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SDS.

Not that we needed a reminder but the long Labor Weekend reminded us why we love college football so much. From the snoozer in Little Rock to the double overtime thriller in Atlanta between Tennessee and Georgia Tech, the opening weekend of the season provided plenty of excitement and heartache around the SEC.

The opening weekend of SEC action was full of marquee matchups, unfortunately, you can’t exactly say the same about this Saturday’s slate. Despite the fact a significant portion of the league is filling up on cupcakes this weekend, there are still a few games worth of your undivided attention in Week 2 of the season.

This weekend’s highlights include Auburn’s trip to Clemson, Georgia’s first trip ever to Notre Dame, Arkansas hosts TCU in a rematch of last year’s epic back-and-forth contest while Missouri welcomes South Carolina to the Zou in the first SEC league game of the year.

Each week in this column, SDS news desk editor Michael Bratton (@MichaelWBratton) and Senior National Columnist Connor O’Gara (@cjogarac) will go head-to-head and pick every SEC game against the spread and share our thoughts heading into each matchup.

Note: Games against FCS opponents do not have readily available point spreads, thus, Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky, UT Martin at Ole Miss, Indiana State at Tennessee, Alabama A&M at Vanderbilt, Nicholls at Texas A&M, Chattanooga at LSU and Northern Colorado at Florida were not picked here. 

Fresno State at Alabama (-43)

Michael: The only thing that interests me in this game is the likely debut of Tua Tagovailoa and potentially heavy doses of Najee Harris, Jerry Jeudy and Dylan Moses. Expect the freshmen to give us plenty of highlights in this matchup.

Alabama 45 Fresno State 9

Connor: Coming off a big emotional win, it wouldn’t be stunning to see Alabama get off to one of those slow offensive starts only to pull away in the second half after a Saban halftime rampage. But let’s not forget that Fresno State is 4-20 the last two seasons. It’s only a sleeper game if the other team is capable of beating FBS competition, which isn’t the case with the Bulldogs.

Alabama 55, Fresno State 7

TCU (-3.5) at Arkansas

Michael: These two met last year and gave us one of the most exhilarating games of the entire season, with the Razorbacks pulling out the road win in double overtime. Flash forward to this season and Arkansas looks to have issues in the passing game with so many inexperienced targets for Austin Allen still adjusting to in the offense. The loss of Ryan Pulley could be huge in this game; he was the Razorbacks best cover man and the team appears set to replace him with a true freshman safety recruit in Kamren Curl. Keep in mind, while TCU had a disappointing 2016 campaign, the program had been 24-3 coming into last season. If Arkansas controls this game with its offensive line and running back it could win, but I’m leaning toward the Frogs getting revenge on the road this weekend.

TCU 31 Arkansas 27

Connor: Neither team exactly pushed themselves in their openers, which is why we’ll learn a whole lot about both of these teams. Call me crazy, but I don’t think Arkansas wanted to roll out the entire offensive arsenal against Florida A&M. The Horned Frogs have some big-time playmakers in Kenedy Snell and KaVontae Turpin. Arkansas’ ability to contain them will tell us a lot about Paul Rhoads’ new defense. This is the toughest SEC game to pick this week, but I’ll take Austin Allen to have another big day against TCU and lead Arkansas to the outright win.

Arkansas 42, TCU 38

Mississippi State (-8) at Louisiana Tech

Michael: This could be a sneaky good game on the SEC slate this weekend. Louisiana Tech quarterback J’Mar Smith is an underrated player and Skip Holtz has his program turned in the right direction following a 9-4 campaign in 2016. Mississippi State’s defense may have been the most physically dominant unit last week when it completely shut down Charleston Southern. This week, the competition gets taken up a notch. How the unit rises to the occasion could be the difference in covering the spread in this game.

Mississippi State 33 Louisiana Tech 20

Connor: I’ll never understand how Mississippi State got roped into heading to Louisiana Tech for a game. According to ESPN’s FPI, no school in the country scores more points than expected (points above expectation) at home since 2005 than Louisiana Tech. That’s right. Louisiana Tech has the best home-field advantage in the country, at least according to that math. Mississippi State wins on the heels of a few Nick Fitzgerald touchdowns, but Louisiana Tech and that bizarre home-field advantage find a way to cover.

Mississippi State 35, Louisiana Tech 31

South Carolina at Missouri (-2.5)

Michael: This game is a near-lock to feature the most points scored in an SEC contest this weekend — it opened with an Over/Under of 74.5. The line has shifted down since opening, Mizzou (-4), but I’m still somewhat puzzled by that number. The Gamecocks haven’t played well on the road in recent seasons but this appears to be a completely different team and more than capable of earning a win on the road in the other Columbia. The last team with the ball very well could win this one.

South Carolina 42 Missouri 35

Connor: Man, this one should be fun. Both of these offenses can light it up, which we saw in their respective openers. I think South Carolina has a better chance of getting a couple stops against Missouri than the other way around. The Tigers were a defensive mess last week against Missouri State. Jake Bentley picks up his first SEC road victory in a Big 12-like game.

South Carolina 56, Missouri 52

Auburn at Clemson (-5.5)

Michael: I’m very high on Auburn this season, I picked them to win the SEC at Media Days, and winning this game would go along way in winning over the many doubters this team currently face. Despite my faith in Auburn, I tend to lean on Clemson winning this game due to the advantage the defending national champions have up front with its defensive line going up against the Auburn offensive line. This matchup very well could decide the game and I don’t anticipate either team scoring many points in this contest. Special teams could be the key to this game — as we saw in the Alabama-FSU and Tennessee-Georgia Tech games last weekend and one concern I took away from Auburn’s season opener was the missed kicks by Daniel Carlson. He better get that corrected in a hurry if Auburn is going to pull the upset on the road.

Clemson 20 Auburn 13

Connor: If there weren’t some uncertainties about Kamryn Pettway and Karryon Johnson, it’d be awfully tempting to pick Auburn outright. After all, the Tiger defense looked lights out in the opener and Clemson’s offense is still working to establish its new identity in the post-Deshaun Watson era. But Gus Malzahn hasn’t beat a top-10 team since 2014, and I question how Jarrett Stidham will handle seeing a defensive line as talented as Clemson’s. Give me the Tigers. The home Tigers.

Clemson 27, Auburn 17

Georgia at Notre Dame (-4.5)

Michael: Georgia’s trip to South Bend could be the best game of the weekend involving an SEC team. Despite the wealth of talent on UGA’s roster, many may not realize the Fighting Irish have a team loaded with talent as well — Notre Dame has a composite recruiting ranking of 10.5 in the nation over the last four cycles. True freshman Jake Fromm wasn’t asked to do much last week in the big win over Appalachian State and will likely have to show much if the Bulldogs are going to return home with a W. The key matchup to watch in this game will be Notre Dame’s offensive line against the Georgia front seven. With the talent gap being so close, I lean toward Notre Dame, which should have the advantage in coaching and will have the support of the home crowd willing them to victory under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus.

Notre Dame 28 Georgia 27

Connor: Is there a chance that the Bulldogs are better off with Jake Fromm getting his first career start than they would’ve been with Jacob Eason? It’s not crazy, nor is the idea of the true freshman waltzing into South Bend and acting like he owns the place. I’m not convinced the Irish can stop a competent offense, which Georgia has with Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. This line is still mind-boggling to me considering the Irish have one season-opening win vs. Temple separating themselves from a four-win season. I’ll roll with Georgia in a thriller.

Georgia 30, Notre Dame 24