What Do You Have To Do To Win A Heisman Around Here?

Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow! What crosses your mind when I say that sentence? When I think of this college football phenom I think a touchdown is only one play away. I see excitement and love for the game. Lastly I see a dedication to his team and teammates. Now I am not sure if this spells H-E-I-S-M-A-N, but it definitely spells M-V-P.

Is Tebow immune to bad days? Certainly not, but even his bad days are good ones to other college quarterbacks. The one Florida loss came at home against Ole Miss. Now everyone knows that I am an Ole Miss fan but this article is about Tebow, I will attempt to maintain my objectivity. In the UM ball game, Tebow was 24 for 38with 1 touchdown and no interceptions. Those numbers translates into 319 yards passing for the day. His rushing totals were down for the day but only because sacks count as negative rushing yards in the college game. He rushed for a net of 7 yards with one touchdown. He was stopped on the 4th & 1 play, but Florida fans cannot blame him for that loss. I would take his numbers any day of the week if I was his coach.

Now we will talk about the LSU game. In this contest, Tebow was 14 for 21 with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions, that all totals up to 210 passing yards. He rushed for a net of 22 yards and a touchdown in this game as well. In this game he led his team to a 51 – 21 victory over the then №4 team in the country.

Fast forward 7 days to this past weekend’s shellacking of Kentucky. Only one word comes to mind: WOW! Mr. Tebow was 11 for 15 with 2 touchdowns; He did throw one interception in this game that is the only flaw I could find. He totaled up 180 passing yards against Kentucky and rushed for another 48 yards on 9 runs. Among these 9 rushes were 2 runs for touchdowns. Florida had a lot of other weapons against Kentucky, but by far if you had to pick a single gun in this one, it was hands down Tim Tebow!

Looking forward to this coming up weekend’s Georgia versus Florida Football Classic, or “The Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”. I can’t wait to find out what this outstanding young man has in store for us. I can’t help but remember his post game interview after losing to Ole Miss, where he promised the Gator Nation that good things would come out of that loss. I think that he has made good on that promise. I also think he will continue to make good on it. Just this past week Tebow gave his Heisman vote to the University of Texas’ QB Colt McCoy, but McCoy showed this last weekend that he can have a bad day as well when faced with a tough opponent. I know I have a shallow mind when it comes to college football, I don’t look too far outside of the SEC for talent, unless another team (Non Conference) has a game that will directly affect an SEC team, such as this last weekends game between №1 Texas and №7 Oklahoma State. For this reason I may miss a lot of the talent that is out there in this nation, but listen close to this my friends. My prediction in last Friday’s Pick-Em column that Tebow was going to make a charge and that he still had Heisman in him is still valid and I stand behind that statement 100%. He may not be what some would say is an NFL type QB, but if he keeps racking up passing yards like he has in the past 3 games, including the one loss, he will be looking more and more like a Sunday player to me. In any event, the Heisman Trophy isn’t given to the best NFL prospect of the year; it is given to the best College Player. At this moment, my shallow mind can’t look past Tim Tebow.

As usual friends, I will be back on Friday for another round of SEC Pick-Em. I think we have a great weekend of football in store for us. Until then…..Hotty Toddy

Darryle “Speedy” Clark

Weekend Re-Cap

Well this weekend wasnt as much of a roller coaster ride as last weekend. I am a little disappointed as any of you may guess. Ole Miss loses at home to South Carolina on our Homecoming. It was another day of critical turnovers which SC took advantage of. I have decided to recap the weekend action on Sunday since my wife and I will be going to the Saints game on Monday night. I thought about possibly writing a blog entry for that game. I know this blog is about SEC football but I have never been to a Monday Night Football game and I just thought I might want to share the experience .

