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Story Archives: Taking a look at SEC teams


Taking a look at SEC teams
by Joey Martin - posted Thursday, October 1st, 2009 @ 8:34 amE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
One month in the books and things are start to take shape — or are they?

Ole Miss took a big hit with its Thursday night loss to South Carolina.

I was never sold on Ole Miss as a top five team. You just don't lose a Michael Oher, Peria Jerry or Michael Wallace and not feel the effects.

Someone like Florida can lose a Percy Harvin, but there's a five-star stud waiting to step in.

Down the road, Ole Miss may be able to fill those huge holes. That's part of the growing pain. Houston Nutt will continue to do a good job recruiting.

But Arkansas fans were ready to dump Nutt because he would lose games he should not and come up with strange excuses, such as "We had plans to get the ball to Dexter (McCluster). But we had too many three-and-outs. Every time we'd think of the next play, it'd be third down again. It got us off track a little bit."

Huh?

He got the ball on first and second down on Ole Miss' final two drives and the Rebels seemed to do fine with that.

I also thought Ole Miss should have gone for it on fourth-and-one near midfield with about six minutes left. Nutt is usually known for a bit of being a gambling man.

Sure they stopped South Carolina deep in their own territory, but I think they lost a bit of momentum because South Carolina's defense was getting tired.

After ripping up yardage running McCluster to the right, Ole Miss sent him left where he had to go around his own blocker and still picked up two yards. I couldn't see the Gamecocks stopping Ole Miss at that stage.

But it's easy to look back and the Rebels will still play a big part in how the SEC West turns out.

Ole Miss plays at Vanderbilt on Oct. 3 before hosting Alabama on Oct. 10.

Alabama is clearly tops in the West and Florida is Florida. I thought LSU could take the Crimson Tide before the season, but I'm crawfishing now.

If the season continues the way it started out, they should just make the Alabama-Florida game for the SEC title the BCS Championship Game.

And you can bet Tim Tebow will not hang around long after the next Florida game is well in hand.

Of course, Southern Cal will cruise through the rest of its schedule and some of those talking heads will be talking up the Trojans.

Arkansas hosts Auburn on Oct. 10 and that will go a long way in securing a positive bowl game at the end of the season. Trips to Florida and Ole Miss make the Auburn game a must-win situation for the Hogs.

Alabama may be tested at Ole Miss on Oct. 10 but then have South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU in a row at home Oct. 17-Nov. 7.

If the Tide makes it past that unscathed, they should be unbeaten when facing Florida for the SEC title.

It's going to be interesting if Texas remains unbeaten to earn the right to play for the BCS title. Of course, you can never rule out Notre Dame with one or two losses. Lou Holtz could talk their way into the title game.

How many different ways does the NCAA need to be shown that a playoff system is way past due?
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