My spin on yesterday's SEC games

[BanditVol]

Understand..this is an Orange-colored-glasses spin zone.  I am not saying what I think is objectively true, but what the best spin is for the Vols.  I occasionally add more realistic comments in [].  This is a good week to think about the rest of the league, since we are off.

bammer 38 Arkansas 14

Best spin for the Vols is that Arkansas really does miss the star TB and they are worse then anyone thought. This means we have a chance against them, and @bammer is less intimidating.  [we had better really hope this is the case!  It affects our two toughest remaining road games].

florida 41 Kensucky 10 - the gators are much better than we thought, and our game last week will become more impressive as the season wears on.   [kentucky is really awful this year, although they sometimes play well at home no matter how bad they are]

Georgia 27 Ole Miss 14 - Ole Miss is terrible and uga is average at best.  [not much to be realistic about here...I think uga does suxes!.  Their game with us will be very tough though]

MSU 26 LaTech 20, OT - Hey Dooley really did a good job building LaTech!  [who cares otherwise, we don't play MSU...unfortunately]

LSU 47 WVU 21 - WVU really does suck and could never make it in the SEC.  [WVU gave LSU all they caould handle last year...in Baton Rogue.  Sound familiar?  Holy shizzle!  LSU at home might be tougher than bammer on the road, at this point]


USCe 21 Vandy 3 - one of my favorite games of the day.  USCe looked like complete shizzle in the first half (how about that lottery-winning defensive TD?  Vandy appears to be reverting to form.  Both are very good for us, as these are two of our more winnable SEC games at home. [maybe vandy really is that improved and USCe beat them soundly in spite of not having a good game?]


Auburn whatever FAU wahtever -who cares, this does not affect us [except that Auburn is less likely to impact the SECE race with games vs. USCe, uga and uf,  but let's be real...should we even worry about that?]

[3beans]

Orange glasses or not.  We will be underdogs in every SEC game except Vandy and Kentucky.

[BigOrange Maniac]

My take is that, top to bottom, the SEC is not as good this year as everyone expected. I still think that the national championship goes through the SEC, but with the exception of LSU, Alabama and perhaps Florida, just about everyone in the league was overrated. (I'm certainly not sold on Florida. The win over UK was okay, but UK has one of the worst teams they have had in years.)

Alabama - just about as good as I expected. Probably will win the conference this year and likely will win another national title.

LSU - better than I expected. Maybe the best defense in the country. I wish Chavis had coached at UT like he's coaching at LSU. Not that he didn't have some excellent defenses at UT, but I think I can be lumped in with most UT fans...I'll always remember him for the prevent D breakdowns and the mustang will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth. All of this may say more about Les Miles vs. Phillip Fulmer than Chavis himself. (With that said, LSU's D was very unimpressive against West Virginia yesterday. If WVa can throw on those guys, we should be able to throw on them.)

Arkansas - Not a bad team, but certainly not as good as expected, IMO.

Mississippi State and Auburn - to me, these are the two biggest disappointments in the league this year. Just not very good football teams.

Ole Miss - no one expected a good year from the Rebels/Black Bears but they're terrible.

Florida - Brantley has impressed me so far but I'm still not sold on Florida being a great team.

Georgia - Pretty much what I expected. Mark Richt has just lost that football team. If UT can't win this game in two weeks, we have problems.

South Carolina - overrated, at least from what we've seen so far.

Kentucky - wow, they suck.

Vanderbilt - a little better than I expected, but still not great. Unless UT just has a collapse, the Commodores will still be 5th in the East.

[WoodstockVol]

My take is that, top to bottom, the SEC is not as good this year as everyone expected. I still think that the national championship goes through the SEC, but with the exception of LSU, Alabama and perhaps Florida, just about everyone in the league was overrated. (I'm certainly not sold on Florida. The win over UK was okay, but UK has one of the worst teams they have had in years.)

Alabama - just about as good as I expected. Probably will win the conference this year and likely will win another national title.

LSU - better than I expected. Maybe the best defense in the country. I wish Chavis had coached at UT like he's coaching at LSU. Not that he didn't have some excellent defenses at UT, but I think I can be lumped in with most UT fans...I'll always remember him for the prevent D breakdowns and the mustang will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth. All of this may say more about Les Miles vs. Phillip Fulmer than Chavis himself. (With that said, LSU's D was very unimpressive against West Virginia yesterday. If WVa can throw on those guys, we should be able to throw on them.)

Arkansas - Not a bad team, but certainly not as good as expected, IMO.

Mississippi State and Auburn - to me, these are the two biggest disappointments in the league this year. Just not very good football teams.

Ole Miss - no one expected a good year from the Rebels/Black Bears but they're terrible.

Florida - Brantley has impressed me so far but I'm still not sold on Florida being a great team.

