Mike Davis (28) has gotten into a groove in the Gamecocks offense. (Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
The SEC Crystal Ball had a good week last week hitting on seven out of eight games, and it should have another good weekend this week as three non-conference games should produce three SEC victories. The four conference games set for the weekend are going to be interesting.
Taking a look at the non-conference games first, Ole Miss comes off a bye week and should be ready to crank up what the Rebels hope will be a run for the SEC West championship.
“Like I said last week or the week before, I really felt like all seven are quality, top-25 teams. I still believe that,” said Hugh Freeze of the teams in the SEC West. “I haven’t studied a lot of the East, but the West, from top to bottom, is arguably the best it’s been. We have to focus on this week and Memphis and then turn our attention to that. It’s certainly going to be a great challenge.”
The challenge will not be this week from the Memphis Tigers. The pick is Ole Miss will beat Memphis.
LSU should have a mad on after losing last week to Mississippi State, and the Tigers should take that mad out on New Mexico State.
“I recognize that you get a team that plays lights out against you, and for their — it is the single most important contest in their careers, but in reality, our football team needs to realize that that’s a great advantage to being at LSU. Everybody will play their best. We’re looking forward to that, and now we have to be up to the challenge. I think we will be. I think that will happen quickly,” said Les Miles.
“We play New Mexico State; Aggies are 2-2. This week, it’s about us improving. It’s about us looking at the time that we have to make adjustments and make those needed moves that make our football team better. That’s what our coaching staff and players are about.”
LSU will take a victory over New Mexico State.
Louisiana Tech will be at Auburn and that is not a good place for a visiting team to be after the Tigers did not play particularly well in beating Kansas State.
“We’ve challenged our players and they responded,” Malzahn said. “Any time you can get the attention of a group to improve, it’s a positive thing. Our players know we didn’t play our best, and they know we didn’t execute our best. I’m pleased with the fact they came out and did that. It wasn’t just offense. Our defense also came out and practiced well, too.”
Look for Auburn to take a big win over Louisiana Tech.
Vanderbilt has three consecutive wins over Kentucky, and the Wildcats have lost 17 consecutive SEC games.
“Our run game is the strength of what we do,” said Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason. “What we are trying to do is to create matchups up and down the line of scrimmage.”
Those matchups have not been kind to the Commodores this season and will not be again this weekend. Look for Kentucky to beat Vanderbilt and snap those two losing streaks.
Tennessee will be between the hedges and the Vols are improving under Butch Jones, but the Vols aren’t up to Georgia’s talent level just yet. Tennessee is not considered a challenger for the SEC East but Georgia is definitely in the hunt. But with one conference loss already every conference game is important for the Bulldogs.
“I mean, it looks still wide open to me,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt. “We don’t win, it won’t be very wide open for us, I can tell you that. But I think everybody feels that way. I doubt anything will be settled until maybe with one or two games to go, it might be Game 7 and eight for everybody to figure out who is going to go to Atlanta, but we want to be in that mix.”
The Crystal Ball says Georgia will beat Tennessee and stay in the mix.
Arkansas vs. Texas A&M in AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, is a reminder of the old Southwest Conference days. Arkansas is much better and could be tougher on the Aggies than expected.
“They are the number one rushing team in the country,” said Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin. “I think we’re the top two scoring teams in the league, two of the top three in the country, really with two contrasting styles. They have two fantastic running backs. The point total is interesting to me based on who they’ve played. You can run the ball the way they run it, but I think where they’ve really improved is quarterback play.”
Arkansas could make this an interesting game, but the pick is Texas A&M will slow down Arkansas and run the Aggies’ record to 5-0 for the first time since 2001.
Missouri at South Carolina could be a candidate for an upset. But South Carolina seems to have gotten over its loss to Texas A&M to open the season, while Missouri is having to overcome its loss to Indiana last week.
“They’ve got a good run game and they’re good up front,” Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said. “We’re certainly going to be challenged there. We’ve given up some big plays and that has really hurt our defense. We just have to keep working hard and get better. It will definitely be a challenge for us.”
Steve Spurrier doesn’t believe the Gamecocks have played their best football yet this season.
“We’ve won a lot of games around here with not playing extremely well, but I don’t discount anything,” he said. “As a coach, I think most all of us just ask our players to play the best they can and the score will take care of itself. That’s all we do. We just do that and tell them to play smart, play with a lot of effort and play like you love the game. Obviously, we as coaches aren’t doing that.
“Everyone believes winning breeds more winning and obviously losing breeds more losing so we are in the habit of something happening to help us win a bunch of games that we easily could have lost. A few bad bounces and we probably could have lost every game this year. We haven’t dominated anybody, but it has worked out three out of four times.”
The Crystal Ball believes the bounces will go the Gamecocks way again and South Carolina will beat Missouri.
