By
Brian Harbach
The SEC Bachstory will be a weekly SEC recap posted every Monday morning of 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 Casey Dick throwing for 300 yds, quarterbacks who like to turn the ball over and Mississippi State’s giant step back…As usual the format is the same; please feel free to send any comments and suggestions. Here we go…
The Weekend That Was
The biggest question regarding the University of Alabama and Nick Saban was not if he would have a geat team at the Capstone, it was when would have a great team at the Capstone. After a 34-10 de-pantsing of Clemson Saturday night, SEC fans are on notice that Alabama will be a competitive team and last years 6-6 season is likely not going to re-occur in 2008. The Tide looked well-coached, motivated and excited to be playing on the biggest stage of the weekend. Clemson looked like a team that believed its own hype while Tommy Bowden tried to put all the pressure on his players and off of himself.
Trying not to go off on too much of a tangent about Clemson, let's focus the attention on what could have been at Arkansas with regards to Bowden. We all have different opinions of Bobby Petrino, some like his coaching abilities while others hate his flirtations with other jobs. What cannot be disputed is how much better an option he is for Arkansas than Tommy Bowden would have been in Fayetteville. Bowden showed how inept he is as a head coach and proved once again to Clemson fans that he cannot lead a team that is favored to win any big game. Be happy Arkansas fans that this man is not your head coach.
The Weekend That Wasn’t
Sylvester Croom and his Mississippi State Bulldogs took a huge step backwards Saturday evening in their rebuilding process. Losing to Louisanna Tech turning the ball over 5 times is no way to start the season and one has to wonder how they even ended up playing a road game at La Tech in the first place. What is the AD doing there? How can you agree to a contract to travel to La Tech when every school in the SEC school pays teams like this to travel, get whooped and go back home with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It isn't so important how they got there, the problem was how they played. Even without their best player on special teams and defense, Derek Pegues, MSU should have won this game and there is no excuse for their poor play. Turnovers cost them the game and for a team that was trying to build on a very successful 2007 season, Sly Croom and his Bulldogs need to play a lot better if they hope to make it back to the postseason in 2008.
The Weekend That… What the Heck
The injuries continue to pile up for SEC players and knees seem to be the source of the problem. Early in August players like Cornelius Ingram of Florida and Trinton Sturdivant of Georgia went down with season ending knee injuries. This weekend continued the trend with another UGA player, Jeff Owens, tearing his ACL taking him out for his senior year. Owens a stud defensive tackle for the Bulldogs was not the only player to go down Saturday. Phillip Pierre-Louis a true freshmen for Auburn injured his knee on the opening kickoff Saturday night and will be out for the year. Pierre-Louis was expected to play a lot in the new Auburn spread attack, but now he is another one of the many SEC players out for the year with a hurt knee.
The Weekend That Will Be
SEC play opens up Thursday night with two teams that had two very different opening weekends. Both Vanderbilt and South Carolina played this past Thursday night, Vanderbilt played well in a road game at Miami (OH) and South Carolina looked like what we have come to expect from South Carolina under Steve Spurrier (great defense and terrible offense). Being in Williams-Brice for the trainwreck that was the Gamecock offense this past Thursday, USC fans need to be concerned about this game. Chris Nickson looked good running the Vandy offense and considering the Commodores beat South Carolina in Columbia last season they are not afraid of this Gamecock team. This is looking like a surprisingly competitive opener to SEC play.
Big Man on Campus (BMOC)
Charles Scott, LSU
The first two plays of the LSU/Appalachian State game were carries by Charles Scott, the first one went for about 60 yards and the second was about 10 to the end zone. Two plays ended any threat in ASU giving LSU a game as the Tigers flexed their muscle the way Michigan should have last season. Scott finished the day with 16 carries for 160 yards and with a backfield as talented as LSU has this season it is a pretty big deal for him to have a day like that. Great job Charles, keep up the good work.
Players 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).
Tommy Beecher, USC
Wesley Carroll, MSU
For the first time in the history of the PNDCW award we have a tie, this weeks award goes to two quarterbacks that threw 3 or more interceptions in the season opener, one costing his team the game, the other stealing all the emotion from the fans. Tommy Beecher from South Carolina and Wesley Carroll from Mississippi State are this weeks Players Now Doing Charlie Work.
Starting with Beecher, who threw 4 picks Thursday night, he had all of Steve Spurrier’s confidence going into their game against NC State and decided to leave the game with none of it. From inside the stadium fans were shocked at how long he was allowed to stay in the game. His leash was so long fans were surprised when he was actually replaced with Chris Smelley, especially since he had not thrown a pick the previous possession.
