Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

War Eagle! This week’s musings on Southern Conference football must begin with an apology to still-undefeated (3-0) Auburn. It seems that last Saturday’s Tigers vs. Tigers battle on The Plains was not mentioned in last week’s column. That was indeed a shame, since it turned out to be one of the most entertaining games of the weekend with Auburn edging Clemson 27-24 in overtime on a missed field goal by the visitors.

Some readers who know this writer’s historical connection (two first-cousins played quarterback for the Tide and an uncle who played both baseball and football at the Capstone in the ‘40s — Jack Rutledge and his two sons, Gary and Jeff) to the Alabama Crimson Tide probably think that leaving out Auburn was on purpose. Not true, not consciously anyway. If it was on purpose, blame my sub-conscious, which marches to its own drummer.

In any case, the Plains Tigers (as opposed to the Bayou Tigers from Baton Rouge) will get plenty of mention this week, although AU fans may not like what is said.

Now down to the business of looking at upcoming Week 4 of the 2010 SEC college football season. This week looks to be very interesting indeed. The SEC has half its members among the Top 20 teams in the national polls (Bama still No. 1, followed by Florida (8), Arkansas (10), South Carolina (12), LSU (15) and Auburn (17). That number could go down next week, with four of the six ranked league teams going head-to-head against each other on Saturday.

Saturday’s seven-game lineup includes four conference matchups and three intersectional contests.

The game of the week has to be the battle of Top Ten teams in Fayetteville, Ark., set for 2:30 p.m. on CBS. It’s No. 1 Alabama at No. 10 Arkansas. (Line: Alabama by 7).

TV Schedule and More Lines Below

One of the interesting story lines last week was the return of Mark Ingram to the Crimson Tide starting lineup –- and did he ever make a noise with his return, busting out for 40-plus yards on his first carry of the year and ending his first game with 151 yards and two touchdowns. The Heisman winner’s return means that the outstanding Bama running back tandem of Ingram-Trent Richardson is now a reality and that makes the Tide offense even harder to stop.

In their second year together in the backfield, the Ingram-Richardson tandem could be a history-making duo. Already, pundits are putting them into the category with Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis, who led Army to two straight undefeated national championship seasons in 1945-46. Each won a Heisman Trophy.

Their yardage total is not record-setting, but back in that day teams only played 9-10 games per season (Army played just 9 in ’45). Blanchard-Davis scored 97 touchdowns for the Cadets, second all-time to the 99 scored by USC duo Reggie Bush and LenDale White in 2005. The Bama duo is also being compared by some to the SMU “Pony Express” tandem of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, whose combined total of 8,193 rushing yards in their career still stands as the NCAA record.

The Tide pair could conceivably break all those marks. They combined for 2,409 yards last year. If both go over the 1,000-yard mark this season and both stick around for a third season together, they could challenge Dickerson-James. Right now, only Ingram owns a Heisman. But if Richerson continues the way he has started this season – the sophomore from Pensacola leads the SEC and is eighth nationally in all-purpose yards after three games with an average of 179 yards per game. He ranks third in kickoff returns (41.25 average).

The game has been billed as a battle between the league’s top two quarterbacks. Both Alabama senior Greg McElroy and Arkansas sensation Ryan Mallet are both top-ranked –- Mallet leading the SEC in passing yards per game this season (360.3), McElroy ranked the No. 1 quarterback in passing efficiency in the nation. It could to be a shootout if both QBs are “on” and especially if both teams drive the ball well enough or come up with turnovers that help them reach the opposing team’s Red Zone.

Arkansas leads the SEC (a perfect 10-for10) in scoring when it gets inside a foe’s 20-yard-line and led the nation in that department last year. The Red Zone has been good to the Tide so far this year as well, Bama scoring 10 of the 15 times it has reached there. On the other hand, the Tide’s young secondary could continue to play at the level that has them first in the conference, second in the nation, in pass-efficiency defense after three games of play. If that happens, the Tide defense could cancel out the Hogs’ top-rated passing offense leading to a low-scoring game with the running game and turnovers making the difference.

PASSING TEBOW IN PASSING

Alabama’s McElroy pushed Florida’s Mr. Everything Tim Tebow out of first place in one statistical category last week when he threw his 400th career pass during the win over Duke. That’s the number of passes that qualifies quarterbacks’ achievements for inclusion in the SEC Record Book. McElroy replaced Tebow with the best interception-to-touchdowns ratio in SEC history. In his career, McElroy has thrown just one interception every 67.5 passes. Tebow’s ratio was 1-to-62.2.

Then there is the second battle of undefeated Top 20 teams this week. Saturday in Auburn, the War Eagles play host to South Carolina (Line: Auburn by 3). Both teams are 3-0 and the questions is which will suffer their first loss Saturday.

