It’s been almost a week
since Georgia State rolled into Knoxville and buried Tennessee's lifeless body with a shockingly
dominate performance. Since then, we got to hear Jeremy Pruitt talk about “execution”
5 million different times, there was a players only meeting, and Jauan Jennings
proclaimed himself the leader of the team. Great.
You know what really
matters? Winning some damn games! I’m done with all the talk! I don’t care
about anything that happens during the week leading up to the game anymore, and I haven’t
for a while. Why? Because we’ve heard all these same talking points for over a
decade now and the program is still firmly entrenched in the toilet. There are
no excuses for what happened last Saturday, and there will be none tomorrow
either if the Vols lose to an average BYU team.
BYU
at Tennessee
This is unequivocally the
biggest and most important game of Jeremy Pruitt’s young head coaching career. You
think it was rough last week? Imagine the reaction if you lose your second consecutive
home game and start 0-2 in a year where everyone thought you had an excellent
chance to win 8 games. There will be 20,000 people at the Chattanooga game next
week if that happens.
The good news is that the
BYU team that's coming to town is pretty average. The Cougars are 20-20 during
head coach Kalani Sitake’s tenure, and got pushed around by Utah last Thursday
night in a double digit loss. The bad news is that BYU is assuredly better than
the Georgia State team that whipped the Vols at the line of scrimmage on both
sides of the ball last Saturday.
There is still an opportunity
to salvage this season if you’re Tennessee. Win the games that you’re supposed
to and a bowl game is still in play. Lose tomorrow, and oh boy, there’s a good
chance that the season spirals out of control due to fan negativity/apathy and
player disbelief.
There’s a chance
linebacker Daniel Bituli could make his season debut for Tennessee tomorrow. The
Vols leading tackler the last two seasons missed last week with a knee injury, but
if he were to play, he’d certainly help stabilize a defense that looked
completely lost Saturday. Of course, he probably won’t be 100% either, and even
if he did suit up and play 30 snaps, he can’t plug every gap in a defense that
embarrassed themselves in front of the nation last weekend.
I say this every week,
but the offensive line has got to be better. No more wet paper bag blocking from that unit. The
success of every offense hinges on O-Line being able to open holes for the backs
and hold blocks long enough for the quarterback to find open receivers. I know
every Tennessee fan hates Jarrett Guarantano, and they can’t wait to get on social
media or call into radio shows and demand he have his scholarship pulled,
but like I’ve always said, it’s almost impossible to evaluate him, considering
he’s been behind the worst offensive line in the conference the last two-plus
years. Am I saying he’d be Peyton Manning if he had consistent protection? Of
course not. But could be an upper echelon starter in the SEC? Why not?
This game is really going
to be dictated by what Tennessee team shows up. If it’s the slow, disorganized,
confused, effortless one that was in Neyland last week, then it’s 0-2 and
another week of being the national laughingstock. Because I’m an idiot, I’ll pretend
I’ve never been burned by the Vols before.
Prediction: Tennessee?
Cincinnati
at #5 Ohio State
This is an interesting
game, as former Buckeye interim head coach and player Luke Fickell returns to
the Horseshoe with a Cincinnati team that has won 13 of their last 15 games.
Meanwhile, there’s Ohio State, who jumped out to a 28-0 first quarter lead
against FAU last week, before slowing down drastically and actually getting
outscored by the Owls 21-17 over the final three periods.
The Bearcat defense looked
incredible last week despite the fact that they replaced almost their entire front
four from last season. To be fair though, that performance was against a UCLA
team with almost no players and a middling quarterback, Dorian
Thompson-Robinson, aka DTR (@ my old man).
I don’t realistically expect
Cincinnati to go into Columbus and leave victorious, but if the Ohio State has
any kinks in their offense, this game could be much closer than the 16 points
the Buckeyes are favored by. However, if Ohio State figures some things out on
that end, they could put up 60.
Prediction: Ohio State
West
Virginia at Missouri
Mizzou embarrassed themselves
in Kelly Bryant’s quarterback debut last week by losing on the road to Wyoming.
Meanwhile, the Mountaineers slogged through head coach Neal Brown’s debut on Saturday as they beat FCS opponent James Madison by only 7.
Barry Odom’s seat at
Missouri is starting to warm. He’s 19-20 through his first 39 games in Columbia, and hasn’t finished better than tied for 3rd in the SEC. Plus, they
gave up 297 rushing yards to Wyoming
last week. If he can’t win this game, at home with a better, more experienced
quarterback (Mountaineer junior QB Austin Kendall has just 1 career start, last
week, and only 81 pass attempts), then the pitchforks might be out for him on
Saturday night.
