We Will See

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

SOUTHSIDE BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — They say it is a small world, but what do “they” know? I say the cliche is even more true today with modern social networking technology like Facebook.

I was just chatting with a blonde from Germany over my second cup of coffee in the Hippie Tree House, upstairs in the Hippie House on Birmingham’s Southside.

I crashed last night on the new couch in Hippie Stew’s place, and felt right at home. Maybe that’s because I was born five blocks from here in the old South Highlands Hospital, the first hospital Richard Scrushy purchased to create the outpatient and sports medicine empire known as HealthSouth.

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Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

“Is it December already? I’ve got to get busy, haven’t bought a single Christmas preset yet!”

That thought had to have fleetingly raced through the mind of at least one (I’ll bet several) football fans who sees a promo touting the Alabama-Florida meeting this Saturday. Who can blame him?

Alabama vs. Florida says, “December” as much as seeing Santa Claus ringing the Salvation Army bell beside the donation kettle. The Gators and Tide have met on the gridiron 11 times since 1992 — back when the Southeastern Conference was split into East and West divisions — and seven of the 11 were in the SEC championship Game.

In fact, the two schools met in each of the first three title games. Alabama won the inaugural SEC title contest in 1992 on its way to a national title, but Florida took the next two in ’93 and ’94. The two also faced off for the SEC crown in ’96, ’99, ’08, and ’09. Alabama leads the overall series 21-14 and also holds the edge in conference meetings at 13-7.

The 37th meeting of the Tide and Gators is not only the SEC game of the week. It is also the nationwide Game of the Week this fifth week of the 2010 college football season.

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Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Hurrah … there will be some “real” games on the Week Two 2010 SEC football season schedule.

Although there was a full slate of 12 games last week with all league schools in action against out-of-conference foes, there wasn’t a “real” game among them. The closest was Kentucky’s win over in-state rival and perennial Big East title contender Louisville. The LSU-North Carolina contest would have been in the “real” category if not for the fact that over half of the Tarheels’ starters were declared ineligible by the NCAA.

The rest of the league’s 11 wins were scrimmages, practice games, for the teams and fans alike. And yes, 11 wins – the lone league loss was by Vanderbilt, which lost to Big Ten member Northwestern.

The SEC’s “Best Conference in College Football” flag was flying high after the first week of the season. Over half of the conference’s 12 teams, seven to be exact, landed in the Top 25 polls, with Alabama at No. 1, followed by Florida (6), Arkansas (14), LSU (16), Georgia (19), Auburn (20), and South Carolina (24).

Saturday’s eight-game lineup includes three conference matchups and one huge intersectional contest.

The game of the week, of course, one that has “Big Game” written all over it. It’s top-ranked Bama hosting No. 18 Penn State and Joe Paterno at Tuscaloosa (Line: Alabama by 12).

TV Lineup and more lines below
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Editor’s Note: While the people of the Gulf Coast are still hurting from the BP oil and chemical disaster, it is a fact that humans need a break from serious news and tragedy. With that said, it is that time of year again, time to kick off our weekly college football column we run every Friday to make it easy on the Web to find out what games are on television, an easy click to check the time and network. This is put together every week by long-time sports writer and columnist Dan Rutledge, who wrote for Gulf Coast Newspapers for about 30 years before retiring after Hurricane Ivan devastated the Alabama coast.

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Isn’t life grand? For many of us here down South and not quite as many elsewhere in these United States of America, life is wonderful once the college football season gets underway.

College football is a fix for the jitters caused by trying to deal with the everyday bull hockey (insert S-word) of living. Much like a little heroin does for a junkie, football takes its addicts away from the “real” world and its many problems.

Now, for a while — say through the December-January bowl season — we can forget about things like global warming and associated disasters like the melting of the polar ice caps, 2012 scenarios of doom, assaults on the 14th Amendment, unemployment, the economy, Islamaphobia, the oil spill and related environmental disasters not yet realized and many other worries that suck up our attention and plague our consciousness.

Now we only have to be concerned about how our team and conference fared last week and who’s coming up next Saturday (or, with games now scheduled for TV, Thursday, Friday, and every other day/night of the week).

It might be a better world if everyone all over the globe got hypnotized by football and if football season lasted year round. People are always putting down sports in general, saying that it is a waste of time. Not true.

TV Lineup and Lines Below
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TV Schedule and Lines Below

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Freeze Frame! Fans of both Georgia and Auburn would like nothing better than having the league standings after Week 2 of the Southeastern Conference football season frozen in time, a photograph printed from one frame of the “College Football 2009” video.

