With more news swirling around what the administration can do to prop up football at Arkansas, Ryan Silverfield can’t be bothered with all that.
Once again at 6 p.m. tonight on ESPN2 he’s got to deal with what he was left with on the field.
Right now it’s just a lot of hope after Texas A&M has not been playing the way fans, media, the players or certainly the coaching staff was expecting in the summer.
The Aggies are sitting at 2-2 and now they have a struggling Razorback team coming to town with perhaps a false sense of confidence after blowing out Tulsa last week. It’s what they should have done.
The problem, though, is none of that has anything to do with tonight’s game that has nothing to do with next week against Tennessee. As Lou Holtz drilled into everybody’s heads in the late 1970’s while playing for national championships, the only thing that matters is that week.
“Different week, different team,” he always used to say.
Both teams have struggled running the ball and both teams have secondaries getting scorched which makes me think this game might be high scoring.
Can the Arkansas offense keep pace?
Or it would if I was confident the Hogs could keep up any sort of fast-paced attack. I’m not sold they can and I’m also not convinced Tim Cramsey is the offensive coordinator to get this team to a bowl game.
Maybe he was at Memphis. That means very little in the SEC wars.
I look for A&M to find it’s running game a little more in this one while the Hogs are still hunting and the Aggies’ secondary that was supposed to be the strongest part of their defense suddenly figures some things out. Sorry Razorback fans. Texas A&M 41, Hogs 16
• No. 7 Alabama at No. 16 Mississippi State, 11 a.m., ABC: This is probably the Game of the Week in the SEC and the Bulldog Nation is back at an excitement level they haven’t seen since 2014 and 2015.
Under Dan Mullen with Dak Prescott at quarterback, State was ranked No. 1 in the first four playoff polls in 2014. Then they ran into an Alabama team.
It’s happened in that series several other times, too. Just not many. In a history that goes back 109 years, the Crimson Tide is 88-17-3 against the Bulldogs. The last two times State won was 2006-07 under Sylvester Croom.
Nearly all of those games haven’t been close. That will probably be the same result this year despite the Bulldogs having a fever dream with Kamario Taylor at quarterback.
Bama has Keelon Russell and he has emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC and maybe all of college football. Alabama 41, Mississippi State 34
Georgia, Florida expected to handle business
• Vanderbilt at No. 2 Georgia, 11:45 a.m., SEC Network: Don’t look for anything close to a surprise in this game. The Bulldogs are just that much better.
The Commodores had their once-a-decade season a year ago. They lost their quarterback and the swagger along with it.
Georgia is only looking at the playoffs and getting to the championship game this year. Losing to Ole Miss last year before even getting to the semifinals was not in the plans.
Playing at home won’t make any difference to Kirby Smart’s team. He finds ways to keep them motivated and prepared. The only way this game makes many waves is if Vandy is within 20 points at halftime.
Considering the Bulldogs were doing drills between series against Arkansas a couple of weeks ago, Smart might make them scrimmage at halftime if the ’Dores are inside that 20 at halftime. Georgia 38, Vandy 10
• No. 8 Florida at No. 25 Missouri, 2:30 p.m., ABC: Elimination week in the SEC may start with this game. After the Tigers lost in Starkville, unless they catch the Gators in a fog after a big win over Ole Miss last week this won’t be close.
The time for Eli Drinkwitz may have hit the high point a year or two ago. Now they have to keep it going and with their running game still not in mid-season mode they aren’t as good.
Don’t expect Florida to start fast. They will need a quarter or two to shake off the cobwebs after a week of feeling good about themselves. Missouri is quite capable of getting their attention for a bit. Florida 41, Missouri 21
Tennessee, Kentucky and LSU round out the day
• Auburn at No. 17 Tennessee, 2:30 p.m., ESPN: There have been times in memories when this was a good matchup. The Tigers haven’t gotten to the point where that’s going to happen this year.
The Vols will be playing at home, it’s an afternoon national TV matchup and they like to roll in those things. Josh Heupel sees his chance to have the folks singing “Rocky Top” fairly frequently.
I’m not real sure Alex Grosch has been able to assemble enough players to even hang in long on this one. Tennessee 45 Auburn 14
• No. 24 Kentucky at South Carolina, 3:15 p.m., SEC Network: Back in August looking at the schedules, this one was pretty much near-unanimous the Gamecocks might deliver a blowout.
Things have changed. South Carolina appears like they could be ready to change Beamer Ball and go in a different direction and the blowout wins over teams keep happening. It’s not the rosiest of pictures.
Meanwhile, there is a football revival of sorts going on in Lexington where people are getting excited about the Wildcats. Hard to see this one going the Gamecocks’ way. Kentucky 24, South Carolina 13
• McNeese at No. 11 LSU, 6:45 p.m., SEC Network: This is the Good Grief Game. The Tigers can even have a hangover from their big win last week over Texas A&M and should handle this one with relative ease. Give Lane Kiffin a workout pumping after scores. LSU 52, McNeese 6
