By
Brian Harbach
The SEC Bachstory will be a weekly SEC recap posted every Monday morning breaking down all the big events from the previous weekend. In order to eliminate all confusion, the Bach in Bachstory is pronounced like back (Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back, Back in Black), you get the picture.
This week’s Bachstory takes a look at biased AP Voters, quarterbacks yet to be named and predictions, predictions, predictions…As usual the format is the same; please feel free to send any comments and suggestions. Here we go…
The Weekend That Was
The calm before the storm is what this past weekend can be described as, most teams take Sundays off during the regular season, some schools practice Sunday and rest Monday during game week. This is the last normal weekend these men will have until January, expectations, disappointments, successes and failures will all be a part of the next 3 or 4 months. If any weekend for a college football player can be described as relaxing, this might have been the closest thing to it. They prepare to strap on their helmets and be cheered by 90,000 fans. Players deserve the praise they get if not just for all the hard work they put in, but mostly because they represent our schools and make us proud.
The Weekend That Wasn’t
As has been previously chronicled in this column there are a quite a few quarterback battles going on in the SEC this preseason. The surprising thing is that in all of them there still has not been a decision made on who will be starting the first game. While it is obvious that at Auburn both Kodi Burns and Chris Todd will play, at least one of them will be named starter by Tommy Tuberville, maybe it will be Friday, maybe it will be 10 minutes before kickoff. Vanderbilt’s QB competition is still going strong with McKenzie Adams and Chris Nickson. What makes this even more odd is the fact they play Thursday night this week, not Saturday. Hopefully later today is when we start to here who will be the starters, give the kids at least a week to know they are the man, confidence is so important at the QB position.
The Weekend That… What the Heck
In case you were not aware, the AP Poll was released on August 16th and it was not without controversy. A couple weeks ago in this column I talked about how the AP Poll was usually the more accurate poll due to the fact bias was taken out of it. This made sense to me since the poll does not count towards the BCS and the votes are published so fans can view who is voting for whom. There was a sense of accountability that went along with the AP Poll and it was something that deserved respect and it deserved to be held above the Coaches poll. Thanks to Taylor Zarzour (avid Alabama fan, hater of Auburn and Tennessee and 2008 College Football AP Poll voter) my comments on the unbiased nature of the AP Poll have lost all credibility as has Mr. Zarzour.
It is not hard to believe that all writers at the lowest level are fans; one thing that separates a fan from a journalist is the ability have an unbiased opinion in order to provide credibility. Mr. Zarzour has made it clear in his first AP Poll submission that he is not a writer or journalist, but just a fan. Zarzour left out Tennessee, Auburn and West Virginia from his top 25 ballot, he also left off Kanas and Illinois, but those two aren’t really an issue. Of the 65 voters He was one of 6 voters to leave off Tennessee and the only AP voter to leave off both Auburn and West Virginia.
Mr. Zarzour, if you want to be a voter in the AP poll but your bias aside and start acting like a journalist and not a fan. Sports talk radio and message boards have been killing him all week and it is well deserved. It will be very interesting to see how much his poll changes after the first week of the season. It is not hard to assume it will change quite a bit.
The Weekend That Will Be
Thursday night we kick off the SEC season with South Carolina at home against the NC State Wolfpack, but the game of the weekend is in the Georgia Dome with Alabama playing Clemson. There is nothing better than neutral site inter-conference games and this is an open challenge to all SEC teams in order to beef up their out of conference schedules in the future. The 12th game has allowed teams to pick up a good OOC game each year (at least if you aren’t wearing Purple and Gold in 2008) and teams are taking advantage of the additional game.
This season alone we have SEC teams traveling to West Virginia, Arizona State, Texas and Wake Forest, great job by Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas and Ole Miss respectively for getting great OOC games. But Alabama is leading the way with their second neutral site game in two years; this is a trend that needs to be followed by more schools immediately. It is like a early/midseason bowl game and these kind of games bring great exposure to the league and kill the myth that the SEC doesn’t play tough OOC games outside their own stadiums.
Big Man on Campus (BMOC)
DJ Moore, Vanderbilt
More than likely an anonymous player in the SEC despite the fact he had 6 interceptions last season and made the preseason All-SEC team in 2007. DJ Moore is a dominant defensive back and will be adding punt return duties to his responsibilities this fall. Of course the normal fan wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line-up, but he is loved on the Commodore campus and should have another All-SEC season in 2008. Adding special team responsibilities along with an extended role in the offense should allow DJ Moore to go from anonymous in 2007 to feared by SEC fans and players in 2008.
