Week 9 Saturday Six-Pack: Halloween Comes Early for Mississippi State at Alabama
By Kyle Kensing
AMC has broadcast an almost uninterrupted string of campy horror films in the build-up to Halloween, and I cannot help but glean certain parallels between Alabama and cinematic monsters Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers.
Neither is known for moving particularly fast; in fact, both walk everyone. Yet they walk with a single-minded purpose that inevitably leads them to their destinations faster than their victims. Alabama doesn’t employ an uptempo spread offense. Nick Saban abhors the spread in much the same way Jason loathes partying coeds. Saban’s Tide plays “old man football,” but the resolve with which it’s employed produces points in greater volume than some…many…most spreads.
Saturday, Alabama puts its undefeated record on the line against a Mississippi State defense allowing just 14 points per game. Yet even so, one can’t help but feel Mississippi State is playing the role of victim to Alabama’s movie monster. Las Vegas has MSU a 24-point underdog. Twenty-four points, for the No. 11 team in the country.
Of course, every installment of Halloween and Friday the 13th ends with Michael and Jason meeting their demise from a would-be victim who catches enough breaks to end their reigns of terror.
MISSISSIPPI STATE at ALABAMA
Has a match-up pitting No. 1 against No. 11 felt so potentially one-sided? Alabama and Mississippi State share a common trait in that neither has played too daunting a schedule to this point. Tennessee is arguably the best opponent either has seen, though Michigan has come on of late.
Alabama is undoubtedly the stiffest challenge yet for the Bulldogs, and Nick Saban reciprocated the sentiment earlier this week.
“They always play tough against us. They don’t play okay against us; they play well,” Saban said in his weekly press conference. “We struggled as much against them last year as anyone else that we played against.”
The Bulldogs’ valiant effort against the Tide last season held Alabama to just 24 points. The problem for Dan Mullen’s team? It could only muster seven against the most talented defense in the country.
MSU is improved offensively from a season ago, with quarterback Tyler Russell settling into his leadership role and feeding off the tremendous play of LaDarius Perkins and his 724 yards/eight touchdowns.
MSU has also been very good on defense, but Alabama just enjoys too great a talent disparity. Barrett Jones and the physically imposing offensive line should be able to open holes for TJ Yeldon and Eddie Lacy to establish a consistent enough ground game that AJ McCarron will not have to test All-America caliber cornerback Johnathan Banks.
Were this one in Starkville with thousands of cowbells clattering, the outlook might be less bleak. As it stands, Bryant-Denny Stadium could become a house of horrors.
TEXAS TECH at KANSAS STATE
Kansas State sits alone atop the Big 12, the conference’s sole unbeaten. However, should the Red Raiders come into Manhattan with guns blazing, the conference would head into November with a mess of epic proportions:
- One-loss Oklahoma beats Texas Tech
- One-loss Texas Tech beats one-loss Kansas State
- One-loss Kansas State beats one-loss Oklahoma
It’s not the scenario Bob Bowlsby wants, lest the sole hope of a Big 12 championship game participant disappear. A 12-0 Kansas State has great odds on visiting Miami even without a 13th game; an 11-1 K-State would need every break known to man.
K-State quarterback Collin Klein vs. Texas Tech quarterback Seth Doege is the Davey O’Brien Award Match-Up of the Week, and like last Saturday when Klein vs. Geno Smith bore such distinction, there couldn’t be a greater contrast of styles.
Doege surpassed Smith as the nation’s most prolific touchdown passer in a Week 8 shootout win over TCU. He’s completing nearly 71 percent of his passes, sports a 4:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and captains an offense putting up nearly 43 a game. K-State’s defense has seen it before in Oklahoma and West Virginia. The Wildcats know a thing or two about slowing high powered, spread offenses.
Tech’s defense ranks highly statistically, but has shown weakness against both Oklahoma and TCU. Neither employs an offense akin to K-State’s, but the Wildcat ball control style has the ability to frustrated the Red Raiders. Tech is allowing just 111 rushing yards per game — Heisman front runner Klein wants to go for about that much individually to give the Wildcats the best opportunity to win.
DUKE at FLORIDA STATE
Were the ACC championship game played this weekend, this would be your match-up. I won’t bother asking who pegged that, because the answer is no one. Even the most ardent Blue Devil fan would know better than to suggest Duke football could win its division, and that includes Duke Kid. (Sidenote — had someone taken my photo after Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS, the facial expressions would have matched completely. I can empathize with this youngster’s pain).
Last March, Florida State basketball made history when it won the ACC Tournament for the first time in program history and along the way, defeated Duke. Aside from fulfilling the obligatory basketball reference necessary when discussing Duke football, this is noteworthy in that the roles are completely reversed on Saturday.
Duke is the perennial underdog squaring off with a conference goliath, rich in history with a chance to make some of its own. The difference is that Seminole basketball bridged, if not exceeded the talent gap between it and Duke; the same isn’t true for Blue Devil and ‘Nole football.
Barring his former protege Peyton Manning suiting up for the Blue Devils, David Cutcliffe will need a miracle to win in Tallahassee. As turbulent as the ACC title hunt typically turns out, this is unlikely to be the week FSU’s boat is rocked again.
