – 3 record. This next weekend offers some very exciting match-ups; one in particular as the annual “Cocktail Party” is set to take place in Jacksonville. Kickoff for the Georgia vs. Florida Football Classic is set for 3:30 P.M. ET with Georgia being this year’s home squad. Ole Miss will be back at home for their rivalry game with former Rebel head coach Tommy Tubba-baldfacedliar-Ville and his Auburn Tigers. And as usual, Wednesday I will publish my weekly editorial. I have picked a great topic for this week’s installment but I am not going to give away the surprise. Until then…….Hotty Toddy
Darryle “Speedy” Clark
Ole Miss 23 – Arkansas 20: Emotions were high as Houston Nutt went back to Arkansas this
weekend. This time as the head coach of Ole Miss and he was in the other dressing room and sidelines. This game was a hard fought victory for Ole Miss; my opinion is that it was a game of answers. The Reb’s scored early on a Joshua Shene field goal to take a 3-0 lead. Arkansas answered when head coach Bobby Petrino made a gutsy call; having already missed a field goal earlier on, he opted to go for it on 4th and 1 from the Ole Miss 13 yard line, Michael Smith took the pitch and ran untouched for the first answ
er of the game and a 7-3 Arkansas lead. Ole Miss answered that though with 10 points in the final 2 minutes of the 1st half. I won’t re-cap the entire game as there are plenty of those kinds of articles all over the internet, but I think you see what I mean by a game of answers. Looking at the stats I see that the Hogs actually out gained Ole Miss with 386 yards to UM’s 369 yards, but 3rd down conversions is a huge stat in this one. UM converted on 3rd down 52.9% while Arkansas only managed a 21.4% mark in that category. Once again the Rebel “D” played the run well holding Arkansas to only 104 yards rushing. Michael Smith had almost 4 times that many yards by himself in his last two outings. In Summary the Rebels kept mistakes to a minimum with only one turnover and the penalties at 6/45 yards. This formula spelled victory. Congratulations to Houston Nutt for surviving his much anticipated return to Fayetteville.Alabama 29 – Tennessee 9: Well Tide fans, you can breathe easy for another week. Your Crimson boys protected the № 2 ranking for another week. This is a special game for these two schools; it’s the annual “Third Saturday in October” rivalry that has had so many memorable moments. Although Alabama never seemed in danger of losing this one unless you count being tied at 3 in the first quarter, it is still an energy packed, rock-em sock-em SEC game. UT’s defensive unit actually played well enough to keep their team in a position to win; they held Alabama out of the end zone once from inside the red zone and twice outside of it, the Tide having to opt for field goals on those drives. In the end though the stats tell the story of just one team holding the football and winning the game. Alabama out gained the Vol’s with 366 total yards to UT’s 173 yards. The Vol’s could only manage 36 yards on the ground and 10 first downs. Another big stat is penalties. UT was penalized for 60 yards in this game and a couple of those penalties came within the red zone. I don’t know Phil, your days of glory at UT may be over, and there is probably room for you in Peyton’s entourage if you want to reminisce. I shouldn’t have said that.
Kentucky 5 – Florida 63: WOW!!! What can be said about this? I predicted a Gator victory but I had no idea it would be like this. I have searched my memory for a game that was so one sided, I haven’t found it yet. Florida had 28 points before Kentucky got their first 1st down of the game. The Gators dominated in every aspect of the game, Offense…obviously, Defense…obviously, Special Teams…..Obviously. I am telling you sports fans, there is nothing I could write here that could put this game into perspective. The stats look just like the scoreboard, one sided. One trick stat in this one though is the time of possession. Florida made such quick work out of their scores that Kentucky had the ball longer by almost 5 minutes. Tebow looked awesome and my prediction that he still had Heisman in him is looking more like a prophecy. We shall see.
