Sports

Got a quick version of the Cut this week for undisclosed reasons. Lets just say it was the birthday of Guinness last night. 2-2-1 last week bringing the total up to 6-4-1. Decent. Lets get after it.

Alabama travels to Arkansas to begin the most brutal stretch of games I’ve ever seen. Check out this slate: @Ark, UF, @USC, Ole Miss, @UT, @LSU, Miss St. Every team after Florida is coming off a bye week. Is this the SEC’s way of trying to get a new West contender? Seems mighty suspicious to me. Arkansas is supposed to be one of those teams, but I don’t think they have the stones to pull this one off. The Hogs couldn’t really run the ball on Georgia who’s defense has been mediocre at best. ‘Bama runs the same system and they do it better. Alabama – 7.

Kentucky travels to Florida. Kentucky is usually a 20+ point dog to Florida, even in Lexington. I know there’s been talk about how UK’s offense will surprise people and they’ve been a cover machine this year. The fact that the line is only 14 is a sign of how far they’ve come. But they won’t be able to slow down, let alone stop, Florida’s offense. Florida -14.

I’m actually heading to Auburn to catch them play South Carolina. Toughest game of the week for me. Both teams have nothing to worry about next week, they’ve faced decent competition already and both have similar mental attitudes: underdogs in the division looking to prove they’re legit. Of course, Vegas game SC the 3 point road points meaning this would be a pick ‘em on a neutral site. I’ll go with the home team just because SC hasn’t played on the road yet. Auburn -3.

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of the Big East? Wrong, Pat White left two years ago. They’re awful. And the SEC is the top dog. Everyone knows that! Which means you almost always go the other way: the public is dumb (though 790’s Kirk Carter would argue that I am also). West Virginia always brings it against the SEC and LSU isn’t as good as you think. WVU +10

I’m terrified of this Georgia traveling to Mississippi State. Terrified. Don’t want to touch it. We must have enough talent to beat the knock-off Dogs from the West right? RIGHT?! I’m not sure. Our best player is out. Freshman QB. Shaky defense. Since I can’t bring myself to pick this one, I polled several media buddies and got 4 yes’, 2 no’s and one amazing response from Michael Terry that’ll have to stay between us. Fletcher Page from scout.com wrote back, “State is terrible. I don’t trust this UGA team, but surely they pull this one out…” which pretty much summed up most of the replies. UGA +1

Until next time, Ball Hard.