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Week Three Preview

Week 3

 

Things start getting interesting in Week 3. This may seem like an SEC article, and it is, because it’s hard not to be facing the southeast. No one in the Big Ten (with 14 teams) is playing anyone of note. The PAC-12 has Stanford against USC-West, but with (drinking) alcohol banned from the USC locker room, and considering how Stanford looked against Northwestern, it makes this game kind-of…Eh. The SEC is where the action is. As usual.

212Florida State vs. Boston College – Token non-SEC preview. Florida State’s coach Jimbo Fisher is telling anyone gullible enough to listen that the Seminoles are exactly where they should be, QB Goldson has learned the offensive and everything is just fine….move along, move along….nothing to see here….no rubbernecking allowed. Jimbo says a lot of things that smack of untrue. Transfer QB Goldson has done well against South Florida and Texas State. He did well against lesser competition at Notre Dame, too. This will be a more serious test for him and Florida State. FSU, as they did last year, has started off slowly and come on strong in the second half. The passing game has been good, but they’ve got to stop the dropsies. History is on the side of the Seminoles, they have beaten Boston College the past five meetings. All college teams go through transitions, but this Florida State squad seems to missing that killer instinct. They’ve won, but there’s something missing. Saturday against Boston College, they have a chance to show what they’ve got. The biggest weakness of FSU, though, is Goldson. Last year he was supposed to return ND to championship form, he was the missing link they needed. Turns out he was a turnover machine. He folds under pressure and, come Saturday, he’s going to be under pressure. Same Goldson, different uniform. Boston College kept up with FSU for three quarters two years ago. Last year, Florida State needed a last minute field goal to win after trailing the entire game. Remember when Boston College hosted USC last year in week three? The Trojans were on the road to greatness, they had the coach they wanted, the players, and everything else. Pat Hayden was ready to make sure USC made it to the playoffs. Why is Pat Hayden still on The Committee? BC took control of the game from the start and USC never recovered. Tommy Trojan (Pat Hayden) was sad. Will history repeat itself Saturday? Maybe. BC relies on the running game, but that’s no big deal, they like the running game, so why change? To break away from the middle of the pack, beating the bully of the conference would be a step in the right direction for the Eagles. CSF knows that the favorite is Florida State, but there’s just something in the air that says BC pulls the upset.

Auburn vs. LSU– Auburn, bless their hearts, had their first home game of the season, they were featuring their new giant scoreboard with 065beautiful graphics and were going to treat the War Eagle fans to a nice victory and show how they were ready to make a championship run. Then, in the famous words of my brother, “Something went wrong.” The Tigers, Alabama variety, had to go into overtime to beat Jacksonville State. Jacksonville State! I’ll bet you can’t tell me which state they’re in, much less their mascot’s name. JSU is a division 1AA school, from Alabama. They were supposed to accept a nice check, get soundly whipped, and go silently into the night. The Gamecocks gave Auburn everything they could handle and darn near pulled off the upset of gargantuan proportions. That would have sent me into roils of laugher. 134After that lackluster performance, Auburn tumbled in the polls. Redemption can come on Saturday. QB Jeremy Johnson says he’s not concerned over his interception rate. He says previous games are in the past and he’s fine. The Tigers, Alabama variety, are fine, everyone is fine. Move along, …move along, …nothing to see here. LSU is a tiger of a different color. It’ll be a whole different opponent. Defensively, Coach Muschamp has an easy assignment, all he has to do is stop the run, and only one running back. Easy -Peasy. I mean, they stopped Jacksonville Stat…..oh, wait, they had a time stopping JSU. Ok, but he still has an easy job this week. Offensively, Auburn needs to attack the middle of the LSU defense. Last year the Tigers, Louisiana variety, were vulnerable when a back would get in the secondary up the middle. If Auburn can establish the running game and forget about passing, they’ll have a better shot. LSU missed their first game due to lighting, and they had a great first half against Mississippi State. They only attempted a handful of passes the entire game. Good thinking, because QB Harris is not a thrower, but he hands the ball off just fine. RB Fournette ran for 159 yards and three TD’s against the Bulldogs. Auburn has allowed almost 400 rushing yards. The Tigers, Swamp variety, are running a simple offense. In their one game, it worked. The offensive line, however, showed they might not be in the best shape, as they wore down in the second half. Run blocking is tough, with no pass blocking to break up the monotony, the second half gets long. LSU’s defense ran into the same trouble, they played like beasts in the first half. Mississippi State had run into a buzz saw. Then halftime came, the defense wore down, and the Bulldogs darn near won the game. LSU has a great running back, but with no passing support, he’ll be just like the line, he’ll wear out. This game is a tough call. If LSU wins, they’ll have two victories over SEC-West opponents. My dislike for Auburn may be a factor, but the Tigers, Alabama variety, have more questions, more concerns, than LSU. Should be a good game to watch, the Tigers are going to win…. guaranteed. I pick the Louisiana variety.

