Page 11 - 2018 Arkansas Football

Sunday, August 26, 2018 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 11K
Can't-miss games around the SEC By Bob Holt
There are lots of games involving SEC teams worth watching this season, so trying to narrow them down isn’t easy.
The opening weekend alone features five intriguing matchups played on neu- tral sites with Alabama-Louisville, Au- burn-Washington, LSU-Miami, Tennes- see-West Virginia and Ole Miss-Texas Tech.
Many SEC clashes are to come, as well as some traditional nonconference in-state rivalry games late in the season with Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Clemson-South Carolina and Ken- tucky-Louisville.
Every week there might be several games you don’t want to miss, but a top 50 list gets a little complicated, so here are 10 games worth your attention:
ALABAMA VS. LOUISVILLE SEPT. 1, ORLANDO, FLA.
Bobby Petrino went 0-4 against Alabama when he was Arkansas’ coach, including a 24-20 loss in 2010 when the Razorbacks couldn’t hold a 20-7 lead.
Petrino is going into his fifth season at Louisville — the longest consecutive stretch he’s had at one school. He’s break- ing in a new starting quarterback (redshirt sophomore Jason Pass) after losing 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson, but he will be going against an Alabama de- fense that lost three NFL first-round draft picks and returns just three starters.
With an entire offseason to game plan for the Crimson Tide, can Petrino at Lou- isville pull off the upset against Nick Sa- ban that he couldn’t at the University of Arkansas?
AUBURN VS. WASHINGTON SEPT. 1, ATLANTA
After beating Georgia and Alabama last season to win a share of the SEC West title with the Crimson Tide, Auburn earned the right to play for the conference champion- ship in Mercedes-Benz Stadium by virtue of the Tigers’ victory over the Tide.
Auburn lost its rematch against Geor- gia in Atlanta, then lost in the Peach Bowl to Central Florida to drop to 0-2 in Mer- cedes-Benz Stadium.
The Tigers hope for better results when they open this season against Washington and play a third consecutive game in At- lanta.
Washington may be the higher-ranked team, but it should feel like a home game for Auburn.
GEORGIA AT SOUTH CAROLINA SEPT. 8, COLUMBIA, S.C.
The conference opener for the Bulldogs and Gamecocks may end up being the SEC East championship game.
It will match former Nick Saban defen- sive coordinators — with Georgia Coach Kirby Smart and South Carolina Coach
AP file photo
Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino will open the season by trying to do what he never could at Arkansas: beat Alabama.
Will Muschamp — who are close friends. Smart made Georgia elite again last season when the Bulldogs won the SEC title and lost to Alabama in overtime in the
national championship game.
Muschamp led the Gamecocks to re-
cords of 6-7 and 9-4 — including a bowl victory over Michigan last season — after they went 3-9 in 2016.
LSU AT AUBURN SEPT. 15, AUBURN, ALA.
LSU handed Auburn its only SEC regu- lar-season loss last season when the Bayou Bengals rallied to win 27-23 in Baton Rouge after trailing 20-0 in the first half.
It was the largest deficit LSU had ever overcome to beat an SEC opponent.
Watching Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn and his offensive coordinator, Chip Lindsey, go against LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda should be fun.
Texas A&M tried to hire Aranda in the offseason, but LSU kept him by offering a four-year, $10 million contract.
That makes Aranda the highest-paid as- sistant coach in the country at $2.5 million annually, which according to the Advocate newspaper is more than 80 head coaches at the FBS level were paid last season.
TEXAS A&M AT ALABAMA SEPT. 22, TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
Jimbo Fisher, the new Texas A&M coach, now will get annual shots at being the first of Nick Saban’s former assistant coaches to beat him.
Saban’s assistants are 0-12 against him, with Fisher 0-1 after losing last season as Florida State’s head coach.
The Aggies play Clemson two weeks before traveling to Alabama — Fisher is going to earn that $7.5 million Texas A&M is paying him this season — but at least they get the Tigers at home.
