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 we take a look at the SEC East leading Vanderbilt Commodores, Auburn’s anemic offense, South Carolina getting revenge on Houston Nutt and more missed extra points. As usual the format is the same: please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions. Here we go…

The Weekend That Was

As a fan of SEC football it is difficult not to be happy for the Vanderbilt Commodores. After years of being close to getting over the hump, it looks like they are going to make their first bowl game in 25 years and they look like a team ready to make some noise in the SEC. The Dores don’t look great on offense, they don’t look great on defense, but they make plays when they need to and they don’t beat themselves.

Their special teams have been amazing, watching the game Saturday night they pinned Auburn back deep in their own territory numerous times and never gave the Tigers a chance to get the field position back in their favor. Vanderbilt is experienced at the QB position, deep in the secondary and the whole team seems to play with great football knowledge. Bobby Johnson has done an amazing job this season and he should make some room on the shelves in his office for some serious post-season awards.

The Weekend That Wasn’t

Once again the Auburn Tigers decided to take another step backwards in their 2008 season by teasing us with an offense and then taking it away. The first quarter against Vanderbilt was a dominating performance in old school Auburn fashion. Two tight ends, one running back and a physical style of attack on offense led the Tigers to 3 straight runs of ten or more yards and by the end of the quarter a 13-0 lead. After quarter number one, we never saw that formation again and what we saw was an inept offense at its finest.

After gaining about 140 yards in the first quarter Auburn gained roughly 70 yards for the rest of the game. The offense continued to rack up penalties and look utterly confused while Tommy Tuberville shoved his hands in his face. There is no way around it, the Auburn offense is just flat out bad and it isn’t the players. The coaches are doing these young men a disservice and they deserve better. After six games Auburn isn’t running the Tony Franklin spread, they aren’t running the Auburn offense; they are running this team into the ground. In 2003 Tommy Tuberville almost lost his job because they failed to meet expectations, once again Auburn was picked to win the SEC West and has a very talented team that is being wasted by the worst coaching performance in Tuberville’s tenure.

The Weekend That…What the Heck

Tennessee’s 13-9 victory over Northern Illinois has to have alarm bells going off all over Knoxville. The Vols are a sinking ship and everyone better get off while they can. The Tennessee offense managed 9 first downs and 225 total yards against visiting Northern Illinois and while it looks like they may have found a QB who knows where to throw the ball. Nick Stephens’ first road start will come against the Georgia Bulldogs next week. This shocking score shows how far behind Tennessee is this year and how much work they have to do before they become a competitive SEC team.

The game was about 2,500 fans short of a sellout, which is a rarity in Knoxville, but fans have slowly become apathetic towards Phil Fulmer and barring a huge upset this weekend, the Vols are looking at an uphill battle for a postseason berth. Starting Stephens was the right decision for an offense that has looked terrible and sloppy the first half of the year. It will be interesting to see how the Vols play next week against a Bulldog team that has had two weeks to stew after being trounced by Alabama at home.

The Weekend That Will Be

There are a number of interesting games on the SEC schedule this weekend starting with the bid daddy, LSU visiting Florida. The Gators have looked mediocre all year long and this is their chance to wake up and prove they are ready to hang with the big boys of the SEC. The Tennessee/Georgia game looked big before the start of the season, but now it has lost a lot of its luster. Bobby Petrino will visit Auburn for the first time since his time as the offensive coordinator in 2002 and there is something about a plane and some Auburn board of trustees, but I don’t remember the details. Vanderbilt traveling to Starkville will be a big one to see if the Commodores can head home still in first place in the SEC East and South Carolina looks to continue its positive momentum to Lexington after beating Ole Miss.

Big Man on Campus (BMOC)

Mackenzie Adams, Vanderbilt QB
Chris Nickson was an important player this weekend for Vanderbilt to have any success against Auburn and when he went out in the first quarter all eyes were on back up QB Mackenzie Adams. Adams has had experience in SEC games, playing in every single SEC game for the Dores in 2007 and that experience showed against Auburn. Adams passed for 153 yards and two touchdowns in Vandy’s upset win over the Tigers and his leadership and running ability confused Auburn all night long. In the Commodores biggest game in 25 years the backup QB was the story and he led them to victory.

