Harvard Yard Picks

Here at the yard, we admit it when we are wrong.  And while we were right about a lot of things we said regarding the Tigers/Cocks throw down, we were wrong about the victor.  It looked promising in the first half.  Much of what we predicted was coming true.  LSU’s throwing QB Lee was passing to the wrong team, and its offense, which looked impressive to begin the game, was being controlled by the South Carolina defense.  On the other side of the ball, Garcia looked like he might have his way with the Tigers.  The 17-10 score going in at half was in line with what we expected.  So what happened?  Well it’s fairly simple.  LSU’s defensive line finally lived up to its preseason hype.  The big boys on the line owned the second half.  Throw in some well timed blitzes and the Cock’s offense was stopped dead in its tracks.  With no offense to back it up, LSU’s talented athletes wore down the South Carolina defense, and it was over.  While Carolina did have some turnovers, they were not the game killing type.  No, this game belonged to the LSU D-Line.

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I had the great pleasure of attending the Alabama and Ole Miss match-up in person in the Bear’s Den, aka Bryant Denny Stadium. It was quite a trip. As the game began, you could feel the palpable tension in the air. Alabama fans were afraid of this game, and for good reason. Speculation ran rampant that Houston Nutt was communing with his eldritch gods and had sacrificed an entire bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken to Jaboo, Lord of the Trick Play.

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Good luck, have fun, be safe.

The same thing wins that always won.  It’s just a different bunch of excuses when you lose.  -Paul “Bear” Bryant

FINALS

Alabama vs. Ole Miss 24-20 (Correct Pick)

Georgia vs. Vanderbilt 24-14 (Correct Pick)

LSU vs. South Carolina 17-24 (MISS — LSU’s Defensive Line finally shows up)

Tennessee vs. Miss. St. 34-3 (Brick Correct Pick, Smokey will never pick Miss. St. again)

Kentucky vs. Arkansas 21-20 (Correct Pick)

Clemson vs. Georgia Tech 21-17 (Correct Pick)

Texas vs. Missouri  56-31  (N/A)  And seriously, is this the Big 12 or the WAC?

Colt McCoy and Gollum:  Separated at Birth?

The Yard has gotten some (ahem) interesting emails and comments concerning our good opinion of the Nut-Nut and our relatively poor opinion of the Razorback Nation. For example, one of the more (ahem) cogent comments from a Razorback is as follows:

Seriously, you think [edit]less was a good coach??? The guy had a .500 record in the SEC while at Arkansas. Impressive?? Consider that despite the fact that he’d win a game or two that he shouldn’t have, he’d come in utterly unprepared and lose other games and then place the blame on players, coaches, media - anyone but himself.

I could bring up a number of points in rebuttal to this, but, as Smokey pointed out to me this morning, what Razorback fans seem to fail to grasp (and we think is important) is the fear that the Nut-Nut struck in opposing fans’ hearts. He made the Hawgs dangerous for EVERY GAME. Period.

Of course, we do think Petrino is a good coach and he may yet take Arkansas to the Promised Land. But that doesn’t excuse the incredibly obtuse actions that appear as evidence for what passes as decision-making in the Trough. Since it seems that we have not made our point clearly enough, let me break it down in terms that I think everyone can understand:

Self-immolation.

Self-immolation.

Oh Great God Jaboo, deliver me another victory!

Alabama v. Ole Miss; Georgia v. Vanderbilt

Brick’s Game of the Week

Alabama (6-0, 3-0) v. Ole Miss (3-3,1-2)

Ah, Houston (the “Nut-Nut”) Nutt. While the Nut-Nut really is a year or two away from turning Ole Miss around (in what direction you might ask, it’s not like they were playing lights out even under the Spawn of Fulmer – dare we say it, maybe like Johnny Vaught?), the Nut-Nut wins games. Especially games he shouldn’t win. The simple fact is that the Nut-Nut can flat-out coach a football team. But I hate him, yes I do. Why do I hate him so? I’ll tell you. Cast your mind back to the halcyon days of 2001. The Gamecocks are 5 and the Big O and ranked #9. They are playing the Razorbacks on CBS, in Little Rock, with an opportunity to blow up and steam ahead into the greatest season EVER in Gamecock history. All that stands in the way is a good, but not great, Razorback team (remember, they finished 2001 with a 7-5 record and loss in the Cotton Bowl).

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Mmm...bacon!

South Carolina vs. LSU; Kentucky vs. Arkansas; Mississippi State vs. Tennessee

Smokey’s Game of the Week

South Carolina (5-2, 2-2) vs. LSU (4-1, 2-1)

In the land of the pines, this is what we call a helmet-gear matchup. Darth Visor and The Hat in a head covering death match. One coach is an offensive genius, a man who took Duke to levels it hadn’t seen since Wallace Wade and transformed Florida from a team in the basement of the SEC to a national powerhouse. Steve Spurrier looks to do the same at South Carolina, a relatively dormant program despite a traditionally deep talent pool in its home state. The other field general is a mentally unsound, football dilettante who fell bassackwards into a talent rich powerhouse that by all rights should have been the first team to win three straight national championships. Instead, Les Miles has presided over the slow deterioration of the LSU program, despite continued recruiting success and the dumb luckiest (emphasizing dumb) National Championship since the NCAA (never) started keeping records. This is a classic match up between talent and coaching. Spurrier has what Bryant had: he can take your’ens and beat his’ens and then take his’ens and beat your’ens. Les Miles suffers from lack of blood flow to the brain caused by the tightness of his two size too small hat, but has an overall talent advantage.  Still, you can never over-estimate Les Miles…when it comes to stupid.

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If Corso can make it up, so can we!

Here at the Yard, we are experts when it comes to the SEC.  So let’s pick some games we know nothing about!

Texas (6-0, 2-0) vs. Missouri (5-1, 1-1)

We occasionally watch Big 12 games.   We saw Texas boom the Sooners.  We watched Missiouri lose to the Nut-Nut of the Big 12.  But honestly, we don’t really know anything about these teams.  Now we could do like everyone else does.  We could make it up as we go along.  We could talk about Texas’s lack of running game or defense.  We could wax poetic about Chase Daniels and his buddy Warren Buffett, while mentioning how overrated and under-performing we always expected Missouri to be.  Then we could talk about let downs and spit out some random score/upset like Missouri 38 Texas 34.  But we aren’t going to do that.  Cause we have integrity, yo.

Clemzon (3-3, 1-2) v. Georgia Tech (5-1, 2-1)

Even if Clemzon had not self-immolated over this week, I would have picked Ga Tech all the way in this game. But, before getting to that, let’s focus for a bit on the stinking pile of garbage that is Clemzon football.

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