Jeff Driskel (6) will look to move the Gators to 2-0 with a win over Kentucky. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
The big game in the Southeastern Conference this week takes place in Columbia, S.C., where the Gamecocks play host to the Georgia Bulldogs. There are some other big ones like Kentucky at Florida and Tennessee at Oklahoma, but the Georgia-South Carolina game has some interesting side notes.
First, Georgia has lost its last two trips to South Carolina and Mark Richt is a coach who needs to get that monkey off his back.
“It’s been tough for Georgia in that stadium as of late,” said Richt. “And we really haven’t scored a lot of points. I guess there were nine games in a row, and we have not scored more than 20 points in that stadium. So it’s been rough going there offensively.”
Georgia hasn’t scored 20 points in Columbia since 1994, a 24-21 Bulldogs victory.
“I knew they haven’t scored 20 since I’ve been here,” said South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. “Of course they’ve won two of them, but we won the low-scoring game over there, I think it was ’07, that 16-12 game. We’ve had some low-scoring games with Georgia and we have held them under 20 here. Then again, we didn’t think Texas A&M was going to roll up 52 on us either so every year is a new year and we’re believing that we can play a lot better, but we need to go do it on the field and this would be a good week to show that.”
Conversely, Spurrier has a team that was expected—and sometimes even favored—to win the SEC East. Yet the Gamecocks are still reeling from an unexpected season-opening loss to Texas A&M.
“Georgia Bulldogs,” said Spurrier, “this is interesting. Three weeks ago, we were advertised as the top team in the East and now they’re advertised as the top team in the East so a lot can change as we all know, but they’re coming to our place. We have to believe that we can play a lot better than we have played.”
One of the reasons that Spurrier has to worry about is Georgia star Todd Gurley, who rushed for 198 yards, had a 100-yard kickoff return and scored four touchdowns in Georgia’s win over Clemson.
“I think he’s averaging 15 yards a carry, something like that, and he had a 100-yard or 99-yard kickoff return so he’s probably the leading Heisman candidate right now,” said Spurrier. “We have to tackle him, but they have a bunch of other backs too. We just have to play football, tackle whoever has the ball. Sometimes they actually bring the wide receiver into the backfield and let him take off running, they have a nice mixture.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” said Richt. “We’ve got to perform better than we have in that venue, offensively especially. We’re looking forward to the challenge of it.”
The SEC Crystal Ball says Georgia gets the job done in this one.
Kentucky at Florida could be closer than most expect, but Florida has beaten the Wildcats 26 consecutive games. However, that doesn’t mean much to Florida coach Will Muschamp.
“It’s a 2014 Florida team versus a 2014 Kentucky team,” he said. “That’s all it is to me.”
The SEC Crystal Ball says Florida makes it 27 in a row.
Tennessee and Oklahoma will match two teams that have impressive 2-0 records, although against less than stellar competition. Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops is happy that the Vols have to come to Norman considering he is 4-4 against SEC teams all time.
“They can play physical and run the football, which that is what they want to do, but also they can make it a perimeter game as well,” said Tennessee coach Butch Jones. “It is very challenging in and of itself and then you add tempo to it, getting lined up and playing fast; very explosive offense.”
The SEC Crystal Ball says Oklahoma will win this one.
Here are the rest of the Crystal Ball picks for this weekend: Ole Miss will beat Louisiana; Mississippi State should edge South Alabama; Alabama will knock off Southern Miss; LSU will beat Louisiana-Monroe; and Texas A&M will beat Rice.
