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What Hog fans need to watch from SEC’s opening week
Keeping up with Arkansas’ opponents after the first week of the season shows improvement and a difficult style to match up with.
The first thing I heard immediately after Texas A&M’s epic collapse against UCLA on Sunday night was, “after that, we’ll get them this year.”
To blatantly steal from ESPN’s Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend.
The Aggies, particularly on defense, had an incredibly fast start against UCLA. The Bruins showed in the second half why building a 44-10 lead was an accomplishment.
With the a rotating situation at quarterback, A&M wasn’t exactly settled there. Starter Nick Starkel was lost “for a long time” with a fractured ankle that was operated on Monday morning.
“Aha!” say fans of the Aggies. “See? They’ve lost their quarterback!”
Starkel was a whopping 6-for-13 and 62 yards in the first half.
No, what killed Texas A&M was coach Kevin Sumlin and offensive coordinator Neil Mazzone somehow overthinking things and deciding to start passing with true freshman Kellen Mond, who will likely be the starter in AT&T Stadium against Arkansas on Sept. 23.
The problem is he’ll have two warmup games against Nicholls and Lousiana-Lafayette.
The guess here is the Aggies are going to run the ball with an up-tempo attack and the Razorbacks’ defensive depth will be tested early and often.
Which will pretty much be the norm the rest of the way. With LSU and Alabama mixing in a good deal of no-huddle, up-tempo to their offenses, nearly everybody on the schedule will be rushing and playing fast.
But don’t expect Texas A&M to be an easy game.
Mississippi teams strong offenses
Neither Ole Miss or Mississippi State has a defense that scares Hogs offensive coordinator Dan Enos.
But their offenses will likely cause defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes a few sleepless nights.
Both want to go at a breakneck pace, both have quarterbacks who looked good on the first week. The Rebels have maybe the best group of receivers in college football and Shea Patterson can create plays out of thin air it seems.
The Bulldogs’ quarterback Nick Fitzgerald is showing the effects of his time with Dan Mullen, who may be the best quarterbacks coach in college football.
Most Arkansas fans figure those are wins, but the guess here is they’ll be tougher than anybody is expecting now.
Auburn and LSU second best
Their matchup is the week before the Tigers come to Fayetteville. The Hogs won’t be able to pay much attention as they will be busy with Alabama.
Auburn, of course, faces Clemson this week and that will give us a read on them.
LSU plays Mississippi State in two weeks, then Florida on Oct. 7, but we won’t know much about them until those games, then the Auburn matchup.
Alabama?
Forget it. The only team in the SEC that can beat the Crimson Tide this season is Alabama.
No, that’s not a typo. For anyone to beat them, the Tide is going to have to mess up … a lot.
It wouldn’t be totally shocking to see Alabama-Clemson for the third straight year in the title game.
