AU:

Wow, that was fantastic on Saturday. What a Saturday throughout the conference, but I have to say, AU’s 45-41 victory over A&M may have been the best game of the year so far. Where do you start with accolades? I’ll start with two guys: Nick Marshall and Tre Mason. Nick was incredible completing 11-of-23 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He added 113 more yards on the ground and two more touchdowns. Just saw where he was voted SEC player of the week by the media. That is highly deserved. He’s got Gus and Lashlee’s offense down and he is soaring. Really proud of him. He’s experienced adversity in his past, and has overcome it. What an amazing effort by the Auburn quarterback. I thought the pass to Sammy Coates deep in his end zone was perfect as we could all see. It was a gutsy move by Gus and I loved it. Sammy had it right in his hands in full stride and couldn’t pull it in. He might not have scored, but AU could have scored there and definitely prevented A&M from scoring. Sammy did make up for it though with his 43 yard touchdown reception that was all him. He caught a pass a couple of yards beyond the line of scrimmage and streaked to the end zone in the third quarter to tie the game at 24 with 7:53 left in the quarter. That was awesome. Nick and Tre won it in the fourth quarter. Tre was superb. He ran for 178 hard earned yards. He is a stellar inside the tackle runner and he can break it with an open field. The AU running game is terrific. Cameron Artis Payne had a fourth quarter TD run from two yards out to put the Tigers up 38-34. CAP is a player. Corey Grant had 45 yards on five carries including a long of 32. He’s exceptional too. Sammie had five catches for 104 yards and the TD.

I know A&M scored 41, but I thought AU’s defense was excellent. A&M might do that against the Seahawks the way they play offense. They are really electric on offense with Johnny Football and the awesome Mike Evans. They just have a ton of playmakers. But the AU defense intercepted Manziel twice, one a beauty by Ryan White and another nice pick by Ryan Smith. Dee Ford with two huge sacks for a loss of 30 yards, particularly the last one on Manziel on fourth down. Dee would just not give up and brought the incredibly elusive Manziel down. It’s almost a victory just getting to the guy. Tremendously clutch play by Dee. LaDarius Owens also had a sack and played well. Chris Davis led the team with nine tackles. Jonathan Mincy had seven. I thought Kris Frost played really well. It was beautiful when he chased down Johnny from behind. That was impressive. Just an impressive defensive game plan by Ellis Johnson. I know that sounds kind of funny because A&M scored 41, but I really liked the way the defense competed. Exceptional game for the Tigers. It was great to be one Saturday and it is today. Florida Atlantic this weekend then on the road at Arkansas and the following week at UT. Just gotta keep working hard. Auburn is there. They have a very good football team and look to be possibly special.

Bama:

What’s not to like about this 2013 team now. The o line has settled in and are playing great, physical football, T.J. and the awesome Kenyan Drake are the combination S and Nuss have been looking for, and A.J. just keeps on going strong. He gets better every game. He’s awesome. Kenyan ran for 104 yards and two scores, one from one yard out and the other from 46 yards out. He’s gotta be almost sub 4.4 speed. He is fast as a bullet out of a Smith and Wesson 38. I love that guy. T.J. was solid as usual. Eighty eight yards on the ground with a long of 27. Kenyan averaged 13 yards a carry and T.J,. 7.3. You get that kind of production out of your backs and you’ll win most all of your games, which Bama always does. Defense looks terrific. I’ll say this confidently, C.J. Mosley is the best of the three of him, Dont’a and Rolando. He just gets it done big time. Ten tackles on Saturday. Four tackles for loss in the game, one by Mosley, one by Denzell Devall, who also had a sack, one by Pagan, a 1/w by Brandon Ivory and a 1/2 by Trey DePriest. Ha Ha was back and made a beautiful interception. So did Cyrus Jones. Tough news on Vinnie Sunseri out for the season with a knee injury. Hate that for him. Seems like a great kid, he’s a great player and a tremendous leader. Hopefully, Vinnie will be back next year ready to go. But Landon Collins can really play too. He and Ha Ha will be very good back there as well.

A couple of guys I don’t want to forget. Freshman phenom running back Derrick Henry. Wow, is he going to be special. Six three, 240 pounds can run like a gazelle, and has power between the tackles. Man is he special. Had an 80 yard run in which he got through the line and turned on the after burners taking it to the house. I don’t think S wanted to score that touchdown, but what do you do when your fourth string running back is a five-star player and could be one of the best ‘Bama’s ever had, which is saying a lot. Also, I love Dillon Lee. He’s another guy like Kenyan Drake who just does something positive every time he’s on the field. He’s a stellar special teams player and will be a stellar linebacker when he gets his shot. There’s just so much talent down there it’s scary. An improved Tennessee team fresh off an upset of South Carolina–what’s happened to them?– comes to T-town Saturday for a 2:3o PM CT kickoff on CBS. Verne, Gary and Wolf with the call.

