Tailback Leonard Fournette (7) has emerged as a force for LSU. (Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports)
Before we get to the serious business of picking the Southeastern Conference games, let’s get the non-conference foolishness out of the way first.
The two ranked Mississippi teams—Mississippi State and Ole Miss–are playing out-of-conference games that should be little more than full dress scrimmages.
After a heartbreaking loss to Auburn last week cost the Rebels the services of Laquon Treadwell for the rest of the season, Hugh Freeze’s team takes on a Presbyterian Blue Hose squad that’s 5-4 on the season.
The SEC Crystal Ball says Ole Miss will run roughshod over Presbyterian.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs, the No 1 team in the country, will host Tennessee-Martin. The Skyhawks are 5-5 on the season but will fall to 5-6 after losing to the Bulldogs.
In conference action, the Georgia Bulldogs will attempt to bounce back from their embarrassing loss to the Florida Gators last week when they travel to Kentucky to take on Mark Stoops’ Wildcats. Kentucky has lost three consecutive games and Georgia is on a mission to put last week in the rearview mirror.
“We know it’s going to be quite a battle,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt. “We’ve got to really work hard today, our full pads day, to make sure we take care of business and get in position to execute the way we need to. Not the greatest performance last week, we all know that. We want to do a good job this week and that starts with practice.”
Stoops has managed to retain his sense of humor despite the losing streak. He was asked if the wheels had come off his team.
“I don’t know if we lost our way. We just need to be better. We’re inconsistent. The wheels aren’t falling off; we barely had them on,” he said.
The Crystal Ball believes Georgia will bounce back with a big win.
Speaking of wheels coming off, Texas A&M comes off a not-so-stellar performance against ULM by traveling to Auburn to meet the Tigers, the No. 3 team in the nation. This will not be an easy assignment for the Aggies; the Tigers are tough in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
“There are a lot of things you can take from (ULM),” A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. “People thought I was being sarcastic Saturday when I said the positive was we won, and the negative we didn’t win by enough. That was the truth. Where we were and where we are, after losing three straight games and having a bye week, you’re talking a month of this building not experiencing a win. No matter how you experienced that, that was important for this team. That bye week was about us and toughness and things I saw differences in that weren’t reflected in points.”
The Crystal Ball picks Auburn to keep on winning.
Florida will put its one-game winning streak on the line against Vanderbilt, also on a one-game winning streak. The difference is Florida’s win came against Georgia and Vanderbilt’s came against Old Dominion.
Despite the win over Georgia, Florida coach Will Muschamp says he believes his team will keep it in perspective.
“We don’t have anything to be overconfident about,” he said. “I think that one of the things you talk to your players about is how you respond after a loss and how you respond after a win. We need to form some consistency in what we’re doing. The work ethic of this football team I think will be – they’ll respond the right way.”
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said for his Commodores the approach is taking it one game at a time.
“In the second half of this season, we are going to be about a one game mentality and that’s all you can do,” he said. “You have to live in the moment. You can’t worry about what’s down the road. We have to take it one day at a time. With a young football team I don’t think you go any further than that.”
The Crystal Ball picks Florida to keep its winning streak alive.
In the conference headliner, Alabama will be at LSU. It’s Alabama’s chance to stay in the playoff picture as well as in the running for the SEC West championship.
“This is going to be a very challenging game for us as a team,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban. “I think relative to the circumstance that we are in, we should have an expectation to get everyone’s best every day for what we have a chance to accomplish and what we have a chance to do. We play these games one game at a time and this is the most important game, because it is a game we play this week against a very good team on the road in a difficult place to play.”
LSU coach Les Miles is excited about the opportunity to play Alabama in Tiger Stadium.
“Our guys will look forward to it,” he said. “Our team plays best in Tiger Stadium. It’s a magical place. There’s no better place in America to watch a football game. CBS primetime audience, I think our guys will look forward to playing.
“Coach Saban does a great job. We’ll look forward to that challenge.”
The Crystal Ball is picking LSU in an upset.
