College Week 13

Well, well well! Last week was a busy one for the Bluegrass state as Kentucky hosted their opening basketball game of the season as well as their final football game. In disappointing fashion, the Cats fell in both sports. The Wildcat basketball team was exposed and exploited by a less talented VMI team. The worry for the basketball team appears to be a lack of leadership. The point guard needs to be a court general and KENTUCKY lacks that presence….with a lacking of a leader this looks to be another LONG season for Kentucky basketball. Following the demoralizing basketball loss, Big Blue’s attention was focused on the football program. In the press box was all the BIG NAME BOWLS: Capital One, Outback, and the Chic Fil A Bowl. Brochures were handed out to make your hotel reservations NOW for the Outback Bowl, as if it was a foregone conclusion that the Cats could take care of their own business and reach a New Year’s bowl for the first time since Tim Couch was leading the offense in 1998. However, the Cats did NOT show up Saturday night and were outplayed by a Vanderbilt Commodore team that just wanted the game more than Cats. Following the depressing weekend, Kentucky’s hope for a WARM holiday was extinguished as they are now projected to be the LAST RANKED SEC school to be bowl eligible…sad….

But anyways, here we are entering another BIG week in college football. Kentucky, along with most of the SEC schools are on a bye week before the finales next weekend! Although the SEC is full of byes, the biggest game of the week should be the #2 Texas Tech Red Raiders taking on the #5 Oklahoma Sooners. If the Red Raiders win they will win the Big 12 South for the first time in since the creation of the Big 12 Championship game in 1996. Here are the COLLEGE PROJECTIONS and Predictions for the week and UNTIL NEXT WEEK’s TRIP to Knoxville….Have a great Thanksgiving!

LAST WEEK- 7-4

OVERALL- 57-38

ACC- North Carolina o NC State

Big East- Cincinnati o Pittsburgh

Big 10- Ohio State o Michigan

Big 12- Kansas State o Iowa State

Pac 10- Stanford o Cal

UPSET SPECIAL

1) Oklahoma o Texas Tech

SEC PREDICTIONS

1) Tennessee o Vanderbilt- I have been fooled so many times by the Volunteers but I am hopeful the BYE WEEK gave the Vols a much needed refocus. They CAN’T end the Fulmer tenure with such embarrassing losses.

2) Florida o The Citadel- They might hang 100 on this team…Gators are so efficient

3) Mississippi State o Arkansas- The Bulldogs defense should be able to stop Arkansas and Sly Croom can hang his hat on a win before playing Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl

4) Ole Miss o LSU- NEW COACH Houston Nutt has his Rebels really turned around. Ole Miss should win out and make a really good bowl game.

Updated Bowl Projections

SEC UPDATED BOWL PROJECTIONS

National Title- Florida

The Gators are the most complete team in the land. Earlier in the week I thought that NOTHING can be a fore gone conclusion and that Alabama could give the Gators fits in the SEC title game. BUT, I want to retract that statement. The Gators are GREAT on offense, defense, and special teams.

Sugar Bowl- Alabama

The Crimson Tide should be ranked high enough to get into a BCS bowl, but they don’t have the offense to keep up with Florida and will get destroyed in the SEC title as everyone else has. SO, with a loss in the SEC championship the Crimson Tide go to the Sugar Bowl.

Capital One Bowl- Georgia

Barring a catastropy, the Dawgs should beat Georgia Tech in two weeks and land in the Capital One Bowl. A little disappointing due to this seasons expectations.

Cotton Bowl- OLE MISS

Last week, LSU was projected to land here. BUT following the near loss to Troy at home, I project the Rebels to beat LSU this coming week and reach the Cotton Bowl.

Outback Bowl- South Carolina

Assuming they take down Clemson in two weeks, Steve Spurrier will take his team to a New Year’s day bowl for the first time in his tenure.

Chic Fil A Bowl- LSU

With a projected loss to the Rebels, the Tigers record should be good enough to get them to Atlanta.

Music City Bowl- Vanderbilt

If Vanderbilt wins out, the Commodores could land in the Outback Bowl, having beaten the Gamecocks earlier in the season. BUT, it is projected that Vanderbilt loses at least one of their last two and stay in their home city for a bowl game.

Autozone Liberty Bowl- Kentucky

With two straight losses and NO monumental SEC wins on their record, the Cats will eek into the lowest SEC Bowl available. How quickly things change….

Kentucky Can't Overcome Offensive Woes

Kentucky Loses 31-24

Dark, damp, and depressing. No not the 30 degree wet and windy Lexington Saturday night, the Kentucky locker room. The Wildcats fell for the first time in four years to the Vanderbilt Commodores 31-24.

“For the second straight week, I let down my team. I feel like a personal failure,” said freshman quarterback Randall Cobb following the loss.

A word of a fighter and leader or just an overdramatic 18 year old is unknown but there was some correctness in his comments. He and his offense struggled for the second straight week to knot up the game in the final drive.

Although the offense squandered several oppurtunities, Kentucky made mistakes in every phase of the game. Twice the Wildcats roughed the punter to extend Vanderbilt drives. And far too often, Vanderbilt quarterback Chris Nickson found wide open running lanes to slash the once reveared Kentucky defense.

“We knew they were going to come out hungry and they just seemed to want it more than us today.” Said corner David Jones.