Fisher has stressed toughness to the Ag- gies, and those early season tests against Clemson and Alabama should show wheth- er Texas A&M is ready to play a more phys- ical style of football.
Texas A&M hired Fisher to win SEC and national championships. To do that, he’ll have to beat Saban.
Maybe not this season, but soon.
FLORIDA AT MISSISSIPPI STATE SEPT. 29, STARKVILLE, MISS.
Dan Mullen won’t be a fan of cowbells anymore.
After taking the field at Davis Wade Stadium as Mississippi State’s coach the previous nine seasons, Mullen will be on the visiting sideline as Florida’s coach.
The SEC schedule-makers couldn’t have planned it much better.
Mississippi State fans should be grate- ful that Mullen stayed in Starkville as long as he did and led the Bulldogs to eight consecutive bowl games and a 69-46 re- cord.
But no doubt the Bulldogs and their fans will be hyped to beat Mullen, because that’s just the way it is when someone leaves you.
New Mississippi State Coach Joe Moor- head should be grateful to Mullen as well, considering the talented team he left be- hind in Starkville.
AUBURN AT MISSISSIPPI STATE OCT. 6, STARKVILLE, MISS.
This will be a matchup of two of the nation’s top quarterbacks with junior Jar- rett Stidham for Auburn and senior Nick Fitzgerald for Mississippi State.
The game could go a long way toward determining whether the Tigers or Bull- dogs will be the top challenger to Alabama in the SEC West.
Both teams have strong defensive fronts, so even with the star power at quarterback, it might turn into a low-scoring game.
Mississippi State has the home-field advantage, but the Bulldogs will be coming off what figures to be an emo- tionally draining game against Florida and former Bulldogs’ coach Dan Mul- len. Auburn will have a nonconference game against Southern Mississippi the previous week.
FLORIDA VS. GEORGIA OCT. 27, JACKSONVILLE, FLA.
This game may return to national rele- vance if Florida Coach Dan Mullen can find a playmaker at quarterback and revive the Gators quickly.
The game should have national title im- plications for Georgia, which looks to be a power for years to come under Coach Kirby Smart.
Mullen was riding high at Mississippi State last season when the Bulldogs started 3-0 — including a 37-7 pounding of LSU — before running into Georgia.
Georgia provided a dose of reality for a good, but not great, Mississippi State team by beating the Bulldogs 31-3 between the hedges.
Georgia beat Florida 42-7 five weeks later, which ended Jim McElwain’s time as the Gators’ coach and opened the door for Mullen to take over the program.
ALABAMA AT LSU NOV. 3, BATON ROUGE
Is there anything LSU fans want more than to beat Nick Saban?
Saban won a national championship at LSU in 2003, but he’s won five titles at Al- abama since 2009.
LSU fans can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Saban had stayed in Baton Rouge rather than become the Miami Dolphins’ coach.
Would LSU now be dominating the SEC instead of Alabama?
And if Saban was going to return to college football, did it have to be with the Crimson Tide?
Alabama has beaten LSU seven consec- utive times since the Tigers won the 2011 regular-season matchup 9-6 in overtime.
The Crimson Tide won the rematch that season 21-0 in the Sugar Bowl to win the national championship.
AUBURN AT ALABAMA NOV. 24, TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
Auburn’s Gus Malzahn is the only SEC coach left who has beaten Alabama under Nick Saban, and he’s done it twice.
The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 34- 28 in 2013 in Malzahn’s first season as Au- burn’s coach, then won last season’s Iron Bowl 26-14.
Tommy Tuberville, a Camden native, beat Alabama six consecutive times as Auburn’s coach from 2002-2007, including 17-10 in Saban’s first season with the Tide.
Now it’s Malzahn, also an Arkansas na- tive, who has been a thorn in Alabama’s side.
In addition to being 2-3 against Saban and Alabama as a head coach, Malzahn was Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2010 when the Tigers rallied to beat the Tide 28-27 en route to winning the national championship.