Georgia - Pretty much what I expected. Mark Richt has just lost that football team. If UT can't win this game in two weeks, we have problems.

South Carolina - overrated, at least from what we've seen so far.

Kentucky - wow, they suck.

Vanderbilt - a little better than I expected, but still not great. Unless UT just has a collapse, the Commodores will still be 5th in the East.

This season's Kentucky team is the worst since 1994.

[BanditVol]

Orange glasses or not.  We will be underdogs in every SEC game except Vandy and Kentucky.

I'm not sure we will be underdogs against uga.  And our game with USCe is so far off that we might even be favored in that one, but I will stick to saying "maybe not uga" for now.

[BanditVol]

Alabama - just about as good as I expected. Probably will win the conference this year and likely will win another national title.

I have a well-known bias here, but I am still not drinking the bammer cool aid.  Their only real offensive weapon is Trent Richardson.  As a bammer fan friend at church, (one of the few realistic ones I know  ), pointed out to me this morning, they scored on a kick return, an interception return and a fake punt.  Only 17 points truly came from their offense.  And they are all still worried about their young QB.  I think they will probably lose to LSU and may get upset by someone else.  My realistic bammer fan is also worried that they don't play well on the road, so I think Florida has a shot this weekend (but my hatred for all things crimson is showing, I am sure, lol). 

LSU - better than I expected. Maybe the best defense in the country. I wish Chavis had coached at UT like he's coaching at LSU. Not that he didn't have some excellent defenses at UT, but I think I can be lumped in with most UT fans...I'll always remember him for the prevent D breakdowns and the mustang will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth. All of this may say more about Les Miles vs. Phillip Fulmer than Chavis himself. (With that said, LSU's D was very unimpressive against West Virginia yesterday. If WVa can throw on those guys, we should be able to throw on them.)

I was never as down on Chavis as many were, but I did get just as frustrated about the prevent.  Good point that perhaps Fulmer influenced some of that.  I agree with the rest.

Arkansas - Not a bad team, but certainly not as good as expected, IMO.

Mississippi State and Auburn - to me, these are the two biggest disappointments in the league this year. Just not very good football teams.

Florida - Brantley has impressed me so far but I'm still not sold on Florida being a great team.

Arkansas is missing that TB IMO.  Good for us, I hope. Agree that UF is not a great team...yet, but I think Rainey has much more to do with it than Brantley.  I still think he is above average at best.  Auburns suxes, pariticalarly on D, but I think MSU might still turn it aroudnd.  All their games have been close and they have had some tough breaks, particularly they got some bad calls vs. Auburn IMO,  Agree otherwise.

[Volznut]

Orange glasses or not.  We will be underdogs in every SEC game except Vandy and Kentucky.

I think we'll be slight favorites vs UGA, being at home and UGA not being that good.

[Ridge Runner]

I think Arkansas is still a pretty good team. IMO they were somewhat overrated but as BOM said above, Bama did get a lot of points off the D and kicking game. It will be a tough test for the Vols because:

A. it will be on the road.
2. We don't have a D nowhere as good as Bama.
iii. We don't have a RB in the class of Richardson, or for that matter Eddie Lacey (the backup RB)

As for LSU: BOM stated that...

...If WVa can throw on those guys, we should be able to throw on them...)

Do you know that WVU has the third ranked passing attack with 382 ypg? And their passing attack is out of a spread-type formation with a lot of short dump offs and screens where the QB gets the ball out of his hand fast before the rush can get to him, whereas ours is more of a conventional pro-style drop-back attack. Apples and oranges. Just because WVU was able to put up big passing numbers vs. LSU doesn't necessarily mean we will, although I hope that's the case.

As for UGA, I think they're better than y'all are giving them credit for. Boise State dominated them but they should've beat USC. In that game they gave up a fake punt for a TD, two direct defensive scores, and USC returned another fumble to UGA's 5 for another TD. That's 28 points they just gave USC and they still scored 42. Isiah Crowell is playing real well, he's averaging over 100 ypg. I think we have a real shot of beating them, but I think a lot of people on the board are underestimating them. And they have the softest SEC West schedule (No Bama, LSU or Arky), so they could still make a run at the SEC East.

Bama.  Well they aren't flashy, but they are rock solid in almost every phase. Great D, outstanding running attack, solid kicking game. Their QB is playing pretty efficiently with a 63% completion percentage and a respectable 2 INTs through 4 games. And he's only going to get better as he gains experience. This is the type of team that I'm pretty sure General Neyland would look at and say,"This is how you play football."

South Carolina? Wow, this team is really puzzling. Great running with Lattimore, and a big-play type of D, but I have a feeling Garcia is going to lose them a game somewhere down the line with his erratic play, he's a real Jekyll-and-Hyde, feast-or-famine type of player. Hopefully, we'll force him into some mistakes.