Trick or Treat- McFadden and Jones style

It’s not everyday that you see two future 1st round NFL draft picks dressed as Fred Flintstone and Barny Rubble but today we did in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas conducted an online poll allowing fans to vote for the costume that they would like to see Darren McFadden and Felix Jones wear to campus on Halloween. The Flintstones beat out Sonny and Cher, and the Blues Brothers. The University decided to do this after the popularity of pictures that circulated of McFadden wearing a clown suit to class last year on Halloween.

There is no word from the University of Arkansas on whether or not the decision to have McFadden & Jones dress up as prehistoric icons had anything to do with the fact that they are used to playing in Houston Nutt’s prehistoric offense.

SEC Toast Player of the Week - Knowshon Moreno Georgia RB

This was an easy one. On Saturday the entire nation watched Knowshon Moreno go for 188 yards rushing and 205 all purpose yards against Florida. Knowshon scored the first Georgia TD that caused the celebration heard round the country. For Knowshon to have such a prime time performance and to do it as a redshirt freshman is amazing. Those that hadn't hear of Knowshon before Saturday definitely know about him now. His performace was eye opening and worthy of praise.

(Photo by: Radi Nabulsi)

Brilliant Move by Richt ultimately wins game for Dawgs

Hats off to Mark Richt for out coaching Urban Meyer yesterday and coming up with a game plan that the Gators could not stop. This game plan did not include the usual Xs and Os rather it included something else, pure emotion. For the first time in recent years the Dawgs had 2 weeks to prepare for their rival and the world’s largest cocktail party. Emotion was the one consistent message that Richt preached to his players over the last 2 weeks and they got that message. “I saw it in his eyes, we’ve been talking about playing with more emotion all week, and I could just see it burning in coach’s eyes. I could see it in everybody’s eyes from the training staff to the equipment managers; you could just see they were fired up because everybody wanted to get rid of this streak of Florida winning” said Georgia DB Thomas Flowers. Not only did Richt preach and teach emotion for the last two weeks but he instructed his team to get a penalty for excessive emotion after they scored their first TD of the game. This brilliant move ensured that the highest levels of emotion made it onto the playing field and didn’t stay in Athens. Ultimately I believe it was emotion that won the game for Georgia. “I told them two weeks ago that I was going to create enthusiasm whether they liked it or not. I told them if they didn’t get a celebration penalty after our first score, all of them would be doing early morning runs. I wanted to make sure we left this game with our hearts on the field” said Richt after the game. After the touchdown by Knowshon Moreno the entire team ran into the endzone and celebrated with the offense. The celebration drew a penalty of course but it gave the Bulldogs the emotional lift they needed to defeat the defending national champions. The celebration after the TD will go down as a classic moment in Georgia football history and will go along way to propel the Dawgs to a strong 2nd half of the season.


Both Georgia and Florida are loaded with talented and highly recruited players at every position. This difference on Saturday was emotion and Georgia wanted this game more than the Florida Gators.

Mississippi State Humbles Kentucky

Up until Saturday many in Lexington were starting to believe that their football program had turned the corner. Coming off of one of the biggest wins in the history of the program over number 1 LSU and then a narrow defeat by the national champion Florida Gators I can see how they could draw that conclusion. Not to mention they had a leading Heisman trophy candidate behind the center. Everything seemed just perfect...until Saturday. The Wildcats were dominated in every aspect of the game from the opening drive to the final second. This "all systems failure" game as coach Brooks called it was a major setback to the program. Not only did the Cats play themselves out of the SEC East race they also lost all hopes that Andre Woodson would win the Heisman trophy. The truth is other than the defeat of LSU which they deserve a lot of credit for they have only beaten a mediocre Arkansas and a mediocre Louisville team. Enough about the Cats until basketball season lets talk about the better team - Miss State.

This was the best win for the Bulldogs in the Sylvester Croom era. Yes the beat Auburn at Auburn early this year but this performance was a total domination. They marched the ball down the throats of the wildcats the first drive of the game and that was a crucial statement that Kentucky wasn't expecting. After all didn't this team get embarrassed last week on the road?After the game coach Croom said "The season is a metamorphosis and you either get better or worse and we are getting better". Croom is doing a great job at Mississippi State and deserves a lot of credit clearly they are getting better. They can potentially finish second in the West and end up playing in a great Bowl game. Well done coach!

As for the Kentucky Wildcats, take your Independence Bowl bid at the end of the year and move on to basketball because your season as you previously envisioned it ended yesterday.

