It appears Tom has been relocated from his long held post as Lubbock lawyer, and has assumed the identity of Skippy the bag boy in a Des Moines Piggly Wiggly, so let’s hear what the rest of the writers think.
Andrew VU ‘04
Arky’s not terrible this year, but they are bad, and this is the last bad team on our schedule. Have to win this one, or we’re taking the L every week for the rest of the year. Will we win, then? Barring them pulling a raccoon from the stands, yes.
Arky can’t even run the ball. If Lea can’t scheme up a way to beat a one dimensional offense, we’re really screwed. On D, Arky has one quality DE, but no one else that scares me. Again, this has to be a win, right?
The Pick: Vanderbilt 37, Arkansas 30.
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Arch sucks. The Jorts are going to be all over his ass. Beyond that, the best way to neutralize a dominant pass rusher is to run right at him, and those Floridian Never-Nudes sure can run this year. Give me The Gainesville Jorts (+10.5) over Tejas.
Patrick Sawyer
Arkansas is the type of team Vanderbilt should be able to right their season against. The Razorbacks are even worse on offense (0.5 yards per carry and 1.0 yards per pass attempt less than the Commodores) and just as soft defensively (0.3 yard per carry and 0.9 yards per pass attempt allowed more than the Commodores). Vanderbilt probably has the talent advantage here. If you were to go along the rosters, no one on Arkansas’s roster really stands out to me. Maybe it is the optimist in me, but Vanderbilt feels much more like “decent team struggling to put it together” while Arkansas is just flat out bad.
Of course, being better will not matter if the Commodores cannot get the discipline under control. Committing 9.3 penalties per game for an average of 70 yards is going to kill a team in most games. The offense may get rolling if they do not routinely face 1st and 15 due to false starts.
I had a bad feeling about both the Georgia and Ole Miss games. I have a good but uneasy feeling about this one.
The Pick: Vanderbilt 38, Arkansas 17
The SEC Upset Pick of the Week: Kentucky as the underdog at Oklahoma is weird. It seems obviously wrong, but that’s also how Vegas takes idiots like me for a lot of money. Still, I think Oklahoma is pretty bad. They stepped up against Texas with a big help from Arch Manning’s turnovers. Without those gifts, they do not stay in that game, much less win it. Kentucky has 2 big wins already over Texas A&M and LSU. I think they add another.