OTHER PICKS
Miami 27, Virginia Tech 22Boise State 30, BYU 27Wisconsin 19, Iowa 14Louisville 33, N.C. State 24Oklahoma State 42, Kansas 21Syracuse 19, Boston College 16North Carolina 31, Virginia 20Navy 27, Memphis 25Michigan 56, Illinois 7Nebraska 38, Purdue 19West Virginia 35, TCU 28W. Michigan 34, E. Michigan 13Utah 29, UCLA 28Oklahoma 47, Texas Tech 26Ohio State 31, Penn State 16Houston 42, SMU 10Washington 44, Oregon State 13
This hasn’t been the greatest week for football fans of the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers.
Georgia suffered an embarrassing 17-16 home defeat last Saturday against Vanderbilt despite outgaining the Commodores by 250 yards, while injury-depleted Tennessee was no match for Alabama, falling 49-10 in the worst loss for the Vols in that series since 1906. Both the Bulldogs and Vols are off this week, but there is another Southeastern Conference program currently hurting with no time to sulk.
Ole Miss, which capped a 10-win season last year with a rout of Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl, is 3-3 after dropping a 34-30 thriller at Arkansas and could be 3-4 after a trip to LSU this Saturday night. The Rebels are the only program from the original six-member SEC West yet to play in the league title game and lost earlier this season to Florida State and Alabama despite leading each of those games by three touchdowns.
“No doubt we’re disappointed in where we stand right now with the record,” fifth-year Rebels coach Hugh Freeze said Wednesday. “There is some good and bad to that, and I try to always try to be a glass half-full guy and look at the entire journey. I think too many times, fans in general get disappointed in one particular outing or two or three, and they lose sight of what we’ve done in the journey.
“In our short time here, we’ve become very relevant and competitive in Southeastern Conference games, and this rivalry with LSU is a prime example. Before we got here, there wasn’t a lot to it, and I think we’ve made it very interesting in the last few years.”
Ole Miss has improved every season under Freeze, going from 7-6 in 2012 to 8-5 in 2013, 9-4 in 2014 and 10-3 last season. The Rebels have defeated both Alabama and LSU in two of the past three meetings, but last month’s loss to the Crimson Tide and last week’s loss in Fayetteville means Ole Miss needs Alabama to lose three times to have a shot at the SEC title game.
News flash: That’s not happening.
“It does affect morale,” Freeze said, “and as coaches, we have a great task of trying to manage that in this new age of the social media world and all the things that the players have to hear. We have to remind them that we’re an extremely young football team, especially defensively and on the offensive line.
“If you look big picture, you would like to go to the SEC championship game, and those will come if the daily goals are right, so I’m really big on setting a daily commitment to get to the best that we can be for a given year.”
Pasquali’s Pix:
UMass at South Carolina: Quarterback Jake Bentley, who should be a senior at Opelika (Ala.) High School, would certainly add spice to an otherwise mundane Gamecocks season if he starts. Gamecocks 29, Minutemen 16.
VMI at UTC: As good as the Mocs are right now in football, some are buzzing about them being even better in men’s and women’s hoops. Mocs 38, Keydets 13.
Texas A&M at Alabama: The Crimson Tide will probably ease up from here, having clinched a winning season and all. Crimson Tide 31, Aggies 24.
MTSU at Missouri: Barry Odom’s debut season with the Tigers could go from mediocre to miserable. Tigers 35, Blue Raiders 31.
Arkansas at Auburn: The average score of an Auburn-Arkansas game after 25 meetings: Tigers 25.3, Razorbacks 25.2. Tigers 30, Razorbacks 27.
Mississippi State at Kentucky: The Wildcats have yet to defeat Dan Mullen but could halt that 0-7 record the SEC East has this season against the SEC West. Bullies 27, Wildcats 20.
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt: Georgia needs the Commodores to win this one to help its RPI. Commodores 34, Tigers 16.
Ole Miss at LSU: Ed Orgeron is the first coach in LSU history to win his first two games by 30 or more points. Tigers 28, Rebels 27.
Last week:
Winners 19
Vols injured. 7
Pasquali is now 141-34 overall (80.6 percent) this season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.