TV Lineup and Lines Below

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Wow, can you believe it’s halfway through the 2009 college football season? It seems like just yesterday that teams were playing their first games of the year.

Alabama, Auburn and South Carolina are three teams that have exceeded pre-season expectations in the first half of the season. Florida is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the land –- but that is no surprise, just what was expected.

Ole Miss, Georgia and Mississippi State are a trio that has failed to live up to pre-season hopes. The attention of the football world was focused on the SEC last weekend as the schedule featured a plethora of big conference games. This week, however, the nation’s attention will shift to the Southwest, where Oklahoma invades Texas in a Big-12 headliner, and to the annual Southern Cal-Notre Dame battle.

This week’s SEC lineup features four games, two of which will be of intense national interest –- games involving the No. 1 (Florida) and No. 2 (Alabama) teams in the nation usually are.

What was Bama schedulers thinking when they were picking out future homecoming foes? Teams will usually pencil in teams from, say the Sun Belt Conference, or a 1AA sacrificial lamb, to play at homecoming — you know, so the alums plenty of opportunity to scream and celebrate.

But the Crimson Tide (6-0, 3-0) faces a good also-ranked (No. 22) South Carolina team (5-1, 2-1) that is no pushover by any means (Line: Alabama by 17).

Coach Steve Spurrier’s outfit is tough defensively and on offense -– well, let’s say they have a pretty good offensive coordinator. It should be a low-scoring contest featuring dueling linebackers. Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McLain and South Carolina linebacker Eric Norwood were both placed on the semifinal list for the Lombardi Award, which goes each year to the nation’s top interior player on defense. McLain leads the Alabama defense with 27 tackles that include two sacks. Norwood leads the SEC in sacks with 3. Spurrier won’t be intimidated by the Bryant-Denny atmosphere.

The Ol’ Ball Coach is 2-0 in Tuscaloosa, both when he was the Head Gator. Alabama is seeking its first 7-0 start since the 1979-80 season. Perhaps the key to this one will be to see if the Tide can improve on its red-zone efficiency from last week, when it settled for five short field goals.

One last Bama note: It’s time to begin an Ingram for Heisman campaign. The Tide running back is having a banner year. He leads the SEC with 10 TDs and is one of just three players in the country who have averaged at least 100 yards rushing and scored at least 10 touchdowns this season.

Florida (5-0, 3-0) will be a huge favorite (Line: Florida by 24) when it entertains Arkansas (3-2, 1-2) but the Hogs could prove to be pesky. A winning streak is fine and the Gators come in riding the nation’s longest streak with 15 straight -– a school record. But sometimes streaks are hard to maintain as the odds stack up against you.

Gator QB Tim Tebow will go into the game on the cusp of breaking two major SEC offensive stats -– when he scores a touchdown it will be TD No. 123, pushing him past former Florida great Danny Wuerffel in that department. Tebow’s next rushing TD will tie Georgia great Hershel Walker’s SEC mark of 49.

Look for this one to be an offensive shootout. Neither team is going to get shut out. Arkansas, like Florida, scores points in bunches.

The Razorbacks are the only team in the nation that has scored at least 40 points in four of its games. The Gators have intercepted at least one pass in 17 straight games -– another “longest streak.” Florida defensive backs should have plenty of chances to keep the streak going. The Hogs do most of their offensive damage via the pass –- which sets up an interesting confrontation. Arkansas leads the SEC in passing offense, while Florida leads the nation in pass defense.

The other two league confrontations include Kentucky (2-3, 0-3) at Auburn (5-1, 2-1) (Line: Auburn by 13½) and Georgia (3-3, 2-2) at Vanderbilt (2-4, 0-3) (Line: Georgia by 8).

The game down on The Plains will be interesting. The question is: Can the Tigers bounce back from their lackluster performance against Arkansas? The feeling here is yes. The national ranking and undefeated record got inside the younger Tigers’ heads –- they strarted believing their own clippings. But that won’t happen again.

Another reason the Tigers will come back strong is that Kentucky will come in with its offense limping. Missing in action will be Wildcat quarterback Mike Hartline, out with a knee injury. In Nashville, it could come down to who gets on the scoreboard first. Vandy has won the two games in which it scored first and has lost the four it hasn’t.

There also two non-conference games on tap -– Mississippi State (2-4) at Middle Tennessee (3-2) and Ole Miss (3-2) but hosting the UAB Blazers (2-3). The Bulldogs badly need a victory and a Sun Belt Conference team may be just what the doctor ordered (Line: Miss. St. by 4).

But to avoid an upset on the road and a further decline of an already dismal season, the Bulldogs will have to reverse a troubling trend -– giving the ball away. Mississippi State have 18 turnovers to date, third worse in the nation. This will be the first meeting between Ole Miss and UAB (Line: Ole Miss by 22) but. On some weeks, UAB could have been a potential upset threat. But look for Ole Miss QB to have a good week and lead the Rebs over the Blazers. Jevan Snead is too talented to have two blah weeks in a row.

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

9:15 p.m.
Washington at Arizona St. (FSN South)

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Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida Gators

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 2:24 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.