Player Now Doing Charlie Work (PNDCW)
As a note to those who do not know what “Charlie-Work” is, do yourself a favor and start watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the episode called “Dennis and Dee go on Welfare” explains it perfectly).
Torrey Davis resides in coach Urban Meyer’s doghouse with an upcoming court date on September 22nd regarding two counts of driving with knowledge of a suspended license. Meyer has stated that Davis will miss the season opener against Hawaii and may miss more games due to academic and disciplinary reasons. Florida has to hope that Davis can get this stuff handled quickly with a favorable outcome because Davis was one of the their highest ranking recruits from the 2007 class.
Soon to be seen on Sundays
Kenny McKinley
McKinley has been South Carolina’s go to receiver the past 2 seasons and will be again going into his senior year with the Gamecocks. There are two things that stand out with Kenny, the first thing is his ability to run great routes. He is very good getting off of press coverage and even if he is not open, he manages to make the tough catch. The second impressive thing is his ability to show up in big games. Last year against Clemson, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia he had 473 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns, the man shows up in big games. He has put up good stats while overcoming South Carolina’s awkward QB situation during his time in Columiba. If the Gamecocks can get some consistency from the QB situation this fall, he can be a 1000 yd receiver and prove he should be a great player on Sundays.
4 Downs with the SEC
First Down – Picking the SEC East
For all the publicity we are being force fed by the four letter network regarding Ohio State and USC you would there are no other games as good this season. That could not be further from the truth, if you want a game that matters for a division championship, a conference championship and probably a national championship, UGA vs Florida has more on the line than any game in the country this year. The game formally known as the "World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" will provide the winner of the SEC East and the odds on favorite to win the SEC, right now the Gators have the advantage.
1 – Florida
2 – Georgia
3 – Tennessee
4 – South Carolina
5 – Vanderbilt
6 – Kentucky
Second Down – Predicting the SEC West
The West is very similar to the East this year where one game will likely decide the division, the only difference is that intsead of that game being played in November like the East, it will be played in September. LSU at Auburn will be the game for all the marbles in the Western Division, the home team has won the last 8 games in this rivalry and don’t expect it to change this season. Tuberville’s Tigers should be the West favorites and will face Florida in the Championship Game in Atlanta.
1 – Auburn
2 – LSU
3 – Alabama
4 – Mississippi State
5 – Ole Miss
6 - Arkansas
Third Down – Bowl Game Predictions
Prediciting that the SEC will put two teams in the BCS for the third consecutive year, all the SEC bowl tie-ins have been filled out with the most likely participant. The records reflected only include the regular season and SEC Championship game.
BCS Championship Game – Florida Gators (12-1)
Sugar Bowl – Auburn (11-2)
Capital One Bowl – Georgia (9-3)
Cotton Bowl – LSU (10-2)
Outback Bowl – Alabama (7-5)
Peach Bowl – Tennessee (9-3)
Music City Bowl – South Carolina (7-5)
Liberty Bowl – Ole Miss (6-6)
Independence Bowl – Mississippi State (7-5)
Fourth Down – Finally the wait is over
For months fans have been waiting patiently (maybe not so patiently) for the start of college football, now we are just 3 days away from kickoff in Columbia and I am happy to say I will be there to witness it. I am looking forward to seeing the atmosphere in Williams-Brice, which is always great and I am even more excited to see how Carolina looks in their opener.
To all the fans who are heading back out to their old stomping grounds to tailgate and enjoy another amazing start to college football please be safe. This is only the first of 12 games we are guaranteed this year. I wish every SEC team was going to play 13, only two will be lucky enough to play 14, but it is great to have College Football back. Man I missed it!
Are you as fired up as I am? Let me know what you think, E-mail
me Brian Harbach
Y’all Play Nice, August 20, 2008
The SEC Backstory, August 18, 2008
Has Spurrier Failed at USC?, August 15, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 11, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 3, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Offensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Defensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top SEC Games, July 13, 2008
Championship Game Hurts SEC, July 6, 2008
Harbach's 2008 SEC Preview, June 30, 2008
Let's Get This Started, June 9, 2008
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