Week Four

Week four was good because State beat a big time program for the first time in Dan Mullen's tenure and it's the first time Mississippi State has beaten Georgia since 1974 (9 straight losses). I know Georgia is down this year, and they were without A.J. Green, and they were on the road but they have had better years in recruiting every year by far for every year the players who were on the field Saturday night were recruited in. So UGA had better players at pretty much every position but State won so that is a big time win for MSU.

In all the games I think the weekend lived up to the billing with all the big games being close except for Florida/Kentucky. I'm glad Notre Dame got stomped, now can we shelve them for 2010? I was very surprised by Texas getting blown away by UCLA, that really takes some of the luster off the Red River Shootout next week. I actually picked the correct final score for the LSU/West Virginia game...first time this season. Overall, I went 5-2 in the SEC and 4-2 nationally, so that brings my total up to 29-7 for the SEC and 15-9 nationally. I don't really have much to say because I only saw a small portion of the games since I was in Starkville, and I haven't really seen much of the replays. Here's my SEC power poll:

1. Alabama, 4-0 (1-0) - They survived the passing blow that was their first 3 games and the first upper cut this week. They also proved they can come from behind in the 2nd half and on the road, which is huge going down the stretch with several more tough road games. They are going to be tough to knock out...next in the ring - Florida.

2. Florida, 4-0 (2-0) - The Gators are back at number two because Arkansas lost and their offense finally looked good. Just in time too because the Tide is next. It will be the second straight week my #1 faces #2.

3. Auburn, 4-0 (2-0) - Micheal Dyer crushed Marcus Lattimore 100 yards to 33 and Auburn pulled out a big time victory. Three straight very hard fought wins by Auburn and they get a much easier game vs. ULM this week. They are a very tough team with experience and I think they are only going to get better.

4. Arkansas, 3-1 (1-1) - They had Alabama down 20-7 in the 3rd quarter but just couldn't get it done. Ryan Mallett looked like he could be great in the 4th quarter against Georgia but he threw 2 late picks and another costly INT in the first half in this one. They gave Alabama a run for their money and they are a really good team.

5. LSU, 4-0 (2-0) - The Tigers just keep moving up the board because they keep winning but it still is ugly football. No offense whatsoever in every game this year. It's all special teams which may work next week vs. Tennessee but they better find something on offense if they want to win in the swamp.

6. South Carolina, 3-1 (1-1) - I thought the Gamecocks could take advantage of a worn down Auburn team but they couldn't get it done. I have to question why Spurrier took Garcia out of the game, I know that is what he does but this was a huge game on the road and you've got to rely on the experienced QB. They've got two weeks to get ready for Bama.

7. Mississippi State, 2-2 (1-2) - If you had said we can have one win in the early stretch of three tough SEC games or take my chances at the beginning of the season I probably would've taken the one victory. State bounced back from the LSU game nicely and got a huge win and they're on the path towards a bowl game.

8. Georgia, 1-3 (0-3) - This is a terrible record for UGA and I know all their fans want to jump off a cliff but I still think this a good team that can end up 8-4 or 7-5 and have positive momentum heading into next year. They've played tough for the last three games just have come up short. They need to find a way to regroup on the road next week at Colorado.

9. Kentucky, 3-1 (0-1) - I thought Kentucky would play much better at Florida, but that was to be combined with poor Florida play which didn't happen. They look a lot less dangerous to me now but I think they still have some fight. It will be interesting to see what happens at Ole Miss.

10. Tennessee, 2-2 (0-1) - After three games I thought UT had overachieved in 5 out of 6 halves this year and was poised for a nice win vs. UAB but they needed overtime and UAB's kicker to miss 5 field goals! It's bad in Knoxville and they are facing at LSU, at Georgia, vs. Alabama, and at South Carolina in the next 4 games...ouch.

11. Vanderbilt, 1-2 (1-1) - Vandy had the first week off in the SEC this year. It will take a lot for me to move Ole Miss ahead of them right now.

12. Ole Miss, 2-2 (0-1) - The Rebels actually won a game at home against a lesser team...1 out of 3 so far this year. But they still gave up 38 points, where is that defense?

I think this weekend separated the teams into 4 evenly divided tiers. The first 3 are the top of the league teams that have great athletes and experience. The second tier are 3 teams that want to take the next step but still have some hurdles they can't jump over. The next 3 teams are very talented but haven't been able to put it all together. And the final 3 are just not very good. Here my national Top 5:

1. Alabama, 4-0
in a very distant 2nd. Boise State, 3-0
3. Nebraska
4. TCU
5. Ohio State/Oregon

The Falcons won in New Orleans, that is a huge victory. How about the 49ers? I think Alex Smith can be cut now, and Mike Singletary can be fired. The most amazing thing to me is the Pittsburgh Steelers, down to their 4th quarterback and 3-0...and their 1st string is a two time Superbowl winner. I certainly thought Big Ben's suspension would kill their season but they are a great franchise, incredible.

The Braves couldn't pull off the 4-2 week so instead they pulled a 1-5. They played the Phillies tough and I'm ok with them getting swept because they were completely outmatched in every way and all the cards were stacked against them but they needed to pull out at least two victories in Washington. They've got to go 5-1 this week, if they don't and still make the playoffs they will have officially backed into it. But I'm not giving up, I'll be watching all week hoping they can make it for Bobby, and me, because they haven't made it since 2005 and I want to see them back in the playoffs. When they are in the dance that first weekend of it coupled with great college football games makes that Saturday probably the best sports days of the year.

JB