Week 9 Analysis/Week 10 Preview

I will be posting a full blog on Friday about the LSU/BAMA game, so I will not be talking about it much in this post. It will be a good read.

This was another weekend of top teams having close games. Clemson's loss to Georgia Tech eliminated them from the National Championship hunt. Stanford pulled out a nail bitter in triple overtime against a scrappy USC team. I don't believe Stanford and OK State will finish the season undefeated. I see Stanford losing to Oregon and OK State losing to Oklahoma. If both of those two things happen then it will be a mad dash for everyone to get into the National Championship game. The BCS standings are really showing their respect for the SEC. SEC currently has 4 teams in the top 10 of the BCS.

USM has broken into the BCS Top 25. The Golden Eagles enter November with 1 loss. USM should be a favorite in their remaining 4 games. Can USM finish the season with only 1 loss and play for the CUSA championship against Houston?? I think they will. An exciting question has been posed to me by several people over the last couple of weeks. If Houston wins out and goes undefeated they will get invited to a bowl game larger than the Liberty Bowl. This will leave the door open for the #2 CUSA team (USM) to get invited to Memphis to play one of the lower SEC teams (MSU). Many things have to fall into place for this to happen, but with a month left in the season there is a possibility of a MSU/USM Liberty Bowl. That would spark some serious interest within the state of Mississippi.

Ole Miss played another good 1st half of football. Only problem with that is they played another equally bad 2nd half of football. In my time both being around and playing football I learned that the most coaching is done at halftime. Teams that consistently win have coaches that make adjustments at halftime that allow them to come out in the second half and execute. What I am saying is that Houston Nutt has absolutely been out coached the last three weeks by Saban, Petrino, and Chizik. The third quarter for Ole Miss has been brutal the last 3 weeks. The Rebels have been out scored 61-0 in the 3rd quarter. Good news this week for Ole Miss is that they play Kentucky. I have Kentucky as the worst team in the SEC. Las Vegas has Ole Miss as a 1 point favorite. Value index shows Kentucky should be a 2.5 point favorite. Question of the week?? Can the Rebels get their first SEC win of the year in Lexington? I think they will get their last win of the year this weekend.

Mississippi State did exactly what they needed to do this past weekend... go to Kentucky and find a way to win. The offense for MS State continues to drive me crazy with mistakes. The Bulldogs should have won this game by 4 touchdowns. State committed 3 turnovers. You will not consistently win in the SEC doing that. As I predicted last week the defense kept the Bulldogs head above water. Two fumbles were inside the MSU 25 yard line. The defense stepped up and held UK to field goals. Even with all the negative during the game State got the W. This week the Bulldogs will get another W against a team that should not even be able to step foot on the same field. MSU will blast UT-Martin this weekend with an offense that will look more like what we expected to see this year. Maybe a game like this will get the train back on the tracks... too bad Bama will be knocking that train back off the tracks next week.

Other Thoughts:

The game of the century is completely overshadowing another great football game this weekend. South Carolina goes to Arkansas this weekend for a match up between 2 top 10 BCS teams. No one has talked about this game because of the LSU/BAMA game. Line on this game is currently Arkansas -5.

You will need to read my blog post Friday about LSU/BAMA to see my prediction on that game. I have a pretty strong opinion about one team in this game. The line currently sits at BAMA -5. I think this is a favorite Vegas line for home teams in the SEC in an evenly matched game.

The Houston/UAB line opened at 24, but it quickly jumped to 27.5-28. If you are able to get this line at anything under 28 get on it hard!

Kansas State is going to complete a fall much like Florida did earlier in the season. They entered the top 10 just in time to face two superior opponents. Oklahoma bounced back against KSU last week with a blow out. Line on this game currently sits at 21. Oklahoma State just has too much offense for KSU to keep this one close.

Tony LaRussa retired only a few days after winning the World Series. LaRussa has either coached or played baseball for 48 years. He went out on top of the baseball world! Everyone should respect that.

Thank you for reading and I hope everyone enjoys the weekend. Please continue to send me comments/ideas/suggestions/etc.

Wally