Last Saturday should have been remembered as one of the best SEC football days of the season.
Instead, at least around the Halls of Titanquisitor, we spent a good portion of Saturday night wondering what the hell the officials were looking at.
Georgia escaped Tuscaloosa with a 20-17 win over Alabama in a game where the Tide certainly had opportunities to help themselves, but that doesn’t erase an officiating performance that became increasingly difficult to stomach. The most obvious one came late in the fourth quarter when Rico Scott was hit early in the end zone and somehow no defensive pass interference flag appeared. Earlier, KJ Bolden made helmet-to-helmet contact on Ryan Coleman-Williams without a targeting review, and even Bolden later acknowledged that he would have wanted pass interference called on the late play if the roles were reversed. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has since defended the league’s approach, saying the conference does not comment on judgment calls, which I’m sure made everybody feel considerably better.
It certainly did not calm anybody inside the Halls.
We already documented that disaster in a Hall Strip appropriately titled “How Is That Not Pass Interference?!”, where Gary, Titan and Thalia gradually lost their minds before the final no-call sent the entire television lounge over the edge. Alabama lost 20-17, Georgia got the win, and Titan apparently had to be talked out of storming the SEC offices. That last part may have been for the best.
Now Alabama has to do something much more difficult than complain about officiating. They have to go to Knoxville.
And somehow that’s only our second Game 2 Watch this week, because the SEC has delivered another ridiculous Saturday.
No. 13 Missouri at No. 9 Ole Miss
2:30 PM CT — SEC Network — Oxford, Mississippi
I don’t think this is necessarily the game with the two biggest brands on Saturday.
I think it might be the game where we learn the most.
Missouri comes into Oxford at 5-1 after beating Texas A&M 27-6, and that score does a pretty good job of describing the afternoon. The Tigers controlled the game, kept A&M from getting much of anything going offensively and reminded everybody that the loss at Mississippi State didn’t suddenly make Missouri irrelevant. Ole Miss, meanwhile, responded to its 52-28 disaster at Florida by absolutely hammering Vanderbilt 52-17 last week.
So both teams arrive with something restored.
Missouri needed to prove it could respond after Starkville.
Ole Miss needed to prove Florida hadn’t broken them.
Now we get them against each other.
The part I love here is the history. Missouri leads the all-time series 7-1, and Ole Miss has not beaten the Tigers since 1974. Their last meeting came in 2019, when Missouri won 38-27 in Oxford. That’s a bizarre little piece of SEC history considering these programs don’t exactly scream ancient blood feud, but here we are.
Ole Miss has the more explosive offense, and Trinidad Chambliss has been one of the reasons. The Rebels can score quickly, can create problems on the ground and have already shown against LSU that they can beat a quality SEC opponent when the offense is humming. Missouri’s challenge is going to be preventing Ole Miss from turning this into one of those games where 10-7 becomes 31-10 before you’ve had time to figure out what happened.
Missouri is built to make that difficult, though. The Tigers have enough offensively to punish an Ole Miss defense that has been vulnerable, and this feels like one of those games where third downs and red-zone possessions are going to matter more than total yardage. Ole Miss can move the ball. Missouri probably will too. The question is which team finishes drives instead of settling for field goals or giving the ball away.
There’s also a little more pressure on Missouri than the ranking might suggest. At 5-1, the Tigers still have plenty in front of them, but the schedule gets uglier from here. A road loss at Ole Miss would not destroy the season, but it would make every remaining mistake much more expensive.
Ole Miss has already absorbed its ugly conference loss.
I think the Rebels are a little better offensively; they’re at home, and after watching what they did to Vanderbilt last week, I’m willing to believe the Florida disaster was exactly that: one terrible afternoon.
Missouri makes them work for it. But I’m taking the Rebels.
Gary’s Pick: Ole Miss
No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee
2:30 PM CT — ABC — Knoxville, Tennessee
You couldn’t have scripted a much more irritating way for Alabama to enter the Third Saturday in October.
The Tide lost by three to the No. 1 team in the country, spent the closing minutes repeatedly finding themselves on the wrong side of controversial officiating decisions, and now instead of getting a week to stew about it, they have to walk into Neyland Stadium and play Tennessee.
Wonderful.