The Rebels took the opening drive and marched in for a touchdown. Then the defense held SC to a field goal on their opening drive. The Rebels then score another touchdown putting them up 14-3. Thats when the wheels fell off. A fumble by Jevan Snead leads to a South Carolina touchdown and the downward spiral had begun for the Rebels. I will not take anything away from South Carolina, they played a great game and didnt let their mistakes kill them. They took great advantage of the Rebel mistakes and that is what you are supposed to do. I find it hard to believe after watching them execute that they are only 1-2 in the SEC. With 2 losses I don't forsee them competing for the Eastern champioinship, but they can certainly spoil some hopes of other contenders. With almost all other stats being pretty even the only stat that sticks out are the turnovers. The Rebels turned the ball over 3 times and the Gamecocks ony once. Turnovers have been the Achilles heel of the Ole Miss football team all year. I know that Jevan Snead is only a sophomore but he has had 6 games to learn how to protect the ball. Dexter McCluster fumbled as well on the Gamecock 6 yard line. McCluster is one of the most exciting athletes on the Ole Miss team but his fumbles are always at the most critical of times. He fumbled going in for the go ahead score against Vanderbilt as well. The Gamecocks played a good game and came away with a great victory for their program on the road. Final Score: 31 to 24.

Alabama 17 - Kentucky 14.

The surpise of the weekend for me was the Alabama, Kentucky game. I predicted the correct winner but I sure thought it would be by alot more than 3 points. As the score shows the game was actually played pretty even. Alabama has a slim edge in all statistics the same as on the scoreboard. As stated on Fridays column, Alabama QB: John Parker Wilson is the question mark on the Tide team. But not to worry Bama fans, Every quaterback has bad days and JPW's led to a win anyway despite the flat play. Bama has an off week to correct mistakes and then my Rebels will be coming to town with another upset on their mind. I am sure that coach Saban will have his team ready to play.

Florida 38 - Arkansas 7.

This game was an all around whoopin' as the scoreboard shows. Florida out gained the Razorbacks 514 yds to 361. The rest of the statistics are just that whopsided. Arkansas turned the ball over twice. The lone Florida turnover, a Tim Tebow interception, did not lead to any points as the Florida defense held Arkansas. As predicted Friday, the R-Backs made a pretty good game of it early, but Florida's motivation to right the ship after last weeks upset to Ole Miss proved too much for Arkansas. One other stat that sticks out shows that this had to be one of the most penalized games this year. Both teams were highly penalized, Florida: 12 penalties for 112 yards, Arkansa: 9 penalties for 75 yards. What could this game had been like if the penalites had not been a factor?

Auburn 13 - Vanderbilt 14.

Here is my one chance to gloat on the weekend. I predicted upset on Friday and I was glad to see it come to fruition. Auburn had a good first quarter and jumped out to a 13 point lead. But you have got to give those Commodores credit. They held the #13 team in the nation to no points in the remaining 3 quarters. Auburns offense has been their big question mark all season. The Commodores took advantage of this, scoring one touchdown to end the first half and again with just over 7 minutes left in the third quarter. The PAT after the second touchdown put the Dores up 14 to 13 which would prove to be the final score. The telling mistake in this game for Auburn would be the missed extra point by Auburn kicker, Wes Byrum. Auburn was penalized 11 times for 81 yards and Vandy out gained the Tigers. Vanderbilt had 263 total yards and Auburn had 208 yards. This was the first win for Vanderbilt over Auburn since the 1955 Gator Bowl. The Dores are now 5-0 and well on their way to becoming a driving force in the Eastern Division. Watch out Georgia and Florida, here comes the Commodores.

Tennessee 13 - Northern Illinois 9.

I sure thought that the Volunteers would take care of business better than they did in this game. I called it a cruise control game for UT but it turned out to be a squeaker instead. UT is definately missing David Cutcliffe as offensive coordinator. The stats in this one look pretty even, but NI had more first downs but were penalized 7 times for 90 yards. I dont know what UT is going to do to correct this anemia but they dont get much time to think about it as they travel to Georgia next weekend.

Well that ends weekend #6. Check back on Wednesday for my commentary on the good of the conference. Possibly I will find some good stuff to write about my trip to Monday Night Fooball, that will be wrote on Tuesday.

Hotty Toddy

Darryle "Speedy" Clark

Friday's Picks

Well we didn't win the Pontiac Game Changing Performance Award, but I figured it was worth watching again.