Georgia 52 – LSU 38: Well I predicted LSU to protect their yard and I was wrong. Georgia is attempting to match last years late season surge and doing a pretty good job of it. This game was a showcase game for two of the best SEC running backs. Knowshon Moreno of Georgia and Charles Scott of LSU. Both backs had huge games. Moreno rushed for 163 yards and Scott rushed for 144 yards. A leader at the quarterback position is what the Tigers are missing though as Georgia’s Matthew Stafford led his team to victory in front a hostile crowd of Cajuns. LSU holds the statistical edge in total yards and first downs but turnovers and 3rd down conversions are in the Bulldog favor. We all know how important it is to hold onto the football not only by not turning it over, but by making 1st downs. I won’t continue to state the obvious. Georgia deserved a victory and they got one. I just wish I would’ve picked them on Friday so my record could be better, oops! There I go stating the obvious again.
Auburn 17 – West Virginia 34: Auburn handed me my first loss of the weekend, I picked them to prevail over WVU simply because I am a conference first kind of guy. That is why I don’t bet on football my friends. I can never get away from picking with my heart. Early on I thought the Tigers would make good on my promise of an SEC victory, jumping out to a 17-3 lead. The Mountaineers had other plans, scoring 31 unanswered points to win this one big. WVU out gained the Tigers with 445 total yards to Auburns 260 total yards. Auburn held the ball for almost 11 minutes longer than the Mountaineers but that is misleading. AU was penalized 5/49 yards while WVU only had 1 penalty for a net 7 yards.
Middle Tennessee 22 – Mississippi State 31: “At home against a weaker opponent, the SEC will always prevail.” That was my statement on Friday’s blog entry for this game. MSU tried to make a liar out of me as MTSU made it interesting. Interesting indeed after a 14 play , 67 yard drive capped off with a 23 yard field goal to take a 16-14 3rd quarter lead over the Bulldogs. MSU had an answer for it though by scoring 17 straight points for a 31-16 lead. MTSU would add a late 4th quarter TD but fail on its 2 point conversion attempt. Statistically speaking it was a very tight ball game. Mississippi State has a slight 18 yard lead in total yards, but if you look closer at the stats you can see that MSU was a much more balanced team that the Blue Raiders. 197 yards in the air coupled with 169 yards on the ground combine to make up the Dawgs 366 total yards. MTSU was much more effective through the air than on the ground. Football fans will all tell you that a balanced attack has a much better chance of winning the tight ballgames. Whew! A win for me, but barely.
Duke 10 – Vanderbilt 7: Turnovers and missed scoring opportunities tell the story of the Vanderbilt loss to Duke. I know all too well what happens to a team that cannot hold on to the football. The offensive line of Vandy also failed to protect Mackenzi Adams as well, allowing 4 sacks in the contest. It is awful hard for a quarterback to perform when he is worried about being hit. You have to give credit where credit is due, and the Blue Devils defense got it done against a good football team. I know Vandy has now lost 3 games in a row, but sports fans, I am telling you they are a good football team. Here is an interesting bit of information I didn’t know about David Cutcliffe: Coach Cutt is now 24 – 2 against the Commodores, this record as the Tennessee OC and the Ole Miss HC, and he is 6 – 0 versus Bobby Johnson. Congratulations to a good man! The Commodores though have got to get back up off the mat and correct their ship or they may not get that elusive 6th win that will get them to bowl eligible for the first time since 1982. They have an off week to prepare for their home match-up with Florida on November 8th. Boy! It just doesn’t get any easier in this league, but they have got to find a way to make it happen.
Well that’s all the games for this past weekend. I finished up the week with a 4 – 3 record. This next weekend offers some very exciting match-ups; one in particular as the annual “Cocktail Party” is set to take place in Jacksonville. Kickoff for the Georgia vs. Florida Football Classic is set for 3:30 P.M. ET with Georgia being this year’s home squad. Ole Miss will be back at home for their rivalry game with former Rebel head coach Tommy Tubba-baldfacedliar-Ville and his Auburn Tigers. And as usual, Wednesday I will publish my weekly editorial. I have picked a great topic for this week’s installment but I am not going to give away the surprise. Until then…….Hotty Toddy
Darryle “Speedy” Clark
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