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SEC Fearless Predictions
Week One
SEC
East
Florida
| Georgia
| Kentucky
| South Carolina
| Tennessee
| Vanderbilt
West
Alabama
| Arkansas
| Auburn
| LSU |
Ole Miss
| Miss State
How are the picks so far? SU: 8-4 ... ATS:
2-7
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SEC Fearless Predictions, Week
Two
Norfolk
State (1-0) at Kentucky (1-0)
6:00 EST, GamePlan
Why to watch:
Where did that come from?
Kentucky ... with a defense?! The
Wildcats stuffed Louisville in a 27-2
loss with the defense and special teams
carrying the way, and now there's a
nice, cushy three game stretch against
Norfolk State, Middle Tennessee, and
Western Kentucky to pad the record to
4-0 before dealing with a road trip to
Alabama. Norfolk State beat Virginia
State 47-7 last week, and it shouldn't
have too many problems next week when
MEAC play starts up against North
Carolina A&T. This is a veteran Spartan
team that could provide a bit more pop
than Louisville was able to. That's not
a joke.
Why Norfolk State might win:
Kentucky played on Sunday afternoon.
It'll be a short week and the focus
won't likely be there after throttling
the archrival. The team knows it's
supposed to roll through the next few
weeks and is sure to go through the
motions. NSU has a great balanced
offense with the receivers to get deep,
while the defensive front is great at
getting into the backfield cranking out
six sacks and 12 tackles for loss last
week.
Why Kentucky might win: Alright,
so Norfolk State isn't going to have
more offensive firepower than
Louisville. The Spartans will blow up
the MEAC, but that's the MEAC. To put
the discrepancy into perspective, NSU
went 8-3 last season and was one of the
FCS's best defensive teams. Rutgers won
an early season showdown 59-0. If the UK
defense plays with just a little bit of
the intensity and focus it had against
Louisville, this should be a walk in the
park.
Who to watch: This is the type of
game for players to stretch out their
legs to see what they've got. UK QB Mike
Hartline didn't exactly conjure up
memories of Tim Couch, but he didn't
make many mistakes completing 16 of 31
passes for 147 yards. While that wasn't
great, the running game was worse. Tony
Dixon led the way with 27 yards on 12
carries, and now the Wildcats have a
month to get the attack humming before
facing Alabama. It starts this week.
What will happen: Norfolk State 7
... Louisville 2.
CFN Prediction: Kentucky 48 ...
Norfolk State 7 ... Line: No Line
Must See Rating:
(5 Entourage premiere - 1
One Tree Hill premiere) … 1
-
Click here to receive ATS Consultants
FREE selections
Tulane (0-0)
at Alabama (1-0)
7:00 EST, GamePlan
Why to watch:
Alright Alabama, now we're all watching
you. Head coach Nick Saban might be
urging everyone to temper their
expectations after a dominant 34-10 win
over Clemson in the Georgia Dome, but no
one's buying it. If you can blow away a
national title-caliber team that badly,
your time is now and the spotlight is
on. The Tide will blow through the next
two weeks against Tulane and Western
Kentucky, will go through the motions
and beat Arkansas, and then it's on. The
September 27th game at Georgia now looks
like something special. First, the Tide
has to prove that it can keep its head
on straight against a Tulane team
playing its first game of the year. If
it's possible to use Alabama as a
tune-up game in some way, Tulane has to
do it with a key Conference USA battle
against East Carolina next week.
Why Tulane might win: Don't
forget, most of the players on last
year's team that clunked in the second
half of the season are back. If UL
Monroe can win in Tuscaloosa, then so
can Tulane. The Green Wave has a nice
back in Andre Anderson to take over for
Matt Forte, while the offensive line is
solid enough to keep the chains moving
for a few stretches. There's no way, no
how Alabama will maintain the same
intensity two weeks in a row. The
letdown is coming.
Why Alabama might win: Besides
the fear of a deadly hurricane putting
the school and the city under water,
relocating to be able to practice, and
the worries of having their lives turned
completely upside down for the second
time in three years, what does Tulane
have to worry about? Some off week.
Thankfully, all appears to be as good as
could be expected, but the distraction
won't help an already tough situation.
If Alabama generates the pressure it did
against Clemson, this won't be pretty.
Who to watch: 22-of-30, 180 yards,
two touchdowns, 19 rushing yards, one
rushing score. That's exactly what Bama
fans and coaches are hoping for from
John Parker Wilson, the up-and-down
streaky senior who finally appears to
have settled into his role as the leader
of the upgraded offense. He doesn't have
to come up with many YouTube Julio
Jones-like heaves; he just has to keep
his mistakes to a minimum and he has to
be efficient. He can do that.
What will happen: Alabama will be
pumped up out of the tunnel, but will
have a hard time bringing the intensity
for the first half. Even so, the defense
will tee off on the Tulane running game,
the Green Wave passing attack won't work
well enough, and the Tide will come away
with a sloppy win.
CFN Prediction: Alabama 30 ...
