SEC Review, Week 8: Auburn, Bama bring the Yellow Hammer

story by Chris Rushing, College Sports Matchups (CSM is a content partner with The City Wire)
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Think back to 2006 for a moment. Remember all the hysteria surrounding the Michigan-Ohio State game building to euphoric levels around this time, complete with a countdown clock on ESPN’s College GameDay as many as four weeks out?

Don’t be surprised if we see a repeat, except this time we’re counting down the days to one of the most important Iron Bowls in history.

Following a 24-17 victory over then-No. 6 LSU, Auburn football rose to the top of the Bowl Championship Series standings for the first time in school history and controls its own destiny concerning a BCS title game berth on Jan. 10 in Glendale, Ariz. The Tigers have the Heisman Trophy front-runner in Cameron Newton, a junior quarterback who has already set a Southeastern Conference record with 1,077 rushing yards through eight games (AU averages 301.3 rushing yards per outing after popping off a school-best 440 against LSU football).

A couple of hours after Newton leapt into the stands to celebrate with the delirious Auburn crowd, Alabama football shrugged off a sluggish first half and outscored hapless Tennessee football 28-0 after intermission en route to a commanding 41-10 win. Julio Jones set a school record for receiving yards (221) — with a broken hand, no less — on a season-high 12 catches. Easily the country’s best one-loss team, Alabama could still control its own BCS destiny with a little help from the Big 12 and Big Ten opponents impending Missouri and Michigan State’s respective paths to perfection.

No offense to Mizzou, Sparty, the non-automatic qualifiers (Boise State, TCU, Utah) or the high-flying offense powering the No. 1-ranked Oregon football Ducks, but I firmly believe Auburn and Alabama are the two best teams in college football at this time. Call me crazy, call me an SEC homer – I don’t care. Would any of those other unbeatens (maybe even including Auburn) have gone through the three-game stretch of at Arkansas, vs. Florida and at South Carolina unscathed? Oregon has a chance, but none of the others will be able to lay claim to having beaten four ranked opponents this year like Auburn.

To say that this Iron Bowl matchup on Friday, Nov. 26, could be epic is an understatement both the ramifications of the two schools combining for just one loss heading in as well as the intensity of this rivalry without all the extra perks for the winner. Think the two fanbases dislike each other already? Wait until national championship implications are on the line in that contest.

However, let’s get back to the rest of the SEC for just a moment. We’ll start with Auburn’s 529-yard performance against what was considered the SEC’s best defense.

LSU’s offense is really, really bad. I cannot stress that enough. Reuben Randle and Terrence Tolliver are excellent wide receivers, but it’s almost a travesty to know that they have to rely on a guy like Jarrett Lee (or even worse Jordan Jefferson) to get them enough stats to stand out to the scouts and get drafted highly at the next level. At least there is the National Football League scouting combine to make amends for that. Tolliver was a non-factor against a weak and injured Auburn secondary, while Randle’s only big play came via a trick formation that ended with a halfback floating a pass to the large target who shook off AU linebacker Josh Bynes en route to paydirt.

Of course, the Bayou Bengals’ offensive line couldn’t keep Nick Fairley out of the back field, and both quarterbacks appeared frightened to throw the ball downfield after Jefferson was intercepted on a tipped pass on LSU’s opening drive. Instead, Lee and Jefferson attempted only safe passes out in the flats and allowed Auburn’s ferocious hitters clean shots on LSU receivers all afternoon.

The genius that is Gary Crowton and Les Miles’ offensive scheme culminated in one of the most confused and panicked formations I have ever seen from a top-10 team. On fourth-and-6 (and following an extended timeout), Lee scampered out-of-bounds after picking up just two of the required yardage to keep the drive alive. My guess is that Miles was hoping Auburn would outsmart itself much like Tennessee did with the visitors’ frantic substitutions and appearance of indecision at every position. 

Auburn did not bite, however, and stuck with the personnel (11 players, not 13) that was out on the field when the teams came out of the TV timeout. Fairley stated following the win that he could hear Lee saying, “Let’s get out of here and go home,” as he ran untouched to the sideline on LSU’s final offensive play.

I won’t go much more into detail about Newton’s record-setting day, but it was the help he got from Mike Dyer (100 yards) and Onterrio McCaleb (84 yards, 1 TD) that truly powered Gene Chizik’s best win to-date at Auburn. The downfield blocking from guys like Kodi Burns and Mario Fannin made Newton’s Heisman Trophy-highlight 49-yard touchdown run in the third quarter possible, and the national media members in attendance at Jordan-Hare Stadium left with an even bigger appreciation for the 6-6, 250-pound mammoth.

Now with the No. 1 ranking and wins over four top-25 opponents (Mississippi State, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU) in hand, Auburn cannot lose its focus with a dangerous road trip to Ole Miss football on the docket this weekend. LSU, meanwhile, will take a week to regroup and come up with another way to trick the opposition into playing too many players at one time, although it will be much more difficult to outsmart Nick Saban and Alabama even if the game is at home in two weeks.

