Man. I've been waiting on this game for a loooong time. LSU is a fraud, at least in my mind, and apparently in Vegas's minds as well. The Tide opened as a 10 point favorite. It quickly dropped to 9, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it jump back up to around 11 by kickoff. People know this LSU team is poorly coached. They've got all the talent in the world, but don't know what to do with it. It's a dangerous game, but not so bad if we stay disciplined.
2. Mississippi St is lookin good.
Dan Mullen obviously is one hell of a coach. He has taken players that Sylvester Croom couldn't get to play, and gotten them looking like one hell of a football team. They got handled by Auburn early in the year, and GaTech after that. They should have beaten LSU and Houston, and they played Florida right up to the end of the game. They're believing in themselves, and could actually find a way to beat Arkansas and Ole Miss and make it back to a bowl game. I don't see this team losing to Maine or LaTech anymore, as long as Mullen is around.
3. Georgia looks horrible.
Ever since Alabama went into Athens for "the Black Out," the Dawgs have been awful. Richt is starting to remind me of Phil Fulmer. He was successful while the other teams in the conference were pathetic. He fed off the Shulas, Frans, Fulmers, Zooks, Guy Morris's, Orgerons, Gaileys, etc.
Things do not look good for Mark Richt. The difference between him and Bobby Stoops (both were big-time coordinators and highly successful early in their head coaching careers) is that Stoops is in a muuuch weaker conference. Stoops doesn't have to deal with Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Monte Kiffin, Steve Spurrier, etc, every year. He gets Mike Gundy, Mark Mangino, Bill Snyder, Bo Pelini, etc. Much different, right?
I have a feeling Richt's days are numbered. If Georgia finishes the season with losses to Auburn and Georgia Tech, I wouldn't be surprised to see him bought out. Georgia fans reeeeally want to be able to at least compete with Florida. They can't do that right now.
4. Alabama should be fresh.
Thank the good lord for the bye week. That was one insanely tired football team I watched against Tennessee in Tuscaloosa on the 24th. We got rested, healed, and ready for the home stretch. Not to mention two weeks to think about LSU and how much we hate those damn corndog-smellin bastards.
5. Is this week the return of Greg McElroy?
If you look at the offensive gameplan against the last three teams on the schedule (at Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee), we didn't have to be explosive at all. I don't believe for one second that this wasn't intentional. Saban and McElwain knew they could beat these teams without ever throwing the football, if they wanted to. Hell, the collective score after 11 quarters and 12 minutes through those 3 games was 54-12.
So, against Ole Miss and South Carolina we only needed one touchdown in each game. Against Tennessee we only needed one touchdown until Ingram's fumble. And the only reason anybody is even worried about it right now, both nationally and locally, is because of the close call against Tennessee, which - again - only was close due to a tired football team making mistakes.
I think Coach McElwain will open the playbook this week and throw the football all over the field. They'll go deep a few times to Maze and Jones, etc. I don't look for nearly as many dink and dunk passes. Of course, this will all be setup by running the ball early. LSU's defensive line is suspect at best. I look for a big day from both Ingram and Richardson. Definitely.
6. Back in 3rd. I loooove it. Media is off the bandwagon.
Texas jumped us in the BCS Rankings by demolishing a crappy Oklahoma St team while we didn't play. I want to be third all the way up until Dec 5th. I want everybody to think we don't have a chance. I want to be disrespected.
I don't like having everybody on our bandwagon, y'know? It sets us up for failure. We're not up in that "upper echelon" of teams yet, to where being the best is just common.
The media build their opinions on knee-jerk reactions each week. Read more about the national pundits here.
¶ 1:40 PM
