The Retrospective, Week 9

Week 9 Record
Straight Up: 10-4
Against the Spread: 6-4

#10 Clemson (-3.5) at Virginia Tech
My Prediction: CU - 24, VT - 20
Actual Result: VT - 24, CU - 7

Coming off an emotional victory over Georgia Tech, Clemson had to turn around and play a Thursday night game on the road against hungry Virginia Tech squad. The Tigers are probably still the better team, and I think the scheduling quirk really cost them.

Louisiana-Monroe (+35.5) at #13 Arkansas
MP: UA - 48, ULM - 7
AR: UA - 44, ULM - 10

Arkansas takes care of business against another overmatched opponent. But things start to get a little hairy with South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU still remaining on the schedule.

Vanderbilt (-10.5) at Duke
MP: VU - 24, DU - 13
AR: VU - 45, DU - 28

Chris Nickson has exactly 400 yards of total offense as Vandy absolutely crushes Duke. Three fourth quarter touchdowns helped the Blue Devils make it look somewhat respectable.

Kentucky (+1.5) at Mississippi State
MP: UK - 31, MSU - 24
AR: UK - 34, MSU - 31

By holding on against Mississippi State, the Wildcats just made this week’s Georgia game the most important one played at Commonwealth Stadium in quite some time. And with Vandy and Louisiana-Monroe in coming weeks, bowl eligibility is looking like a distinct possibility.

Florida International (OFF) at Alabama
MP: UA - 38, FIU - 3
AR: UA - 38, FIU - 3

Great. Just great. The one college game that doesn’t count toward my ATS record this week, and I peg the score exactly.

#7 Auburn (-17) at Mississippi
MP: AU - 27, UM - 7
AR: AU - 23, UM - 17

How good does this make Arkansas look, at least at first glance? But with this game coming between Tulane and Arkansas State, how does Auburn look so uninspired? There’s still plenty of time to get up for Georgia and Alabama, though, and sneak into the SEC Championship Game.

#8 Tennessee (-5) at South Carolina
MP: UT - 38, USC - 21
AR: UT - 31, USC - 24

The blackout formula never fails. By my count, South Carolina is 0-3 in ESPN-televised, 7:45 games where they “black out” the stadium. Do they go for number four this week when Arkansas comes to town?

#11 Notre Dame (-14) at Navy
MP: ND - 42, USNA - 17
AR: ND - 38, USNA - 14

Not much to say here. The Irish have little trouble with a Navy team that is playing without its starting quarterback. But hey, at least they’re one-third of the way to the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.

#19 Oklahoma (+2.5) at #23 Missouri
MP: UM - 24, OU - 17
AR: OU - 26, UM - 10

Missouri just isn’t ready to play with the big boys yet. Oklahoma is down, but they still provided the Tigers with a name opponent they could make a major statement against. At home. Instead, they went ahead and put up three points in the first half.

Miami (+6) at #21 Georgia Tech
MP: GT - 17, UM - 10
AR: GT - 30, UM - 23

The Hurricanes finally manage to score more than one touchdown against a decent opponent, but unfortunately, they managed just one on offense (with two minutes left, down by two scores). Miami is done.

#7 Mays at #5 St. Pius X
MP: SPX - 21, MHS - 17
AR: MHS - 21, SPX - 13

Much like Clemson, St. Pius was forced to play a huge game just one week after a resounding win against a ranked opponent. And I hate to keep bringing this up, but I think I’d rather lose to the #7 team in AAAA by a touchdown than beat Richmond Hill in overtime any day.

#9 Warner Robins at #5 Tift County
MP: WRHS - 24, TCHS - 23
AR: TCHS - 17, WRHS - 10

Tift forces a three-way tie atop the Region 1 standings. This week’s game against Lowndes may clear up the region picture a little bit. The key word here is “may”.

Effingham County at #3 Statesboro
MP: SHS - 17, ECHS - 7
AR: SHS - 10, ECHS - 0

Even though they got shut out, the Rebels may have proven that they will be a force to be reckoned with come playoff time. Are we sure Statesboro didn’t just have two, 24-minute scoring drives? They’re pretty good at that time of possession stuff.

Georgia (+14) at #9 Florida
MP: UF - 31, UGA - 20
AR: UF - 21, UGA - 14

Georgia showed a lot of guts in a game marred by mistakes from both sides. And the mistakes the Bulldogs made in getting down by three touchdowns just proved more costly than the ones the Gators made that let the game get interesting again.