• No. 21 Arkansas 38, Ole Miss 24
Credit Ole Miss for not giving up, no matter the circumstances. When Arkansas went up 21-0 in the second quarter courtesy of a school-best 97-yard punt return, I figured the Hogs were about to go Hog Wild and run their old coach and his team out of the stadium.

It didn’t happen that way, and it took some late afternoon heroics from Knile Davis and the Arkansas running game to ensure that UA upped its record to 6-2, 3-2 SEC. Davis had a pair of scores to extend Arkansas’ lead back to 14 after the Rebels cut the deficit to seven following a pair of weather delays (totaling 89 minutes).

The first was a 71-yard rush that gave the home team a 31-17 advantage after Ole Miss cut the score to 24-17. Davis provided the game’s final points on a 22-yard scoring scamper with 7:15 remaining.

It wasn’t all good news for the Razorbacks, however, as Arkansas football suffered injuries to three of the offense’s top playmakers in Ryan Mallett, Greg Childs and Adams. Mallett returned from a reported concussion suffered in last week’s 65-43 loss at Auburn only to leave the Ole Miss game with a shoulder injury. Childs and Adams both sustained ankle injuries. Arkansas does not divulge injury information, so the length of time missed is unknown for this trio.

• No. 7 Alabama 41, Tennessee 10
When the Tide led just 13-10 at halftime, everyone figured that this game would be close a little while longer before Alabama would finally just run away with it.

That sort of played out, but it was the air attack that got things started for the Crimson Tide – not the dynamic duo of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson. Don’t be fooled: these two excellent running backs combined for 207 yards on the worn-down Volunteer defense. However, Jones was the star of the show.

The only positive for Tennessee was that Tauren Poole snapped UA’s 42-game streak without allowing a 100-yard rusher. Of course, Poole’s stats were skewed a bit with a 59-yard scoring run that gave the home team a short-lived lead.

• No. 24 Mississippi State 29, UAB 24
Ugly wins are better than pretty losses. No doubt about that. And with yet another ugly win, Mississippi State will go bowling this postseason after achieving a 6-2, 2-2 record in the first two months of the season.

Several key components of the Bulldogs’ offense sat out this contest to rest up and heal for a pivotal game with Kentucky this upcoming weekend. However, it’s surprising that UAB was able to keep this game as close as it did – especially with an eighth-straight sold out crowd on hand at Davis-Wade Stadium.

However, the silver lining in all of this can be best described by co-worker and MSU alum Chris Hussey: “In the past, we lost games like this. Now, we are winning them.”

Seeing his team in the BCS rankings for a second-straight week makes the MSU faithful smile, too.

• No. 20 South Carolina 21, Vanderbilt 7
Well, I guessed Vandy’s score right, but I didn’t think that not having Marcus Lattimore would cause South Carolina football’s offense to sputter as bad as it did.

Vanderbilt football is going through a painful season yet again, but if any program is built to thrive off moral victories, it’s this one. The Dores are just the second team to limit South Carolina to under 27 points in 2010. However, the VU offense is a train wreck and will be entrusted to a third playcaller in two months when the ‘Dores return to the field this upcoming weekend at Arkansas.

Winning is everything, especially in the crazy SEC East, so there isn’t much to dislike about USC’s performance on Saturday night. However, no one in Columbia is mistaking this with the victory over Alabama three weeks back, and Steve Spurrier knows his team will have to play much better to finish out its goals of reaching Atlanta for the first time in school history.

At least Georgia eliminated the one team within the division that could own a tie-breaker with the Gamecocks should it come down to it.

• Georgia 44, Kentucky 31
They say they’re back. Forget that 1-4 start – this is the REAL Georgia football team.

Three-straight wins, three-straight 40-plus-point performances have brought UGA fans back out of hiding. The Bulldogs are looking like a much better team now, but I am not ready to anoint them back to the top of my likely teams to reach Atlanta from the East.

Kentucky football did everything it could to get back into the game, but too many miscues have left the Wildcats back under the .500 mark and scrambling to find the necessary three more victories to avoid another postseason trip to Nashville or Memphis. It would help if UK could stop the run – Washaun Ealey set a school record with five touchdown rushes against the Blue and White.

Georgia will take on a wounded Florida team in Jacksonville this upcoming weekend, while Kentucky travels to take on a confident Mississippi State club. As always, you will get my picks for those games later this week, but my initial feelings on those two games may surprise you.

Georgia should extend its winning streak to four, but I’ve seen great UGA teams succumb to worse Florida squads than the two that will square off in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in the 2010 “Game Formerly Known as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”

And, for some reason, I just can’t help but think that Joker Phillips and the Wildcats avenge the 2009 loss to MSU. Will my thoughts change before the weekend? Check back later on and see.