Pick-6: The biggest storylines I'm following today in Week 8
LSU-Florida, we miss you already.
Granted, there’s a full slate of SEC games and a few others worth noting today.
Here are 6 storylines I will be following closely during Week 8 in and around the SEC.
1. The Third Saturday in October
It can only mean one thing: Mark it 88, dude.
Over the line? I don’t think so. Smokey, you’re about to enter a world of pain.
Alabama has won 87 consecutive games against unranked teams. Tennessee will become the 88th victim during Saturday night’s excuse to perform an LED light show at Bryant-Denny. (What’s next? Black jerseys? Chrome helmets with a crimson letter A?)
Aside from the standard Tua record watch, there’s not a ton of intrigue about the once-storied rivalry, but the Tua record watch will keep my interest well into the 4th quarter, especially now that Nick Saban seems interested in it, too.
The countdown to 50 TDs continues.
2. No way Georgia loses back-to-back home games, right?
Georgia’s upset loss last week prompted the research that led to the story about Alabama’s 87-game winning streak vs. unranked teams. Alabama is just in another stratosphere in terms of never having a bad enough day.
I’m curious how Georgia rebounds today.
Not so much whether it will rebound, but how.
The passing game, which I wrote about in Weeks 1 and 2 that needed more live game reps, still is very much a work in progress.
Georgia can beat a lot of teams handing it off 45 times a game. It can’t beat LSU or Alabama by doing that.
Jake Fromm threw a career-high 51 passes last week but missed on 23 of them. He’s 0-5 when he throws at least 30 passes.
Georgia needs him to be a better closer in those games.
I want to see 35 passes today, knowing the Dawgs could beat Kentucky with as few as 20 passes. He has to get in sync with these receivers.
And if James Coley hasn’t figured it out yet, George Pickens is the best he has.
I want to see Pickens catch 10 balls today for the first of what should be many times over the next 3 years.
3. The Muschamp Bowl
Two weeks ago, this game didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. The noon kickoff suggests the TV execs still aren’t expecting much.
I expect Willy B. to be rocking, Gamecocks fans getting their first chance to show their love after the huge upset last week at Georgia.
Motivation explains almost everything in sports. I’m interested to see where Florida is at. It played its best game of the season last week at LSU and lost by 14.
How many Super Bowl efforts does a team have? Usually no more than 2 or 3 a season. Florida already has played Miami, Auburn and LSU. The emotional investment has been heavy.
Maybe the past 2 encounters with the Gamecocks will ensure the Gators arrive in Columbia plenty motivated. They scored 14 in the 4th quarter to win by 4 last year and lost at South Carolina in 2017.
It’s not a gimme.
4. Burrow mania on the national stage
Four weeks ago, I said Super Joe Burrow would win the Heisman, take out Alabama and should be the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Super Joe Mania is spreading rapidly this week. The bus is filling up, just in time for today’s CBS afternoon kickoff.
Some kids, you wonder how they might respond to the sudden stardom, the huge home win at night against another top 10 outfit and best defense he’ll face all year.
Burrow? No such worries.
Mississippi State is merely in his way — and even though he wasn’t there, he’ll make the Bulldogs pay for what happened to the Tigers in 2017.
5. John Rhys Plumlee is my new favorite player to watch
Ole Miss is starting a center fielder at quarterback and he’s running circles around SEC defenders.
It’s fun to watch, if playground football is your thing.
Plumlee is the 1st Ole Miss QB to have top 100 yards rushing in 3 consecutive games. I like his chances to make it 4 in a row today against Texas A&M.
Long term, will it work? That’s Matt Luke’s concern. Short term, Plumlee is the reason to watch Ole Miss.
6. No, I don’t believe in Wisconsin
I understand in the sense that it happens every single year. The Big Ten is so weak, especially in the West, that somebody gets propped up — only to eventually get exposed. We’ve seen it with Wisconsin. We’ve seen it with Iowa. We’re seeing it with Wisconsin again.
Remember when Iowa was 10-0 and No. 5 in the Playoff poll in 2015? It beat exactly 1 team ranked inside the top 20 — No. 19 Wisconsin 10-6. Fortunately, we were spared an undefeated and overrated Iowa team from making the Playoff field because it lost to Michigan State 16-13 in the Big Ten Championship Game. Alabama then shut out Michigan State 38-0 in the Playoff semifinal, and Stanford destroyed Iowa 45-16 in the Rose Bowl.
In 2016, Wisconsin climbed to No. 6 in the Playoff poll, despite losing to Michigan and Ohio State in consecutive games with a bye in between. Then Penn State beat the Badgers in the B1G Championship Game.
In 2017, Wisconsin was No. 4 in the Playoff poll going into the B1G Championship Game and all it had to do to make the field was beat a 2-loss Ohio State team. It couldn’t.
So here we are, yet again, propping up another Big Ten West pretender.
Some have wondered why Wisconsin isn’t No. 1 already. The noise will grow louder today, too, after the Badgers hammer — and possibly shut out — lifeless Illinois. They might post their 5th shutout. Congratulations.
Wake me when they beat Ohio State, OK?