A quick recap from week 6 of college football. This week, we saw an impressive win by Florida and we saw Arkansas break their losing streak. With a win this weekend at LSU, South Carolina must be considering a legit national title contender. We were also impressed with West Virginia in their first road game in the Big 12.
Florida
By our standards, the Gators turned in one of the most impressive performances of the week. Florida kept the game close in the first half, and simply out-manned the Tigers in the second half. This Florida team actually looked like LSU teams we’ve seen in the past. Florida’s offense still isn’t great, but Will Muschamp has the defense playing extremely well. If Jeff Driskel can manage the game and limit turnovers, Florida could find itself with a chance for a National Championship. In our opinion, there’s not any team in the country with a better resume than Florida at this point in the season. Wins on the road at Tennessee, at Texas A&M, and at home against LSU are all big for the Gators.
South Carolina
South Carolina was another bright spot on the weekend. We kind of thought Georgia had a pretty good shot of walking out of Columbia with a win, but boy were we wrong. South Carolina went up 14 points early in the first quarter, but the knockout punch came from an Ace Sanders 70 yard punt return. At 21-0 in the first quarter, it was goodnight Bulldogs. The Gamecock defense held Georgia to 224 total yards, which is quite impressive. It doesn’t get any easier for The Ole’ Ball Coach this week, as his Gamecocks travel to Baton Rouge. If South Carolina can somehow win that game, they’d have to be considering a legit national title contender.
Arkansas
Arkansas was able to do some things on defense against Auburn they we haven’t seen in previous games. The Razorback defense played well in coverage, got pressure on the quarterback, and even forced 5 turnovers. Another big difference for Arkansas was the move of Paul Petrino from the sideline to the press box. Petrino said he was able to see coverages much better and call plays accordingly. This win against Auburn is just what the Razorbacks need heading into this weeks’ game against Kentucky. Arkansas obviously won’t be “great”, but they’ve got the talent to hang with most of the teams on their remaining schedule. Unfortunately for Arkansas, the Razorbacks lost their senior captain and tackle leader Alonzo Highsmith. Also, let’s not forget, Auburn isn’t very good.
West Virginia
One of the big surprises for us this weekend was West Virginia. the Mountaineers came into the game as roughly a seven point underdog, but definitely didn’t look like it. We figured this game would be a shootout, but we expected Texas to be a little bigger and physical and to give West Virginia trouble. This wasn’t the case at all. Geno Smith continues to put up video game numbers, and the rest of the Mountaineer offense continues to click on all cylinders. The big difference in this game was the fact that West Virginia made a couple of stops in crunch time. Texas wasn’t able to do the same. West Virginia travels to Lubbock this weekend with a big game at home against Kansas State on the horizon.
Missouri
Injuries and off the field issues continue to accumulate in Columbia. Prior to the game, freshman Dorial Green-Beckham was arrested and suspended due to marijuana. Quarterback James Franklin went out early in the first half with a sprained MCL and then it was the Corbin Berkstresser show. The offense seemed to stall a little with Berkstresser. Special teams, which bit the Tigers against Georgia and South Carolina, was an issue again. A missed extra point and bobbled punt were sore spots for the Tigers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any easier for Missouri, as Alabama rolls into Columbia this weekend. Missouri will be without James Franklin and will have to rely on backup quarterback Corbin Berkstresser. We’ve all seen what Alabama does against backups. (52-0 against Arkansas).