Week 9 Upset Prediction - Ole Miss beats Auburn

Every week in the SEC someone gets upset. After all that is what makes it the SEC. You can not let up any week or you will get beat. It is so easy to overlook teams by looking forward to the big game next week or suffer let downs after big games. I think everyone understands that except for football players it seems. However that is not why I am predicting Ole Miss to beat Auburn. The fact is that Auburn is at home this week and I think that hurts their chances of winning. Auburn is the best road team in the SEC but a marginal team at home. In additional Ole Miss seems to play their best the week after a crushing defeat which they had last week.

Don't be surprised if the Rebels walk out of Auburn on Saturday night with their first SEC win of the season. It is my upset pick of the week.

Fulmer's approval rating is at stake this weekend

Coming off of a total meltdown in the 2nd half of last weeks game against Bama perhaps no one in the SEC is feeling the pain this week like Phil Fulmer. His team played great in the first half of that game and then he was out coached in the 2nd half by Nick Saban. It doesn't get any easier for Fulmer this week as he faces his nemesis and SEC legend Steve Spurrier. Fulmer is 4-8 against Spurrier and this game will go a long way in silencing his critics who have been on him since the Vols were embarrassed by the Razorbacks last year on national television. South Carolina will be up for this game. They were probably looking forward to this game too much last week when they forgot to get up for the Vanderbilt game first. Big coaches like big stages and this weeks national TV prime time game will be a great chance for the nation to observe the talent on the field and on the sidelines.

This game is a potential page turner for the South Carolina program. If they win this game they will officially be granted top tier eastern division team status. A place that they haven't been since joining the SEC in 1992. I believe they will turn that page this weekend. Never bet against Steve Spurrier on National TV. Everyone in Kentucky knows that. If I were Fulmer I would be a little nervous about this game because if he loses this game he will likely lose the confidence of his fan base as well. Waking up on Sunday morning faced with the reality that Tennessee is the 4th best team in the SEC East is not something that the Volunteer nation will accept.

Muschamp's enthusiasm something to watch

If you watch the Auburn Tigers on TV this year and here strange voices in the background chances are there is nothing wrong with your TV set rather its probably just Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp yelling at his defense. Muschamp's passion for his job clearly motivates his Auburn defense. Its not unusual to see Muschamp jumping up and down yelling and celebrating with his players. His enthusiastic outbursts are a favorite on the web, especially the video of him calling Arkansas Mother F'rs.

The Auburn defense has played spectacular over the last 4 weeks. This defense has shut down the defending national champions, Darren McFadden, and came within one second of beating the best team in the SEC. That is impressive and Muschamp deserves the credit. He has produced amazing defenses twice before at LSU and for the Miami Dolphins.

Muschamp will be a great head coach someday and his name will probably be on many Athletic Directors short list this winter. I just hope he stays in the SEC because his enthusiasm and sideline dynamic is fun to watch.

Darren McFadden.. good but not yet great this year

His statistics through his sophomore year are only bettered by the likes of Bo Jackson and Herschell Walker. SEC fans, pause to recognize the significance of that feat. In plain English Darren McFadden is the best back in the SEC since these two hallowed names of SEC greatness took of the collegiate jersey for the last time some 20 plus years ago. Think of the greats that have come through this league in the last 25 years and none of them did what McFadden did his first two years in the league. Yet something seems off this year for the preseason Heisman favorite and last years runner up for the Heisman. Over the last two years we were familiar with his regular 60,70,and 80 yard TD runs against the best defenses in the SEC. This year we haven't seen those runs. It seems this year he is being used as a power fullback rather than a lightning fast tailback. His bruising performance for 190 yards against Bama at Bama was one of the most amazing performances we have seen in this league in a long time. Make no mistake about it, Darren McFadden is a stud and will probably be an all pro in the NFL someday. However he is not the superman running back I expected him to be this season. There is plenty of blame for this. Many in the state of Arkansas blame Houston Nutt for asking him to run the ball 30+ times a game with a majority of those runs up the middle. It would take a miracle from up above to keep anyone asked to do that healthy. Darren McFadden has been banged up all season with a concussion and a nagging rib injury. Because of these injuries I believe that SEC fans are being denied the opportunity to see one of the best RB in the history of our league at his best.

SEC Toast Player of the Week

After watching 6 different SEC games in their entirity this weekend it was clear to me who the players of the week is and the Crimson Tide nation should have no objection.

John Parker Wilson - QB Alabama - Saturday JPW toarched the Tennessee Volunteers for a career high 363 yards. He was 32-46 with three touchdowns. At the end of the season we may look back on this performance as a turning point in the season for the Tide. The junior from Hoover Alabama is beaming with confidence going into the offweek. This is exactly the type of performance that the Crimson Tide nation was hoping for going into the crucial LSU matchup in 2 weeks.