“The Week Ahead” is our weekly Monday piece, covering any relevant news from the weekend and taking a first look at all the games coming up this weekend.
Week 6 News
BYU opens as 3-point favorites. I’ve seen 2 and 3 as the opening line. That’s right in line with our model, which has BYU winning 35-32. It would pick the Hogs on a neutral field (35-32) and in Fayetteville (38-29). The Cougars looked really scary after beating Baylor a few weeks ago, but Baylor has turned out to not be very good, and BYU has since been blown out by Oregon and lost to a mediocre Notre Dame team. The BYU offense is very dangerous, but their defense is worse than any the Hogs have faced except for Missouri State. Expect a shootout.
The Dabo Swinney coaching tree isn’t doing too well. Dabo’s success at Clemson has been explained as Dabo being a CEO-type coach who maintains good coordinators, but that claim is falling apart as his former coordinators continue to struggle as head coaches on their own. The collapse of Chad Morris’s career was the canary in the coalmine. A few years ago, Clemson’s trio of co-OCs Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott and DC Brent Venables was touted as the best group of coordinators in the nation. But look at them now: Scott is 4-22 at South Florida and will probably be fired after this season. Elliott replaced Bronco Mendenhall at Virginia and is now 2-4. Despite inheriting one of the nation’s most productive quarterbacks in 2021 (Brennan Armstrong), the Cavaliers are horrible on offense. And Venables is 3-3 at Oklahoma after the Sooners lost 49-0 to Texas in the Red River Showdown. Meanwhile, Clemson remains in the top-10.
Week 7 in the SEC
Auburn at Ole Miss. Auburn’s slow limp through the season continues. As of Monday morning, Bryan Harsin is still employed. A loss here would put Auburn at 3-4 heading into the open date, which would be the best time for a firing. That would make the Arkansas game the Tigers’ first with an interim coach. Could be interesting.
Vanderbilt at Georgia. No comment on this one.
LSU at Florida. Two first-year coaches who have had highs and lows square off. LSU’s win over Mississippi State looks like an outlier, as does Florida’s win over Utah. Who will finally figure it out?
Watch These
Arkansas at BYU (2:30 pm, ESPN). Another questionable scheduling call has the Hogs headed to Provo for no clear reason. Expect Cougar fans to be fired up over a shot at an SEC team. BYU has looked rough over its last four games: a blowout loss to Oregon, a close-ish loss to Notre Dame, and unconvincing wins over Wyoming and Utah State. Arkansas, however, has looked even worse over its last four. Who rights the ship?
Mississippi State at Kentucky (6:30 pm, SEC Network). Kentucky is a good team when Will Levis is healthy. Mississippi State is also good. If the Bulldogs want to do better than 8-4, this might be a must-have.
Alabama at Tennessee (2:30 pm, CBS). The “third Saturday in October” finally matters for the first time in more than a decade. Alabama has dominated this series of late, but Tennessee finally looks ready to compete with their old rival. Is Bryce Young healthy? The assumption is that he will play. The Tide have looked vulnerable, even without that injury. They were lucky to escape both Texas and Texas A&M without a loss. Is this the game they finally break?
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