The Weekend That Was: Barkley Owned, Another Historic Loss, Irish for Real?, My New Favorite Player, SEC Joke Coaches

While it is the surprises, upsets and a sense of loyalty to a team that draws us to college football, there are a few truths that seem inevitable. A few of those came true this weekend: Virginia Tech begins the year in the top 10 and falls to an inferior team, Alabama beats Arkansas, USC starts in the top 5 and is a national championship favorite and falls, and Notre Dame wins three games and moves up the polls quickly. Now that you have the gist of Week Three in football, let's get to the nitty gritty.

Barkley remains defeated versus Stanford

STANFORD OWNS BARKLEY & CO.: At some point, what Stanford did/is doing will no longer be a fluke. Cardinal coach David Shaw has to get credit. He is Andrew Luck-less and is still pulling off 'upsets' of the No. 2 team in the country. I say "'upsets'" because it should no longer come as a surprise when he is able to beat the California team from the south. Maybe, just maybe, Shaw will be able to sustain some of the success his predecessors (Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck) began. I am all up for nerds ruling the football world.

Stanford is a rarity in college football. Not only do they all make 34's on their ACTs but they know who they are and what they can and can not do. They know they run the football well with a huge push from the big uglies upfront, which creates an obvious, enormous mismatch for USC, who is setup to beat the likes of Oregon.

Matt Barkley will graduate having never beaten Stanford, which is incredible when you look at the history of these two programs.

ANOTHER HISTORIC LOSS: Remember the questions I brought up last week after Arkansas blew a 28-7 lead to University Louisiana-Monore? There are more this week. Instead of doing listing those, here is some historical perspective of what a team that was beat by ULM in 2007 (Alabama) did on Saturday in Fayetteville.

The Tide shut out the Hogs at home for the first time since 1966, a 44-0 loss to the Baylor, but that was two years post national championship. It was the worst loss for the Razorbacks since a 70-17 show from the USC Trojans. It was an embarrassing day for Arkansas, and while the weather did not help keep fans in their seat, neither did their play on the field.

Injured Razorback quarterback admitted he thought some of his teammates quit, which is a direct reflection of coaching. There's good reason to be worried as Rutgers comes to Arkansas this week.

If anything, this makes The Game of the Century III (Alabama at LSU) all the more anticipated, and as my old man said, no doubt there is a Pop Tart sale in Arkansas.

Johnson has been "The Beast" for a while.

MY FAVORITE PLAYER IS A VOLUNTEER: Is there anything Tennessee sophomore A.J. Johnson can not do? He was named to the All-SEC freshman team a year ago and now is starting to show out on the offensive side too from the Wildcat formation.

Not only does he make grown-man tackles on defense, but the Volunteer captain scored a rushing touchdown against Florida.

He did the same thing in high school, too.

A Gainesville, Georgia native, he dominated this area for four years like few have and remains a local legend. If he continues on his current path, he will soon be a legend in the Knoxville area as well before making his way to the professional ranks.

NOTRE DAME IS FOR REAL (maybe): The Irish get their fair, and maybe more, share of articles and columns written about them, but anytime you go on the road, in a night game, and defeat a top 10 team, you start getting press for all the right reasons.

Coach Brian Kelley, who was brought over from Cincinnati for his offensive prowess, has started building his program from the defensive side of the ball. Now, other than Alabama and LSU, he may have the top defensive front in the country and the best linebacker in Manti Te'o. Kelley will build his offense no doubt, and if both sides of the ball progress like they seem to be doing, the Irish could be trouble in the future.

HOW QUICKLY CAN CHIZIK BE REPLACED: It's really a three-way race between Arkansas' John L. Smith, Auburn's Gene Chizik, and Kentucky's Joker Phillips to see who will be fired first. Two of the three will definitely be told to seek employment elsewhere come season's end, but Chizik has enough equity built up from a national championship two years ago.

After two dismal performances from his quarterback Kiehl Frazier, these games are much more like what we expected from Chizik when he came from Iowa State. This is what a Chizik team minus a $200,000 quarterback looks like.

That's what a Hilltoppers look like after they get their first SEC win.

KENTUCKY'S BIG JOKE(er): Get it? Their coach's name is Joker and that's what he has made the Wildcats in the eyes of football fans. We have all heard Kentucky fans say the only sport they care about is basketball -- and horseracing. However, there are better ways to let everyone know that other than getting beat by Western Kentucky. Heck, they've only been an official FBS program for four years!

Sure you make all SEC fans proud during March and early April, but there is no excuse for this. Bye, bye Joker.

