Point spreads week 4

[Catfan73]

Concentrating on SEC teams and UK opponents:

Texas A&M -3 vs. Arkansas in Arlington...does Kevin Sumlin make it thru the entire season? Arkansas by a touchdown.

Alabama -18.5 @ Vandy....Vandy makes a valiant effort but Bama comes out on top by 12 or 13.

Auburn -18.5 @ Missouri...Auburn wins but fails to impress even though Mizzou is horrible. Auburn by around 17.

Miss. State @ Georgia -6.5...Mississippi St. takes over the role as the SEC's media darling from South Carolina, jumping into the AP top 25 all the way at #17. They come back to earth Saturday just as SC did with a loss. Georgia by 5 or 6.

UMass at Tennessee -26...Sgt. Carter's troops rout the Minutemen but can they score enough points to cover a 26 point spread? UT by 17 or 18.

Ohio @ Eastern Michigan -2.5...Ohio has played two power 5 conference opponents, losing at Purdue and beating Kansas. EMU also has a win over a power 5 team, coming off a 3 point win at Rutgers. EMU covers but barely.

Louisiana Tech @ S. Carolina -8...this line has come down from 10.5, probably due to SC's loss of Samuel. The Roosters probably should have passed on Muschamp and brought Skip Holtz back to Columbia. They tack on a late score or two here to prove that they're still awesome and Kentucky sucks lol. But no one believes it. SC covers and then some.

Syracuse at LSU -23.5...Ed Orgeron and his coordinators make $6.8 million combined. At the rate they're going that's going to be almost a million dollars per win. The Tigers win by two touchdowns and the natives get more restless.

Kent State @ Louisville -38.5...Louisville 'proves' they should be ranked with a 44 point win and ESPN approves so much they put them back in the playoff hunt.

And if anyone is still reading lol, Florida -2.5 @ Kentucky...Florida's strength is its defense, which is a good thing because they went 115 minutes without their offense scoring a touchdown between their games against Michigan and Tennessee. They've rushed for 89.5 yards a game while UK has given up a paltry 57 yards per game. The jury is still out on whether we've sold out our pass defense in favor of solidifying our run defense or if our opponents are just being forced to take to the air because they can't get anywhere on the ground. Like anything else, it's probably a little of both but in the SEC you have to be able to stop the run.

The 30 year losing streak to Florida has taken on a life of its own, and even if one considers that there were at least 3 or 4 games in there that UK should have in the win column as I do, it's still pretty bad. The Wildcats not only cover Saturday night though, they win outright and end the streak and do so in fairly convincing fashion. Cats by 10 or 11.

[Catfan73]

Auburn has dismissed quarterback Sean White. Stidham's backups are now a freshman and a walk-on. White was serving a two game suspension but apparently screwed up again. He was MVP of the elite 11 camp or whatever it's called so I imagine he'll turn up at UL before too long.

[Darrell KSR]

There must be more to the story on the Sean White thing.

First time arrest. Public intoxication. He's 21, so legal to drink, just did what a lot of college kids do, had too much to drink. No, not right. And usually you mouth off to police or something to get arrested; however, the reports indicated he was polite, and cooperated. Not excusing the behavior. Just wondering if it warranted dismissal.

The "more to the story" had to be the suspension and him being on double secret probation. I wouldn't blame Louisville for taking this kid if they did. I wouldn't blame Kentucky. At least, based on what I know, which is admittedly, very little, he hasn't done anything that would make me think he couldn't be rehabilitated fine.

[Catfan73]

There are rumors on Auburn's boards but I won't spread them here because I have no idea if they're true or not. Hope everything works out for him.

[Catfan73]

Starting with the UK-UF game....UK deserved to lose what with all the defensive breakdowns but what’s the deal with pretty much every single time Florida was flagged for a penalty that one ref would come running in to add one on UK so that they would offset? I had the “SEC favorite son” angle factored in but not Florida’s uncovered receivers. And that holding call at the end should not have earned a penalty as holding is only supposed to be called when it affects the play and the ball carrier was already beyond the line of scrimmage when it occurred. But in order to keep my sanity I’ve decided to not dwell on the game and move on. Florida closed as a 3 point favorite and failed to cover, winning by 1.

Outside of Alabama the SEC just looks sad but that’s apparently how the league office wants it. Maintain the status quo. Meanwhile SEC coaches on the hot seat: Sumlin, Bielema, Orgeron, and Jones. Should be on there with them and probably will be soon enough: Malzahn, McElwain, Muschamp, and Odom. Side note...I was shocked at how big McElwain has gotten. He must be eating his woes.

Texas A&M covered 2 points against Arkansas in overtime. I like Bielema a lot more now than I did when he first came to the conference but sadly he probably won’t be around much longer.

Alabama embarrassed Vandy in Nashville. Vandy might be closer to the ‘dores of Old than they are to competing in the east.

Auburn handled Mizzou by 37 points. Missouri is giving up 40 points a game. Of course they haven’t played UK and Vandy yet.

Georgia took care of Mississippi State without too much trouble, winning by 28. MSU went from scoring 48 points a game to putting up a field goal on the eastern bulldogs. In other news, Dan Mullen still curiously tops the wish list of a bunch fans in Columbia and Gainesville.