South Carolina vs. Georgia– These teams don’t like each other very much, most teams in the SEC don’t like each other very much. Coach Steve164 Spurrier loves to stick it to UGA whenever he gets the chance. He says the best time to play Georgia is at the start of the140 season before all their players get off probation. This year he has his own problems to worry about. Perry Orth, a former walk-on, will be making his first start at QB. Starter Connor Mitch sustained shoulder and hip injuries. Orth came in against Kentucky last week and went 13-20, with a touchdown, but he threw a costly INT late in the fourth. He’s a good QB, he earned a scholarship from the Ole Ball Coach, that’s got to say something. The Gamecocks haven’t been able to push people off the line and the defense wasn’t able to stop an improving Kentucky team. Now, against UGA, who looks ready to win the SEC-East, they’re going to need all the magic Spurrier can muster. Georgia has QB questions of their own. Lambert, who transferred from Virginia, has yet to get into any sort of rhythm with the offense. He struggled against Vanderbilt. On the plus side, the Bulldogs have Nick Chubb, who had a huge day Saturday, rushing for 189 yards. If you’re going to be one dimensional, having a superstar running back is a must. Look for UGA to run the ball all game long, with very few passes. Georgia has this knack for just falling apart in some games, no one knows why, they just do. But the Bulldogs do have revenge as a motivation. USC-South wasn’t supposed to beat them last year, but they did. Revenge is a plate best eaten cold. UGA has everything going for them, they cannot, must not, collapse in this game.

Ole Miss vs. Alabama– There is no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it, this is the game of the week. The Rebels bring their scorching attack and their defensive Land Sharks into Tuscaloosa to challenge the Crimson Tide. I’m worried, very worried. Nothing would please my brother, the University of Mississippi alum, more than to pick up his phone and give me a call at the end 519of this game. Should he get that opportunity he will gloat and he has the ability to really gloat. It’s annoying. Ole Miss has scored 73 points in each of its last two games. You can count on one hand how many schools have accomplished this. The Rebs are better than they were last year. They have this new QB, named Kelly, who appears to have straightened his life out. Last year he watched this game from a Junior College in East Mississippi. This year he has set the offense on fire. He is accurate and he makes good decisions. It helps that he has his receiver, Treadwell, back from last year’s season -ending injury. This combination has proven lethal. The defense, aka the Land Sharks, are picking up where they left off last season. They’re hard to run against and they have a secondary that can cover receivers. They showed they’re not intimidated by Alabama when they beat the Tide last year in Oxford. Of course, they did have Katy Perry cheering for them. If the Rebels bring their A-game, they could do what only one other team has done and that’s beat Bama two years in a row. Alabama is ranked second in the nation. They beat Wisconsin to start the season and then fine-tuned their plans against Middle Tennessee. Jake Coker is not going to be mistaken for a do-everything QB. He can be a good game manager who doesn’t make any mistakes. He’s good, but he misses the All-American receiver like Cooper. The young receivers have done well, but they’ll be tested Saturday. Bama’s s017trong suite is running the ball, – Duh, has been for at least 47 years. That’s how long I’ve been alive and I can’t ever remember the Tide being a pass- first offense. Derrick Henry has been fantastic. The Offensive line has opened up some huge holes for him and driven defensive linemen back on their heels. Wisconsin is a good team and they couldn’t contain the Tide. Ole Miss will be tougher to block. Henry is going to need to be in touch with his spiritual animal, the Grizzly Bear, if he’s going to have an outstanding day. Defense-wise, Alabama has been outstanding. No one has been able to run the ball against them. Wisconsin managed only 40 yards. Ole Miss is not going to be mistaken for a running team. They don’t have a power runner so there is little need to worry about that. Defending the pass has been the Achilles heel of the defense ever since St. Nick has been at Alabama. Can these D-Backs stop the pass, or even slow it down? This is what worries me. I don’t have a lot of faith in the secondary. To stop Ole Miss, they have got to pressure Kelly. Under no circumstances should he be able to drop back and pass the ball. He needs to be worried about getting hit every time he drops back. Since St. Saban has taken up residence next to the Black Warrior River, only one team has beaten him in consecutive years and that was LSU, who then got hammered by the Tide in the National Championship game. Hopefully, Ole Miss won’t duplicate last year’s success, hopefully, my brother will be up in Alaska fishing this Saturday. I’m counting on a lot of hopefullies, and hope is never a course of action. Still picking and pulling for the Tide to win, but I’m worried.

Short Smokes

Clemson travels to meet a struggling Louisville

Arizona hosts the very weak Lobos of New Mexico

South Florida challenges Maryland

Michigan State grounds Air Force

Texas A&M will make The Daughter proud against Nevada

Illinois has the biggest Great White North game as they try to beat North Carolina

Wake Forest and Army will play along the banks of the Hudson River

Tulsa has a knack for making Oklahoma struggle

In the Academic Bowl, Duke hosts Northwestern

Oregon runs all over Georgia State

Memphis (State) and Bowling Green should be a great game

UT – San Antonio will give Oklahoma State fits

Georgia Tech will more than likely beat Notre Dame. I hope. I know, I know, it’s     not a course of action.

Nebraska is looking for respect against Miami

Colorado and Colorado State fight for State supremacy. And when they get it, what have they got?

Florida and Kentucky had an incredible game last year;- can they do it again?

California visits Austin to take on the Longhorns.

Does BYU have a third last minute miracle to defeat UCLA?

 

 

 

 

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