Hello friends, as you may have noticed, my fellow muthablogger and myself have decided to separate the blogs by subject. Which is what should have been done in the first place, but we wanted a general blog where we could talk about anything. But alas, if we want readers we know we must get specific on subjects. Remember there are still two of us muthabloggers, but we now have two blogs. This blog will be the SEC sports authority.
Well week #5 in this young college football season has come and gone. This week has brought about some huge upsets in not only the nation but in the SEC. I reported Friday that #4 Florida would beat my Ole Miss Rebels but that they would know that they had a fight. I also admitted at the end of that blog that I hoped I could admit a mistake with that prediction. I am happy to announce that I was stupid. I was wrong, and I am so glad to be so wrong and stupid.
Hotty Toddy, Gosh Oh Mighty. Ole Miss 31 : Florida 30. The Rebels finally finished one. Exactly what head coach Houston Nutt has been preaching all along. This wasn't just any SEC win. This was a win over the #4 team in the nation and on the road. This was a game of firsts & one itsy bitsy second. This was the first time all year that the Gators gave up a first quarter score. Ole Miss struck first on a naked bootleg play by sophomore quarterback Jevan Snead. The drive was helped out by a fake punt earlier in the drive. The Reb's led 7 to zip. The next first was that coming into this game the Gators had yet to turn the ball over in the 2008 campaign. As a matter of fact, if you go back to last season, the Gators had not turned the ball over in their past 5 contests. In this game though they would turn the ball over to the Rebels 3 times. The Rebels capitalized on two consecutive fumbles to begin the second half for 10 points. Those 10 points would tie the game up at 17 all. The second I was referring to was that Florida dropped its home opener for just the second time in 20 years. WOW......20 years, that's like two decades or something. The stats look whop sided but to tell you the truth, especially in the second half, the Rebels didn't need a lot of yards to score. They won the game of field position and that is a critical part of the game. You hear every coach in the nation harp on it week in and week out. You cant rack up 450 yard days if you don't have to drive but 33 yards to get a touchdown. The highlight of the day for me was the solid play of Jevan Snead. After being rattled somewhat against Vanderbilt the preceding weekend, he responded with a solid day. His numbers were not huge, but he made the plays when he had to, and he only threw one interception, but he righted the ship and sailed it to victory bay. Snead's play was highlighted by an 86 yard touchdown strike to Shay Hodge that put the Rebels ahead
31 to 24 with 5:26 left to play. Florida would come back down the field on the ensuing drive with a very impressive drive to score a seemingly tying touchdown. Oh wait, a touchdown only counts 6, you must kick the extra point. On the following PAT attempt, Ole Miss' Kentrell Lockett hurdled the left side of the Florida offensive line and blocked the kick. This kept the Rebels on top 31 to 30 which would prove to be the final score. Florida wasn't finished though, forcing Ole Miss to punt, the Gators and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow drove to the Ole Miss 32 yard line and was faced with a 4th and 1. Urban Meyer could've attempted a 49 yard field goal for the win, but that length of kick was on the outer stretches of his kickers abilities, He opted to go for it. Give the football to his talented running QB and keep the football. Ole Miss had heard this song before at Wake Forest just 3 weeks prior. The Rebel defense lined up and stopped Tebow for no gain and all that was left to do was for Jevan Snead to take a couple of knees. In all this was a very exciting game with a lot of emotional ups and downs for both sides. Ole Miss is not a bad team and if a couple of breaks had went their way earlier in the season, they could easily be sitting undefeated at the moment. I don't think Florida has anything to be ashamed of. Of course they will say they lost to an inferior team, that they beat themselves. But if Vanderbilt forced Ole Miss to make a plethora of mistakes the week before, the most certainly Ole Miss forced Florida into making the mistakes they made this past weekend. I am not expecting to see the Rebels in any of the polls this weekend, but watch out sports fans, They now have know they can win against big time competition. They now BELIEVE.Alabama 41 : Georgia 30. WOW. Was that a game or what. The Tide just came right out and smacked the #3 team in the nation in the mouth. Alabama scored 31 first half points and just never looked back. The Bulldogs were just in a hole that there was no digging their way out of. The stats ended up very close except for one. Georgia was penalized 10 times for 81 yards, Bama on the other hand was only penalized 2 times for 9 yards. You just cant do that and expect to win an SEC football game. Friday I predicted an upset win for the Tide, but I didn't expect total domination like I seen Saturday night. Georgia put up a valiant second half effort but like stated earlier, there was no coming back from a 31 point deficit. The final score was 41 to 30, but I believe if Bama had wanted to, they could've scored at will. I got what I wanted out of this game, but was shocked none the less at how it all played out.
Mississippi State 24 : LSU 34. The LSU Tigers are 4-0 on the season (2-0 SEC) in large part due to the exceptional outing posted by running back Charles Scott on Saturday night. Scott rushed for a monstrous 141 yards to out pace LSU over the Dawgs of Mississippi State. MSU showed moments of life but just couldn't keep the intesity and momentum up in front of a Death Valley crowd. MSU will prove to be the hardest team for me to predict this year, I will never know which team will show up to play. Was it Starkville High that played Georgia Tech in week #4, I just don't know. I predicted to outcome of this game correctly although I was a bit surprised at the play of MSU.
Tennessee 12 : Auburn 14. Tommy Tubberville....blah blah blah, whatever you may call him he is a defense guru. He loves these type of games. I am sure he would've like to have seen some more offensive production from his squad but there is no denying that he loves these defensive struggles. Although the stats were very even in this hard fought SEC battle, the turnovers may be a little misleading. Each team had one turnover, but when Tennessee's QB botched a hand off to Arian Foster, it was on their own goal line, Auburn recovers this fumble in the end zone for a touchdown, add on the PAT and the Tigers are ahead 14 to 6. They will not score again, take away that fumble and the Vols have their first SEC win, BUT.... that is why we play the games all the way out. I have to give Auburn credit though, they are 4-1 on the season with a 2-1 league record. This team will probably be my second hardest team to predict.
Arkansas 10 : Texas 52. Only one way to describe this. Just an old fashioned gridiron butt whooping.
Kentucky 41 : Western Kentucky 3. No surprises here
South Carolina 26 : UAB 13. I kind of figured that Steve Spurrier would have a lot more points in this one. I hope they can continue this type of flat play, as my Ole Miss Rebels will be hosting these Gamecocks for HOMECOMING this coming up weekend. What were we thinking inviting Spurrier into Oxford for homecoming? USC may be playing flat but make no mistake about it. The "Ole Ball Coach" will have his team ready to play in the SEC.
Well that recaps weekend #5 in the SEC football season. I will be back on Wednesday for my new weekly opinion blog. In this piece I will not offer predictions, those come on Friday, only opinions and good of the conference type writings. OK, maybe a sneak peak into the upcoming weekend, but no predictions I promise.
Until then
Hotty Toddy
Darryle "Speedy" Clark
