Are You Ready For Some Football?
August 30th, 2008by Dan Rutledge
Another great football season is being kicked off this weekend in the Southeastern Conference and all over the nation.
The big game for the weekend is, of course, Alabama vs. Clemson Saturday night in the Georgia Dome.
Second-year head coach Nick Saban, who is expected to up the ante from last year’s so-so season this time around, has what he likes - a big, inter-sectional opener played on a neutral field. The schedule says the game is a home game for Clemson, but the contest won’t be played in South Carolina. It won’t be played in Alabama either. This war will be waged in another state entirely, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
It’s a good set up for the Tide to get a big boost in the standings and in confidence that will serve them well down the road this season. This one is a ready made upset folks!
Clemson comes in a big favorite at No. 9 in the nation, while Alabama is barely made it onto the pre-season poll, coming in at No. 25. Clemson has all of its backfield and most of its defense back as well as some talented newcomers.
BUT (yes I meant the capital letters) … the Tigers lost their entire offense line. It takes several games, sometimes a half season, for an offensive line to jell and become a cohesive unit. And that is when you are replacing one or two members.
But the whole darn line? If you can’t block, it’s hard to run the ball. And if your quarterback doesn’t have time to throw, it doesn’t make any difference how talented the receivers.
Bama has a seasoned quarterback (who should have been All-SEC last year) in John Parker Wilson as well as some good players coming back Add to that several freshmen from the nation’s No.1-rated incoming class, such as Foley High’s Julio Jones, who are expected to play a lot if not start and you can see what I mean.
Or, tune in to ABC at 7 p.m. Saturday and see for yourself.
Vanderbilt (34-13 over Miami-Ohio) and South Carolina (34-0 over N.C. State) kicked off the SEC season with Thursday night victories.
Most of the other SEC teams will start the year with cream-puff lite games — No. 1 pre-season pick Georgia hosting Georgia State, Florida at home to Hawaii, LSU entertaining Appalachian State (no, the Catamounts can’t do it again; beating Michigan in last year’s opening was not parity, it was a fluke), Auburn hosting Louisiana-Monroe (no, even though they shocked Alabama last year, they can’t pull the big upset again either), and Arkansas hosting Western Illinois.
Mississippi State will open on the road, but should have little trouble at Louisiana Tech. Kentucky and Ole Miss will have a little more of a challenge in their first outings. The Wildcats will be on the road in an in-state grudge match against neighboring Louisville. The two schools don’t like each other and love to win against the other. That alone will make it a good one.
Ole Miss is at home but is also playing one of those grudge matches. Memphis isn’t officially an in-state rival, but the two schools are close and like Kentucky-Louisville, love to beat the other.
WEEKEND TV LINEUP
The weekend television lineup began on Thursday night and will feature two Friday night games as well. This week’s Fridays include Temple at Army (Lincoln Financial) at 6 p.m. and SMU at Rice (ESPN) at 7 p.m.
Saturday’s schedule, other than pay-for-view:
11 a.m. — East Carolina at Virginia Tech (ESPN), Syracuse at Northwestern (ESPN2), Bowling Green at Pitt (ESPNU)
11:30 a.m. — Hawaii at Florida (Lincoln Financial), Missouri at Kansas St. (FSN South)
2:30 p.m. — Southern Cal at Virginia (ABC), Utah at Michigan (ESPN2), Oklahoma St. at Wash. St. (FSN), Delaware at Maryland (ESPNU),
4 p.m. — Appalachian St. at LSU (ESPN)
5 p.m. — TCU at New Mexico (VS)
6:30 p.m. — Boson College at Kent St. (ESPNU)
6:45 p.m. — Miss. St. at La. Tech (ESPN2)
7 p.m. — Alabama vs. Clemson at Georgia Dome (ABC)
7:30 p.m. — Illinois at Missouri (ESPN)
9 p.m. — Washington at Oregon (FSN)
Tags: SEC Football