And that much was true. Vanderbilt came out firing scoring on their first two scoring drives to jump out to a 14-0 lead. Sound familiar? That’s because it is, Kentucky fell behind big early last week to Georgia. In both games the lead was far to much for the Wildcats to overcome.

Kentucky now heads into their final bye week losing two in a row and five of their last seven.

“We came in here wanting to reach a good bowl game, and now that is not going to happen. Now it’s just about personal pride and how we finish this season,” said a crushed Randall Cobb.

The loss has a huge sting and a season with so many near misses is frustrating for all of the Big Blue Nation and just like the night, Kentucky’s season has been dark, damp, and depressing.

Dawgs Bite Tigers

(10)Georgia @ Auburn- Georgia 17-13

Auburn- The Tigers played strong but couldn’t upend their rivals as they fall to 5-6 on the season and 2-5 in conference play. Inconsistent offense has been the story all season for the Tigers, but today was a different story. Auburn played strong on offense as quarterback Kodi Burns threw for 179 yards,a touchdown and NO TURNOVERS. The well played game for the Tigers ended up to not be enough as they ran out of time for the go-ahead score. The rocky season for the Tigers will subdue for a week as they will be off. But the following week, the Tigers go to Tuscalosa to take on Alabama in the Iron Bowl. Tommy Tubberville’s team has won the past six meetings in the series and will be hungry to close the season with a win and at minimum reach bowl eligibility.

Georgia- After being squashed two weeks ago, the Georgia Bulldogs have played back to back error filled football games. They have SO much talent on the field they have been able to win, BUT this team has not been dominating or shown any heart. The Dawgs had 9 penalties for a total of 95 yards and turned the ball over once as well. Although the Dawgs have looked less than mediocre, they did win and should stay in the top 10 of the BCS rankings. ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE, running back Knoshown Moreno continued his stellar season. He rushed for 131 total yards as he averaged 6 yards per carry. Next week the Dawgs will get a needed bye week before facing in-state rival Georgia Tech in TWO weeks.

Rebels Send a Message in Beatdown

UL- Monroe @ Ole Miss- Ole Miss 59-0

Ole Miss- With a battle for 2^nd place in the western division on the horizion Houston Nutt and his Rebels beat down Louisiana Monroe. Ole Miss was firing on all cylinders as they gained 520 total offensive yards. The HUGE statement to the LSU Tigers was sent, as quarterback Jevan Snead scored five total touchdowns in the route. Mississippi is NOW BOWL ELIGIBLE and is looking to gain positioning next week.

LSU Score 30 in Fourth to WIN

Troy @ (20)LSU- LSU 40-31

(20) LSU- -- The Tigers were scarred early by Troy as they trailed 24-10 heading into the fourth quarter. BUT the Tigers came alive in Baton Rouge in the fourth quarter as they ripped open the game by scoring 30 points to win BIG over Troy. Quarterback Jarrett Lee began the fourth quarter charge with a 31 yard touchdown pass. The Tigers immediately locked the Troy offense down and got the ball back for another offensive strike. The defense overall forced three turnovers to give the offense the opportunities to come back. The scare was hopefully just that, as the Tigers have a HUGE showdown against Ole Miss next week. Winner will get sole possession of 2^nd place in the SEC Western division.

Cocks Can't Avoid Gator Chomp

(25) South Carolina @ (4)Florida- Florida 56-6

Florida- Although running up the score will come back to haunt Urban Meyer’s squad, or at least I hope it does, the Gators are the most complete team in college football. The Gators scored touchdowns on defense, special teams, and in masses on offense. Quarterback Tim Tebow continued his campaign for a second straight Heisman by throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for another. In total, the offense gained 519 yards and completely tore apart the Gamecocks in every phase of the game. The win concludes the SEC sleight for the Gators before heading to Atlanta in December for the SEC title game. Florida hosts the Citadel next week before finishing the season in Seminole country.

South Carolina- Well, the Gamecocks could NOT pull the upset or even keep it close with the Gators. The Cocks made four turnovers and struggled offensively throughout the game. Spurrier continued his quarterback carosel by pulling Stephen Garcia for Chris Smelly. The changes made NO DIFFERENCE…the Cocks were outplayed and over matched in every phase of the game. South Carolina also has concluded its SEC sleight and now gets a week off before heading to Clemson for Southern Carolina bragging rights.

Alabama Remains Unbeaten

Mississippi State @ (1)Alabama- Alabama 32-7

Alabama- The Tide began slowly only leading 12-7 at half time. But the second half, Nick Saban’s squad came out to dominate the Bulldogs for a blow out victory. The statistics were less than impressive, but once again Alabama did what they needed to do to come out with a win, play error free offense and dominant defense. The Tide controlled the ball for over 35 minutes. The ball control offense worked perfectly for the Crimson Tide as they remain unbeaten heading into a bye week.

Mississippi State- The Bulldog season is truly a let down for all in Starkville. The bowl season of last year and SO MANY returning players expectations were high. But the offense has seen so many struggles and that continued this week against Alabama. The Bulldogs gained only 35 yards on the ground and were a meager 2 for 12 on third downs. Mississippi State’s inability to move the ball and convert in crucial points in the game lead to the eventual blow out by the #1 team in the land. The Mississippi State Bulldogs will now host another embattled western division opponent the Arkansas Razorbacks.