I felt a muted Heisman Trophy tone to the end of the Alabama comeback win over Arkansas.
Mark Ingram stiff-arms Tramain Thomas on way to a huge win (New York Times)
Mark Ingram (right) seized his opportunity to produce yards and first downs when needed, even in the Wildcat set. Ryan Mallett failed twice to grab his opportunity in the final five minutes with costly interceptions. That was a tremendous football game, and a healthy Ingram will not give up his Heisman without a fight.
Boise State took out another Top 25 team in Oregon State last night (few style points though), and yet the haters still exist that choose not to believe that the Broncos deserve to be in the national title conversation. I was on Twitter intermittently all day yesterday (best place to find me on Saturday), and I still think some of these non-believers think the only reason the Broncos installed Blue Turf because it was on sale.
While the WAC schedule can be blamed for this underappreciation, it should not be cited in 2010 as a reason to downgrade Boise in the polls. Please remember a Friday after Thanksgiving date at Top 25 Nevada looms on the schedule, as does a visit from a scrappy Fresno State the week before.
Speaking of perceptions, is there a worse 4-0 team than the Oklahoma Sooners? Playing to their competition in all but one game (throttling FSU), and now due to the Texas Longhorns implosion at the hands of UCLA I cannot remember a Red River Shootout/Classic/Rivalry with less weight to it. Maybe a fried Snickers will take the edge off. Read the rest of this entry →
Aside from the Florida-Tennessee tilt, this was a pretty normal SEC week. All the favorites won handily, save the random Vanderbilt win on the road at Ole Miss. (And if you don’t think that Houston Nutt is banking the crazy after the Jacksonville State game and this one – only to cash it in against Alabama – then you clearly don’t know Houston Nutt.) A couple of key points to look at going forward:
Vance Cuff (31) felt the heat of the Arkansas passing attack in a 31-24 loss (Icon SMI)
- Last week the Georgia defense got gashed badly by Marcus Lattimore, which raised questions about their rush defense. Well, the good news is that they responded well against Arkansas, limiting them to 2.3 yards per carry on the ground. The bad news is that they got obliterated by Ryan Mallett in the process, so they might want to work on that.
- Florida unveiled a pretty extensive under-center package against Tennessee. It wasn’t more effective than their shotgun package (which did display a bad snap in the first quarter), but it’s the first time we’ve seen that much under-center action from the Gators in years. It bodes well for Jeff Demps, although he was bottled up along with much of the offense, again.
The UF offense isn’t on track yet – their biggest play was a 36-yard Omarius Hines run off a fake punt – but if they’re going to embrace their destiny as a mediocre offense, moving Brantley under center would be a good way to start.
Not only can we start to forget the sweltering heat of Florida summer, we can start new memories of college football. Whether you eagerly await your favorite team’s creampuff opener, or if you have had the Boise-Virginia Tech clash on your iPhone calendar for months, or whether you can’t wait to see your fantasy teams live scoring, it is time for kickoff!
PS- Live Scoring didn’t update until 1115 ET on CBSSports.com. That’s like Diet Live Scoring. Quasi Live Scoring. Let’s hope they clean things up by Week Two.
Here it is, all the news of the week wrapped up in one quick bite.
After three years and three consecutive national championships, the SEC has one heck of a resume to hang their hat on. However, all that bling serves as a shield toward a pretty awkward couple of issues: the league only runs two deep at the top right now and fantasy players tail off in a hurry down south of the Mason Dixon. Attrition caused its own mess, so …now what? Now we have a couple of guys who are impact players, a few guys who could be, and then a heck of a lot of hope.
Big arm, big body, big-time coach - yes, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett looks like the real fantasy deal (Icon SMI)
At least we have trophies…
QUARTERBACK
1. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
2. Cam Newton, Auburn
3. John Brantley, Florida
4. Jeremiah Masoli, Ole Miss
Let’s start with the obvious: Ryan Mallett is as close to a fantasy QB beast the SEC is likely to get for the near future. He has a system designed to maximize his talents, he has a quality crop of WRs, and he’ll get the opportunities. After that …. yikes. Sure, Stephen Garcia is still floating around, and Greg McElroy is a great real-life QB, but they have systemic issues – McElroy isn’t in an offense that lets him pass enough, and Garcia is going to be yanked out of at least 3-4 games (plus is still playing behind a swinging gate of an offensive line).
Instead, we’re left with what systems are likely to produce. Newton, Brantley, and Masoli are all untested in SEC play, excepting Newton’s garbage time as a Gator his freshman year. However, they’re all in systems that can maximize their talents (and to be brutally frank, I flipped their order a few times writing this). For now, I trust Newton more than either of the two guys ranked below him. Brantley has all the tools, but after what happened to Florida’s offense under Steve Addazio last year, I’m a bit gunshy. Masoli by all rights should be going to an offense that will let him run – Matt Jones in 2004 as a good example of Masoli’s potential – but there’s the simple matter of, well, not trusting that Houston Nutt has any idea how to coach QBs. At all. Couple that with Ole Miss breaking in three new guys on the line and there are some red flags here, even with Masoli’s production last season.
Don’t get me wrong – Newton, Brantley, and Masoli all have a chance to be the best fantasy QB in the SEC. But in the absence of any history, we’re left to fall back on what we’ve seen guys like them do, and the production potential of those three guys doesn’t outweigh what we already know about Mallett.
Most are familiar with the story of Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett, our Fantasy CollegeBlitz – SEC Fantasy Player of the Year….how he started out at Michigan (starting some games as a true freshman), and left the program after a coaching change in Ann Arbor that contrasted to the style of play Mallett was familiar with.
Fortunately, another school was in the process of a coaching change….bringing in a coach (Bobby Petrino) with an offense suited to Mallett’s ability and talent.
Woooo Pig Soooie….a new Arkansas Razorback legend was born.
Mallett (photo, thanks IconSMI), a sophomore from Texarkana, TX (Texas HS), won our SEC FPOY honor by throwing for nearly 3200 yards and 28 TDs….also adding 2 rushing TDs (stats quoted are through November 21st games).
Michigan’s loss was surely Arkansas’ gain….
