SEC West Game of the Week

Ole Miss (4-4) vs. Auburn (4-4)

With Alabama and LSU taking on patsies in the run up to the annual bloodletting in that increasingly vitriolic rivalry, the bowl elimination game between Ole Miss and Auburn becomes the biggest game in the West. This is a game Ole Miss can lose and still get to a bowl game, but Auburn needs this victory in the worst way. The Tigers are unlikely to stay within 21 points of their final two opponents, Georgia and Alabama, leaving Tennessee Martin as their only victory. That spells out a losing season for Auburn, unless they can defeat the Fighting Nut-Nuts of Ole Miss.

How likely is it that Auburn’s vaunted offense will go into Oxford and accomplish much of anything? Lotteries have better odds. Jabba the Nutt has a team with an offensive, a big plus when facing Auburn. Ole Miss has things like a quarterback and a running back. They even have an offensive line, and offensive specialists sometimes referred to as “wide receivers.” Granted, these are advanced football concepts, and it is remarkable that Houston Nutt has managed to produce them in a single season while Tommy Tubberville flails in the dark.

All kidding aside, Auburn is in trouble. The defense has never been as good as people claimed, and it has repeatedly allowed opponents to score points in critical situations. As bizarre as it may seem, it is possible that Ole Miss represents the most complete team Auburn has faced to this point. The Yard remains convinced that LSU is a paper tiger, and West Virginia would only have a successful season if it could play teams as bad as Auburn every week. We would normally engage in a little match-up handicapping at this point, but frankly why? While it is close on some aspects of the defense, we are confident in asserting that Ole Miss is better at every single position, across the board. The experts have this one pegged as a close game. We disagree.

Ole Miss 27 Auburn 10

Arkansas (3-5) vs. Tulsa (8-0)

Undefeated Tulsa rolls into Arkansas intent on continuing the Nut-Nut Karmic Retribution tour that is this year for Arkansas.  After losing to the Nut-Nut, Gus Malzahn returns to Arkansas, number 1, 600 yards a game offense in tow.  Malzahn just happens to be the man that broke the camel’s back for the Nut-Nut.  Arkansas fans were so enamored with the high school whiz that they engaged in a suicidal jihad when Nutt insisted on using the so-so talant of Darren McFadden Malzahn’s first year, rather than pulling an Auburn and trying to force a system on players not prepared for it.  This game is absolutely critical to Arkansas’s bowl hopes, as they must win 3 off the last 4 games, including battles against South Carolina and LSU.  In other words, lose this one, and stay at home for the holidays.

This game comes down to Arkansas’s defense.  Tulsa has shown an inability to stop the run.  Or the pass for that matter.  Arkansas can run the ball with the best of them, and will move the ball on Tulsa.  If the Arkansas defense can step up, the piggies could win this one.  Sadly, that is unlikely.  So it becomes a “who scores last” contest.  In that kind of game, the passing team invariably wins.

Tulsa 35 Arkansas 31

Miss. St. (3-5) vs. Kentucky (5-3)

I will keep this short.  Kentucky looked bad last week.  Miss. St. looks bad every week.

Kentucky 28 Miss. St. 14

]]> http://www.harvardyardpicks.com/?feed=rss2&p=173 http://www.harvardyardpicks.com/?p=170 http://www.harvardyardpicks.com/?p=170#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:21:56 +0000 admin http://www.harvardyardpicks.com/?p=170

Look, Alabama is going to win this game.  Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot.  Tennessee’s defensive line is its strength, but it will not dominate Alabama’s offensive line.  Eric Barry can’t cover all of the wide recievers, and Tennessee’s offense can’t score.  What I want to talk about is Terrence Cody and the absolute, uninformed drival that has been spewed about his absence.  Now I love Terrence Cody.  He is a great story and a great player.  And I was sad when he got hurt.  But no one is going to have to step up and replace him.  The fact is, he only plays around 50% of the snaps for Alabama.  Josh Chapman plays the rest of the time.  Half the time you see Cody make a play, it is really Chapman.  And if I hear one more ESPN buffoon talk about Lorenzo Washington having to step in at nose tackle I may cut my heart out with a plastic spoon.  Take Alabama, and take um big.

Cause pictures of the Nut-Nut never get old.

Arkansas vs. Ole Miss; Auburn vs. West Virginia

Arkansas (3-4, 1-3) vs. Ole Miss (3-4, 1-3)

Great googly moogly! It is Armageddon time as the Great Satan, Houston “the Nut-Nut” Nutt leads his Rebel army into Arkansas. No doubt his reception will not be kind as Arkansas fans, still smarting over last year’s DISASTEROUS 8-5 season (I mean hey, they ONLY beat future national champion LSU by two points…in Baton Rouge) are no doubt excited over an opportunity to finally boo the Nut-Nut as the coach of a team not named the Razorbacks. This rivalry is an under appreciated one in the SEC. Arkansas and Ole Miss have played a total of 55 times, including two classic Sugar Bowl match-ups in 1963 and 1970. The two teams have played every year since 1981 with Arkansas taking 6 out of the last 7. But we are about to witness a power shift in this rivalry. These are two teams that are headed in opposite directions. It remains to be seen whether Bobby Patrino will succeed at Arkansas, whereas Jabba the Nutt has already upset Florida and nearly dethroned Alabama. The Rebels are not afraid of the road, and the Nut-Nut is ready for his homecoming.