Tennessee ended up favored by 28 over UMass at home and won by 4. Their next 4 games are Georgia and S. Carolina at home; at Alabama and Kentucky. This could get interesting.

UK’s next opponent is Eastern Michigan. The EMU Eagles lost to Ohio at home by a touchdown.

I’m not sure what to make of South Carolina only beating Louisiana Tech by 1 point at home except I’m pretty confident Muschamp had something to do with it. Any news on the flopper?

Ed Orgeron and LSU followed up their embarrassing loss at MSU by beating Syracuse by 9 points at home. It was Syracuse’s first game of the season vs. a power 5 opponent, following wins over Central Connecticut and Central Michigan, and a 7 point loss to Middle Tennessee at home.

And Louisville ended up favored over Kent State by 42 and won by 39. Not much news there except Jackson broke the school touchdown mark while accounting for 3 of their 4 turnovers.

[Darrell KSR]

Starting with the UK-UF game....UK deserved to lose what with all the defensive breakdowns but what’s the deal with pretty much every single time Florida was flagged for a penalty that one ref would come running in to add one on UK so that they would offset? I had the “SEC favorite son” angle factored in but not Florida’s uncovered receivers. And that holding call at the end should not have earned a penalty as holding is only supposed to be called when it affects the play and the ball carrier was already beyond the line of scrimmage when it occurred. But in order to keep my sanity I’ve decided to not dwell on the game and move on. Florida closed as a 3 point favorite and failed to cover, winning by 1.

Outside of Alabama the SEC just looks sad but that’s apparently how the league office wants it. Maintain the status quo. Meanwhile SEC coaches on the hot seat: Sumlin, Bielema, Orgeron, and Jones. Should be on there with them and probably will be soon enough: Malzahn, McElwain, Muschamp, and Odom. Side note...I was shocked at how big McElwain has gotten. He must be eating his woes.

Texas A&M covered 2 points against Arkansas in overtime. I like Bielema a lot more now than I did when he first came to the conference but sadly he probably won’t be around much longer.

Alabama embarrassed Vandy in Nashville. Vandy might be closer to the ‘dores of Old than they are to competing in the east.

Auburn handled Mizzou by 37 points. Missouri is giving up 40 points a game. Of course they haven’t played UK and Vandy yet.

Georgia took care of Mississippi State without too much trouble, winning by 28. MSU went from scoring 48 points a game to putting up a field goal on the eastern bulldogs. In other news, Dan Mullen still curiously tops the wish list of a bunch fans in Columbia and Gainesville.

Tennessee ended up favored by 28 over UMass at home and won by 4. Their next 4 games are Georgia and S. Carolina at home; at Alabama and Kentucky. This could get interesting.

UK’s next opponent is Eastern Michigan. The EMU Eagles lost to Ohio at home by a touchdown.

I’m not sure what to make of South Carolina only beating Louisiana Tech by 1 point at home except I’m pretty confident Muschamp had something to do with it. Any news on the flopper?

Ed Orgeron and LSU followed up their embarrassing loss at MSU by beating Syracuse by 9 points at home. It was Syracuse’s first game of the season vs. a power 5 opponent, following wins over Central Connecticut and Central Michigan, and a 7 point loss to Middle Tennessee at home.

And Louisville ended up favored over Kent State by 42 and won by 39. Not much news there except Jackson broke the school touchdown mark while accounting for 3 of their 4 turnovers.

Good stuff in there. I'll chip in my own comments to a few of yours.

* I"m right there with you on the losing my sanity if I dwell on the UK v Fla. thing. So I won't, either.

* UK ought to be able to score as much or more than Auburn v Mizzou, if we don't put a muzzle on the offense. I have been extremely impressed with Stephen Johnson this year. He has dramatically improved his passing game, hitting the short passes now, and CJ Conrad is an excellent receiving tight end that ought to be gold.

* The UGA dismantling of Miss. State suprised me, as I thought Miss. State might even be the 2nd best team in the SEC. Georgia certainly placed their claim to that with that win. Maybe it's a two-team league with Bama.

* I'm not ready to say Vandy is the Vandy of old. They ran their mouths, and Alabama didn't like it, and showed it. But Bama might do that to many teams.

* Poor Butch Jones.

* Poor Will Muschamp.

* Don't feel sorry for Ed Orgeron, so won't say the same. But could/maybe should.

* Saw a stat in the Clemson game of what Lamar Jackson did before the 4th quarter when Louisville was behind 488 points at the time and the game was over, with Clemson putting in scrubs. It was terrible. But they let him stay in to run up his stats, and at the end of the game, if you didn't know better, it didn't look that bad. I have no doubt they'll let him run up stats against Little Sisters of the Poor far beyond when the game is out of reach.

[Catfan73]

I agree 100% about Stephen. He looks like a real quarterback back there now, only one with the dangerous dimension of being able to take off with the ball. If we can get better at setting the edge (more double tight end sets?) and if Bunchy can get those high snaps under control we can be really, really good on offense. We need to get Bowden the ball out in space.