Well sports fans, here it is Friday again and that means another weekend of college football, more especially SEC football. I will be in Oxford again for the Ole Miss Homecoming game against South Carolina. I sure hope we can avoid an emotional letdown after last weeks huge win over #4 Florida as well as the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx. The upsets have already started as last night the Pittsburgh Panthers upset the South Florida Bulls 26 to 21. Oregon State just about made it two weeks in a row, but Utah edged out a last minute field goal to win 31 to 28. I wonder what the weekend will have in store for us. Lets get started with the previews and predictions.

As Always I will begin with my Ole Miss Rebels. This week the Rebels are back home at Vaught Hemingway Stadium for the 2008 Homecoming Game. Excitement is in the air after the stunning victory on the road last weekend in the Swamp. This weeks opponent: none other than the "Ole Ball Coach" Steve Spurrier and his South Carolina Gamecocks, and boy are they due for a win. Last week the Rebel offense put up 31 points but were benefited by some short field situations. The offense didn't make the amount of mistakes that plagued them the previous weekend versus Vanderbilt. They limited themselves to only one turnover. If Jevan Snead can carry that momentum over into this game the offense should have a few opportunities to make plays despite South Carolina's #1 rating defending the pass (Conference and Nationally). I think if we can hold on to the ball the run game will loosen up that stingy pass defense. South Carolina has had 3 different quarterbacks in its line up so I am anxious to find out how well Houston Nutt could prepare for them. Last weekend the Gamecocks won against UAB, but have struggled to get a win against a conference foe, dropping both their previous contests against Vanderbilt and Georgia. Both Vandy and Georgia are good football teams so I look for South Carolina to be a big test for the Rebs. I may be accused of picking this one with my heart but I am going to go with the Rebels to win their Homecoming game giving the emotional fan base another happy Saturday.

Next up on my SEC calender is Kentucky versus Alabama. Only one word comes to mind when describing the play of Alabama this year: Great. I can even imagine "Tony The Tiger" saying it. They haven't been turning the ball over, one of the leagues lowest penalized teams, and they take advantage of their opponents mistakes. All the things a well coached team should do. The question mark in their line up has always been John Parker Wilson. As an Alabama fan, I am well pleased with his play so far this year, but we have all seen him have moments of greatness before, usually followed by stretches of horrible play. If JPW can keep the mindset that he has so far in the '08 campaign, then I just don't see anyone beating them. This includes Kentucky. UK has been playing well so far this season. They are 4-0 and that is a good spot to be in for sure, but they have yet to face a conference opponent, well they are this weekend. I look for Bama's suffocating defense to get after UK quarterback Mike Hartline, this is his first year to start and it will be interesting to see how he handles the rain of hellfire that is about to descend upon him in Tuscaloosa. I look for Bama to win this one big.

Next on tap is Florida versus Arkansas. Florida is licking their wounds after last weekends home opener loss to Ole Miss. They wont have an easy task in front of them as they will have to go on the road to Fayetteville to take on the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks. I know on paper Florida should destroy the R-Backs, but this is the SEC, and playing on the road in the SEC is no easy thing to do. Still in all, The Gators are mad, they are fired up, and I look for them to protect the football better than they did last weekend. Tim Tebow said in his post game interview that "Good would come out of that loss", and if they protect the ball and give him an inch of running room, we have all seen what he can do. Tebow is well behind his marks for this time last season, but he is still TEBOW. I look for Arkansas to play with reckless abandonment in this one, they will have nothing to lose and should pull out all stops. For this reason I think Arkansas puts up a great fight, especially early on, but my pick for this one is Florida.

Auburn at Vanderbilt, boy does this one have the makings of an SEC slobber knocker! Auburn is playing by far some of the best defense in the nation. This comes as no surprise being that Tommy Blah Blah Blah Tuberville is a defensive guru. On the other sideline, Bobby Johnson has these 2008 Commodores sitting pretty at 4-0, and I have personally seen them play. The adjective that comes to mind is FLAWLESS. They don't make silly mistakes and they protect the football. Auburn is struggling offensively this season, but have put up "W's" by superb defensive play. Look for this one to come down to the wire, but I am going to predict an upset in Music City. Vanderbilt will take this one. Interesting note, Vanderbilt has not won in this contest since the 1955 Gator Bowl. I say they are due.

