More or less, its basically just a look at the good and the bad of the past week in the Southeastern Conference. Enjoy!
Head of the Class: Georgia's Darryl Gamble
It's one thing to have your first career interception go all the way back for a touchdown. It's another when you intercept two Pick-six balls in the same game.
Gamble did just that against LSU this past Saturday, taking back Jarrett Lee passes 40 and 53 yards, respectively. The two interceptions for touchdowns went a long way in helping the Bulldogs put 52 points on LSU en route to a huge win in Baton Rouge.
Pass: Florida's Special Teams
The Gators blocked a total of three kicks against the Wildcats of Kentucky Saturday, including Kentucky's first two punt attempts of the afternoon. The third block came on a Kentucky field goal attempt in the second quarter. The Gators used a total of five plays to score three touchdowns off of the blocks produced by their special teams.
Florida jumped out to a 28-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and finished off the Wildcats with a 63-5 woodshed beating.
Fail: Vanderbilt
Normally this would seem like a spot where most Vanderbilt teams would fit, except for this year's team. That seems to have changed.
After charging out to a 5-0 record with wins over a tough Ole Miss team and Auburn, the 'Dores have lost three straight, the last a homecoming loss to Duke. Vanderbilt quarterbacks have thrown seven interceptions all season, all but one of them coming in the past three games. Most people saw this season as the Commodores first chance at a bowl since 1984, but those hopes seem to be dwindling with remaining games against Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
The 'Dores will have a good chance against Kentucky and Tennessee, but it will come down to whether or not they can move the ball on those tough two defenses.
Pass: Alabama's 2nd Half
After three recent second half debacles, Alabama put together their most complete second half to date and won the second half for the first time since Arkansas. Alabama had four drives in the second half. They ended Field Goal, Touchdown, Touchdown, Game.
On Defense, Alabama held Tennessee to 76 total yards in the second half and a touchdown on a drive which was aided by three pass interference calls. Short of the defensive short comings, Alabama played a fantastic second half.
Fail: LSU's Defense
What has happened to the LSU defense that we have seen over the last few years? In their last eight SEC games, dating back to last October 20th against Auburn, the Tigers have allowed an average of 33 points per game in the SEC. Allowing a total of 103 to SEC East leaders Georgia and Florida did not help this cause, but that still puts this highly regarded defense at giving up an average of 28 points per game, and that's still high.
Maybe its the absence of Bo Pelini, or maybe its just the quality of players LSU lost after last season. Whatever it is, the Tigers must fix it soon if they want a chance to be playing on New Year's Day.
Pass: Houston Nutt
The past two seasons, Houston Nutt had to deal with angry fans, questionable hires, and an Athletic Director off of his rocker. Even with all of this around him, Nutt still managed to compile an 18-6 regular season record in 2006-07, but every man has his boiling point, and Nutt met his after the 2007 season.
Nutt made a change to Ole Miss in the off-season and has taken the Rebels to a 4-4 record and 2-3 in the SEC, already surpassing Ed Orgeron's win total in each of his three seasons in Oxford and showing a 200% increase in SEC victories over last season. His last hurdle in year one may be to break the Rebels streak of home SEC losses, and he will have a good chance to do so with Auburn and Mississippi State still to visit Oxford.
Fail: Kentucky's tailspin
Sure, the Wildcats were off to their second straight hot start, getting to 4-0 and beating Louisville for the second straight season. However, it has been all down hill from there.
They have now lost three of their last four games since entering conference season, but those have not been their biggest losses. The injuries of Dicky Lyons, Jr. and Derrick Locke for the season have made the outlook to get to a bowl bleak for the 'Cats. Things may not look good right now, but the Big Blue travel to Starkville this weekend and still have games with Vandy at home and finish in Knoxville and are in need of only one more win to get bowl eligible.
Epic Fail: Auburn's Run Defense
Entering their game against Arkansas, Auburn was a respectable 14th in the nation in run defense. It had been the Tigers saving grace so far this year, and was the only bright spot seemingly left on this team after the firing of Tony Franklin and a loss to Vanderbilt.
Now, after Arkansas' Michael Smith put 176 yards on the Tigers followed by a 207 yard performance by West Virginia's Noel Devine, Auburn now stands at No.51 nationally and 8th in the SEC. The Tigers are now allowing an average of 128 yards on the ground per game in a league where running backs rule the day. The Tigers three remaining SEC games, Ole Miss, Georgia, and Alabama, are against teams that have feature running backs (Enrique Davis, Knowshon Moreno, Glen Coffee) and teams that average over 150 yards on the ground per game.
Now, time for everyone's favorite part of the blog...at least mine anyways...amusing links to other stories.
- With the anticipation of hosting Alabama in next weekend starting to pick up, a local business is already announcing their plans for the weekend on a local billboard in Baton Rouge.
- Speaking of LSU, here is a guy to avoid for those of you making the trek to Tiger country.
- Sure, he may not be the most popular guy in the state, but Paul Finebaum's latest article takes a look at how expectations for this season have gone two different directions for Alabama's top two schools.
- On a more national scale, Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com breaks down this weekend's Texas-Texas Tech match-up and takes a look at Florida State's season to date in his weekly I-Formation.
- Just as he does every week, Stewart Mandel of SI.com answers questions about the college football season. This week, he tackles the question of how Penn State fits into the BCS given any number of scenarios.
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