It’s a quieter week in the SEC, with several teams on bye, but there are three games I’ll have my eye on — two of which could end up deciding the SEC West.
(6) Alabama vs. Mississippi State
Line: Alabama -20.5
The Will Rogers and Mississippi State hype train came to a screeching halt last week as they were shut down by Kentucky and fell 27-17 on the road. Of course, we all know what happened to Alabama this past weekend as well, so these are two teams looking to bounce back off tough losses. In this spot, the Crimson Tide have been incredibly profitable, known to demolish teams after a loss. However, at several points early this season, I’ve found myself questioning whether or not this Alabama team is like previous Alabama teams. If Quinn Ewers didn’t get hurt in the first half, I believe this team would have two losses, and they nearly lost to a bad Texas A&M team at home. This is the worst Nick Saban-led Alabama squad we’ve seen in a long time, and while I don’t think Mississippi State is much to write home about either, laying 20.5 points is a lot. I will be riding with Mike Leach, Will Rogers, and the points this weekend.
LSU vs. (7) Ole Miss
Line: LSU -1.5
An unranked LSU is laying points at home against a top-10 team in the country? That may surprise some people, and the public is all over Ole Miss, but as I talked about yesterday, this has all the makings of an upset in Baton Rouge. The Rebels, while undefeated, haven’t looked very impressive in their victories. They let a miserable Auburn offense score 34 points in their own building; they were losing at halftime to Vandy, had a close call with Tulsa, and probably should have lost to Kentucky at home. I don’t think LSU is anything more than a middle-of-the-road SEC team, but this is more about Ole Miss being over-ranked. LSU was also embarrassed by Tennessee the last time they played at home. That’s unlikely to happen again with first place in the SEC West on the line.
South Carolina vs. Texas A&M
Line: Texas A&M -3.5
Things are already ugly in Aggie Land, and they have the potential to get much uglier this week as Texas A&M travels to South Carolina to take on Shane Beamer’s squad. There have been some preliminary murmurs about Jimbo Fisher’s future at College Station; while I don’t think there’s much to those yet, that could change with another sub-par performance this week. The Gamecocks have shown some life since they were blown out by Georgia, with their last win coming over a ranked Kentucky team. Off of a bye, I like South Carolina to keep this one very close at home, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they pulled off the upset as the future of Jimbo Fisher gets even cloudier.
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Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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