A Look at Week 7 in the SEC

       Last week featured few surprises. LSU, Alabama, and South Carolina dominated, Mississippi State struggled with an inferior opponent, and Georgia-Tennessee ended up being a tight one. The only pick missed in Week 6 was Auburn over Arkansas. To be honest, I had a bad feeling about it once I found out that Auburn's leading receiver Emory Blake would not be available for the game. Indeed, their passing game suffered. As a team they were 9-25 passing for 104 yards and three interceptions. It's difficult to win any game in the SEC with those numbers. Not to mention, they had 11 penalties for 105 yards and at least three crucial drops. Arkansas took advantage, piling up 262 passing yards on the way to a 38-14 blowout.
      Georgia's defense showed up well again, and Tyler Bray broke the base of the thumb on his throwing hand and may be out for the rest of the season. To add insult to injury, Tauren Poole injured his hamstring and is out for this week at least. That was recipe for a 20-12 UGA victory. UGA will still need a little help if they want to win the East, however, as they lost the head-to-head battle against South Carolina in Week 2.

Now on to Week 7....

Game of the Week

Florida's freshman QB Jacoby Brissett

Florida at #24 Auburn (7:00 PM, ESPN): Both teams come into this game with a 4-2 record. Auburn's passing game has been very suspect the past three or four games, and that's something they will look to get corrected. Barrett Trotter will remain the starting quarterback this week, but you have to figure he will have a short leash. If he struggles after the first quarter or so we may see Clint Moseley get his first real action - but will it be too late? Auburn has really shown the ability to pound the ball on the ground, and if they can get some semblance of a passing game they may be able to win 8 games this year. Florida will be without starting quarterback John Brantley once again, and it looks like true freshman Jacoby Brissett is the favorite to start this weekend. Brissett got his first start against LSU last Saturday and completed 8 of 14 passes for 94 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. He will be entering another hostile environment, which does not bode well for Florida. According to auburnsports.com's Justin Hokanson, since 2000 Auburn is 23-4 in night games at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The true freshman quarterback will definitely be tested. Also, Florida has given up 464 rushing yards in their two losses, which plays right into Auburn's strength. Look for Auburn to pound it out on the ground and get a score or two from Michael Dyer, as well as taking advantage of Florida's mistakes on offense. This will be a close one, and both teams are on the ropes, but Auburn's home field advantage will allow them to escape with a victory despite a basically even matchup.
     Prediction: Auburn 27 Florida 23

Second Tier Games
#1 LSU at Tennessee (3:30 PM, CBS): LSU travels to Neyland Stadium to take on the Vols. This game has all the makings of a blowout as LSU's tenacious defense will be coming after a Tennessee offense without QB Tyler Bray, RB Tauren Poole, and WR Justin Hunter. Tennessee doesn't seem to have much of a chance without their top playmakers at all three skill positions. LSU is still on course to remain undefeated when they face off with an undefeated Alabama for a pseudo National Championship of sorts on November 5th. LSU fans just hope Les Miles's loyalty to Jordan Jefferson won't mess things up in the meantime. LSU in a romp.
     Prediction: LSU 44 Tennessee 10


#15 South Carolina at Mississippi State (12:21 PM, SEC Network): South Carolina was able to ignite its passing game last week against Kentucky by turning to sophomore QB Connor Shaw. Shaw was promoted to QB1 after Garcia had another poor showing against Auburn the previous week. The move seemed to have really worked as Shaw threw for 311 yards and 4 touchdowns. Granted it was Kentucky, but the offense looked better than it had with Garcia at the helm against similarly weak opponents ECU and Navy. Garcia is apparently no longer an option as he was reportedly kicked off the team. South Carolina will try to build on last week's momentum as they take on a struggling Mississippi State team. Last week, Mississippi State trailed UAB 3-0 at the half, but put in backup Tyler Russell for the second half and he threw three TDs in the second half for the bulldogs. It remains to be seen which quarterback will start this week for MSU, but neither will be enough to defeat South Carolina.
     Prediction: South Carolina 34 Mississippi State 17


Georgia at Vanderbilt (7:00 PM, FSS): Georgia was able to pull out a win last week on the road in Neyland Stadium, which is always a tough place to play. Freshman RB Isaiah Crowell impressed again, running for 58 yards and two key touchdowns. Vanderbilt has been struggling mightily since starting 3-0 as they have not scored a touchdown in their last two games. Georgia should be able to handle them pretty easily.
    Prediction: Georgia 31 Vanderbilt 6


#2 Alabama at Ole Miss (6:00 PM, ESPN2): Is there even any question as to who will win this game? Ole Miss is challenging Kentucky to be the worst team in the SEC, and Alabama is challenging LSU to be the best team in the SEC. Ole Miss fans should probably just stay in The Grove during this game because it won't be pretty.
    Prediction: Alabama 47 Ole Miss 3

Bonus Non-SEC Game

Can Baylor's Robert Griffin III lead
them to victory over the Aggies?