Alabama is 5-1 and still ranked No. 6, so there is obviously no reason to treat the season like some kind of disaster. Georgia is very good, Alabama had opportunities to win that game independent of the officials, and a three-point loss to the top-ranked team in America is hardly evidence that the Tide has fallen apart.
But they’re angry. Everybody around here is angry. And I kind of like Alabama when they’re angry.
Tennessee comes in at No. 14 after beating Arkansas 24-17, following up its win over Auburn and continuing to stabilize after the earlier loss to Texas. The Volunteers have leaned heavily on the running game, with DeSean Bishop sitting at 678 rushing yards and eight touchdowns through six games. Tennessee is averaging 228 rushing yards per game, and that ground attack has become the most dependable part of an offense that has been much less convincing through the air.
That is where Alabama has to make this game uncomfortable.
Force Tennessee into obvious passing situations. Make the Volunteers protect the quarterback. Tennessee’s offensive line has been considerably better opening running lanes than protecting the passer, and Texas exposed that weakness by piling up sacks earlier this season. If Alabama can keep Bishop from controlling first and second down, I don’t love Tennessee’s chances of consistently moving the chains.
The bigger question is Alabama emotionally.
Losing to Georgia the way they did is the kind of thing that can sharpen a team or linger in its head for another week. Neyland is not where you want to arrive still thinking about what happened seven days ago. More than 100,000 Tennessee fans are going to be waiting to make sure Alabama has no opportunity to quietly work through its feelings.
And this rivalry doesn’t need extra fuel.
Alabama-Tennessee already comes with the cigars, the history, and a level of hatred that neither program has much interest in pretending is healthy. Add a furious Crimson Tide team coming off a controversial three-point loss, and Saturday afternoon should be a fairly unpleasant environment for everybody involved.
Good. That’s what college football is supposed to feel like.
I think Tennessee keeps this close for a while. Bishop is good enough to prevent Alabama from simply teeing off defensively, and Neyland will give the Volunteers energy.
But I think the Tide walks into Knoxville pissed off and leaves with a win.
Hopefully this week we can discuss the football afterward instead of the zebras.
Gary’s Pick: Alabama
Florida at No. 7 Texas
11:00 AM CT — ABC
This is one of the games I’m most excited about despite not giving it one of the two full previews, mostly because neither team should feel especially comfortable right now.
Texas was No. 1 in the country before Oklahoma stunned the Longhorns 27-24 on a walk-off field goal in Dallas. Florida has had an even stranger stretch, following that incredible 52-28 beatdown of Ole Miss with consecutive losses to Missouri and South Carolina. The Gators are now 4-2, while Texas sits at 4-1 and has suddenly dropped to No. 7.
So somebody gets to stop a skid, and somebody’s season gets considerably more uncomfortable before lunch.
I’m going against the ranking here. Florida has been wildly inconsistent, but we’ve already seen the ceiling, and I think the Gators have one more upset in them.
Pick: Florida
No. 16 Mississippi State at No. 22 LSU
11:00 AM CT — ESPN
I’m really looking forward to this one.
Mississippi State got an extra week to recover after Alabama walked into Starkville and dropped 56 on the Bulldogs, but that one loss doesn’t erase everything State showed during the 4-0 start. Kamario Taylor still has 1,450 passing yards, and this remains a Mississippi State team with enough offense to make LSU work. LSU, meanwhile, is coming home after losing a 35-34 overtime heartbreaker at Kentucky and now sits at 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC.
That makes this quietly enormous for LSU. Another conference loss and the Tigers are suddenly 1-3 in league play before the calendar even reaches late October.
I still believe Mississippi State is a team worth watching, but Baton Rouge after an LSU overtime loss is a tough assignment.
Pick: LSU
The Citadel at Texas A&M
12:00 PM CT — SEC Network+
Texas A&M has lost three straight SEC games, including a 27-6 loss at Missouri last Saturday, so The Citadel arrives at an extremely convenient time.
There really isn’t much mystery here. The Aggies need a comfortable win, some confidence and an afternoon where nobody leaves College Station asking difficult questions.
If we’re still watching this closely in the fourth quarter, Texas A&M has much bigger problems than anybody realized.
Pick: Texas A&M
Auburn at No. 1 Georgia
2:30 PM CT — ESPN — Athens, Georgia
Yes, Georgia is No. 1.