SEC:

What a wild weekend. Mizzou looks for real even with starting qb James Franklin on the shelf. Florida is terrible on offense, but Mizzou is tied for the lead in the country with 14 interceptions. They’re tied with Oregon. They have a stout d line. Just a hard nosed defense. And their offense is loaded with playmakers. Running backs Henry Josey, Russell Hansborough and Marcus Murphy are stellar. Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham has become the superb player he was expected to be when he was the number one player in the country out of high school two years ago. DGB is 6’6″, 225. Just a beast out wide. 6’4″, 205 wide out L’Damian Washington is also excellent. And quarterback Maty Mauk looks like he can ably hold down the fort until Franklin returns, maybe in two or three weeks. And Mizzou has an excellent offensive line. There’s potential greatness there. South Carolina comes calling to Columbia this weekend, Saturday Night @7 PM ET/6 CT on ESPN2. Should be a classic.

Proud of my Vanderbilt Commodores knocking off Georgia. Great effort by the team, and while the Dawgs have been decimated by injuries, they’ve still got a lot of talent and Aaron Murray under center, which gives them a chance to win every game. VU held Murray to 114 yards passing and no touchdowns. And Vandy lost their starting quarterback, Austyn Carta-Samuels, in the second quarter to a knee injury that might knock him out of the season. But Patton Robinette came in and was exceptional. Patton was a commit to North Carolina two years ago and was about to enroll in classes when Vandy made a last minute push and got hi. Patton is 6″5″, 225 pounds, he’s got a great arm, great wheels, and scored a perfect 36 on the ACT along with carrying a 4.0 GPA in high school. Like the future at quarterback with redshirt freshman Robinette under center and talent behind him and coming in. Feel terrible for ACS, but hopefully he can make it back before the season is over.

UT beating South Carolina and Ole Miss beating LSU, wow. I could kinda see UT maybe knocking off SC, but Ole Miss came out of nowhere. Great win for the Vols and the Rebs and very tough losses for Gamecocks and Bengal Tigers.

Nationally, I saw the catch of the year in the Stanford-UCLA game on Saturday. Kodi Whitfield laid out in the end zone and pulled in a Kevin Hogan pass with one hand. If you look on Youtube you can probably find it. Incredible. Stanford took care of business with a 24-10 win over the previously undefeated Bruins. The Stanford-Oregon game, Thursday, Nov. 7th, @ 9 PM ET/8 CT on ESPN is setting up for a classic. Oregon plays amazing offense and quarterback Marcus Mariota is fantastic, but Stanford can really play some defense, so should be a war on the Farm at Palo Alto, Ca. That’s two nights before LSU comes to ‘Bama which will either be a 2:30 PM CT start or maybe, and more likely, a prime time 7 or 8 CT start. ‘Bama number one in BCS and Florida State after their impressive dismantling of Clemson at Clemson, 51-14, is number two. Oregon is number three right now. Wow, Jameis Winston at FSU is totally stellar. Winston, Mariota and A.J., who is highly undervalued nationally, are my three guys right now for the Heisman. Can’t forget Ohio State at number four or even Missouri at number five. Some incredible football ahead. Can’t count out Baylor, Texas Tech or Auburn either right now. Three very capable programs. Baylor plays offense like I’ve never seen. Texas Tech is pretty good, but can’t stop Baylor when they meet. Baylor is legit. Their question mark is their defense. You can say that about Oregon too. Oregon plays pretty good defense, but I don’t think either them or Baylor plays defense like Alabama and Auburn. Not even close. That’ll be interesting to see who emerges.

In the pros, my man Andrew Luck got it done over Peyton and the Broncos last night. I love Peyton, don’t get me wrong, but I picked Luck and the Colts to win the Super Bowl, so I’m happy about the result. RGIIi looks like he’s back. A lot of injuries yesterday. It’s a war of attrition in the NFL. Just gotta hope you get lucky and avoid any catastrophic injuries to your quarterback if you’re a playoff team and you need good backups. Injuries are just a major part of the game. I hate’em but they’re inevitable.

Got the Sox in seven over the Cards in the World Series. First game is Wednesday Night at 8:07 ET/7:07 CT. Jon Lester of Sox vs Adam Wainwright of Cards. Should be some stellar pitching and some good bats. Ought to be an awesome series.