Prediction: Missouri
#25
Nebraska at Colorado
The Huskers struggled last
week with South Alabama, winning by only 14 points, while Colorado, under first
year coach Mel Tucker, beat Colorado State in Denver by three touchdowns.
Nebraska got a ton of
preseason love in the national media, but after last week’s performance, I’m
convinced it’s solely because their head coach Scott Frost is good looking.
Has
the college football media been taken over by chicks? His Husker team on Saturday
looked like a slightly better version of the squad he trotted out last season
that went 4-8.
Colorado beat the Huskers
in Lincoln last year, and I expect them to do it again tomorrow as well. Their
quarterback Steven Montez is in his third year as the starter, and they have an
abundance of experience on the offensive line.
Sidenote: I don’t want to
write the story on Jeremy Pruitt after 13 games, or Mel Tucker after 1, but it
is worth pointing out that Tucker was one of the finalists for the Tennessee job
that ultimately went to Pruitt. If Tucker gets things going at Colorado, and
Pruitt continues to struggle in Knoxville…. I mean, wow…
Prediction: Colorado
#23
Stanford at USC
USC’s Clay Helton is one
of my favorite punching bags. The guy has held onto the Southern Cal job longer
than he ever should have. You want to know why the Trojan program has deteriorated
into mediocrity? Because they’ve been led by a tube sock salesman/freshman
baseball coach since Steve Sarkisian got fired for being a drunk back in 2015. Their
performance against Fresno State last week was abominable.
The bad news for Trojan
fans is that their starting quarterback JT Daniels is out for the rest of year with
a torn ACL. I know Stanford struggled to score against Northwestern last week,
but if USC can’t move the ball with any consistency tomorrow night (and I don’t
think they’ll be able to against a Stanford defense that only surrendered 7
points and 210 yards of offense last week), then the Cardinal really only need
to get to… 14 points? 10? I know their quarterback KJ Costello will also be out,
but backup QB Davis Mills should be more than serviceable against what this USC
program has become.
The good news for the Trojans? Urban Meyer is doing television this season and is potentially only a phone call and a certain dollar amount away from moving to L.A. and becoming the Trojan football coach.
Prediction: Stanford
Now, onto our games of
the weekend, at least on paper….
#12
Texas A&M at #1 Clemson
Clemson went to A&M
last season with their quarterback situation in flux and escaped with only a 2 point
victory against the overmatched Aggies.
I desperately want this
game to be competitive, and I think Jimbo Fisher will eventually build an
excellent program at A&M, but I don’t see it this weekend. Everyone lost
their minds with how good QB Kellen Mond looked last week, but come on guys, they
were playing Texas State. Clemson has an NFL quarterback and future #1 pick in
Trevor Lawrence, arguably the best running back in the country in Travis
Etienne, and six other returning starters on offense from last season. They didn’t even play that great
against Georgia Tech last week and still put up 52 points.
The only way I see
A&M competing here is if they can take advantage of the relative inexperience
the Tigers have in their front four. They’re going to have to win the line of
scrimmage, control the time of possession, and keep Lawrence off the field; plus,
Mond is going to have to play the best game of his career. And even if they do
that, I don’t think they’ll be able to slow down the Tigers. Can they get
pressure on Lawrence? We’ve never really seen him under fire in a game before. Good
luck.
Prediction: Clemson
#6
LSU at #9 Texas
No one on the internet
has made fun of LSU head coach/Cajun Swamp Monster Ed Orgeron more than I have,
but I’ve gotta say, I love the Tigers on the road here this weekend. Ole Coach
O has taken a lot of crap for not being able to beat Alabama and Saban, but outside
of those three defeats, he’s actually been pretty good with the Tigers,
going 26-6 against every other opponent. LSU is the only team in the SEC that
returns 8 starters on both offense and defense, and quarterback Joe Burrow has
a year of starting under his belt now. He’s not great, or as good as Texas QB
Sam Ehlinger, but he’s made enough big throws in enough big games where he’s
not a liability.
The Longhorns were a trendy
pick for the Big 12 and the National Championship coming into the season based
almost solely on how much they dominated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for three
quarters at the end of last season. I’m not saying Georgia didn’t want to be
there, but let’s be honest, bowl games are mostly about motivation. Texas had
their best season in almost a decade and hadn’t been to New Years Six Game
since the 2009 BCS Championship Game. Georgia, on the other hand, thought they
deserved to be in the playoff, and would’ve been if they hadn’t botched the SEC
Championship Game against Alabama. It’s hard to get up for Texas when you thought
you should’ve been playing Oklahoma or Notre Dame in the playoff. There’s no
question about LSU’s motivation for tomorrow night. I like the Tigers by a
touchdown.
Prediction: LSU
Enjoy football this weekend.
You deserve it!
No comments:
Post a Comment