Auburn in a much needed developmental game this week against La. Tech @ home as they prepare for LSU next Saturday Night at Jordan-Hare at 6 CT on ESPN. Bama off this week and reps it this weekend and next week in preparation for a trip to Oxford to face the Ole Miss Rebels @ 2:30 PM CT on CBS next Saturday. Both games should be epics and colossal tests for both squads. This week has some good SEC matchups. Here’s a look at those game and other predictions:

Last week: 7-3; overall: 39-12 (76%)

Louisiana Tech (2-2) @ No.5 Auburn (3-0)

Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn (87,451)

4 PM CT/5 ET

SEC Network

Brent, Jess, Maria Taylor

Line: AU by 32 1/2

Auburn needs to get back to what they were doing in the spring game and the Arkansas game, which was dominating offensively. Nick Marshall and his receivers, particularly Sammy Coates and Duke Williams, need to light it up Saturday against La. Tech. The running game needs to get on track again after a somewhat below par performance against K State. I’ve thought a lot about the Kansas State game and K State is actually a pretty good team. They’re big and athletic on the offensive line. Their defense played a good game and it was in Manhattan, a tough place to win. So that would be a tough game for anybody, even the elite teams. Auburn needs to get back their elite status on Saturday. The defense needs to keep progressing, especially the front four in Ellis Johnson’s 4-2-5 alignment. The secondary has been pretty good at times. The linebackers have done some good things. Auburn just needs a complete game this Saturday.And the offense needs to explode. Maybe if Nick struggles, Gus puts Jeremy Johnson out there and auditions him for next week against LSU. The way Nick was throwing it around in the spring game looked a lot like Johnny Manziel last year. So it’s in him. La Tech is 2-2, having lost to Oklahoma, 48-16, and Northwestern State, 30-27.  Northwestern State is in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Can’t tell you that I know exactly the whereabouts of that town. Northwestern State did lose to Baylor, 70-6.  La Tech has beaten La Lafayette, 48-20, a pretty good win though La Lafayette is pretty down this year,  and they’ve beaten North Texas, 42-21. So they’re not terrible. But Auburn should  dominate this game. They need to and get the momentum revved up heading into next Saturday’s showdown on the Plains against The Hat and LSU.

Auburn 56, La Tech 24

 

Arkansas (3-1) vs. No.6 Texas A&M (4-0)

AT&T Stadium (Jerryville), Arlington, Texas (80,000, but with standing room only crowd could be close to 100,000)

2:30 PM CT/3:30 ET

CBS

Verne ” I don’t believe what I just saw!” Lundquist, Gare Danielson, Allie LaForce

Line: A&M by 9 1/2

The line for this game started out at A&M -15 1/2 and has moved down to 9. That’s pretty major. I think the Vegas guys and the gamblers are believing Arkansas has a good shot in this game. Arkansas’ running backs are all world. Alex Collins has rushed for 490 yards on 65 carries (7.5 average) and five TDs. Jonathan Williams has rushed for 391 yards on 48 carries (8.1) and seven TDs. Their offensive line is the biggest line in football; college or pro. That’s astounding really. Their left tackle, Dan Skipper, is 6’10”, 315.  They average  319.6 pounds across the front. Wow. Their quarterback, Brandon Allen, is 43-of-70 (61.4%) for 552 yards, eight TDs and only one int. He’s really gotten better this season. A&M had an outrageously explosive game offensively against South Carolina with first time starter Kenny “Trill” (some rap thing) Hill throwing for 511 yards while completing 44 of 60 passing attempts and  throwing for three TDs. They just pummeled SC. And they’ve had three easy games since against Lamar, Rice and SMU to keep their momentum going. Malcome Kennedy has already caught 30 passes for 334 yards and a TD, and Ricky Seals-Jones has caught 16 for 192 and 3 TDs. Josh Reynolds has four TDs receiving.  Seals-Jones is 6’5″, 236, a huge target for Hill. Reynolds is 6’4″, and Kennedy is 6’0″, though he is a heckuva receiver, probably their best one. But Arkansas’ defense is better than A&M’s. Still not a buyer in A&M’s defense; at least not this season. I see them as vulnerable on D. I like Arkansas’ old school approach of running the football, passing off play action, playing physical upfront and playing solid defense.  They have a pretty good passing game utilizing their athletic wide receivers and excellent tight ends. I checked it out and the tickets are a 50-50 split @ Jerry’s World. College Station is four hours from Arlington (Dallas), and Little Rock is not that much farther away. So the home field advantage doesn’t really apply here. So I’m going with the upset in this one.

Hogs 38, Aggies 35

 

Missouri (3-1) @ No.13 South Carolina (3-1)

 Williams-Brice Stadium (80,250)

7 PM ET/6 CT

ESPN

Brad Nessler, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

Line: SC by 6

Mizzou lost to Indiana last week in what looked like a disastrous upset loss. South Carolina is not too swift on defense, but the offense is pretty good. Ball Coach was doggin his team earlier in the week, so maybe that got them fired up. Dylan Thompson has done a good job at quarterback, the running backs are getting it going and they have excellent receivers. South Carolina is going to have to play better defense though to win the East. I see the Gamecocks taking care of business here, but in a good game.

