Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

To paraphrase an old song or, more correctly, an old song title, “This Magic Season” should be the theme song for the Southeastern Conference and for the Alabama Crimson Tide in particular. The league hit a historical high note last week by hogging half of the AP Top 10 poll.

This week, only four teams remain in the Top 10 – but the SEC has half its membership among the top 25 (Georgia No. 3, Florida 4, LSU 5, Alabama 8, Auburn 15, Vanderbilt 21). No other league has half its members in that select group.

And as far as Bama goes, it has indeed been a magical season so far, and don’t look for the sorcery to end anytime soon … that’s right, not this weekend. The old saying “three’s a charm” has been rewritten to read “two’s a charm” as far as SEC football goes.

In this league, the sophomore jinx has been turned on its head. Some seven current SEC head men won at least 10 games during their second seasons and four — including Bama’s Nick Saban, Georgia’s Mark Richt, Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville, and Florida’s Urban Meyer — won their respective divisions and landed their teams in the SEC championship game in their second seasons.

Don’t look now, but this is Saban’s second year at the helm in Tuscaloosa. That means that he will get to be the first coach to do it — win their division in their second year — twice! That’s right, the feeling here is that Bama will be back on the front of Sports Illustrated once again next week after the Tide has pulled off the upset of the season — again (remember Clemson?). As then, this one, even though it’s being played in Athens and beating the Dogs between the hedges is a tough row to hoe, is an upset ready to happen (Line: Georgia by 7).

The Dogs’ Richt knows. That’s why he is calling for a “blackout” this Saturday, calling for all the Georgia fans to come dressed in black. “Blackouts” are used by Richt to pump up his fans and teams for big games in which he feels he needs a little extra motivation and excitement.

The individual matchup to watch this week is A.J. Green and Julio Jones. Both true freshmen and both highly touted coming out of high school, the two have so far lived up to their billing. Jones leads Alabama in pass receptions. The same goes for Green at Georgia.

This week’s game could come down to which of the two has the best game. The passing game could be the difference since both teams have shown success in stopping the run. Bama’s offense has relied mainly on the ground game in winning the first four games. But look for more passing in the game plan this week.

The rest of the Week 5 menu has three league games and three non-conference contests. Two matchups — one in each group — are interesting. League-wise, the other big game of the week will be played down on The Plains, where No. 18 Auburn will host Tennessee (Line: Auburn by 6).

The Tigers, coming off a tough loss to LSU at home, will be hungry and ready to roar — the home crowd likewise. It is an important game for both teams and the loser will have a hard time bouncing back. For Auburn, coming in at 3-1 overall and 1-1 in league play, losing would mean back-to-back home losses and dropping to 1-2 in the SEC West.

For Tennessee, losing would be even worse. The Vols come in 0-1 in league play and 1-2 overall. A defeat would drop them to 1-3 and with their schedule, put them firmly on the road to a losing season. They would also be 0-2 in league play and out of the championship picture.

Other league games on tap this week include Ole Miss (0-1, 2-2) at Florida (1-0, 3-0) (Line: Florida by 23) and Mississippi State at LSU (Line: LSU by 24). It should be easy home games for both the Gators and Tigers.

The interesting non-conference contest is actually a throwback to an old-SWC rivalry. Arkansas and Texas (Line: Texas by 27) vied for the SWC title many times over the years and this game was always underlined on both teams’ schedules. It doesn’t mean as much now, but the Hogs still hate to lose to the Longhorns, and vice versa. Also on tap Saturday: Western Kentucky (2-2) at Kentucky (3-0) (Line: Kentucky by 21) and UAB (1-3) at South Carolina (2-2) (Line: SC by 23).

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

Saturday:

11 a.m.
Maryland at Clemson (CW), Michigan St. at Indiana (ESPN), North Carolina at Miami (ESPN2), Northwestern at Iowa (ESPN Classic), Virginia at Duke (ESPNU)
11:30 a.m.
Ole Miss at Florida (Raycom Sports), Army at Texas (Versus)
2:30 p.m.
Fla. A&M at Tennessee St. (FSNS), Colorado at FSU (ABC), Tennessee at Auburn (CBS), Purdue at Notre Dame (NBC), Chattanooga at Furman (CSS), Wisconsin at Michigan (ESPN)
2:45 p.m.
Navy at Wake Forest (ESPNU)
6 p.m.
Wofford at Ga. Southern (CSS), TCU at Oklahoma (FSNS)
6:30 p.m.
Miss. St. at LSU (ESPN2)
6:45 p.m.
Alabama at Georgia (ESPN)
7 p.m.
Illinois at Penn. St. (ABC)

Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 2:13 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.