We All Are Wrong, Yet We Continue to Try...

Every year millions of my Americans complete an enjoyable process, in which we write team names in series of lines and boxes. Then we sit back and watch in angst as 18-22 year old men play a child's game in which they try to throw an orange ball into a metal circle that is suspended ten feet above ground more times than the other team does for 40 minutes.  Many Americans like to think they have the correct combination of teams to create a perfect bracket, though the actual odds of that happening are 1-in-100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. For those of you who were not math whizzes, that is 1-in-100 million trillion.

International affairs come in second place to March Madness.
Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

But not me. No, filling out the bracket is a miserable process. I overthink lay-up picks and underthink the halfcourt shots. I become enamored with a team solely because every one in my bracket pools and the experts have a popular choice. Instead of picking a mid-major like VCU, Butler or George Mason that completes their Final Four journey, my dark horse pick is usually gone by the end of the first weekend. It is a agonizing process to fill out my bracket every year, which is why I limit myself to only one bracket--as you should to if you have any integrity. 

I like to think I know basketball. I do my homework, and follow it closely (though I rarely write about it), but there is no way to know what team will go on to the next round in a single-elimination tournament like the NCAA Tournament. It is because said zaniness and no-sense order that those like myself, who pay attention to the game, are just as lost as everyone else from from the middle of March to early April in the realm of college basketball.

John Calipari's Kentucky team is the early favorite, but we all know what
that means... nothing.

So here's to you casual fan who will win the office pool because you picked Loyola (Md.) because you picked the team that would win if the mascots raced that a greyhound would dominate the competition. And to you casual fan who wins a lump sum of money between old college friends because you had a Wichita State-St. Louis-Harvard-Purdue Final Four because you had no idea what a Shocker, Billeken, Crimson or Boilermaker is or does. 

Here is my bracket, open to humiliation for all of the world to see. I know my picks are bad and do not be afraid to call me out on them if you please. Regardless of how you came to your Final Four, it has to be more correct than mine, thus closer to that 1-in-100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

SEC East Power Rankings

The East is, dare I say, a "more open competition" than the West. If the ball bounces the right way the top four teams could come away with playing in Atlanta on the first weekend in December.

6.  Vanderbilt- New head coach James Franklin has his work cut out if he wants Vanderbilt not to finish as the last team in the East, which they have not done since 2008. The Commodores have five SEC wins over the past three years. Their mobile QB Larry Smith is rather... sporadic, but has shown glimpses of being capable. The defense has All-SEC talent in CB Casey Hayward, who had six picks a year ago, and LB Chris Marve, the SEC's active leading tackler. The problem is the defense is always on the field because of an inept offense. Franklin has excited the fan base with some unexpected wins in the recruiting game during the offseason though.

Look for another tough year in Nashville for the 'Dores.

5.  Kentucky- "At least there's always Vandy!" This should be the motto of the realistic Wildcat fan. After losing their Mr. Everything, Randal Cobb, to the NFL, their leading rusher and starting QB, the question is how will Kentucky move the ball down the field? LB Danny Travathan, the SEC's leading tackler, is back to lead the Wildcat defense.

Kentucky snapped its school-record five consecutive bowl game streak last season, finished with a losing record, and lost everyone who was anyone on offense. Doesn't basketball start soon?

4. Tennessee- Though they played against teams with losing records, QB Tyler Bray was inserted into the starting role and the offense averaged 33.5 points per game the second half of the season. This season a new receiving corps will have pressure to help Bray. Defensively, coordinator Justin Wilcox will be in his second season and there should be improvement.
Road trips to Alabama and Arkansas and hosting South Carolina and LSU make improving their 6-7 record from a year ago tough, but the Vols will be a better team with a chance to reek some havoc.

3. Florida- Welcome back to the SEC Will Muschamp. Muschamp did well in hiring coordinators. Already a defensive mastermind, he lured Charlie Weis away from the NFL and back to the college game. Weis, who did not have what it takes to be the head coach at Notre Dame, will try and salvage senior QB John Brantley's career in a pro-style offense. The defense is, as is most of the team, is talented but young and inexperienced.
Expect improvement from last season to now, but watch growing pains with  a new coach. The Gators will not stay down long so the rest of the SEC East should enjoy this break.

2. Georgia- Biggest storyline for the 2011 season is how hot Mark Richt's seat is. The Bulldogs start the season with the toughest two first games of any team in the BCS Division with games against Boise State in Atlanta and hosting defending SEC East champion South Carolina. Offensively, Georgia welcomes back the most talented returning quarterback in Aaron Murray. Much will hinge on the running game where the two leading rushers have left the program and the pressure rests on freshman Isaiah Crowell, the number one running back in high school a year ago. This is the second season for the 3-4 defense and the Bulldogs have two legitimate nosegaurds, the position which makes the this defense effective. 

