We’ve reached Week 13. The week before rivalry week.

SEC programs typically schedule an FCS team or a smaller FBS program this week to get everyone healthy and gain confidence. This week does, however, feature a pretty solid quarterback matchup.

Maty Mauk and the surging Missouri Tigers will travel to Knoxville to face Josh Dobbs and the revamped Tennessee Volunteers.

Somehow, the Missouri Tigers keep winning games. I’m tired of doubting them and betting against them every week because I get burned every time. Mauk isn’t exactly putting up Heisman  numbers, but he’s definitely playing better than he was midway through the season. Mizzou just went to Kyle Field beat Texas A&M.

Shane Ray and Markus Golden could be the two best defensive ends in the country and they’ve caused chaos all season long for opposing offenses.

Tennessee has been rolling on offense the last two weeks since Dobbs took over for an injured Justin Worley. Before everyone drinks the Dobbs Kool-Aid, let’s remember that he hasn’t played against a very good defense yet. He’s put up huge numbers and the offense is rolling, but we’ll find out a lot this weekend when they face a solid Missouri defense.

I think Dobbs is a star in the making and am even more impressed with his major and class workload. The kid is very impressive and is obviously the future of this Tennessee program.

The Volunteers offensive line has been absolutely brutal this season, at least in pass protection. Justin Worley got hammered all season long and eventually got hurt. Dobbs is clearly more mobile than Worley and there’s nothing a struggling offensive line enjoys more than a mobile quarterback. Dobbs has been throwing and running all over the the defenses the last two games and that’s really helped the offensive line.

It’s a good quarterback matchup. We’ll see what sort of quarterback Dobbs is, but Mauk also has his hands full. Playing at Tennessee in front of more than 100,o00 screaming fans at Neyland Stadium is no joke, trust me. The Vols defense is also pretty stout and got a boost of confidence last week after crushing Kentucky.