Still looking good for Saturday in Baton Rouge. If you live in Galveston, Houston, or Corpus Christi, things are not looking so good.
The preview of North Texas vs. LSU will get its own thread in addition to Poseur's thoughts which are published below, and this is the preview of the first 4 of the other games to be played around the SEC this week. For the first time this season, all SEC games will be played on Saturday. Hopefully we will never see another week last week 1, where SEC games were being played on 4 different days of the week.
UAB at Tennessee, 11:30am, Raycom Sports
Tennessee gets it kicked off for the SEC on the morning game. Honestly, I just might skip this one. We don't play Tennessee this year, barring another match in the SECCG, so there's no real scouting interest here. Plus, UAB is horrible, having lost to Tulsa and Florida Atlantic by a combined 38 points. The game does not look interesting, and I need to avoid burnout.
A loss here by Tennessee would be UAB vs. LSU in 2000 bad. No, actually it would be worse, because LSU was expected to be pretty bad that year. Tennessee is expected to be reasonably good this year, and despite their disappointing loss to UCLA in the opening week, they still should be pretty good.
This is one of those games in which to fire up the Tivo, leave the house, come back around 1:00pm and see if the game looks like an upset. If so, go back and watch the first half. If not, think of something else to do. The wedding anniversary of Mrs. ATVS and I is coming up soon, and gifts must be bought. This sounds like a good time to do it.
Arkansas at Texas, 2:30pm, ABC
For the third week in a row, an SEC team gets on ABC, assuming this game actually happens (see above). One might think the company that owns ESPN has some kind of interest in promoting the SEC or something. Anyway, I don't know if this game will be broadcast where I live live or where you live, but this is not the game to be watching. Unless Arkansas makes some kind of dramatic turnaround, they aren't anywhere near Texas's league. I don't care if Texas let UTEP hang around for a half. Arkansas almost got beat by Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe. They needed dramatic 4th quarter comeback s to beat both of those teams, and now they get one of the best teams in the country.
With Vandy looking decent, and Kentucky looking at least alright, Arkansas looks like clearly the worst team in the SEC at this point, and honestly they don't look like they can keep up with any quality opponent. And if I'm going to watch an SEC team get blown out, I'm at least going to have it be a Steve Spurrier-coached team.
Georgia at South Carolina, 2:30pm, CBS
The first CBS afternoon game of the season is a matchup that looked pretty darn good in the pre-season, but now looks like just a minor stepping stone on the way to a possible championship season for Mark Richt and Georgia.
South Carolina has looked bad early in the season, and I don't mean "Shaft" bad. I mean "Waterworld" bad. Even when they won in a blowout against NC State they looked bad.
Georgia has looked good, dominant even, and appears to be rounding into mid-season form. The rash of injuries is worrisome, but the South Carolina offensive line is not nearly good enough to take advantage of the depleted Georgia defensive line. The loss of Trinton Sturdivant might be felt here, as South Carolina's defense is solid, and generates a good pass rush, but really Georgia should not have a lot of problems here.
Middle Tennessee State at Kentucky, 6:00pm, Gameplan and ESPN360.com
I predicted Kentucky would be pretty bad this year, and while they haven't exactly proven me wrong, they have not tripped up yet against two bad teams. We won't really find out about Kentucky this week either, as MTSU is another patsy.
Tomorrow we take a look at the last 4 games on the SEC schedule for this week.