SEC Football Week 2 Breakdown
The SEC certainly took care of business in week one, at least as much business as could be expected. Sure it would have been nice if Georgia was able to put up more of a fight and yes, a middling Ole Miss club could have beaten a middling BYU club but all of the SEC powers did their thing. LSU thumped Oregon without their starting quarterback and with their senior backup not really doing much of anything all game long. It was a surprising result, pleasantly in terms of the conference’s outlook. The rest of the big boys did not stumble against their “look ahead” opponents either.
Week two does not have near the luster as week one. Teams begin to battle each other for conference wins, if that alone makes a game notable.
Saturday, September 10
10th ranked South Carolina vs. Georgia
If it is possible for a game to be a “statement game” for both sides at the same time, this is it. South Carolina handled upset specialist East Carolina and will now look to beat a fellow SEC team that they should be better than. One of the first and most important aspects of being a good team is beating lesser opponents. South Carolina needs to beat Georgia.
Meanwhile, Georgia did themselves no harm really in losing to Boise State. They could have formed some high hopes with a win but a loss does nothing to their SEC standings. This game is the game that can put Georgia back into the minds of the nation, a place they haven’t been in half a decade. Not to build on a contradiction but while the L to Boise State doesn’t really matter, the losing actually might. Georgia looked out of their league, not a positive omen heading into conference play.
Other notable matchups:
Saturday September 10
1st ranked Alabama vs. Penn State
If for no other reason than nostalgia, this seems like a really good game. It, of course, is not. However, Penn State still has some cache to their name from back when Joe Paterno used to coach them….
Games of no particular note or significance whatsoever:
Saturday September 10
Kentucky vs. Central Michigan
21st ranked Mississippi State vs. Auburn
Tennessee vs. Cincinnati
Ole Miss vs. Southern Illinois
14th ranked Arkansas vs. New Mexico
15th ranked Florida vs. UAB
Vanderbilt vs. Connecticut
3rd ranked LSU vs. Northwestern State
A couple remaining thoughts on the rest of these games: look for Mississippi State to put Auburn away. The Tigers looked a bit lost in week one and it may take more than a couple weeks to put an offense together. The Tennessee and Vanderbilt games will be good eyes into how the Big East will hold up this season. Either the Volunteers or the Commodores could go down; neither would surprise me.