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).

Wes Byrum, Auburn K
Points are precious in every game and this is the second week in a row where an extra point is the difference between winning and losing. Wes Byrum missed an extra point in the first quarter against Vanderbilt this weekend in a game Auburn went on to lose 14-13. One week after Ole Miss blocked an extra point against Florida where the Gators lost 31-30. It is safe to say that Byrum confidence is shot after missing his last 3 field goal attempts and now an extra point that he wasn’t even close on. It would be a surprise if Tommy Tuberville does not open the kicking competition for the second week in a row because Byrum may be too busy doing Charlie Work this weekend to kick against Arkansas.

4 Downs with the SEC

First Down – Welcome back South Carolina
In what was the Gamecocks most important game of the year, USC decided to step up and start playing some smart football. Two things happened that allowed South Carolina to win this game, the first was Chris Smelley took care of the football and the second was the receivers started making some plays. Smelley has struggled all season with turnovers, but this week he looked calm and didn’t try to force anything. He moved well outside of the pocket and most of the time put the ball in places where only his receiver could catch the ball. Smelly completed 22 of 32 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns.

The young receiving core made plays and even more important was the run defense which has been run over the past couple years by Houston Nutt’s offense. Ole Miss averaged only 3.6 yards a carry and for the most part were held in check. This game was huge for South Carolina and should put them in a great position to get to 7 wins and the post season after missing out last year. This was a must win for Spurrier and the entire South Carolina coaching staff did a great job to start October after a very rough September.

Second Down – Vandy looks familiar to a team from last season
When watching Vanderbilt play this year another team comes to mind and that is last years Mississippi State Bulldogs. Last year MSU upset teams like Auburn and Kentucky on the road, they played physical, smart football and they usually didn’t beat themselves. Last year MSU looked like Vanderbilt does this season. Neither team is overly talented, both are well coached and they both seem to get all the bounces going their way. It might be safe to say that is year is going to go the same for Vanderbilt the way it worked out for MSU last season. These two teams meet this weekend in Starkville in a desperation game for the Bulldogs and a chance for Vandy to become bowl eligible.

Third Down – Do we have a running game in Gainesville?
This weekend Florida had two runners go over 100 yards and neither of them was Tim Tebow. Chris Rainey and Jeffrey Demps each rushed for 103 yards against the Arkansas Razorbacks in a game that finally had the Gators looking like the Gators. Yes this came against an Arkansas team that was in the third of four games where they will likely be taken to the woodshed, but it does say something that finally some running backs are trying to step up.

Florida cannot beat LSU by being one-dimensional and that does not mean only running or passing, one dimensional is Tim Tebow. Having the threat of a running game will open things up for the Florida offense and allow Tebow to become more effective. Florida needs to beat LSU this weekend and they need it badly. After this weekend at the very least LSU will have to prepare for a rushing attack besides Tebow, it will be interesting to see if Florida uses the freshmen again.

Fourth Down – Ignore what Alabama did this weekend
After Alabama destroyed Clemson in the season opener they came home to play a Tulane team that was escaping from a hurricane and obviously less talented, Alabama won by 14 in a lackluster performance. This weekend after they dominated Georgia in Athens they traveled home to play Kentucky and again played a bad game where they won by three points. It would be easy to say that Bama is overrated and should have destroyed these teams, but that would be wrong.

Good teams win the games they should and it is tough to get up for every game. Alabama’s team is so young that it is difficult to play with the same intensity for Kentucky and Tulane after beating Clemson and Georgia. The Alabama teams of the past may have lost these games, the Alabama of today is too well coached to lose them and the rest of the SEC should be worried.

A lot of stuff went on this past weekend, what were your thoughts? E-mail me Brian Harbach

What is Wrong with Clemson, October 3, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Six, October 2, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 29, 2008
Pac 10, you have a problem, September 26, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Five, September 25, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 18, 2008
Harbach’s Picks - Week Four, September 18, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Four, September 18, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 15, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Three, September 11, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 8, 2008
Harbach’s SEC Picks Week Two, September 3, 2008
Y’all Play Nice Week Two, September 3, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 1, 2008
SEC Picks Week One, August 28, 2008
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