SEC Football Week 6 Breakdown
If last week there was still any question, it seems heading into week six, Alabama and LSU are clearly on a collision course for Best SEC Team and perhaps Best Team in the Nation labels. They both handled their respective opponents with little pushback, further expanding the space between them and the second tier of SEC teams.
That second tier may be itself expanding however. Arkansas rebounded by taking advantage of what Texas A&M is referring to as their “defense” although there is a great deal of evidence to the contrary of whatever THAT was being called defense. Auburn squirmed their way back into the top 25 while Florida and South Carolina each took their first loss, strengthening the argument that they didn’t belong in the argument as the top team in the conference.
Saturday, October 8
3rd ranked LSU vs. 14th ranked Florida
“Florida is in store for a world of hurt these next two weeks. They host Alabama this Saturday and then travel to LSU the following week. They may certainly win one of those two games, although I doubt it, but nevertheless, they will be hurting and banged up heading into mid-October.” That was straight from last week’s game preview. They certainly were banged up, losing starting quarterback John Brantley for the end of the Alabama game and this upcoming LSU match. We saw that Florida was really no match for Bama even before their QB went down and LSU is almost a mirror image of the Crimson Tide. Look for much of the same this week, a convincing Tigers victory.
Other notable matchups:
Saturday October 8
12th ranked Arkansas vs. 22nd ranked Auburn
It was apparently too soon to count out the Auburn Tigers. They looked lackluster the first two weeks of the year and went down to a questionable Clemson squad in week three. Then we found out that Clemson is probably the best the ACC has to offer and has a reasonable shot at going undefeated. Meanwhile, that is still Auburn’s only loss after taking down South Carolina with their defense no less. Marcus Lattimore did not get much of anything going and Stephen Garcia did his thing, his terrible, terrible thing.
Suddenly this matchup could tell us the third best team in the conference. Arkansas proved they are not on Alabama’s level but most teams aren’t. They may settle into that third spot if their offensive prowess against Texas A&M was any indication.
Games of no particular note or significance whatsoever:
Saturday October 8
Mississippi State vs. UAB
13th ranked South Carolina vs. Kentucky
1st ranked Alabama vs. Vanderbilt
Tennessee vs. Georgia
A couple remaining thoughts on the rest of these games: Mississippi State is not any good. We may have had our preseason thoughts on them slightly skewed from how they played in the Gator Bowl against Michigan to finish out last season. South Carolina has the ability to not look any good as well. If a team is able to slow down Lattimore and Stephen Garica is forced to “do things,” the Gamecocks are in trouble.
