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| Thursday, October 26 Western Division is on even low ground By Pat Forde Special to ESPN.com | |||
| The Southeastern Conference Western Division has started to take on the tone
of the presidential election: An uncompelling competition in which the prize
is as much lost by the losers as it is won by the winner.
But at least the presidential race has a W to hang its hat on. There haven't
been many of those in the SEC west.
Talk about fuzzy math: All of the six teams have two league losses, and
nobody has more than three league victories. With everyone having at least three
league games remaining on the schedule, this could be the first time in the nine
years since the SEC went to two divisions that a division winner has more
than two defeats. (Arkansas retroactively won the west at 4-3-1 in 1993 after
Alabama was stripped of the title.)
It also could lead to minute examination of the league tie-breaker rules,
which include the chilling last straw: If all else fails, a vote of league
athletic directors could decide the winner.
"You're kidding me," said South Carolina coach Lou Holtz, whose team is
tussling for eastern supremacy with Georgia and Florida. "(If it came to
that) I'd just like to know who voted against us, so we could remind our
team when we play them the following year."
Of course, someone in the west could catch fire down the stretch and walk
away with the invitation to Atlanta for the league championship game. But so
far, this division has been a pack of wet matches.
"It's an amazing year," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "I think there's
some teams much more talented than others, but there's some teams that just
aren't playing very well."
Tuberville wasn't pointing any fingers, but that's what we're here for.
Clearly, preseason top-five team Alabama is the league underachiever at 3-4.
But at 3-2 in the division, Mike DuBose could luck into the title game on
his way to a pink slip.
"I said this at Media Days in July," DuBose said, "it'll be to the last game
of the season before we know who will represent the west."
Behind the Crimson Tide on the disappointment scale stands Mississippi. With
22 seniors on the preseason roster, including quarterback Romaro Miller and
Heisman-hyped running back Deuce McAllister, the Rebels were primed for a
breakthrough season. Instead they're 2-2, with the victories against league
dregs Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Auburn and Mississippi State squared off for the opportunity to get a leg up
in the division on Oct. 7. State won but then backslid with an upset loss at
its house of horrors, Tiger Stadium (Jackie Sherrill is 0-5 as coach of the
Bulldogs in Baton Rouge). Auburn's only victory after a 5-0 start was a wobbly
one over Louisiana Tech last week.
LSU owns huge home overtime victories against Tennessee and Mississippi State.
But the Tigers are 0-2 on the road, with neither loss (Auburn and Florida)
close. Nick Saban couldn't have come into his inaugural season at LSU
thinking of anything more grandiose than a minor bowl bid.
Only one western team is undefeated in its division. That would be Arkansas
-- which has played just one division game. The Hogs have been poleaxed in
their other two league games, by eastern heavies Georgia and South Carolina.
Houston Nutt's team has been catching flak, but flak is relative these days.
"The thing they (the players) have to remember is, hey, everyone's got two
losses," Nutt said.
So what happens now?
While there are two major matchups in the east -- Georgia against Florida in
Jacksonville and Tennessee at South Carolina -- little will be decided in
the west.
Arkansas plays at Auburn in what could amount to an elimination game for the
loser -- especially if the loser is 1-2 Arkansas. Alabama, State and Ole
Miss all have scheduled walkovers against nonconference cream puffs, and
LSU is off.
"Everyone has an opportunity," Tuberville said. "Everything THINKS they have
an opportunity, but in a few weeks there will probably be some teams drop
out and it's going to be a two-team race."