If the 2009 SEC Championship Game were to be played next week, it would be the Bulldogs, on top with a 1-0 mark in the East, vs. the Tigers, 1-0 in the Western Division, vying for the league crown in the Georgia Dome. But fans of the Dogs and Tigers had better enjoy the moment because their respective teams won’t be on top of the division standings for long.

Questions will begin to be answered once results from this weekend’s nine-game SEC schedule are in, with three leagues games on tap and two interesting non-league contests on the lineup as well.

Week 3 begins with five SEC teams ranked among the nation’s Top 25 teams … in fact, the SEC almost makes up the top five with the Florida Gators No. 1, Alabama No. 4 and Ole Miss No. 5. The league almost has half of the top 10, with LSU coming in at No. 7. Georgia is still in the mix at No. 20.

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Weekend Football TV Lineup Below…

Time Out
by Dan Rutledge

Looking ahead after Week One, it looks like the 2009 Southeastern Conference football season is going to be both interesting and entertaining … and better in some ways.

Of course, Florida fans, it can’t get any better than winning the national title and thanks to the Gators, the SEC again proudly wears the “Championship League” mantle.

But in some ways, as in competition with other BCS (Bowl Championship Series) teams, ’08 wasn’t a good one for the league — posting a losing (6-9) regular-season record against BSC teams and also finishing with a super-unusual (it may well be the first time ever) losing regular-season mark (4-6) against the Basketball Conference, also known as the ACC.

As part of its awesome 11-1 overall start to the ’09 season, the SEC reached the halfway mark in its victory total against BCS squads overall and the ACC in particular. Alabama beat Virginia Tech and South Carolina nipped North Carolina State to get the league off to a 2-0 start against the ACC. The other win over BCS teams was LSU over Washington, while Georgia posted the lone loss in a close contest against Oklahoma State.

There are four games that can be designed big games this week. Out of seven games on tap, three are league encounters – Mississippi State at Auburn (Line: Auburn by 14), Vanderbilt at LSU (Line: LSU by 14 ½), South Carolina at Georgia (Line: Georgia by 7) — kicking off the conference races.

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The red and white caps came home from T-Town for some barbecue at Jim and Nicks singing the blues, sorely disappointed and wondering what happened to new head God Nick Saban’s debut season.

Alabama laid down against Louisiana-Monroe and now must look themselves in the mirror at a 6-5 season going into next week’s corporate bowl down in Auburn.

My question of the day is this, and it’s as much about politics and society as it is about football. Is it possible to run an old fashioned but honest disciplinary regime in modern football and win?

Big time football players like fancy cars and pretty girls and something good to smoke as much as the next twenty something struggling to advance in Bush’s America.

Can you keep a group like that together simply with prayer, a lot of running, early to bed orders and strict academic rules?

Hey, at least the bookies love it. They must know Saban will not break the rules to beat the line. A clean coach is good for the bottom line, unless you like bettin’ FOR your team.

Perhaps it’s time to employ the old Saints-Ain’ts betting strategy. Always bet against them…

Personality Pattern Hurt Alabama in Loss to Louisiana-Monroe

Maybe LSU has the answer, down in Baton Rouge, where a quarter of New Orleans’ former population now parties…

Top-Ranked Tigers Squeeze Past Ole Miss

Time Out
by Paul Jordon

LSU vs. somebody from the East is the scenario for the SEC title game after last week’s SEC football action.

When Week 10 began, eight teams were still in the hunt for the SEC title, five in the Eastern Division, three in the West.

But when both Alabama and Auburn posted losses, it left LSU all alone at the top of the Western Division – just as Ohio State’s loss left a void in the national No. 1 slot, which the Bengal Tigers were also all too pleased to fill.
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Time Out
by Paul Jordon

This week, it’s Steve Spurrier’s turn to entertain his “old team.” In one of the two contests that stand out as especially big – although all league games are important, especially considering the tight division races this season – the Ol’ Ball Coach’s South Carolina Gamecocks (6-4, 3-4) entertain the Florida Gators (6-3, 4-3).

Of course, everyone (meaning knowledgeable football fans) knows that Spurrier used to be the Head Gator, leading Florida to a national football title back in the day, before bolting for an unsuccessful foray into the NFL. The fact that Spurrier also played for the Gators puts more emotion into mix.

Every league game is big because eight teams out of 12 are still in the hunt for division titles. After last week’s action and the dust settled, three teams – LSU, Auburn and Alabama (with the Bayou Tigers holding the inside track of course) – are still in contention for the Western Division crown.

In the East, it’s still wide open.
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