SEC Recap
by Ronald Sitton
I watched a lot of college football Saturday while listening to Arkansas getting extra practice in its 63-7 thrashing of Southeast Missouri State. I'll get to that later. I present the Top 10 things that interested me during my procrastination Saturday:
1) Where's the brotherly love in the Southeastern Conference? Week after week, the unbeatens fall in a league full of bullies. With the Bowl Championship Series rankings released Sunday, No. 4 Auburn (AP-8, Harris-7, USA Today-7, CPUs-5) seems to be in the conference driver seat with No. 6 Florida (AP-9, Harris-9, USA Today-10, CPUs-4) nipping at their heels. Auburn gets a non-conference match-up against Tulane and Florida gets to take the week off to think about its championship aspirations. To get to the National Championship, the SEC needs some other conferences to start practicing the same brotherly love or we'll never know if the SEC reigns as the supreme conference until we get a playoff ... maybe in my grandkid's lifetime.
2) No. 11 Tennessee (AP-7, Harris-8, USA Today-9, CPUs-12) looks forward to playing at home on CBS against an Alabama team seemingly not as tough as they used to be. My alma mater roughed up Georgia last week in the second half before taking this week to heal some wounds. Alabama won its first overtime game in the Mike Shula era and celebrated as such. I don't think they'll be celebrating as much next weekend. Since David Cutcliffe returned to Tennessee, the Volunteers think their offense will win any given Saturday. I look for the Vols passing game to fly by the Bama ground game.
3) This week's Lincoln Financial Game of the Week between No. 13 Arkansas and Ole Miss looks a lot feistier than it did prior to this weekend. After Auburn took out its misery on Florida, Arkansas (AP-15, Harris-17, USA Today-18, CPUs-8) remained as the only team unbeaten in league play (having given up the non-conference opener with five turnovers to Southern California, which also looked beatable yesterday). The Rebels gave Alabama fits until falling in overtime. Most likely Brent Schaeffer will try to exploit Arkansas' secondary. Even so, I don't see the Rebels slowing down the Hogs' running backs, a position that's become so crowded maybe Houston Nutt will see the logic of moving Peyton Hillis to linebacker to build depth. Maybe ... not likely.
4) My Cajun friends should party next weekend almost as much as they did after making Kentucky feel like a division II team. While Kentucky licks its wounds this weekend, No. 18 LSU (AP-14, Harris-14, USA Today-14, CPUs-21) goes out of conference when hosting Fresno State on ESPN2. The Tigers need to enjoy the game as the conference schedule could be a killer down the stretch. Luckily for the Tigers, the New Orleans Saints are taking some pressure off by moving to 5-1 with Sunday’s win against Philadelphia. I love college football, but it's great to see good things happening to a NFL team that went through hell and back last year.
5) Vanderbilt seems ready to make the step from league laugher to perennial dark-horse spoiler. Bobby Johnson finally convinced the team to believe they could play every weekend with the big boys of the Southeastern Conference. Vandy won its first game against a ranked team since 1992, its first game against a ranked team on the road since 1950 (vs. Alabama in Mobile) and its only game at a ranked opponent's home field. Only good teams go into Athens to shock the Bulldogs. Vandy's Johnson manages a good game; it's just a matter of time before he leads them to a bowl, maybe even this year. Arkansas' win over the Commodores seems more impressive every week, even if it was luck. Vandy gets a home game against South Carolina this week. Betcha Coach Steve Spurrier won't have to warn the Gamecocks about Vandy this week.
6) I feel for Georgia, which fell out of the AP poll for the first time since September 2001 in Mark Richt's first season. But they need to quit feeling sorry for themselves or Mississippi State may continue the shock in the battle of the Bulldogs this week. MSU's Mike Henig returned to lead the Bulldogs for the first time since suffering a broken collarbone against South Carolina. Granted, the win came against a division II team (as did Arkansas'), but maybe the team is finally buying into Sylvester Groom's plan. I'll take five touchdowns any Saturday against any team.
7) In non-SEC football, I watched Texas A&M handle previously undefeated Missouri in a Big 12 match-up. The Aggies finally played up to the standard set by those teams Jackie Sherrill coached when Arkansas filled the northeast corner of the Southwest Conference instead of the northwest corner of the SEC. Even though he's 5-1 this year, I still cannot understand why Dennis Franchione left Alabama for Texas A&M. Why go 16-19 in his first two years when he had the Crimson Tide competing for championships even with bowl sanctions? It wasn't like Alabama took sanctions as hard as Arkansas did the last two years. Maybe he lost enough during his first two years as an Aggie that he’ll stick around College Station for awhile.
OK, I'm cheating here, but this week's homecoming feel-good celebration by Arkansas got me thinking about three things:
8) Why didn't Lou Holtz get Keith Jackson to come to Arkansas in the 1980s? I think it cost Holtz his job at Arkansas. Oklahoma hardly threw the ball in the option, yet Jackson still ran rough-shod over everybody when he did catch the ball. The Razorback Nation said Holtz could not recruit Arkansans, and Jackson became the poster-child of that sentiment. Fast-forward 20 years and Jackson got to feel the love he seldom got as a Pine Bluff superstar in his home state when his son, Keith Jackson Jr., intercepted a pass and
rambled 69 yards for a touchdown. The defensive tackle won the annual Crip Hall Award for the outstanding senior in the homecoming game, and dad gets to bask in the glow.
9) Wally Hall made the sports fan in me want to vote for Mike Beebe after he claimed Beebe would try to get the legislature to force the Razorbacks to schedule in-state schools like Beebe's alma mater, Arkansas State. I don't believe I care for the politickin' of a sports columnist -- he could have asked the other candidates what they'd do -- and I vote based on real issues. But I begrudgingly agree with Mr. Hall that an in-state good would have been more entertaining than Arkansas vs. SEMO. The Indians threw a Hail Mary pass to beat the University of Memphis, making more than one sportscaster call it one of the most important wins in school history. It just makes sense that UA v. ASU would keep Arkansas money within the state rather than having it trickle out. But in all honesty, we'll see a college football playoff before we see the Razorbacks play the Indians.
10) With Adrian Peterson suffering a season-ending injury in Oklahoma's win, the Heisman seems headed to Ohio State's Troy Smith, barring injury or the collapse of OSU. So why would Houston Nutt put a bigger bulls-eye on Darren McFadden by saying D-Mac should be considered for the Heisman this year? I know Nutt coached on the Oklahoma State teams when Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders played, but why set your player up to fail? I'm not doubting McFadden's ability, just the common sense exhibited by the Head Hog when he's been lucky to get to 5-1 and he just came off a win against a Division II team whose coach had given up the game before he ever got on the bus.
Nutt best hope that D-Mac doesn't get hurt, and that the Razorbacks get through October unscathed, or the nay-sayers will be back in chorus.
