Looking for better week

The opening weekend of the 2008 college football season saw the crystal ball get off to the slowest start in memory. A whopping four teams fooled the process. It all produced a 6-4 slate for Week One. Let’s see if improvements are around the corner…

NORFOLK STATE AT KENTUCKY — The Wildcats struggled for a while offensively with their arch-rivals but woke up and actually wound up winning going away. They shouldn’t have much trouble in going to 2-0 on the season by day’s end.
Kentucky by 24.

SELA AT MISS. ST. — Sly Croom’s crew had to be embarrassed over the turnovers and other mistakes in that loss to the Techsters and this week probably wasn’t exactly laid-back on the Bulldog practice field. Southeastern Louisiana just revived its football program a few years ago and shouldn’t have the hosses to hang with any SEC club, but anytime you struggle on offense as badly as State does, anything can happen.

Mississippi State by 21.

LA-MONROE AT ARKANSAS — The men from Monroe hardly turned over and played dead for Auburn a week ago, competing to the very end. Same thing happened with Arkansas and Western Illinois, only the dawn of the Bobby Petrino era was almost the ultimate disaster.

The Razorbacks have bigger holes to fill than first thought, but they should be improved after another week of Petrino’s new offensive system.

Arkansas by 11.

CENT. MICHIGAN AT GEORGIA — Perhaps not the walk-through session the Bulldogs anticipated this one would be when they
scheduled it a few years ago. The Chippewas have Dan LeFevour, a workhorse quarterback who last year became only the second signal-caller in history to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. He’ll find the going much tougher against the Georgia stop-unit, and the speed factor should be far too much for an upset to occur.

Georgia by 17.

MIAMI AT FLORIDA — Who would have ever thought oddsmakers would post a three-touchdown difference in this series? That’s the number coming into tonight’s prime-time telecast as the Gators have become the dominant program in the Sunshine State. Miami will try and shorten the game with a ball-control strategy, but the Gators appear to have too many weapons. Close for a while, but not in the end.

Florida by 18.

OLE MISS AT WAKE FOREST — A decade ago someone would have thought us all wacko to proclaim this one the headliner in the league, but that’s exactly what it is. The Rebels were a smashing success in their first outing under Houston Nutt, and Wake Forest appears to be the class of the ACC. If the SEC representative wins this one after Alabama’s dominance of Clemson a week ago, well, I wouldn’t want to be an ACC booster.

Wake Forest by 7.

TULANE AT ALABAMA — Tulane was forced to evacuate New Orleans prior to last week’s storm and has been forced to stay in Birmingham all week. That won’t help the Green Wave’s chances. As if they had much of one at all. Can Alabama possibly be as focused as last week?

Alabama by 21.

SOUTHERN MISS AT AUBURN — Beware. This is a dangerous game for Tommy Tuberville’s troops. Southern Miss ran up a school-record 643 yards last week against Louisiana-Lafayette, and while the Tiger defense is superior to that foe, the offense better kick it in gear or this one stays close too long for comfort.