S was classic yesterday in his press conference when he went off on the media about asking him questions he didn’t want to answer. He used one of his famous expletives to tell the media he didn’t want to answer questions about Trent’s Heisman candidacy or LSU or Missouri in the SEC. He wanted to talk about Tennessee and his football team and that’s all. He did say “we aren’t thinking about the NFL either,” which really is not as accurate. His players do think about the NFL. It could be their livelihood, so yes, they do think about their futures. They’re a pretty focused group and S keeps them that way, but they want to make a living and football is the best opportunity for some of these guys, so they do think about it. But the talk about LSU and Trent’s Heisman candidacy is really irrelevant this week to S and it should be irrelevant. Tennessee is a big game. Alabama should win it, no doubt, but the last time the two teams played, it took a Mount Cody blocked field goal to save the game and the season. So I don’t think S wants to talk about LSU with a big rivalry game coming up this Saturday. Another issue the media brought up was Missouri playing in the SEC. That set S off, too. He is just not interested in talking about that. What coach would be? They don’t care about those issues. S’s only goals are to beat Tennessee this week and win a national championship. That means you have to be perfect. If Alabama loses this Saturday, they’re not totally out of it, but it would severely hinder their chances of winning a national championship. Playing LSU is going to be epic, don’t get me wrong, but first things first.
As far as Trent’s Heisman campaign, he is certainly a major player in the race. But so is Andrew Luck, Landry Jones, Ryan Broyles, Kellen Moore and there are some others. So you can’t worry about that now. If Trent keeps this up and his team keeps this up, he very well could win it. But to talk about the “Heisman moment” sounds a little feminine, really. I don’t think that’s the way Trent wants to be described. That’s for the media to wax about in their quests to be clever with a sound bite. He’s one of the leaders, no doubt. I’d put him up on top right now. But there is a lot that can happen starting this Saturday, so it changes week to week. He’s a phenomenal player, for sure, but there are some other terrific players in college football. It’s week to week, just like the quest for a national title. There are no shortcuts.
‘Bama looked fantastic. There really are no weaknesses. The secondary will need to play better at the beginning of the game and the kick coverage team had some breakdowns, but Trent, Jalston Fowler, Eddie and Blake Sims were terrific running the football. The oline is unreal. A.J. is a lot more than a game manager. He’s a playmaker. The receivers get better every week. What else can be said about the defense? Derek Dooley says it’s the best group he’s ever seen. Things look very good. Skip Bayless, the main analyst on ESPN’s First Take, thinks the secondary can be a little suspect at times. I don’t know. They’re pretty talented. Skip is an Oklahoma native and picked OU to win it all, so he thinks Landry Jones, Ryan Broyles and Kenny Stills can exploit the ‘Bama secondary if given the opportunity. That would be an interesting game. OU is a great team without a doubt. ‘Bama, LSU and OU have separated themselves from the others. Ok. State is in the conversation and they have a shot. Boise State is probably a long shot though I’ve watched them and they’re a very good football team. Wisconsin and Clemson are others. Some people are talking about Kansas State and they’re pretty good. But, from the looks of things right now, the top three are the best teams and should decide who is the national champion.
Tennessee has backup Matt Simms starting this Saturday in place of injured Tyler Bray and I think he’ll have a lot of trouble with the Alabama defense. It would be interesting to see the prolific OU passing game against Alabama. Of course, there’s a little team called LSU to deal with as well. Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson are not Landry Jones, but they pose some problems and the LSU playmakers are pretty decent. And their defense will keep them in the game for sure. Should be epic. But ‘Bama and LSU have to take care of this week first. ‘Bama may be without guard Anthony Steen this week due to a concussion and that would be significant. They’ve got different guys, Alfred McCollough and John Michael Boswell, working at that position. Kicker Cade Foster also may have suffered a concussion, so that could be significant also. I know Jeremy Shelley is their short kicker. Not sure if punter Cody Mandell can kick. We’ll see how that develops.