Finally, Tennessee brings in Northern Illinois. The Vols are begging for a victory and they should get it this weekend. They have not had a good row to hoe so far this season. Their schedule had them pitted against 3 big time college programs in their first 4 games. They are 1-3 for the first time in my recollection with their only victory coming against UAB. I look for the Vols to put it on cruise control in this one and secure them a victory.

The only other game of interest to me this weekend is Oklahoma versus Baylor. Well SEC fans, I wont go into any specifics and details on this one, but If we want an SEC #1, we will have to wait for another weekend. OU takes care of business easily in this one and will maintain their #1 ranking in both polls.

Well that wraps up this weekends previews and picks. I will be headed to Oxford in the morning and hope to see plenty of Rebel fans on the road. As usual I will be back on Monday to admit my mistakes and gloat about my uncanny ability to find the winner. Until then.....

Hotty Toddy

Darryle "Speedy" Clark

Wednesday SEC Commentary

Class

What I would like to write about today is CLASS. While watching an unbelievable game between Ole Miss and Florida this weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing Class epitomized. I don’t think there is anyone in this country who can argue with me when I say that Florida head coach Urban Meyer is a real class act. He certainly was upset at the end of the game, but in his press conference he gave credit to the Ole Miss team for playing hard. He said he didn’t want to take nothing away from the team they were playing. I would expect any other coach in the nation to harp on the turnovers, or the busted coverage’s, but not Meyer. He is truly an ambassador for the SEC and he is only getting started at what he will accomplish at the University of Florida.

A True Fan

Being an Ole Miss fan, I was one of the happiest people in the country when we hired Houston Nutt at the end of the ’07 season. I had witnessed what he had accomplished at Arkansas and I knew he would be able to recruit. Until this weekend though I just figured he was a head coach who would do his best for you because it was his job. For this opinion I owe him an apology. This past weekend I may have imagined it, but I swear I seen tears when he witnessed the team he coached defeat a top 5 opponent. No matter if there were tears or not, anyone could see how happy he was. I got the feeling though that the happiness wasn’t for himself. It was for his kids, the team that he believed in before they believed in themselves. I now know that coach Nutt is an Ole Miss fan, not just the head coach. I am looking forward to the rest of this season.

Once again, CLASS is the word that comes to mind when thinking of coaches like Houston Nutt, and Urban Meyer. I know I may be a little on the bias side when talking about Houston Nutt, but that is why I write this blog. I can be biased and call them like I see them.

This past weekend, the stop of Tim Tebow on 4th and 1 at the end of the game between Florida and Ole Miss is nominated for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance Award. I encourage all Ole Miss Fans to go and vote for this play. Here is the link to go do so:
http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/pontiacgcp/

The nature of being in the SEC is that having to play each other, it is almost impossible to keep so many of our teams in the top 10. With Ole Miss upsetting Florida and Alabama defeating Georgia, that allowed the Tide to catapult into the #2 spot in the AP poll. LSU moved into the #3 spot. In all I think the poll is about as good as we could expect at this point. Alabama received 21 first place votes as well, so somebody is noticing. And if you look at the top 25 as a whole, wow! 6 of our squads are in the poll. No other conference at this moment can boast of 50% representation. I am not sure what is up with the USA Today poll, they have LSU in the #2 position, I can handle that but Alabama is in the #4 position behind a #3 Missouri. I don’t understand how this happens since Alabama received 2 first place votes, LSU received 1 first place vote, but here is what I don’t understand. Missouri didn’t receive any first place votes, yet they are ranked higher than Alabama. Maybe someone else can explain it to me.

Finally, one other high note. The Ole Miss Rebels will grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. This issue features a great picture of DE Greg Hardy going after Tim Tebow of the Gators. The only thing I hope is that the SI jinx doesn't get us. We will need to play with great intensity against the Gamecocks this next weekend. Superstitions are part of any sport. We as sports fans MUST respect them. I just hope we can avoid the SI Jinx.

Come back on Friday as I will run down the weekends match ups in the SEC and give my predictions, maybe every now and then I will put a pick or two out of the conference, if it has direct implications to the SEC.

SEC Weekend Review

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