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SEC Preview Week 2: Who wins the old-SWC war?

Alex Haddon — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 20:13:13 +0000

Last week I finished 12-2 straight-up, with the losses from LSU and – you guessed it- Vanderbilt. It’s easy to look at the SEC schedule and think: “Dear Lord, what a trainwreck of a day. There is NOTHING to watch. My team’s gonna win by 400, so I might watch a quarter of it and then go and watch something else.” But…. Then if you’re a college football historian, there’s one match-up that you should love: Texas (-7, O/U 56.5) at Arkansas. The Longhorns and Razorbacks have played 78 times when rooted in the old Southwest Conference, including a stretch when they played every year from 1932 to 1991. The Longhorns have owned the rivalry 56-22, but since 2000

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SEC Predictions for Week 1

Alex Haddon — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 01:04:41 +0000

Last week was Week 0. Yeah, we saw a B1G match-up between Nebraska and Illinois, as well as UCLA putting a beating on Hawaii, but that was about it. But this week is where the big guns come in, and every team comes and flexes their muscles. As usual, we’re going by games that interest us the most. And weirdly Alabama – is in the Top 3. No.5 Georgia vs No.3 Clemson (-3, O/U 51.5) (Charlotte): This is a game that everyone’s been excited about since it came on the schedule last year. And although Georgia’s ranked No.5 and Clemson’s ranked No.3, these are two bona fide National Championship favorites. And both have the chance to run the table if

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SEC Preview: Can Alabama repeat this season?

Alex Haddon — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 06:15:41 +0000

Alabama’s National Championship last season was a beauty. They buried defenses on offense, and after the Ole Miss near-debacle, they buried defenses too. But the NFL scourged a team like we’ve never team. The Crimson Tide had SIX first round picks (WRs Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, CB Patrick Surtain, QB Mac Jones, OT Alex Leatherwood, RB Najee Harris), plus second rounder C Lance Dickerson and DT Christian Barmore and OG Deonte Brown (6th round) and LS Thomas Fletcher (6th round). LB Dylan Moses, TE Miller Forristall, TE Carl Tucker and LB Josh McMillon. To put in in ‘Bama terms, that’s a Heisman winner (Smith), a Heisman finalist (Jones), a possible Heisman-finalist-if-he-hadn’t-gotten-injured (Waddle), one of the best CBs in the country

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SEC Preview: Tennessee’s at Year 1…..again

Alex Haddon — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 17:17:56 +0000

It seems only five minutes ago that Tennessee fired Butch Jones. Since then, the Vols fired Jeremy Pruitt for alleged recruiting violations (more’s the fact that they didn’t want to pay him any severance pay, and have since been sued), and hired UCF head coach Josh Heupel. Once a National Championship-winning QB at Oklahoma, Heupel helped to develop one of the fastest-paced offenses in college football, revolutionizing Missouri’s offense before going to UCF and putting together a 28-8 record. At least that’s what the PR from Knoxville would tell you. If you look carefully, Heupel’s 12-1 record was riding on the coattails of Scott Frost’s 13-0 ‘National Championship’-winning team, and since then, it’s been a bit more pedestrian (10-3 and

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LSU puts up vaccination-only rules for Tiger Stadium

Alex Haddon — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 18:36:24 +0000

After a few dreadful months encompassing the installment of an idiot of a women’s basketball head coach to allegations of sexual assault, LSU’s athletic department finally got something right: They are banning anyone who’s over 12 and not vaccinated or can’t show a negative test from coming into Tiger Stadium. “As the flagship institution of the state of Louisiana, our foremost responsibility is to ensure the safety of our students, our supporters, and our community,” LSU President William Tate IV said. “While we are aware of the diverse perspectives across the nation regarding masks and vaccinations, we must take all reasonable measures to protect our campus and community, not only on gamedays, but long after guests have left Tiger Stadium.

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SEC Preview: The Mystery that is Auburn

Alex Haddon — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 17:30:08 +0000

With Gus Malzah, the University of Auburn was always a mystery. A fun mystery, but a mystery nonethleless. This was a team that would beat Georgia or Alabama or LSU one season, and lose terrible games to a poor Mississippi team, or – as was the case last year – a piss-poor South Carolina team. But in the background was always Alabama, Alabama, Alabama. Never mind that Malzahn had taken his team to a National Championship Game where they lost in heartbreaker, won a National Championship Game as an OC, and won the SEC Championship twice. His 3-5 record against Alabama proved he could do it when others couldn’t (3-5 isn’t terrible), and his 3-5 record against LSU in one

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SEC: What direction will Mississippi State go?

Alex Haddon — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 17:07:10 +0000

After the first game against LSU, Mike Leach was a beloved football genius, and the best thing to come to the SEC since Lane Kiffin. By the end of the season, there were more questions than answers, unfortunately. Oh, and LSU win wasn’t as impressive bearing in mind the Tigers’ defense was utterly dreadful. Will Mike Leach’s second year turn out to be better than his 3-5 SEC record? OFFENSE KJ Costello – who arrived from Stanford for the SEC – ended up getting hurt, and never got his job back from freshman Will Rogers. Maybe that was because he ended up with interceptions (11) than touchdowns (6). Rogers ended up with more touchdowns (11) than interceptions (7). Rogers threw

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Auburn head coach tests positive for COVID

Alex Haddon — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 21:27:33 +0000

Brian Harsin, the Auburn head coach, has tested positive for COVID-19.

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SEC Preview: Profoundly above-mediocre Missouri?

Alex Haddon — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 17:40:52 +0000

SEC preview for Missouri

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SEC Preview: Ole Miss is all gas

Alex Haddon — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 15:32:01 +0000

If you love old school Big 12 or Pac-12 football, where they put up a kiddy amount of points and no-one plays any defense, then Ole Miss was your favorite team last year. Averaging 39.2 points per game and 555 yards per game, the Rebels worried every defense in the country. And boy (if you love your offense) was it fun. But Ole Miss was lousy at defense. They were worst in the SEC in giving up points, rushing yards allowed, second-last in passing yards allowed, and total yards. Nationally, the best they had defensive (points allowed), ranked…..117th. So boy (if you love your defense) it was miserable. So in an effort to not make any depressed, we’re not going

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