The temptation here is, of course, to run down Arkansas fans, once again, for the complete destruction of their program. We are not going to do that. Not today at least. There will be plenty of opportunities to remind the Pig Sooies of their mistake in running off the Nut-Nut. We have a feeling Ole Nutt’s actions will speak louder than words this Saturday.

Moving to the match ups in this game, Arkansas is a team that has improved this year, but Ole Miss is a much better, much more complete unit. If Arkansas has a strength, it is the play of their offensive line and running back. Ole Miss counters with the best defensive line Arkansas has faced since Alabama, and an offensive line that is as talented as any in the country at the guard and tackle position. There is a reason that Ole Miss was able to pile up 158 rushing yards, three times what opponents had averaged against Alabama. And then there is the Nutt-Nutt. I know Arkansas fans don’t want to hear it, but the man can coach. Arkansas will have some intangible’s on its side. The fans want this win, and Arkansas can be a difficult place to play even without the blood thirsties in the stands. But games are won through blocking and tackling, by the Jimmies and Joes, not the enthusiasm of the fans.

I know you hate to hear it folks, but Ole Miss is going to win this game. The defense of Pierre Gustave Toutant Nutt will pressure Casey Dick all day long, and if the Rebs can stuff the Bama running game, expect the same here. Last year, during the bad ol’ days of the Nut-Nut, Arkansas went into Mississippi and beat the Rebs 44-8. Ole Miss is about to return the favor.

Ole Miss 27 Arkansas 10

West Virginia (4-2, 2-0) vs.Auburn (4-3, 2-3)

Full disclosure:  we don’t really know anything about West Virginia.  We know that they are going to have Pat White back.  We know that they are experiencing the growing pains of a first time head coach who has made mistakes that have cost West Virginia two games they should have won.  Do they have a defense?  Well, we are pretty sure it’s not nearly as good as the one that took Oklahoma to the woodshed last year.  The offense is explosive, but not as much as those in the past.  So how are we going to handicap this game?  By focusing on Auburn’s dysfunctionality, of course.

Tough times on the Plains.

Auburn is a team in trouble.  They have a coach who recently assured a gaggle of reporters that he had not had a stroke and an offensive coordinator who has been on the job no more than two weeks (and whose previous tenure almost got Tommy Tuberville fired).  They have a quarterback, no check that, they do not have a quarterback.  And things are so bad on that front that Tuberville has threatened to rip a redshirt off of Neil Caudle and play him, for the first time, on the road.  Auburn’s defense is stout, but one has to wonder how much longer they will shoulder the load for a completely inept offense.  Furthermore, it is not clear how stout that defense really is.  It certainly did not appear that way in the second half against LSU, or in the entire game against a not very good Arkansas team.

So what to expect?  Frankly this is a game that should have been a national spectacle.  A spectacle it remains, but for all the wrong reasons.  Auburn has more to lose, but West Virginia is not far behind.  The hill folk are not too happy with Mr. Stewart, but a win here would go a long way to salvaging his year.  I think Auburn will lose this game, not necessarily because WVU is better, but rather because Auburn is a team in disarray.  The chorus calling for Tuberville’s head will only get louder and the fire under his seat more like an inferno, with the glaring sun of a resurgent Alabama adding greatly to the heat.

WVU 20 Auburn 7

Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I’d dress her in white and gold,

And put her on the campus To cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir, I’ll tell you what he’d do–
He’d yell: ‘TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!’ Like his daddy used to do.

Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum, and Sugar three thousand pounds

A college bell to put it in, And a clapper to stir it round.
I’d drink to all the good fellows, who come from far and near.
I’m a Ramblin’, Gamblin’, HELL OF AN ENGINEER!

You know you saw it.  In some deep recess of your brain you are denying it.  The baby-you in your super ego is curled into the fetal position crying in the corner of your mind.  Cause you can’t have seen what you just saw.  What you just saw with your own two eyes.  Watch it again.  Deny it.  I dare you.  I know, I know.  It can’t be true.  But it is.  You just watched an SEC referee tackle South Carolina’s quarterback.  And now you ask yourself–Why? Why did he do it?

I don’t know.  Maybe he was angry.  Maybe he felt bad for throwing an inadvertent screen for a South Carolina receiver two plays earlier.  Maybe he wanted one more moment of football glory.  Honestly I don’t know.  I can barely watch it and keep my sanity.  Because it can’t be true right?  A man who worked his way up through the ranks to reach the level of SEC ref did not just deliberately throw himself into a player.  Right?  I mean if he wanted to affect the game, why not throw a flag?  Why not call holding?  There must be some rational explanation.  Find it.  I dare you.  Because you and I both know the truth.  And sometimes the truth is a hard, hard thing.  So laugh my friends.  Laugh, and keep your sanity.