Cook: Lessons learned in the first week of the season
What did we learn from the first weekend of the football season about the Southeastern Conference?
We learned that Auburn still has the heart of a champion although the Tigers don’t have the expertise that they put on the field last year. Any team that overcomes a 10-point deficit in the final 3:38 to win a game in which it was totally outplayed shows a lot of heart. Of course Auburn proved last year that double-digit deficits don’t scare the Tigers.
We also learned that Alabama still knows how to play defense.
We learned that Kentucky’s offense stinks, that Florida does have talent and that Mississippi State can be a factor in the SEC West.
We learned that even without Jordan Jefferson, LSU doesn’t have to worry that much as long as that same defense shows up every week.
And we learned that without a doubt, Georgia’s new uniforms are horrible. Hideous. Mind-numbingly nauseating. I used to think Georgia’s childish black shirt gimmick was a bad move, but that was before this past week when the Bulldogs rolled out the worst set of uniforms seen in sports since the Chicago White Sox wore shorts.
I mean, come on, Georgia’s silver britches uniform is one of the most recognizable in all of college football. Messing with that is just wrong. It’s messing with tradition. It would be like Notre Dame wearing red or Penn State wearing polka dots. Mark Richt is on the hot seat for the Bulldogs’ performance on the field the past couple of years, but if he endorsed those uniforms he should be fired.
It is the way the Bulldogs played, not the uniforms, that has Richt on the hot seat. Georgia was inept offensively and defensively. It’s not like the Bulldogs were playing a SEC traditional cupcake opener. Boise State has been one of the nation’s best programs for the past five or six seasons, compiling a 62-5 record under Chris Petersen. It’s just that most-but certainly not all-of the Broncos’ wins have been over teams that snooty SEC fans look down on with contempt.
But Georgia is supposed to beat the Boise States of the world. Losing to the Broncos just complicates life for Richt. It doesn’t get any easier this weekend when the defending SEC East champion South Carolina comes for a visit. Now that Steve Spurrier’s ridiculous quarterback shuffle (which lasted just a few minutes) is history, Carolina will come into the game at full strength with Stephen Garcia back in charge. That spells trouble for Georgia’s beleaguered defense.
A 0-2 start trumps any goodwill points that Richt built up by signing his “Dream Team” recruiting class this past February. It will get nasty in Athens for Richt, one of the nice guys in college football, but we know where nice guys finish: unemployed and in the broadcast booth.
More notes from around the rest of the league…
LSU showed that despite the hectic offseason the Bengal Tigers endured they are still a national contender. The win over No. 3-ranked Oregon was surprising, not that LSU won but the manner in which the Tigers won. It was a lopsided hammering in which the Tigers were in control most of the way. The game was a validation of sorts for quarterback Jarrett Lee, who stepped in for suspended Jordan Jefferson. With Jefferson’s future in question, Les Miles has to feel a little more comfortable with Lee running the offense.
Of course, a defense as ferocious as LSU’s will make Miles pretty comfortable going into almost any game…
SEC teams scored 63 touchdowns this past weekend, with 31 coming on the ground. There were 22 passing touchdowns, five scored on defense, four on punt returns and one kickoff return. Defensively, SEC teams gave up 28 touchdowns with 14 through the air, 13 on the ground and one on defense…
Florida’s Jeff Demps, with 105 rushing yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns against Florida Atlantic, joined the 2,000-yard career-rushing club. Demps now has 2,006 yards in 39 games and joins Ole Miss’s Brandon Bolden (2,160 rushing yards) as the league’s only active career 2,000 yard rushers…
Mississippi State’s Vick Ballard, with three rushing touchdowns against Memphis, now has 23 career scores in 13 games played. South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore, who scored three rushing TDs against East Carolina, now has 22 career scores in 14 games played…
The Crystal Ball went 11-1 in the opening week for a .916 winning percentage. This week look for Cincinnati to beat Tennessee; LSU to roll over Northwestern State; Kentucky to struggle but still manage to edge Central Michigan; Ole Miss to bounce back and beat Southern Illinois; Arkansas to beat New Mexico; Florida to beat UAB; and UConn to stop Vanderbilt. Alabama will go into Happy Valley and beat Penn State; Mississippi State will beat Auburn; and South Carolina will knock off Georgia.