Here's a brief handicap of that race, team by team: Road games remaining: LSU and Mississippi State (a combined 7-1 at home). Home games: Ancient rival Auburn. Current Sagarin Rank: 42. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 29.3. Championship pedigree: Won the SEC west five of eight years, although 1993 title was vacated due to NCAA penalties. Outlook: Not out of the question, but all three remaining games are doozies. Road games remaining: Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State (combined 10-1 at home). Home games: Ole Miss in Fayetteville and LSU in Little Rock. Current Sagarin: 51. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 34.6. Championship pedigree: Won a similarly muddled west in 1995 under Danny Ford. Outlook: Strictly a long shot. Too many tough games for a team that has played a soft schedule. Road games remaining: At Alabama. Home games: Arkansas and Georgia. Current Sagarin: 29. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 37. Championship pedigree: Won the west in 1997 and had the best record in 1993, but was on probation at the time. Outlook: Tuberville has done well to get his team in the mix, and it could be playing for the title in Tuscaloosa. Road games remaining: Ole Miss and Arkansas. Home games: Alabama. Current Sagarin: 39. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 48.7. Championship pedigree: Lost tiebreaker twice for West title, once to Alabama and once to Auburn. Not close the other six years. Outlook: Schedule not punitive -- but the Tigers have lost 10 straight road games. Beat Vandy and Kentucky. Lost to Auburn and Alabama. Road games remaining: Arkansas, Georgia. Home games: LSU, Mississippi State. Current Sagarin: 53. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 32. Championship pedigree: Has never seriously threatened to win west. Outlook: If the Rebs are still in the mix when they go between the (former) Hedges Nov. 18, they won't be afterward. Beat Florida and Auburn. Lost to South Carolina and Baton Rouge. Road games remaining: Kentucky, Ole Miss. Home games: Alabama, Arkansas. Current Sagarin: 20. Average Sagarin of remaining opponents: 51. Championship pedigree: Made first and only trip to Atlanta in 1998. Outlook: Manageable road games and a 15-game winning streak at Scott Field puts them in prime contention. Around the SEC Alabama Center Paul Hogan injured a knee during practice Tuesday and is questionable for the Tide's game against Central Florida. ... The good news: Quarterback Andrew Zow threw a touchdown pass in Bama's 20-10 loss to Tennessee last week. The bad news: It was his first of the season, against six interceptions. Arkansas Nutt has told his players to put any criticism they hear "out of your mind and for those three or four hours on Saturday, play your best ballgame." Problem is, the Razorbacks haven't played their best against anyone of consequence since Sept. 23 against Alabama, and haven't won an SEC road game since Halloween, 1998. ... Tailback Fred Talley, who missed several weeks after fracturing his hand against Alabama, came back against South Carolina and should be full-go for Auburn. He was one of the players forced to step into the breach when Cedric Cobbs went down for the season with a shoulder injury. Auburn Big-play receiver Ronney Daniels sprained an ankle against Louisiana Tech. Tuberville says he's taking a "Wait-and-see" approach with Daniels during practice this week. ... Bulldozer running back Rudi Johnson's first year on The Plains could be a record-setting one. After his 249-yard, four-touchdown day last week, he is ninth in single-season rushing yards (1,124) and his 12 rushing TDs is tied for sixth in school history with three games to go. The 249 yards was fifth-most in Auburn history. LSU Saban is 2-0 in overtime games at Tiger Stadium, both times winning them in the north end of the field and after losing the coin toss and playing offense first. Nevertheless, he's not ready to change from the tried-and-true OT strategy of playing defense first. "It makes sense to play defense first because you know what you need to do," he said. ... QB Josh Booty played his second consecutive outstanding game and could retain the starting job even as Rohan Davey's injured ankle finishes healing during an open date. ... Redshirt freshman running back LaBrandon Toefield was SEC Offensive Player of the Week for his 119-yard, two-touchdown game. That's a good game against anyone, but considering that it came at the expense of the run-swallowing Mississippi State defense, it became an award-winning game. Mississippi The Rebels' relatively high interception rate (one every 19.8 pass attempts) wouldn't appear to be attributable to shoddy offensive line work allowing pressure on the quarterbacks. Ole Miss has allowed the fewest sacks in the league -- five. Starting QB Miller has thrown all the Rebels' interceptions and touchdowns (10), while Eli Manning has seen only spot duty. Mississippi State Wayne Madkin's 82-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Grindle on the opening drive in Baton Rouge was the first time this season that an opponent has scored on LSU on its first possession, and the first time in the past 13 LSU games. ... State coach Jackie Sherrill is fond of Madkin, but knows he's not the next Dan Marino. "He's come an