South Carolina 38, Mizzou 31

 

Tennessee (2-1) @ No.12 Georgia (2-1)

Sanford Stadium, Athens (92,746)

Noon ET/11 AM CT

ESPN

Dave Pasch (get ready to be annoyed), Brian Griese, and Tom “Lugues” Luginbill

Line: Dawgs by 17

UT is much improved this year, but I’m still not totally buying them yet. Dawgs fighting to get back in the SEC Championship game conversation and a win here would get them right back in it with SC having a tougher road ahead than the Dawgs. I look for Todd Gurley and the Dawgs to do well here. Should be a good game for a while though. UT is better.

Them Dawgs 38, UT 24

 

Vanderbilt (1-3) @ Kentucky (2-1)

Commonwealth Stadium, Lexington (67,606)

Noon ET/11 AM CT

SEC Network

Dave Neal, Andre Ware, Laura Rutledge

Line: Wildcats by 17

Kentucky really gave the Florida Gators a tough game down in the Swamp two weeks ago. I don’t know how good Florida is though, and if they’re any good at all, but that was a good effort by the Wildcats; and they really should have won down there because after Ky scored a touchdown in the first overtime and  Florida had the ball  fourth and goal on the Ky seven and didn’t snap the ball before the play clock hit zero. It was close, but it was a delay of game. The refs didn’t call it and Florida threw seven on the play and won the game in the third overtime. If the penalty had been called, the Gators would have faced fourth and goal from the 12. That’s a huge difference. It’s tough getting calls on the road in the SEC, especially if you’re the total underdog. But the Wildcats should be fine against the Dores, which have struggled under first year coach Derek Mason. He has a somewhat young team in experience, but there is talent, and he hasn’t seemed to maximize it. He’s actually messed it up for the most part. Like the Cats to handle the Dores. Mark Stoops is doing a very good job up there.

Kentucky 38, Vandy 20

 

Other scores:

No.17 LSU 45 New Mexico State 10

6:30 PM CT, SEC Network

No. 10 Ole Miss 45, Memphis 24

6:30 PM CT, ESPN3

No.1 Florida Sate 34, NC State 30

3:30 PM ET/2:30 CT on ABC or ESPN2

Washington 34, No.16 Stanford 30

4:15 PM ET/3:15 CT on FOX

Oregon State 35, No.18 USC 31

10:30 PM ET/9:30 CT on ESPN

 

Tonight:

No.24 Oklahoma State 45, Texas Tech 30

6:30 PM CT on ESPN

No.11 UCLA 35, No. 15 Arizona State 30

10 PM ET/ 9 CT on Fox Sports 1

 

The 40th Ryder Cup

The Gleneagles Hotel, PGA Centnary Course, Auchterarden, Scotland

7,243 yards, Par 72

Weather fine, no rain expected, but pretty windy. 16 MPH Friday, 11 Saturday and 11 on Sunday

TV: Golf Channel and NBC.  Friday:  Golf Channel: 2:30 AM ET/1:30 AM CT ;  Saturday: 2 AM ET/1 AM CT on Golf Channel with NBC picking up 1-6 PM ET and 12-5 CT;  Sunday: 7 AM ET/ 6 AM CT on NBC

Phil’s line to the media on Rory yesterday was all time classic. To give a little background for the quote,  Rory is suing Horizon Sports, the agency that landed his $100 million deal with Nike, stating they took too much commission. One of his partners on this year’s Euro Ryder Cup  team, Graeme McDowell, is also represented by Horizon and Rory, in his suit, says McDowell received preferential treatment with Horizon. First of all, Rory will surely have enough money to “feed his family” without a lawsuit. He can feed himself, his parents, his agent, his swing coach, his personal trainer, his massage therapist, his nutritionist and his sports psychologist while still having plenty of money to live the Hollywood lifestyle he wants to live. For a little more background, Rory said about a month ago that Phil and Tiger were on the “back nine of their careers.” I know that didn’t sit well with Phil or Tiger. So when Phil was asked yesterday if the U.S. team can play well together after not having a lot of success in recent history, Phil responded:

Not only are we able to play together, we also don’t litigate against each other, and that’s a real plus, I feel, heading into the week.

Love it. Tired of Rory. He’s changed drivers this week. That’s pretty weird heading into the Ryder Cup. He says he can get about eight to 10 more yards on it and can work it better. We’ll see how that works out. He might be going back to his old driver if the first match doesn’t work out for him. I like the Tom Watson factor for the U.S. team. Tom has won eight majors and five of them are British Opens, four on Scottish soil. That tells me a lot. He’s the toughest guy mentally in the competition this week, along with assistant captain Raymond Floyd. And Phil, Keegan, Jordan Spieth, Hunter Mahan, Patrick Reed, Jim Furyk and the rest of the American team is homed in and hungry. To me, the reason the Euros pulled off the massive comeback in 2012–when they were down 10-6 heading into Sunday at Medinah and won eight and tied one of the 12 singles matches to win the Cup 14 1/2 to 13 1/2–was the fact they had Jose Maria Olazabal was their captain. He and Seve were machines together in the Ryder Cup and he brought that mentality to his captaincy. He was just mentally tougher than U.S. captain Davis Love. He willed his guys to victory. This year, the European team is captained by unknown Paul McGinley, an Irishman who has four European tour victories on his resume; not that impressive. So I really like the Watson factor here, and I like Phil and the guys as the underdog. Europe has won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups and are the overwhelming favorite on paper. But the U.S. has always played a great underdog. Should be incredible. I’m going with the upset here.

U.S. 14 1/2, Euros 13 1/2