A.J. McCarron had a great stat line on Saturday: 15-of-20 for 200 yards and two tds with no ints. He played an excellent game and managed the game well and made some key plays. His throw to tight end Michael Williams on the fake field goal was beautiful. I think the Tide ought to use Williams more in the passing game. It looks like Jim McElwain is trying to do that, so it’ll be interesting to see how that develops.
Marquis Maze’s punt return was possibly the play of the year. Maybe the best punt return I’ve ever seen in my life. Think Marquis will be playing on Sundays. Maybe he’ll be back for another year though before that happens.
Watched Florida-Kentucky and Florida is a pretty good team. I don’t think they’re great. Kentucky didn’t score many points (10), but they did move the ball against the Gators’ defense. Had 300 yards of offense. Pretty decent. Don’t think Gators’ defense is anything special. Their dlinemen are pretty good, but their dbacks are a little questionable and I think can be had. So McCarron has a shot to play big this Saturday with a 7 PM kickoff at the Swamp on CBS. Trent and Eddie should do well. Trent is like Marcus Lattimore; I think better. He’s unstoppable and seems to have a little more speed than Lattimore allowing him to go the distance 75 or 80. Eddie a solid backup. They’re a great combination.
Florida’s offense is led by Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey. Those guys have world class speed and when they’re in the open field they’re next to impossible to catch. Demps ran for 157 last Saturday and Rainey 105. Rainey is having an awesome season. Of course, that was against Kentucky and the Tide defense is a much higher level. Probably the highest in the country. Florida has not faced a good defense yet. Tennessee was OK, but UAB and Kentucky and Florida Atlantic are not good barometers of where your offense is. John Brantley is a decent quarterback, but if I was Alabama, I would crowd the line and make Brantley throw. He’s not a great passer. Competent but nothing special.
I like Alabama in this game. It won’t be real easy for them, but they’ve just got more talent than Florida. The Swamp will make it harder, it’ll be rocking on a Saturday Night, but I think this team has the maturity and poise to handle the crowd. Will have prediction on Friday.
AU has problems. Thought it was mostly on defense and it still is for the most part, but the offense struggled against Florida Atlantic as well. Barrett Trotter was 16-of-28 for 178 yards, two touchdowns and one pick. He played OK and Michael Dyer ran for 65 yards. They just didn’t look in sync. There was something missing there. Trotter pretty decent, not great. Dyer good, can be great at times. I don’t know what’s happened to Onterio McCalebb. He’s kind of disappeared. Phillip Lutzenkirchen was out and that hurt. He should be back Saturday.
But the defense is the main problem and will be the problem all year until Ted Roof can figure out what will work for these kids. The defense allowed 307 yards but got three interceptions, one for a TD by Jermaine Whitehead which was a beauty. But it gave up 307 yards to a team that had only scored three points in its previous two games. Roof has a lot of issues on his defense. The coaches on defense are simplifying their schemes which I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do or not. Maybe with this group it is. They’re young, but they need to get it by now if they’re going to have a decent season. The dlinemen need to get better at rushing the passer and clogging up the line of scrimmage on running plays and the dbacks need to figure out how to cover better. They look like they have a ways to go before they figure it out. Maybe this weekend they can come out of it; but it looks a little precarious at this point.
South Carolina looked terrible against Vandy on offense. Stephen Garcia is a basket case and Steve Spurrier only makes it worse by constantly harassing him. Garcia has to improve if SC wants to do well and have a shot at the East. They still have Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery, two players who will win games for you. But they’re struggling on offense. Vandy intercepted Garcia four times, and while Vandy’s defense is good, Garcia made some glaringly bad decisions.I think Spurrier’s attitude towards him hurts his confidence even more and makes him play worse. The game’s at Columbia and Lattimore and Jeffery could be the difference. Garcia just needs to throw it in Jeffery’s direction and he’ll catch it. The AU defense is struggling so much; they just don’t look like they can improve greatly in a week. But have not totally made up my mind. South Carolina’s defense is nothing special. Vandy was inept on offense, but Georgia scored 42 on SC and Navy ran for over 400 yards against them. Not sold on SC’s defense. Will have that pick Friday as well.
Watched LSU against West Virginia and was impressed with LSU. Morris Claiborne and Tyrann Mathieu are outstanding cornerbacks and electrifying return guys. Claiborne had a 99 yard kickoff return for a TD and Mathieu looked like he was about to break it on every punt return. The Tigers’ defense did give up over 460 yards of passing to West Virginia, so that should be a concern for DC John Chavis and Les Miles. Their defensive line, like Alabama’s, is a little suspect, and their linebackers and dbs are probably not as good as Alabama’s at this point. They’re pretty good, but I wouldn’t say great besides Claiborne and Mathieu. They have a lot of good players, but they didn’t get any pressure on West Va qb Geno Smith. He had a massive amount of time in the pocket and completed 38-of-65 for 463 yards though LSU intercepted him twice. The West Va line handled the Tigers’ dline well. So that is an issue for the Bengal Tigers.
Jarrett Lee is pretty good. His running backs are good, not great, and the receivers are not dominating players. Russell Shepard is back at wide out, so that should help. Everyone is gearing up for the Nov. 5 showdown in Tuscaloosa between LSU and Tide, but there is a lot of football left. LSU is at home against Kentucky this Saturday.
Aconcern for Alabama is linebacker C.J. Mosley. That’s a deep position on this team, but Mosley is an outstanding player. He’s questionable for Saturday with an injured elbow. The positive news is Chris Jordan, a senior lb with a lot of ability, looks like he’s close to getting back; maybe this weekend. Nico Johnson is an excellent player and he is a co starter with Mosley and guys like Trey DePriest and Jerrell Harris will need to step up their play. Dont’a Hightower playing at an extremely high level right now. Courtney Upshaw not dominating in the pass rushing right now. Probably should pick that up. Guys like Adrian Hubbard and Alex Watkins can also help at linebacker.
Defensive line a question mark. Jesse Williams looks like he’ll be a good player this year, but some other guys like Josh Chapman and Damion Square need to raise their games. Dbs in great shape.
Oline needs to keep improving. Thought they did a great job against Arkansas. Not sure Arkansas’ defense is that good, so we’ll see against a bigger challenge at Florida.
Wide receivers are playing fine. Would like to see Darius Hanks step up more. It’s catching the ball by committee right now. Maybe Hanks and Maze can step up and be the leaders of this group. I think they have it in them.
Some other key games this Saturday include Nebraska at Wisconsin at 7 PM on ABC. That looks like a tivo job there. Huge game in the Big Ten. Think Wisconsin is for real and Nebraska is pretty good. Going to watch taped Wisconsin game and Bo Pelini Show to know more for predictions Friday.
Another big game is Clemson at Virginia Tech. Both teams believe they can get in the national championship picture and a victory here would increase their prospects. Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins is one of the most exciting players in the country this year as a true freshman. He is dynamic. That game is at 5 PM CT on ESPN2.
State is at Georgia at 11 AM on Game Plan in a pretty big game for both teams. State trying to rebound from a tough start and prove they are a legitimate football team and Mark Richt can’t afford to lose this game as usual.
Will have more later in the week.
(A.J. did a nice job on Saturday; another challenge awaits him and the offense Saturday.)