Week Two Preview

…in college football? If you thought last weekend was a relatively boring slate of games, this second weekend might just have it beat. At least last week the mere fact that college football was back was enough. This week? Er, not so much.

Nevertheless, football is football. The last game pretty much the entire nation watched was the UCLA upset, so any other games/upsets will be good for the healing process for us Tennessee fans – or maybe just me (everyone else seems to wallowing in the sea of negativity). It of course it also means this suddenly longer “short” week will of course be over.

As I did last week, I’ll of course go through all of the SEC teams’ games since it’s the best conference in the nation (no thanks to the Vols though) and the only one that matters. I’ll even pick out some possible upsets and talk about the national games that deserve attention – if I can find any, that is of course. Enjoy…

SEC Games

South Carolina at Vanderbilt (tonight ESPN): Yes, I thought Vanderbilt would lose to Miami-Ohio and I was wrong. Chris Nickson impressed as a starter, scoring three times and rushing for 166 yards. But this South Carolina, one of the SEC’s top defenses.

The rotating Carolina QB soap opera now visits Nashville, as Chris Smelley takes over for Tommy Beecher. I was not really impressed with the Gamecocks against NC State and I don’t think saying Vandy is better than NC State is a stretch. Vandy has typically had decent defenses under Bobby Johnson, and Smelley will have to be careful because the Commodore secondary is the defense’s strength. Expect a low-scoring defense-fest – and a close game.

Southern Miss at Auburn: The debut of the “Spread Eagle” offense didn’t exactly blow anybody away last week in Auburn’s 34-0 rout of ULM. QBs Chris Todd and Kodi Burns (who left that game with a pretty severe cut on his leg) combined for a whopping 85 yards passing, but the Tigers ran for 321 yards and scored TDs on defense and on a punt return.

USM has Damion Fletcher – 222 yards against UL Lafayette last week – and freshman QB Austin Davis (269 total yards), but they’ll have to play better defense to keep it close. The Golden Eagles gave up six yards/carry last week to the Cajuns, which makes me hesitant to like their chances, though they have a history of playing SEC teams tough.

Central Michigan at Georgia: Central Michigan won’t win, but I’m interested to see how the best-QB-you’ve-never-heard-of Dan Lefevour handles UGA’s defense. The Chippewas were bad on defense last year, so UGA will blow them out, but hopefully for their sake they won’t have anymore of these.

Ole Miss at Wake Forest (ABC 3:30): Houston Nutt’s debut against Memphis State last week went well and the Rebs scored 41 points. Wake Forest is not Memphis State, and after Clemson’s laid-egg, might be the ACC’s best team – which of course isn’t saying much.

Dexter McCluster had 125 total yards and a rushing TD in Ole Miss 41-24 win over Memphis

That said Wake Forest is the better team and beat Ole Miss last year, and I think they do this year as well. Under Jim Grobe Wake has a knack for not beating themselves, so Ole Miss will have to play solid football to get out of Winston-Salem with a W. I’ll be watching this game to see how good both these teams are – and it’s one of the weekend’s better games.

Norfolk State at Kentucky/Southeastern Louisiana at Mississippi State: Snooze games of the week, though I also picked against the Cats last week and they proved my foolish self wrong.

Louisiana-Monroe vs. Arkansas (Little Rock): This would be a snooze game, except for the fact Arkansas squeaked by Western Illinois last week and ULM did beat Alabama last year…

Tulane at Alabama: As much as I want my dislike for Alabama to find a glimmer of hope that says Tulane will have a chance to pull off an upset, I just can’t find anything. That still doesn’t mean I don’t want Bammer to lose (how funny would that be??)

Miami (FL) at Florida: On paper Florida should beat the Canes pretty soundly and they will, but I still want to see this game. Apparently this is a bigger rivalry than at least I thought, and of course there’s always a chance Florida actually loses, which I of course would thoroughly enjoy. I might just watch to see how healthy Percy Harvin actually is (he’s slated to start), but then again GameDay will be there so the Tebow/Urban love-fest will be EVERYWHERE.

Also, I’m not hoping for any major injuries because that’s just cruel, but I wouldn’t at all mind to see the Gators a little nicked-up when they visit Knoxville in two weeks. We need whatever help we can get – though many Vol fans already have penciled in an ‘L’ on the schedule.

Troy at LSU: This game has been postponed – most likely to November 15 – due to the effects of Hurricane Gustav. The Tigers host North Texas next week before the trip to Auburn.

AROUND THE NATION

UPSET ALERT: I would like to point out here that I did in fact call Utah beating Michigan and I’m going to go ahead and take credit for calling East Carolina’s upset on Virginia Tech because I all but straight-up said it. Anyways, potential upsets and other notable games for this week..

BYU has their first test, at Washington. The Cougars have a very good offense and just a couple of bumps to get over (including trips to Utah at TCU) to be in the “this year’s Boise State” conversation.

Cincinnati has a chance for a respect-earning win for the Big East after the (JV) league won as many games against I-A opponents as my intramural flag team last week (we could give Syracuse a run for their money). Louisville (Kentucky), Syracuse (Northwestern), Pittsburgh (Bowling Green), and Rutgers (Fresno State) stunk it up. OU did what Tennessee should have done and opened up with Chattanooga, and they’re probably going to destroy the Bearcats by 3+ TDs.

UAB plays Florida Atlantic, so we’ll see how bad the Blazers are for next week. Texas A&M lost to Arkansas State last week and I’m gonna say they’ll also lose New Mexico this week. Texas plays a tricky little game at UTEP, but the Miners got smoked by Buffalo (no, not the Bills) last Thursday.

Again, if you’re one of the Pac-10 types, you can watch Cal at Washington State or Stanford at Arizona State, and if you just love ACC football for some insanely weird reason, Boston College plays at Georgia Tech (or you could say you want to watch it because you love the option offense…).

Oregon State at Penn State sounds good, but the Lions should beat the Beavers, who lost to Stanford last Thursday. If you like loads of offense, there’s Texas Tech at Nevada. If you just wanna see some of the underrated talent from the state of Florida, USF-UCF can quench your thirst.

For the Vol fans who already changed their minds and want David Cutcliffe back (you know who you are, don’t deny it), Duke hosts Northwestern, who the Devils actually beat last year.

T.J. Lee's blocked punt return for the go-ahead TD against VT last week was one of the best early-season moments

And finally, East Carolina, one of the biggest stories from last week, hosts West Virginia. Can the Pirates do it again? I say why not?

For all but a handful of teams, it’s more or less the second week of preseason games. The games get exponentially better the next two weeks — I promise

Images Courtesy of: • Nikki Boertman / Commercial Appeal • Streeter Lecka / Getty Images (Daylife)

About the Author:  I'm from Memphis but I'm now entering my third year at the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville. I am majoring in Journalism/Electronic Media and hope to go into sports broadcasting/writing/something like that. I'm a huge Vol fan and have been going to games for as long as I can remember. I started my on blog called "The View From The Hill" but moved here to Gate 21 for bigger and better things. In addition to my passion for Tennessee football and basketball, I enjoy watching the NFL and the NBA as well. Basically, sports are a big part of my life. >> Read more from this author

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