Yes, Auburn is unranked.
And that’s one of the reasons I’m making this the Sleeper Game of the Week.
Because Auburn-Georgia is Auburn-Georgia.
The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry has spent more than a century producing games that occasionally make absolutely no sense, and Georgia is coming home after one of the most emotionally draining victories on its schedule. The Bulldogs just went into Tuscaloosa, survived Alabama 20-17 and took over the No. 1 ranking.
Now they get Auburn.
On paper, Georgia should win. Probably comfortably.
But rivalry games have a funny habit of refusing to read the paper.
Auburn had last week off, which means the Tigers have had two weeks to prepare while Georgia has spent its time getting beaten up by Alabama, celebrating a massive road win and dealing with the aftermath of one of the most scrutinized games of the season. That’s exactly the kind of setup that makes me raise an eyebrow.
I don’t think Auburn is better than Georgia. Not even close. And I’m not picking Auburn.
But I think this has all the ingredients for one of those games where you check the score midway through the third quarter and suddenly realize Georgia hasn’t managed to get rid of them.
And if Auburn somehow gets this thing into the fourth quarter within a touchdown?
Then Athens gets tight, and that’s when rivalry football gets fun.
Titanquisitor Pick: Georgia
Arkansas at Vanderbilt
6:00 PM CT — ESPN2
Arkansas has now lost consecutive conference games to Texas A&M and Tennessee, while Vanderbilt got absolutely destroyed 52-17 by Ole Miss last Saturday. Neither side has much reason to feel particularly proud of what happened the last time we saw them.
That actually makes this a pretty interesting evening game. Somebody gets to stop the slide, and Vanderbilt gets the home field against an Arkansas team that has struggled to find anything resembling consistency.
I’m taking Vandy at home.
Pick: Vanderbilt
No. 15 Kentucky at Oklahoma
6:30 PM CT — SEC Network
Kentucky just keeps finding ways to do this.
The Wildcats beat LSU 35-34 in overtime last week, another close SEC win for a team that has become remarkably comfortable living in games where everybody’s blood pressure is considerably higher than it should be. Oklahoma, meanwhile, just knocked off No. 1 Texas 27-24 in the Red River Rivalry, giving the Sooners their biggest win of the season and completely scrambling the top of the rankings.
So this is not an easy road pick.
Oklahoma has all the momentum from beating Texas, and Norman at night is a nasty place to ask Kentucky to continue its run.
But the Wildcats have earned my trust.
They’ve beaten Texas A&M on the road, rallied from 17 down at South Carolina and just survived LSU in overtime. At some point, you stop expecting the magic to disappear every Saturday.
I’m riding with Kentucky again.
Pick: Kentucky
SATURDAY’S PICKS
I’ve got Ole Miss over Missouri in the Game of the Week, Alabama bouncing back at Tennessee, Georgia surviving the Sleeper Game against Auburn, LSU over Mississippi State, Florida upsetting Texas, Texas A&M over The Citadel, Vanderbilt over Arkansas and Kentucky going into Norman and beating Oklahoma.
And honestly, this may be my favorite SEC slate we’ve covered so far.
Florida-Texas and Mississippi State-LSU start the day at 11, which means there’s no easing into Saturday. By 2:30 we’ve got Missouri-Ole Miss, Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia happening at the same damn time, which is just rude, and then Kentucky-Oklahoma closes the conference slate at night. The final network assignments are ABC for Florida-Texas and Alabama-Tennessee, ESPN for Mississippi State-LSU and Auburn-Georgia, SEC Network for Missouri-Ole Miss and Kentucky-Oklahoma, ESPN2 for Arkansas-Vanderbilt, and SEC Network+ for The Citadel-Texas A&M.
That’s three televisions and a tablet territory.
After the way Georgia-Alabama ended, everyone in the Halls would probably be perfectly happy with a week where the officials are invisible, Alabama beats Tennessee, and nobody has to talk Titan out of marching on Birmingham.
I’m not asking for much.
No. 13 Missouri at No. 9 Ole Miss is the Titanquisitor Game of the Week.
No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee gets the second television.
And Auburn at No. 1 Georgia gets the Sleeper designation, because if there’s one thing rivalry games have taught us, it’s that putting too much faith in the number beside somebody’s name is a good way to ruin your Saturday.
