Week 8 Analysis/Week 9 Preview

Oklahoma and Wisconsin both lost their chance of a National Championship this past weekend with losses. Wisconsin lost to a quality opponent on a last second play, but it is still a loss. The loss for Oklahoma was inexcusable. They lost to a signficantly inferior opponent at home. College football is anything but predictable which was proven this past weekend. That is one of the things that makes it so great. At the end of the year there will be 3 or 4 unbeaten teams meaning it will be hard for a 1 loss non SEC school to get a chance at the title. The SEC will have an unbeaten this year, but even if it didn't they would still deserve a shot to defend the title. I believe the only way a SEC school doesn't win the championship is if there isn't a team playing for it.

SMTTT..... I have always thought this was kind of a stupid slogan, but right now Southern Miss is rising to the top. USM fans don't bash me with hate mail about knocking your slogan. I am a MSU fan and I think the Maroon/White chant MSU does is beyond stupid. With all that being said USM deserves their top 25 ranking this week. They are top 25 in scoring offense and defense. I realize that the strength of schedule for USM is much higher than that of MSU/Ole Miss. As of today USM has the 77th ranked SOS, MSU #32, and Ole Miss is a brutal #10. What I say to that is who cares... You still have to win games and USM has done that. Southern Miss travels to UTEP this weekend as a 10 point favorite. USM has to find some way to not fall into a trap this game. If USM gets up for the game they will win by 3 touchdowns. If they come out flat they could be coming back to MS with a bad loss.

Heartbreak losses like Ole Miss experienced Saturday in Oxford are really bad for the immediate season but pretty good for growth into the future. Too bad Houston Nutt won't be a part of that future. The Rebels have some serious young talent at WR. The guys Ole Miss have at receiver are future NFL players. They are the kind of people that can win games for the Rebels in the next couple of years. The good news for Ole Miss this week is that the talent level of the team they are playing is significantly downgraded. Rebels are a 10.5 point underdog on the Plains this weekend. I have a prediction that Ole Miss only wins 1 more game this year, so I obviously don't see them winning at Auburn Saturday night.

The Forward Rebels movement is gaining more and more steam with every Ole Miss loss. Their mission to get Pete Boone and Chancellor Jones fired does not appear to be dying down anytime soon. I will say the same thing I have always said about this. Those two guys have never called a single play at any sporting event for Ole Miss. However, after talking to many Ole Miss fans whose opinions I respect I feel like a change from top to bottom may be necessary in Oxford. The most shocking thing to me about the actions this week was how well written the letter from Jerrell Powe was. Everything from the format to the spelling was flawless. I truthfully don't believe he wrote that letter, and I know many other people are thinking the same thing whether they admit it or not.

The bye week for MS State could not have come at a better time in the year. The Bulldogs needed the week off to get healthy and to try to work out some of the problems on offense. Ms State has a two game stretch that are must win games. I bashed the Ms State offense last week, and if I started talking about them this week it would be much of the same. Since that is the case I am going to focus on the defense. This Ms State defense has quietly become a pretty good unit. They currently rank 17th in the nation in points per game. Kentucky comes into this game with one of the worst offenses in the nation (116th in scoring and 118th in total yards). This is all good news for a desperate Ms State team. I look for the MS State defense to control the game Saturday. Bulldogs will get a win in a game that probably won't be pretty to watch.

Several Other Notes:
I will be doing a full blog next week on the LSU/Bama game. Espn has already said they are arriving in Tuscaloosa on Thursday to start coverage. CBS has moved the game to Saturday night. This game is basically the National Championship. I hope it lives up to the hype.

Interesting thing for this weekend is that all three spreads for the MS teams are right around 10. USM/MSU favorites/Ole Miss underdog

I am officially on the Stanford Cardinal bandwagon. They are not only undefeated, but they are undefeated against the spread. That is impressive.

I was happy to see Notre Dame lose again. Maybe now they will finally stop talking about them going to a BCS game.

The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail party is this weekend. If Brantley can't play then the Gators have no shot. I don't see the Gators winning this game even if he comes back because they will not be back to normal with him being off for a few weeks. UGA wins this game and sets themself up with a chance to come in the back door for the SEC East championship. This game doesn't have a line because Vegas is waiting to see about Brantley. My line is without Brantley UGA -10 and with Brantley UGA -2.5.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Thank you all for reading. Please continue to email me your thoughts because I enjoy reading them even if you disagree with me.

Wally