Strange Weekend On Tap for Third Saturday in October

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

It’s a strange “Third Saturday in October.” That is, or more correctly was, traditionally the weekend that Alabama plays Tennessee. For decades, Tide and Volunteer fans waited impatiently for that third weekend and the latest edition of the heated gridiron rivalry.

But divisional play and schedule makeovers changed all that. This year, the “third Saturday” game will be played on the “fourth Saturday” — that would be this Saturday. And what makes it even more strange is the fact that the Bama-Tennessee battle is not the marquee game on the eighth-week lineup.

This week’s Southeastern Conference football schedule is low on quantity — with only six games on tap — but high on quality, with five of the six being league contests.

The top game this week has to be on The Plains of Auburn, where the only two remaining undefeated teams in the SEC will meet (Line: Auburn by 6). Auburn and visiting LSU come into the big game with matching records — 7-0 overall, 4-0 in the SEC.

The game will be an interesting battle of strength vs. strength and weakness vs. weakness. The homestanding Tigers lead the league in rushing, while LSU leads the league in defense against the run. In fact, LSU is third in the nation in defense against the run. Auburn scored 65 points last week — but it wasn’t playing a defense the caliber of the LSU unit. Also keep in mind that Auburn gave up 43 points in the win over Arkansas.

That leads to the weakness vs. weakness part — LSU is one of the league’s worst in passing offense and passing efficiency, while Auburn is at the bottom in pass defense.

Of course, there are two wildcards at play in the battle of the Tigers — AU quarterback Cam Newton and Lady Luck. Auburn has ridden the superior play of Newton on its unbeaten run. Newton leads the league in rushing and in passing efficiency … and he has a real knack of knowing when to run instead of pass. His athletic ability and size make him hard to bring down. More than once — or twice — or three times — Newton has turned a broken play, a play that looked like a loss, into a long gain.

Newton, as said before, looks more and more like Florida Heisman winner Tim Tebow. And if he had bided his time and stayed at Florida, the Gators would be the undefeated team right now. Newton’s overall success and his 300-yard-plus offensive output last week have vaulted him to the top of the Heisman hopeful chart.

But LSU has head coach Les Miles, who has to be the luckiest coach of all time. Time after time, it will look like LSU is in serious trouble, has defeat staring it in the eye — then a penalty, a turnover, a lucky bounce will change the outcome in an instant.

Of course, Auburn has had its share of luck this season as well … no one goes 7-0 without some luck on their side. This Saturday, one of the two teams’ luck will run out. One factor not on LSU’s side is the fact that the game is being broadcast on CBS. LSU has won 26 games in a row that have been broadcast on one of the ESPN stations.

A second factor in Auburn’s favor is the starting time of the game. Under Miles, LSU is 41-4 in night games, but only 16-11 in games played in the daytime.

The battle of old foes at Neyland Stadium is the second most notable game of the weekend. It’s Alabama (6-1, 3-1) at Tennessee (0-3, 2-4) (Line: Alabama by 16).

Over the years this rivalry has stirred up almost as much hatred as the Iron Bowl matchup. In some years, it was even more bitter. But with Derek Dooley as head coach at Tennessee and Nick Saban the head man at Alabama, the rivalry has lost a lot of its bitterness and rancor.

Dooley has worked with and for Saban and the two are friends. This won’t keep either from wanting to win. But this one should be one the Tide wins and wins convincingly. Bama needs a good, solid win to get back on track.

Even though Bama won last week over Ole Miss, it was not a pretty performance, especially on offense, where it sputtered at times. Tennessee has looked good for parts of games, but has yet to play a full game in high gear. Inconsistency has been the main reason the Vols are still looking for their first conference victory this season.

Look for Bama to get its running tandem of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson in gear. And look for QB Greg McElroy to have a breakout game.

The other three league games include Ole Miss (3-3, 1-2) at Arkansas (4-2, 1-2) (Line: Arkansas by 9½), South Carolina (5-2, 2-2) at Vanderbilt (2-4, 1-2) (Line: South Carolina by 11½), and Georgia (3-4, 2-3) at Kentucky (4-3, 1-3) (Line: Georgia by 3½).

The lone non-conference game is an interesting SEC-Conference USA matchup with the Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-2) hosting UAB (2-4) (Line: Miss. St. by 19½). Mississippi State is coming off a big 10-7 upset of Florida in which they played throw-back SEC football, running the ball down the throat of the Gator defense. The Bulldogs did not throw a pass in the second half. South Carolina should win at Vanderbilt.

But the Gamecocks’ worst enemy is themselves. SC is 1-9 in road games when ranked, with eight consecutive losses. And one of those was at Vandy in 2008. Arkansas is a real question mark after last week against Auburn. Yes, the Razorbacks can score, but can they keep anyone else from scoring? Was that all Auburn, or poor Arkansas defense?

Overall, this has been an interesting and highly entertaining football season in the SEC. The West is still wide open, with LSU and Auburn tied atop the leaderboard. But both have to play once-beaten Alabama and if the Tide wins both, Bama will be back in the Georgia Dome in December.

And it’s the Wild, Wild East, with South Carolina on top of the standings with a 2-2 record. Florida and even Georgia are not out of the mix with 2-3 league marks. It looks like a team with three losses could make the championship game from the East! Half of the league teams are still ranked in the top 25 teams in the nation.

The SEC has three in the Top Ten — Auburn at 5, LSU at 5 and Alabama at 7 — and three is the bottom half of the rankings – South Carolina at 19, Arkansas at 21 and Mississippi State at 24.

TV LINEUP

The Saturday television football lineup is as follows:

11 a.m.
Purdue at Ohio St. (Big Ten Network), Indiana at Illinois (Big Ten Network), Iowa St. at Texas (FSNSouth), Duke at Virginia Tech (CW), Penn St. at Minnesota (ESPNU), Syracuse at West Va. (ESPN2), Michigan St. at Northwestern (ESPN), Notre Dame at Navy (CBS), VMI at Charleston Southern (SportsSouth)

11:21 p.m.
Ole Miss at Arkansas (SEC Network)

Noon
Fla. International at Arkansas St. (CSS)

1 p.m.
Wyoming at BYU (Mountain)

2 p.m.
Appalachian St. at Western Carolina (SportSouth)

2:30 p.m.
LSU at Auburn (CBS), Georgia Tech at Clemson (ABC), Wisconsin at Iowa (ESPN), Connecticut at Louisville (ESPNU), Arizona St. at California (FSNS), Houston at SMU (CBS College Sports)

3:15 p.m.
Marshall at East Carolina (CSS)

5 p.m.
Colorado St. at Utah (Mountain)

6 p.m.
Alabama at Tennessee (ESPN), UAB at Mississippi St. (ESPNU), South Carolina at Vanderbilt (FSN) , Texas A&M at Kansas (SportSouth)

6:30 p.m.
Georgia at Kentucky (CSS), North Carolina at Miami (ESPN2)

7 p.m.
Oklahoma at Missouri (ABC), Air Force at TCU (CBS College Sports)

9 p.m.
San Diego St. at New Mexico (Mountain)

9:15 p.m.
Washington at Arizona (ESPN)