I don't have as much time to blog lately as I did before, so what I'm going to start doing is probably just making this a weekly thing, and I will include everything I can think of from the week that was and will be in the one big weekly post.
The Week That Was
I did really well in the predictions department, as I correctly predicted all of the winners and losers with only one exception:
Georgia. A couple of the scores, I came very close to nailing
I had high expectations for Georgia going into this year, and I didn't have enough respect for
Boise State apparently. I was wrong about that game in every way, and I will never give Georgia credit for anything again until they earn it. They've let me down too many times. Of course, I should have expected that Georgia would completely shit all over themselves, but I had too much faith in Mark Richt. Georgia embarrassed themselves and the SEC, with their XFL looking uniforms (will they ever learn) in getting beatdown by Boise.
Alabama started the season without naming a starting quarterback, and after the first game nothing has changed. I know that I'm not the only one who is a little nervous about this situation. I also know that I am not the only one who thinks the job should go completely and entirely to AJ McCarron at this time, at least for this season. There is too much at stake, with all the talent on that roster, and the schedule, to mess it up by having uncertainty at that position. It's nothing against Phillip Sims, who everyone believes will be a great player down the road, but that's just it: DOWN THE ROAD. While Phillip needs experience, AJ is ready now. And we have a national championship to win, so AJ should have the job all to himself in my opinion. One thing that concerned me was that Trent Richardson didn't have the game I expected against
Kent State. And it wasn't as if no Alabama running backs could run the ball.
Eddie Lacy had a very good day, looking better than Trent on several occasions. I'm not too worried, and I do think Trent will still have a fantastic year, but it's something to wonder about. Is Eddie Lacy gonna take as many carries away from Trent as Trent did from Mark. I didn't think so before the season, but now I'm wanting more and more of Eddie Lacy. It's a good situation to have, of course, having at least two guys that you know can be counted on. But I want Trent to win the Heisman this year, and it's not going to come close to happening if he has anymore games where he only rushes for 37 yards. Now, as I say all this, he could come out tomorrow and run for 200 against Penn State. He wasn't far from that last year, when he had no trouble running all over Penn State's defense. So I am expecting him to right the ship this week and be back in the talk for the Heisman
Auburn, who entered the season with a 15 game winning streak, continued their streak by winning their 16th in a row against their opening day weak opponent,
Utah State. And as the defending National Champions, with that streak, they fell OUT of the top 25 in the AP poll. You have to REALLY suck to pull that off. But it just goes to show what happens when you lose two of the best players you've ever had, plus over 30 other players who played alot, including 17 or 18 starters. With so many new faces, and young players, this is not even remotely the same team that won it all in January and everyone knows that. They were only ranked in the preseason poll based on the respect of being the champs. This is going to be a very tough season on the plains, and this could very well be the first team in the BCS era to win the National Championship and not even go to a bowl the next year.
LSU looked every bit the part of possibly the best team in the SEC in completely dominating
Oregon in a 40-27 victory that wasn't even really as close as the final score. With all the distractions of players being suspended, it is a testament to the coaching ability of Les Miles that he was able to pull this team together and win the way they did. LSU typically has looked pretty bad in these opening games the last few years, and the fact that they looked so good against Oregon has to worry everyone else in the SEC. As an Alabama fan, I think they will be our biggest obstacle in getting back to Atlanta in December.
The Week That Will Be
There are several games tomorrow that everyone will want to see
Your unranked National Champions start it off at 11am against
Mississippi State. The Bagman Bowl. The game is in
Auburn, but I have seen some places where MSU is favored by almost 10 points. That is truly unbelievable to me. Personally, I think things could go badly enough for the Tigers, that they could lose by 20 or 30 points. I really think that could happen. I also think that they could stay in the game and get lucky in the end as they seem to always do and they could pull out the victory. I'm gonna go ahead and predict a victory for the Bulldogs,
38-24. But I won't be surprised if I'm wrong
Your 2011 National Champions kick off at 2:30 in Happy Valley against
Penn State.
Alabama is a 10 point favorite and many believe the game won't even be as close as that. If the game were in Tuscaloosa, on a dry field, I would agree that it would be a beatdown. But the game is going to be played on a muddy field, probably in the rain, in Pennsylvania. So whereas I think this game could be a comfortable massacre at home, something like 41-6, I will give respect to PSU's home field, and the weather conditions, and predict that Alabama will win a sloppy game
27-13
Also at 2:30,
Tennessee takes on
Cincinnati in Knoxville. UT fans have been bragging alot this week after putting an ass whipping on lowly Montana. They shouldn't get ahead of themselves, cause Cincinnati is a very good offensive team. Don't be surprised if the Vols lose this one, but I will predict a close Volunteer victory,
24-20
At 3:30, we will get to enjoy perhaps the biggest game in the SEC from a national perspective.