Don't be surprised if Georgia does drop its first two games and still comes away with ten wins.

1. South Carolina- The defending division champs have retained the pieces that led them to the SEC Championship game a year ago. The Gamecocks have freshman phenom RB Marcus Lattimore again, but this year expect to see more of him catching the ball out of the backfield. Getting him the ball will be QB Stephen Garcia (if he can stay away from the bottle). Garcia also has arguably the best receiver in the league in Alshon Jeffery. The defense has added to last years squad in the form of DE Jadaveon Clowney, who by all accounts will be on the field early.
Coach Steve Spurrier has not lost it like many thought he may have. The Ole Ball Coach just needed some playmakers which he has an abundance of now that will make the Gamecocks serious title contenders.

Some picks for Saturday

Fall may be my favorite time of the year. It's a relief to be able to walk outside and not start sweating immediately. It's always fun to celebrate another year of life, but even better than these things is college football. Week to week, trying to predict what will happen and then watching the drama unfold is easily one of my favorite things. I thought about doing all of the SEC games but then I would have limited my blog. So I will dabble in all leagues. Where I am from and how I have been raised will influence which teams I write about. I know I will tend to talk more about the SEC. Here is how I see some of the games this weekend unfolding.

Arkansas vs. Auburn- One of the biggest games of the year in our household. The old man always says Arkasnas can lose every game but the Auburn one and he will be happy. It is the SEC game of the week for a reason. The game is almost as big as the pair of 6'6 quarterbacks matiching up. Ryan Mallet and Cam Newton could be deciding the SEC Offensive MVP this weekend on the plains. I don't see Auburn's secondary stopping Mallet. Arkansas has proved that they have a much improved defense from last year. Arkansas MUST be able to run the ball, block Auburn DT Nick Fairley to give Mallet time, and score some points in the 4th in order to win. To take a line from my Dad, I see the Hogs rumbling down from the Ozarks and spoiling the home teams party.

Alabama vs. Mississippi- This one could get very, very ugly. Julio Jones will not have to worry too much about his hand because Saban may not even pass the ball after what happened last week, running for less than 50 yards in the 2nd half. (And they tried to compare that RB tandem to McFadden and Jones... please) He is looking to take out his anger on somebody and poor somebody is Ole Miss. I don't see him taking out the starters until Alabama is up by 50. The black bear will not be roaring this week.

Florida vs. Mississippi State- Yet another Mississippi school at the wrong spot in the schedule. Florida misses Dan Mullen and his offensive creativity. State, on the other hand, is loving their new commander and chief. But he still does not have the players he had as the UF offensive coordinator. No way Urban Meyer loses three in a row and may show off some of his speed to Mullen. Look what you used to have. State might can hold it close but the Gators stop the bleeding and win one.

South Carolina vs. Kentucky- Upset special… Randal Cobb is one of the most fun players to watch in college ball and gets a chance to show off his skills again. After the emotional victory last week there is no way planning for Kentucky was the main focus. USC matched up great against Alabama because they stop everything that happens in the middle but Kentucky tries to spread everything wide. Cobb goes wild and comes away with the win.

Ohio State vs. Wisconsin- We’ll see how OSU handles being back in the number one spot. They will take care of a “What in the world happened to Wisconsin Badger” team. So much promise at the beginning of the year but a frustrating loss to a much improved Michigan State team has those in Madison wondering how the season will unfold. OSU knows they control whether or not they play for the ‘ship and will play like with fire. Defense is too good to let Wisconsin RB John Clay, a player scouts are drooling over (or at least I would be if I was one), do too much damage.

Furman vs. Samford- Rivalry game in the Magic City this week. The Bulldogs looked good in a game versus Western Carolina last week and look continue the momentum. Playoffs for the Dogs? As a proud alumnus I certainly hope so. Look for Chris Evans to continue to add to what is already the most rushing yards in school history in a little bit of an upset against the No. 26 team in FCS. Samford Bulldogs improve to .500 in the conference.

Other Winners (in bold)-

Boston College vs. Florida State

Georgia vs. Vanderbilt

Illinois vs. Michigan State

Southern Cal vs. California

Maryland vs. Clemson

Iowa vs. Michigan

Texas vs. Nebraska

Miami (FL) vs. Duke
Who ever Boise State plays vs. Boise State