SEC Weekend Games of Interest: 9/6/2008

Here is a look at the Southeastern Conference games happening Saturday in your neck of the woods:

Southern Mississippi at Alabama Polytechnic Institute: Brett Farve U travels to the Plains coming off of a 51-21 drubbing of UL Lafayette, the most hapless of the UL city schools. New coach Larry Fedora and USM racked up 633 yards of total offense, led by talented Junior TB Damion Fletcher’s 222 yards rushing.

Auburn needed two non-offensive TD’s to take a 17-0 halftime lead against UL Monroe and Tony Franklin’s spread went 13-27 for 85 passing yards. Expect better numbers than that this week with Chris Todd starting at QB and an Auburn victory. Besides, Southern Miss should lose every game this year, just for firing Jeff Bower.

Ole Miss at Wake Forest: The Huston Nutt Show rolls over to Winston-Salem this week and we get to judge two things.

1) What does the ACC have, team wise, at the top of their conference?

And

2) How competitive can the Mississippites be this season on the road (and ultimately, in the SEC)?

After the Clemson debacle, Wake Forest looks to be the strongest team in the ACC. Veteran Wake QB Riley Skinner is a fiery competitor that is battle tested and Jim Grobe will have his team prepared for a much improved SEC squad (unlike some people named Tommy). They will test the Rebels in all phases of the game and I look for Ole Miss to hang tough. Ultimately, Ole Miss does not have the athletes or depth on defense to stop the Demon Deacons. Look for Wake to pull out a tight game by a solid margin.

Norfolk State at Kentucky: Seriously? Pick UK. In our random pop culture factoid of the week, Paul Hines, the inspiration for Denzel Washington’s portrayal of Coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans, is a graduate of Norfolk State University.

You're going to remember the night, you got your Butt Whipped by the Wildcats!

Tulane at Alabama: A precedent has been set that Bama likes to lose to weaker opponents from Louisiana at Home:

This picture just doesn't get old

Alabama looks good after their season opening win (they beat Clemson if you didn’t hear) and Steak Shapiro should be on the edge of his seat, talking about food, as Tulane gets waxed in their season opener. No, you can’t watch this one at Stats.

Southeast Louisiana at Mississippi State: Mississippi State looks to exact revenge on another Louisiana based squad to recover from last week’s effort against LA Tech. MSU played solid D last week, holding LA Tech to 243 total yards. I’m sure Sylvester Croom just didn’t anticipate 3 interceptions from sophomore QB Wesley Carroll. Here is the B’NE impersonation of Wesley in the film room last Monday:

Did I do That?

Expect MSU to roll as SE Louisiana won’t have much. MSU must improve week to week or it will be another long year for them in the West.

Arkansas at UL Monroe: Arkansas will be the “visitor” Saturday, but the game is being played at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium. The Razorbacks needed two late 4th Quarter touchdowns last week to bring down the mighty WIU Leathernecks. For their sake, let’s hope this was just the team and fans taking this early game for granted. As we said last week, the Warhawks of UL Monroe can be a solid team, capable of toppling major SEC programs (I don’t know if it was mentioned, but they beat Alabama last year. Just in case someone didn’t know, I’m sure there is a picture of the score somewhere). Expect Monroe to play ball control, as WIU did against the Hogs last week. ULM could have a potential W on their hands if they can play better offense than they did against Auburn. Arkansas will continue to struggle running the ball consistently this week and this is too close to call. Keep it respectable Razorbacks, you play in the SW.., I mean SEC. (Officially, I pick the Hogs)

Miami at the University of Florida: The marquee match up this week is easily between the Hurricanes and the Gators. Robert Marve will be making his first career start in the Swamp as Miami tries to win its first road game over a ranked opponent since a 27-7 drubbing of Virginia Tech in October 2005.

Man, who are these guys? They Suck!

Miami has done a great job keeping South Florida athletes on their campus and can match up to Florida as far as physical measurements. Unfortunately, I don’t think Randy Shannon has it between the ears as a major college football coach and it pains me to say that because of his dedication to his Alma Matter. I respect Shannon a lot and think that he is a terrific program guy. You want him on your team as a coach, motivator, and recruiter; however, I don’t think he has the organizational skills or offensive philosophy to dominate at Miami (The man hired Patrick Nix?). The Urban Crier will coach circles around Randy and lead the Gators to a 14-17 point victory. This being said, Miami will play physical and fast D. Look for Florida to struggle again running the ball and to be weak in pass protection. Hawaii was able to get some pressure against the Gators and this could be a good film game for the Georgia coaches down the road.

Enjoy the weekend and have a Beam and Coke. They do a body good.