Coaches refuse publicly to acknowledge anything remotely resembling a moral victory.
Let’s face it, Chad Morris publicly is doing nothing to discourage the notion that Arkansas is preparing for a win against No. 1 Alabama on Saturday.
Which is what probably should be expected.
On the flip side, though, his mantra has been the Razorbacks getting better every day, with every meeting, every practice.
Beating the Crimson Tide would be more than just getting better. It would be like something out of the Twilight Zone and I’m not completely sure there would be a bigger upset in program history.
Maybe the closest would be the Hogs’ 25-24 win over Tennessee back in 1992. That was a team that had lost to The Citadel, getting then-coach Jack Crowe fired. But they had rebounded with a 45-7 win over South Carolina the next week.
This Razorback team has no such win. Sorry, but beating Eastern Illinois in the opener isn’t the same thing.
For starters, this Alabama team is better. It is deservedly in the conversation as maybe the best college football team of all time. That may happen at the end of the year, but right now it’s not even the best team in Tide football history.
For Arkansas to even keep this game close, however, they will have to have some help from Alabama. Turnovers, missed assignments or maybe even equipment malfunctions will have to come together in spectacular fashion.
Having a few tricks in the offensive plan for the Hogs might help, too. Of course, the execution on those tricks has to be flawless, too. Over 40 years of covering big-time football, I’ve seen about as many tricks blow up as I’ve seen work.
On Wednesday, I started getting the idea something was in the plan for the Hogs when the media was cut back by a period in what we could see at practice. If something’s not up, why kick us out a period early when we get so little availability as it is?
All of this little intrigue college coaches seem so fond of doing is what created my favorite question — we don’t know what we don’t know. If you think about it for a second you’ll get it (I threw that out there in case any Alabama fans are reading this in the trailer park).
All of that is why this week’s prediction doesn’t begin to guess at what we don’t know. We’ll just have to figure it out as the game develops.
Alabama 59, Arkansas 24
Okay, into the rest of the league and we’re riding a two-game winning streak where we’ve hit on every single pick. Yes, we’ve hit every one of them, including upsets involving my cousin’s Mississippi State team.
He’s since requested I not make a pick in any of their games going forward.
The record is now 47-5 this season in games. The easy picks this week are Ole Miss over Louisiana-Monroe and Georgia over Vanderbilt (let’s face it, if the Commodores win this one it might be bigger than the Hogs beating Alabama).
Missouri at -2.5 South Carolina
This is a game that on the surface could go either way. It’s well known you get three points for being the home team, so this one’s a virtual toss-up.
I’m still not buying into the Tigers as they haven’t particularly impressed me in their games against other SEC teams.
The Gamecocks are at the top of the group in the middle in the East and I don’t think Missouri is quite ready to get there yet. Something says Deebo Samuel is due for a breakout SEC game.
South Carolina 35, Missouri 24
-3 LSU at Florida
Nick Saban said Arkansas is a trap game for the Crimson Tide. Nobody’s really buying into that, though.
This is the trap game for LSU.
The Tigers have really only had one close game, a 22-21 win on the road at Auburn. Quite frankly, Ed Orgeron has the Tigers playing better than I guessed before the season.
I thought they would be 2-3 or, at best, 3-2 right now. Yep, I missed that one, which is why I hate making any predictions before October, which is where we are now.
This LSU team will be near the top of the West at the end of the season, but this is more about having confidence in what Dan Mullen is doing down at Florida.
He inherited a lot of talent there, especially on defense.
This is a game that might end up being ugly, unless you’re into defensive stalemates in which case you’ll love this game.
Florida 17, LSU 16
Kentucky at -6 Texas A&M
You would think somebody would start to recognize the Wildcats really seem to embrace being the under dog this year.
They have won every time, Florida on the road and Mississippi State at home.
The Aggies, on the other hand, are carrying a close loss to Clemson as their biggest accomplishment so far this year.
In this one, the Wildcats have an offense to go with a strong defense.
The Aggies had to claw their way to a win over Arkansas last week that didn’t exactly impress anyone.
Benny Snell makes the difference in this one and it may take until the second half for him to start piling up the yardage.
Kentucky 28, Texas A&M 24
-4 Auburn at Mississippi State
Exactly why the Tigers are still ranked in the Top 10 is likely due more to preseason expectations than what we’ve seen on the field in the first half of the season.
This Auburn team is not as good as last year and this game is completely out of whack, in my opinion.
That’s assuming, of course, that the Bulldogs are a good team that just ran into a couple of other pretty good teams in Kentucky and Florida, which is what I believe to be the case.
And State usually plays the Tigers very well in Starkville.
Just like they will Saturday
Mississippi State 24, Auburn 20