Mississippi State's Wesley Carroll is our other recipient of the PNDCW award. Carroll has been a quarterback who managed the game and wasn’t very flashy. Carroll threw 3 picks in the loss at Louisiana Tech Saturday night in a game that could put MSU's postseason in question. Turning the ball over is the best way to lose your starting job and it looks like both of these two players while be riding the pine while doing Charlie Work.
Soon to be seen on Sundays
Matthew Stafford
The first thing that came to mind when watching Matthew Stafford throw his first touchdown pass of the season to Kris Durham was John Elway. The ball did not float, it did not drop from the sky, it was a frozen rope that went maybe 20 ft off the ground and hit Durham in stride on his way to the end-zone. Stafford has the best arm in college football and it isn’t even close. He has good size, great arm strength and he plays in an offense where he is asked to lead and make decisions. He doesn’t look to the sideline for the play call after surveying the defense; he makes the calls on his own. NFL coaches should be salivating at Stafford's physical abilities and Mark Richt is giving him the education in college he will need to be successful in the pros.
4 Downs with the SEC
First Down – 34-0, not as good as it sounds
A couple SEC teams would have loved a 34-0 win to open up their 2008 campaign and two SEC teams actually got it. The problem is that if you did not watch either of those two games the score is very deceiving. Both South Carolina and Auburn beat their opponents by scores of 34-0 and both teams looked awful doing it. Starting with South Carolina, QB Tommy Beecher threw 4 interceptions and Steve Spurrier refused to pull him until the 4th quarter. If USC was playing any team with a pulse on offense this would have been a very close game, but since the ACC has decided to stop playing football this year the Gamecocks were able to recover from their starting quarterbacks mistakes.
The positive for South Carolina was that their offense actually scored all 34 of their points, Auburn’s new vaunted offense was only able to score 20 of its 34 points against Louisiana Monroe. A punt return for a touchdown, a fumble returned for a touchdown and a field goal were all the Auburn offense could muster in the first half. Sure they didn’t lose to LA Monroe like Alabama was able to do last year, but the offense looked terrible.
Tommy Tuberville and Tony Franklin refused to name a starting QB because the competition was so good they didn’t need to. They had 2 SEC starting caliber QB’s and they could rotate with little to no difference. Note to both Tuberville and Franklin, you don’t have one SEC caliber QB right now and the old adage if you have two starting quarterbacks, you really have none fits the Auburn Tigers perfectly right about now. Both these two teams need to fix their quarterback issues quick or their bowl destinations will be well below team expectations.
Second Down – The SEC looks pretty strong after Week One
With eleven games in the books the SEC once again looks like the dominant conference in college football. The only loss so far has been Louisana Tech’s upset of Mississippi State, but Alabama’s marquis win over Clemson once again showed the depth of the conference. Alabama looked great Saturday night, but coming into the season they were considered the fifth or sixth best team in the league. They may still only be fifth or sixth, but the domination of the best of the ACC really says something about Alabama and the SEC. If Tennessee wins at UCLA tomorrow night there will be no question that the SEC is holding onto their spot as the elite BCS conference in college football today.
Third Down – Casey Dick 300 yd passing game?
Arkansas may have looked terrible against lower division Western Illinois this past weekend, but one thing that was pretty impressive was Casey Dick going 25 of 41 for 318 yards and two touchdowns. Who thought this kid had it in him to do this. Arkansas fans have been waiting for years to see if Dick could be a quarterback instead of just a guy handing the ball to the Razorback’s stable of running backs and it looks like he can. Yes, this was against an inferior team and yes, Arkansas could have easily lost this game, but if there are such things as moral victories in College Football, this has to be one.
Fourth Down – We still don’t know a thing
The opening weekend of the season was exciting, full of upsets and full of disappointments. What is nice about a pretty boring opening weekend is that we still have no clue about many of the teams. We might be able to say that MSU looks a little down compared to 2007, but last year Tennessee was embarrassed at Cal and came back from that loss to win the SEC East. Last year MSU was embarrassed 45-0 in their opener against LSU and still managed to win 8 games including a bowl win.
The bottom line is if your team was great this weekend or a disappointment it really doesn’t say too much. Teams improve the most from the first game to the second game so Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State you are on notice. This weekend offers more of the same low caliber games with one or two good games mixed in and we should have plenty more to talk about next Monday.
What did you think of the opening weekend in the SEC? E-mail
me Brian Harbach
Y’all Play Nice, August 28, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 25, 2008
Y’all Play Nice, August 21, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, 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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