Tulane 9 ... Line: Alabama -29.5
Must See Rating:
(5 Entourage premiere - 1
One Tree Hill premiere) … 2
-
Click here to receive ATS Consultants
FREE selections
SE Louisiana
(1-0) at Mississippi State (0-1)
7:00 EST
Why to watch:
Well that didn't work out well.
Mississippi State's season started off
with a crashing thud losing 22-14 to a
veteran, pumped p Louisiana Tech team
that out MSUed, MSU by forcing turnovers
and capitalizing on every mistake. Now
the Bulldogs (the Mississippi State
kind) get a week off against a SE
Louisiana team that got by Alcorn State
34-28. Alcorn State should be one of the
nation's worst FCS teams, and SE
Louisiana isn't far behind. MSU needs to
find its groove against with Auburn, at
Georgia Tech and at LSU coming up in the
next three weeks, and the Lions will
provide just the opportunity to do it.
Why SE Louisiana might win: It's
not like Mississippi State is going to
come out and hang a half-a-hundred on
the board. Even against a mediocre Lion
defense, MSU will likely struggle to get
a consistent passing game going. The
rushing attack is another story, but
SELa has a relatively decent line that
should be able to hang tough for a
quarter or so.
Why Mississippi State might win:
The Lions are about to get pounced on.
MSU might have lost last week, but the
defense did its job by keeping the
Louisiana Tech offense under wraps. The
offense even moved the ball well, but
turnovers proved to be a killer. As long
as MSU hangs on to the ball and doesn't
make any major mistakes, it should be
able to walk away with an easy win.
Who to watch: Just when the
Louisiana Tech game was getting its
tightest, the MSU coaching staff went
with Tyson Lee, who completed 10 of 15
passes for 85 yards on the day. While he
held on to the ball too long, he didn't
make the mistakes that Wesley Carroll
did. Head coach Sylvester Croom has gone
out of his way to say that Carroll is
still the starter, but the
two-quarterback system will stay.
However, if Carroll struggles, it'll be
more and more of Lee in bigger moments.
What will happen: MSU's defense
will shut down and shut out a SE
Louisiana offense that couldn't get the
running game going against Alcorn State,
and certainly won't be able to do it
this week.
CFN Prediction: Mississippi State
48 ... SE Louisiana 0 ... Line: No Line
Must See Rating:
(5 Entourage premiere - 1
One Tree Hill premiere) … 1
-
Click here to receive ATS Consultants
FREE selections
Arkansas
(1-0) at UL Monroe (0-1)
(in
Little Rock)
7:00 EST, GamePlan
Why to watch:
Despite a 34-0 loss to Auburn, UL Monroe
is one of the Sun Belt's better teams.
The Warhawks beat Alabama last year and
has the type of offense that can do just
enough to pull off an upset if given the
right breaks. Arkansas did its best to
give Western Illinois several chances
last week in a way-too-tough 28-24 win
that was pulled out late thanks to QB
Casey Dick. The Bobby Petrino era didn't
exactly get off the bang expected, but
the Hogs found a way to win and now they
have to find a way to stay focused with
dates against Texas and Alabama up next.
Still trying to get the new, upgraded
passing game in place, Arkansas is a
work in progress. UL Monroe has a decent
opportunity to take advantage and come
up with a neutral site (at least in
theory) shocker.
Why Arkansas might win: The
passing game actually worked. Dick was
strong all off-season as he took to the
new offense, and he came through with a
318-yard effort with two touchdowns
against WIU. ULM did a good job against
the Auburn passing attack, but it
couldn't handle the ground game. If
Arkansas wants to line up and start
pounding it, something it didn't do last
week, it should be able to. The Hog O
line is far better than the ULM
defensive front except when it comes to
...
Why UL Monroe might win: Keeping
Dick upright. WIU was able to generate
four sacks and eight tackles for loss,
and ULM, if it wanted to sell out a bit,
should be able to generate a little bit
of pressure. And then there's the
Warhawk running game. It didn't get off
the ground against Auburn, but the
Arkansas defensive front, along with a
struggling linebacking corps, gave up
157 yards and a touchdown to WIU's Herb
Donaldson. ULM should be able to crank
out close to five yards per carry for
long stretches.
Who to watch:
Darren
McFadden and Felix Jones, where are you?
Arkansas only managed 76 yards of
rushing offense against WIU last week
with De'Anthony Curtis gaining 36 of
them, Casey Dick getting 12 yards and
two scores, and Dennis Johnson running
for 18 yards.
Now the attack gets its
new main man back as Michael Smith, who
was suspended in the opener for
"improper use of scholarship textbooks."
The offense will continue to rely on
Dick and the passing game, but now
there's a home-run hitting rushing
threat to work with.
What will happen: Arkansas will
have its dry patches here and there, and
ULM will run for well over 200 yards,
and in the end the Hog offensive line
will control the game in the fourth
quarter to get through another
tougher-than-expected battle.
CFN Prediction: Arkansas 23 ...
UL Monroe 14 ... Line: Arkansas -11
Must See Rating:
(5 Entourage premiere - 1
One Tree Hill premiere) … 2
-
Click here to receive ATS Consultants
FREE selections
Troy (1-0)
at LSU (1-0)
8:00 EST, GamePlan
POSTPONED UNTIL NOV. 15