#20 Baylor at #21 Texas A&M (12:00 PM, FX): We all remember the beginning of the season when Baylor went back and forth with TCU and finally was able to win the game with stellar play from QB Robert Griffin III. Texas A&M has had a string of bad losses giving up big halftime leads to Oklahoma State's and Arkansas's. Baylor's only loss comes at the hands of a talented Kansas State team. Baylor's offense is remarkably similar to that of Oklahoma State and Arkansas, and it has to make you think that they will have similar success against the Aggies. I've tried to find a reason to pick the Texas A&M in this game, but I just don't see how the Aggies will stop Griffin. They will have to battle the "here we go again" mentality even if they have a lead, and that does bode well for them against another high-powered offense.
     Prediction: Baylor 38 Texas A&M 34
*All Times Eastern




Lucas's Week 6 Record: 5-1
Lucas's Season Record: 45-8

Week 2 in the SEC

Well, I ended up being 10-2 with my picks last week, but I missed 2 out of the 3 most difficult games to pick. I knew they would be hard games to predict, and I waffled on them for a while and ended up missing them. But hey, if I go 10-2 every week I will be pretty happy.

Week 2 brings a little bit more excitement than Week 1 did. There should be more close games on the docket for the second week of the season. So without further delay, here is what to expect this week...

Georgia vs. South Carolina is the game of the week

Marquee Matchups:

Georgia vs. South Carolina (4:30 PM ET, ESPN): Do not underestimate how big this game is in determining the SEC East. As I said in my Summer SEC East Predictions, this game will most likely decide where both teams end up finishing in the standings. South Carolina unexpectedly struggled for a little bit last week against ECU because Steve Spurrier surprisingly decided to start Connor Shaw over Stephen Garcia. However, once Garcia was inserted into the lineup the Gamecocks' offense immediately started producing. He ran for a 32 yard touchdown on his first drive and after that SC had no problems moving the ball. Georgia, on the other hand, got routed by Boise State in their season opener. Georgia looks to have a lot of problems. The most obvious being their defense. Kellen Moore absolutely carved up their secondary going 28-34 with 261 yard and 3 touchdowns. The second biggest problem for the dogs is their running game. Outside of an 80 yard touchdown run by Brandon Boykin, UGA only had 72 rushing yards on 22 attempts from their top two running backs. Something needs to improve there for them to be successful this season. Look for South Carolina to carve up Georgia's defense with Alshon Jeffrey and Marcus Lattimore.
        Prediction: 28-17 South Carolina

Will Auburn's defense step up
this week?

Auburn vs. Mississippi State (12:21 PM ET, SEC Network): Auburn struggled last week against Utah State, needing an onside kick in the 4th quarter to pull out a victory. It remains to be seen whether that was a one game fluke or a foreshadowing of what's to come for the tigers. Part of their problem this season is their youth. On Saturday Auburn played 22 true and redshirt freshmen against a senior-laden Utah State team, and that proved to be a problem mostly on defense. However, they did show the resiliency of the 2010 National Championship team by coming from behind to win yet again. Mississippi State on the other hand, looked pretty good against Memphis. I don't know how much you can take from that game, being that Memphis was a 1-11 team last year, but nonetheless MSU looked disciplined on defense and solid on offense. This may sound crazy, but I think that Auburn will pull out the victory against the bulldogs this weekend. Last week will serve as a wake up call that work needs to be done for Auburn's young team, and they will make their biggest improvement of the season between last Saturday and this Saturday. That combined with the fact that this game is at Jordan-Hare Stadium means that Auburn will upset MSU for the victory. I think that the homefield advantage will be too much, but if this game was in Starkville there is no doubt the MSU would win the game.
       Prediction: 34-31 Auburn

Second Tier Matchups: 
Penn State vs. Alabama (3:30 PM ET, ABC): In all honesty, this won't be that close. Alabama has a suffocating defense and that is all they will need to beat Penn State at Beaver Stadium. Alabama's quarterbacks did not look great last week against Kent State throwing 4 interceptions, but it was pretty clear that A.J. McCarron deserves to be the starter. He doesn't need to do more than manage the game and Alabama will pull out the victory.
       Prediction: 27-10 Alabama

Tennessee vs. Cincinnati (3:30 PM ET, ESPN2): This game is going to be won by a very slim margin. Tennessee seems to be on the upswing as a program, but Cincinnati has a vaunted offense that will put up points in a hurry. They are returning QB Zach Collaros, who threw for over 3,100 yards last year, RB Isaiah Pead, as well as big time playmaker DJ Woods. Cincinnati looks a lot like a poor man's Oregon, and if you remember the ducks had no problem destroying UT last year 48-13. Cincy's explosive offense put up 72 points against Austin Peay last week and will be too much for the Vols this week.
       Prediction: 31-27 Cincinnati

The Rest:
Arkansas vs. New Mexico (7:00 PM ET, ESPNU): 41-13 Arkansas
LSU vs. Northwestern St. (8:00 PM ET): 35-7 LSU
Ole Miss vs. Southern Ill. (6:00 PM ET): 24-17 Ole Miss
Florida vs. UAB (7:00 PM ET, FSS): 31-6 Florida
Kentucky vs. Central Michigan (12:00 PM ET, ESPNU): 14-10 Kentucky
Vanderbilt vs. UConn (7:30 PM ET, CSS): 21-17 UConn

Lucas' Season Record: 10-2