Week three features a little cream puff action along with a couple of games that might be pretty exciting. Here's who I think will win this week.
Tennessee at Florida
A week ago, I thought this one might be closer than most have expected throughout the offseason. After Jonathan Crompton reverted to his old self last weekend--maybe he never improved in the first place--I'm now thinking this one will be over at the half. Don't expect that fact, though, to prompt Urban Meyer to take it easy on the Vols in the second. Florida big.
SE Louisiana at Ole Miss
Seriously, where did Ole Miss come up with this schedule of theirs? Rebels roll in a warm up for next week's game in Columbia.
LA Lafayette at LSU
Shouldn't be any trouble for the Tigers, although LSU has yet to prove that they're quite ready to rejoin the elite.
Georgia at Arkansas
Although Tennessee-Florida is getting lots of attention right now, this is probably the week's game that will be most exciting and will go furthest to deciding who will finish where in the conference. Both of these teams are good but have questions and both could conceivably finish anywhere from second to fourth (or perhaps fifth for Arkansas, given how crowded the West looks) in their division, so this is a big game.
The questions, I think, will be how well Georgia's offense plays against a suspect Arkansas defense and how well the Dawgs defensive front can pressure Ryan Mallet. I think the Dawgs will continue to find themselves this week and beat the Hogs.
Louisville at Kentucky
A few years ago, Louisville was dominating this rivalry. Now that Bobby Petrino is gone, though, the Cardinals have tanked while Kentucky has improved significantly. That's turned this series around, big time. Expect another 'Cats victory here, although I'm interested to see just how well they do against a Louisville team that should at least be much better than Miami. An easy win could mean this team is better than last year, but a struggle could mean bad things for the 'Cats when they enter SEC play.
Mississippi State at Vanderbilt
There's a lot riding on this game for these teams, both of which need to win a game like this if they want any shot at bowl eligibility. I expect this game to be close and to come down to whether or not Dan Mullen's offense can move the ball against a pretty solid Vandy defense. If not, expect a pretty low scoring game. Mullen has actually done OK offensively so far, but I'm thinking Vandy will slow him down, get some points off turnovers, and pull out the win.
West Virginia at Auburn
The Mountaineers struggled against Tommy Beecher and Liberty two weeks ago and last week had more trouble with East Carolina. This team is obviously a shell of its former self now that Rich Rod and Pat White are gone. Expect an improved Auburn team to avenge last year's loss in Morgantown, and expect fan frustration with Bill Stewart to begin to kindle.
So, did I get any wrong? I wouldn't put too much into my picks right now, as I missed the only two that really mattered last week, Carolina-UGA and UCLA-Tennessee. I was pretty accurate in my description of how the LSU-Vandy game would go, though.