awfully long ways and he's going to be in the Mississippi State record books, but he's an athlete playing quarterback," Sherrill said. "If you look around the country there are very few true quarterbacks playing quarterback." Florida Gators coach Steve Spurrier was popular with writers from Nebraska on the weekly conference call, looking for quotes on Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops leading into the seems-like-old-times showdown between the Cornhuskers and Sooners. "That's a big one there this week, isn't it?" Spurrier said. "We've got a fairly big one of our own over in Jacksonville." Biggest game of the year in the SEC, in fact. ... The freshman Fun'N'Gun offense has landed quarterback Rex Grossman atop the national charts in passing efficiency and given receiver Jabar Gaffney the league freshman record for touchdown passes (10). But while Grossman is being hailed by some as The Next Wuerffel, Gaffney faces a potentially difficult homecoming for the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Gaffney is playing without a scholarship this year after an offseason charge of grand theft, and a Jacksonville radio personality last week called him "a thief who can play." The station then printed the quote in an ad in the Florida Times-Union. Spurrier dismissed the quote as the radio personality "trying to stir up some crap." Georgia Previously anonymous former walk-on Cory Phillips might have looked like Peyton Manning in shredding Kentucky for 400 yards and four touchdowns last week, but he'll be back on the bench Saturday, backing up Quincy Carter. Carter has returned from a shoulder injury and coach Jim Donnan doesn't want to hear any talk about a quarterback controversy. In fact, neither does Phillips. "If Quincy had been out there, he probably would have thrown for 500 yards," Phillips said. "He's done a great job here. He's the starting quarterback. ... Of greater concern for Donnan is probably a defense that was leading the nation a few weeks ago but has been gouged by Vandy and Kentucky on consecutive Saturdays. Kentucky racked up 620 yards total offense in sprinting through a poor-tackling unit. Kentucky It was an amazing 48 hours last week for redshirt freshman quarterback Jared Lorenzen. On Thursday, he smashed his thumb on a teammate's helmet and feared it was broken. By Saturday afternoon, he was smashing Tim Couch's school record for single-game passing yards, throwing for 528 against the Bulldogs. "Unbelievable," Kentucky tight end Derek Smith said. "Thursday he had almost a broken thumb, and today he throws for 500 yards. I don't get it." ... Lorenzen's Play of the Day: While being dragged to the ground for a sack during the fourth quarter, the 300-pounder flipped the ball backward over his head, like a Larry Bird no-look pass, and hit running back Derek Homer for a 10-yard gain. "It looked kind of cool," Lorenzen said. He also broke the SEC season record for passing yards by a freshman, expunging Georgia's Carter from the books. ... Cats make an interception! The UK secondary, which had picked off one pass all season, got its second against the Dogs. Eric Kelly, who had one bang off his chest plate earlier in the game, pulled in a badly underthrown ball to double a beleaguered unit's season total. South Carolina Weekly Lou Holtz Injury Lament: "I'm really concerned about middle guard," he said. "We're just really running on low right now." The better his team does, the more morose he sounds. ... The Gamecocks play host to Tennessee, a team it beat in its inaugural year in the SEC and has lost two seven times since. Average margin of defeat: 26.6 points. ... In a classic display of Holtz Powerball, Carolina put two running backs into triple-digit yardage and rolled up 339 rushing yards against Vanderbilt last week. Derek Watson went for 128 yards, and forgotten man Andrew Pinnock broke out for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Tennessee The quarterback minidrama would appear to be over in Knoxville. Freshman Casey Clausen had a most impressive starting debut, completing 17 of 24 passes for 213 yards and exactly zero interceptions. He also threw two touchdowns to Cedric Wilson, a playmaking receiver who must be relieved to have someone reliably deliver him the ball. Clausen's mother, Cathy, gave her son a kiss after the game. "I thought about kissing him a couple of times," coach Phillip Fulmer said. ... Huge defensive tackle John Henderson had a Defensive Player of the Week day, making seven solo tackles, including three for losses (one was a sack). The 6-foot-7, 290-pound junior could be the latest Volunteers star to make an early jump to the NFL after this season. Vanderbilt With the Commodores' sixth loss last week, Woody Widenhofer has continued his streak: nine years as a head coach in the USFL, at Missouri and at Vandy, zero winning seasons. ... Quarterback Greg Zolman moved into fourth on the school's career passing charts with 4,818 yards. He's 212 yards short of third, as the Commodores get two weeks to prepare for a Florida team that could be hung over coming off the Cocktail Party game. | ALSO SEE ACC notebook Big East notebook Big Ten notebook Big 12 notebook Big West notebook Conference USA notebook Mountain West notebook Pac-10 notebook | ||
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