OLE MISS at ARKANSAS
Oct 13, 2012; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Brandon Allen (10) rushes against the Kentucky Wildcats during the third quarter at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE
Though neither the Rebels nor Razorbacks would technically be eliminated from bowl game contention with a loss Saturday in Little Rock, just like neither is assured the postseason with a win, consider this an elimination game.
“Yes, they know that there is a bowl game carrying on out there,” Arkansas interim head coach John L. Smith said. “I think they are just looking forward to going to the field and showing everybody that we are a good football team. [The team is] getting better, they have a lot of confidence in each other. It seems like we’re having more fun at practice and going harder.
The loser between Ole Miss and Arkansas will not go to a bowl game. Period, point blank, end of discussion considering each has three top 16 ranked opponents still to come. However, I like the chances for the winner to do so.
Ole Miss has the easier overall road to traverse, already with a superior 4-3 record. The Rebels would require jut one more win for eligibility, with a home date against Vanderbilt ahead. Arkansas would need to upset at least one of its remaining ranked foes.
Still, Arkansas may have the easier time in that this was a team that was supposed to be in that top 10 conversation, based on talent. The Razorback defense has come on of late, and Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze has taken notice.
“Their front four are very talented. They’re very physical and they’ve done a good job against the run,” he said. “They’ve had two weeks to get these other kids prepared and I’m sure they’ll be ready to play.”
Talented Rebel quarterback Bo Wallace sets off the Ole Miss offense as both a passing and rushing option.
ADMIRAL ACKBAR’s TRAP OF THE WEEK
USC at Arizona
Tommy Trojan has had the Mon Calamari buzzing in his ear all season, and recently on trips to Utah and Washington. USC already was trapped once when it traveled to Stanford in Week 3, and it’s certainly possible that the Trojans learned their lesson from that visit to The Farm.
But in saddling up Traveler for a trek down I-10 and into Tucson, USC is stepping into yet another Pac-12 trap. Rich Rodriguez’s rebuilding project of Arizona football is going much quicker than the remodeling of Arizona Stadium. The Wildcats are two defensive stops away from 6-1, but as it stands are a respectable 4-3 and looking to finish strong.
These teams have had competitive games every season since 2007, including last year’s shootout decided by just a touchdown. However, USC never had to punt in that affair, rolling off 48 points while Matt Barkley and Marqise Lee set USC records. Arizona is better defensively than it was a season ago, but the difference is marginal on the stat sheet. The Wildcats must find ways to limit Lee’s damage, while using the quick strike offense to take advantage of any opening the Trojan defense might present.
Good news for Arizona is that, aside from having home field advantage, college football’s Voice of the Upset Joe Tessitore is on the call.
UCLA at ARIZONA STATE
Sept. 8, 2012; Tempe, AZ, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils defensive tackle Will Sutton (90) celebrates after a win against Illinois. Arizona State won 45 to 14 against Illinois Fighting Illini at Sun Devil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Hilderbrand-US PRESSWIRE
The Sun Devils and Bruins are both 5-2, and either could legitimately factor into the Pac-12 South divisional title race; ASU is even tied with USC for the division lead. So why doesn’t this game have a bigger feel?
Both teams have had the luster wear off somewhat in recent weeks. Arizona State saw its first and only above-.500 FBS opponent all season a week ago via Oregon and was thoroughly curb-stomped. UCLA dropped conference games to Oregon State and Cal in succession, the second of which came in particularly embarrassing fashion reminiscent of the Rick Neuheisel era.
Each is still something of an unknown. UCLA’s dip since reaching the top 25 demonstrates some of the hurdles Jim Mora and his staff have to climb. Among those staffers is offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, who early in the season had seemingly crafted the perfect system to showcase redshirt freshman quarterback Brett Hundley while supplementing Johnathan Franklin’s Heisman run. But in the loss at Cal and win over Utah, the offense was sluggish.
For the second straight week, the Bruin offensive line must contend with a defensive tackle destined for big pay days in the NFL. Will Sutton is returning from an injury suffered in the first play vs. Oregon. Sutton is among the nation’s leaders in sack, and the like Star Lotulelei at Utah, the driving force of the Sun Devil defense.
Sutton and Co. also know the UCLA offense, having faced it every day in practice a season ago when Mazzone was ASU’s offensive coordinator. Sun Devil head coach Todd Graham attempted to downplay the impact that might have on Saturday’s outcome.
“In the past when I have been involved in games where I have coached there, left, and then came back or had coaches there and stuff, and I think if you focus on that type of stuff you get distracted from the actual game,” Graham said.
ASU remains something of an unknown commodity. Oregon proved the Sun Devils aren’t at the nation’s tip-top pinnacle, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be at the next tier down. UCLA is clearly the second best measure for where Graham’s team is currently.
SATURDAY’S SIX-PACK: Dos Equis Ambar
Wednesday is Halloween, which means Thursday is Dia De Los Muertos. In honor of the Mexican holiday, feel free to crack open this dark, caramel-malted cerveza from South of the Border. If it’s good enough for the Most Interesting Man in the World, it will work for you on game day.