AU has to go to LSU this Saturday. Got to watch the Florida game last night and was pretty impressed with how the defense has improved. They didn’t face the most potent offense though, so the jury is still out on how much better they are. It’s tough in Baton Rouge, tough on Saturday Night and tough on Saturday afternoon. This team with youth will be tested mightily by a tremendous defense and a decent offense. The defense needs to keep AU in the game. The front four has really come around led by defensive ends Corey Lemonier and Nosa Eguae. Those two guys played very well on Saturday Night. Linebackers, particularly Darren Bates, were active and T’Sharvin Bell had a nice interception. Need to create some turnovers against LSU to stay in the game and AU also needs to get good field position.
Sounds like Chiz could start Clint Moseley Saturday. That will be decided before practice today. I think Moseley is fine. He’s not great. He may be better than Trotter, but Chiz may stick with Trotter and Kiehl, so we’ll see later today. That’s an important decision. Chiz keeps it close to the vest, and I think he still likes Trotter, but Moseley had some nice throws on Saturday and seemed to make some things happen. It could be quarterback by committee though I think Chiz and Gus should settle on one guy and let Kiehl run his stuff.
It was good to see Onterio get a TD. He’s been running hard this year; just hasn’t gotten in the end zone. DeAngelo Benton made a nice catch in the first half for a score, but then dropped one in the second half. Not sure you can trust him totally. It would be nice if they could get Emory Blake back for this game. Chiz as usual is keeping his condition under wraps. Don’t think if he knows yet if Emory will be available. Emory would help. Lutz is a player. They need to throw it to him seven or eight times a game. He is a playmaker, a difference maker. Maybe Quindarius Carr can give them a deep threat. He made a nice catch on a deep , 42 yard throw by Moseley. It was a nice throw by Moseley and a real nice catch by Carr. Of course, you need to keep pounding the ball with the workhorse, terrific Michael Dyer.
So Gus Malzahn and Ted Roof have their work cut out for them to say the least; particularly Malzahn. AU has shown a lot of resilience this year. This is tough, but this is a strong minded team that is used to winning, so they’re not going to make it easy on LSU. Should be an interesting game. 2:30 PM on CBS. By the way it was just announced, Moseley will start on Saturday.
Hated to see Marcus Lattimore go down with a torn ligament and cartilage damage in his left knee. That is very tough for Marcus. He’s a fine player and his career may be a little bit in jeopardy after this injury. With modern medicine and therapy, he could return to form, but knees are tough to recover from. I’m pulling for him that’s for sure. He’s been a total team player for the Gamecocks and a dedicated leader. Spurrier has it a lot tougher now. He’s got some decent backs behind Lattimore, but nobody that good. Not many in college football are. Trent and Dyer are, but that’s about it. That’s about it. SC is off this week then go to Arkansas. That’s going to be very tough for them to win that one. Georgia is looking better and better in the East.
That Georgia-Vandy game was a very good game, but the ending was even wilder. Vandy had blocked a punt with seven seconds to go and had it on the Ga. 25. But they couldn’t get it in and lost 33-28. The fireworks started after that. In the postgame handshake, it looked like Vandy coach James Franklin may have said something to a Ga. player. Ga. defensive coordinator Todd Grantham went crazy and started screaming at Franklin. It looked like a fight was about to happen. Both of those guys were college football players so it would have been a very intense fight. It was out of line on both their parts; shouldn’t have happened. If you saw the Detroit-San Francisco game, Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz got into it after the game after Harbaugh slapped Schwartz’s hand and hit him on the back pretty hard and Schwartz said Harbaugh said an obscenity. That was an intense situation as Schwartz went after Harbaugh. Those were two wild situations. That doesn’t need to happen, but at the same time, it is a tough game, with hard nosed people, so it probably will happen again. But the situations are over so everybody can move on. The NFL is not going to fine those two NFL coaches which is a little surprising. Not sure what if anything the SEC will do. We’ll see.
Will have more later this week.
(S and Chiz have some issues they are dealing with. S trying to win this week without distractions. Chiz trying to figure out whom his QB will be.)