This one will be a showcase for two of the future stars of the SEC – freshmen running backs Marcus Lattimore and Mike Dyer of Auburn. Both have been impact players for their respective teams in the first three games of the season. Lattimore leads the SEC in rushing with 333 yards and 5 touchdowns. Dyer has 212 yards as part of the Tigers’ league-leading rushing attack. From here, it looks like Lattimore will win that battle and if Auburn puts all its attention on stopping the run, South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia will take over. Garcia has been accurate this year, hitting on 41-of-60 passes. And anyone who remembers the Ol’ Ball Coach Steve Spurrier at Florida knows that having to pass is no problem at all.

The Gamecocks could even come out throwing because of the physical advantage their receivers have over the AU secondary. The three top SC receivers are 6-4 or taller, while the AU defensive backs range from 5-9 to 6-2. Auburn has had trouble with its passing game in the first three games. And while the Tigers are leading the SEC in rushing yardage, the Gamecocks match that with the league-leading defense against the run. and etc. etc. When all the dust has cleared, the South Carolina defense will again win the day, giving notice to the rest of the league that the Gamecocks are a real threat to the SEC East title.

The other two league games feature Kentucky at Florida (Line: Florida by 14) and Georgia at Mississippi State. The first contest is a between two Eastern Division leaders, each coming in 3-0 overall. Florida has won, but looked less than impressive in winning. Kentucky has looked better than expected in reeling off three straight under new head coach Joker Phillips, who has proved so far to be anything but a joke. A win Saturday and no one will be laughing except maybe Phillips. A win would also be the first time since 1911 Kentucky has started a season 4-0.

The fourth win came over Lexington High School. If the Wildcats were playing a high school Saturday, they would for sure tie that mark! But Joker is already doing fine, putting himself in the same sentence with Bear Bryant. Phillips is the first coach in 99 years to win his first three games as the Kentucky head football coach. The last was Bryant in 1946.

The second game is a battle for respectability, matching two 1-2 teams that desperately need to put a “W” on the board to even their score for the season, with Georgia visiting Mississippi State (Line: Miss. St. by 1). A drop to 1-3 would be hard to shake for either.

All of the non-league game will be worth watching, with all three league teams hosting respectable if not dangerous opponents. The most interesting is the Big East vs. SEC matchup in Baton Rouge, where LSU (3-0) entertains West Virginia (3-0). (Line: LSU by 9). West Virginia has been good the past few years and is undoubtedly still strong, but LSU has too much Cajun mojo going on. For one thing, it is a night game at Tiger Stadium where LSU head man holds a 25-1 record. Secondly, the game is broadcast on ESPN2. The Bengal Tigers have won 24 straight games that have been broadcast on the sports network. ‘Nough said!

Tennessee (1-2) tries to keep from losing its third straight at Neyland. The Vols have a good shot as they host 1-2 UAB (Line: Tennessee by 14). Ole Miss (1-2) will try to even up its season mark when it hosts 2-0 Fresno State. Keeping in mind Jacksonville State, you know that anything could happen in this one. (Line: Ole Miss by 3)

WEEKEND TV LINEUP

The fourth week kicked off on Thursday night with another ACC-Big East matchup, Miami (Fla.) at Pittsburgh. The weekly ESPN Friday contest features TCU at SMU at 7 p.m.

Saturday’s television lineup is as follows:

11 a.m.
N.C. State at Georgia Tech (ESPN), Austin Peay at Wisconsin (Big Ten Network), Fla. International at Maryland (ESPNU), Bowling Green at Michigan (ESPN2), Toledo at Purdue (Big Ten Network), Ohio at Ohio St. (Big Ten Network)

11:21 p.m.
UAB at Tennessee (SEC Network)

1 p.m.
Air Force at Wyoming (Mountain Network)

2 p.m.
USC at Washington St. (FSN)

2:30 p.m.
Alabama at Arkansas (CBS), Delaware at Richmond (Comcast), Stanford at Notre Dame (NBC), Florida A&M at Tennessee St. (Versus), Tulane at Houston (CBS College Sports)

5 p.m.
Elon at Georgia Southern (SportSouth), Nevada at BYU (Mountain Network)

6 p.m.
Kentucky at Florida (ESPNU), Georgia at Mississippi St. (FSN), Akron at Indiana (Big Ten Network)

6:30 p.m.
Fresno St. at Ole Miss (CSS)

6:45 p.m.
South Carolina at Auburn (ESPN)

7 p.m.
Baylor at Rice (CBS College Sports), Oregon St. Boise St. (ABC)

7:30 p.m.
Northern Ill. at Minnesota (Big Ten Network)

8 p.m.
West Virginia at LSU (ESPN2)

9 p.m.
New Mexico at UNLV (Mountain Network)

9:30 p.m.
Oregon at Arizona St. (FSN)

© 2010, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.