South Carolina at
Georgia. Even though the game is in Athens, I am have ZERO confidence in Mark Richt. Last year, Marcus Lattimore ran the ball 37 times for over 180 yards against Georgia, and I really don't see it being any different this year. South Carolina won that game 17-6, and I think it will be worse this time for the Bulldogs, and Mark Richt will be hating his life come Monday morning. Lattimore will rush for over 200 yards this time, and true freshman JaDeveon Clowney will sack Aaron Murray at least once. I like South Carolina in embarrassing fashion here.
36-13
Going outside of the SEC, I am also looking forward to the
Notre Dame-
Michigan game at 7:00. It is going to be the first night game ever played in Ann Arbor, which is really cool to me. I don't see how Michigan has played football for over 100 years without ever turning on the lights for a night game before. I also think Michigan fans will enjoy the outcome of the game. Last year, Michigan QB Denard Robinson ran for over 200 yards against Notre Dame and Michigan won a close game. I see this year being much of the same from a scoring standpoint. I think it will be very close and exciting, but I don't think Robinson will rush for as many yards, because I don't think the new coaching staff will run him as much. But I look for Michigan's defense to be much improved over the atrocious display they offended us with for much of last year, and I think this is the first week that will be on display. I'm not saying I think Michigan's D will dominate, because they are going to have to recruit really well and replace alot of these subpar players on that side of the ball before that really takes place. But I have alot of confidence in their new Defensive Coordinater Greg Mattison, who was previously with the Baltimore Ravens. I think he will dial up some confusing blitz packages that will put the Notre Dame QB, whether it is Tommy Rees or Dayne Crist, on his backside a time or 7. Michigan will pull this one out, I'll say
34-28
Random News And Notes
Florida Coach Will Muschamp is really really awesome. I've loved the dude ever since he was overheard by ESPN microphones, screaming "Let's knock these motherfuckers out" during the Auburn-Arkansas game in 2007 when he was AU's defensive coordinator. Now that he is the head coach at Florida, it has only taken him a few weeks to find more reasons to make me think he's awesome. Florida defensive lineman Shariff Floyd was suspended by the NCAA for two games over misuse of his pell grant money or whatever. Muschamp didn't waste time letting everyone know how he felt about the NCAA's decision.
You can read his outstanding response
Here
SEC Expansion took a major turn this week, when it was announced that the SEC had voted 10-2 to accept
Texas A&M into the conference. This came after being promised by every member of the Big 12 that they would not seek any legal action against the SEC and that they would allow A&M to go peacefully.
Not so fast, my friends.
Immediately following the SEC's vote,
Baylor University, with the reported support of
Kansas State and
Iowa State, said that they would fight to block the move, breaking their promise.
I don't even know where to start on what I think about these crying ass bitches. Baylor needs to keep their hypocritical mouths shut, or people need to remind them that if they really cared about "Texas Football", they wouldn't have turned their backs on
Rice,
SMU, and
Houston when they did what they had to do to get into the Big 12 in 1995 or whenever it was. This is all business, and while I'm being critical of how they are reacting to this, I do understand where they are coming from when you consider the news this week that
Oklahoma,
Oklahoma State,
Texas, and
Texas Tech might consider going to the Pac 10, 12, 16 whatever. If all this happens, Baylor, KSU, ISU, etc, would be left without a major conference and would probably lose alot of money and prestige. So I get where they are coming from
Texas Coach Mack Brown proved himself to be an arrogant bastard in this situation last week when he said, "I feel sorry for the lesser schools who will be left without a place to go. We won't"
Really, Mack?
At first, when it was first brought to my attention that Texas A&M wanted to join the SEC, I didn't want them. I was opposed to the idea strongly. I wanted to keep the SEC the way it was. But seeing all the childish behavior from the other "Little 12" teams, I am proud to take them in and see them as one of our own.
Concering Iowa State, they might actually have a legitimate beef against the SEC. After all, we did take a National Championship winning coach away from them
In any case, welcome to the SEC, Aggies! And to HELL with Texas!
Last year, Alabama annihilated the Gators in Tuscaloosa, 31-6, and everyone immediately jumped on the bandwagon and said that Alabama AGAIN had the best team in the country. 
