Randy Smith
While the Florida Gators and the LSU Tigers sat dormant, refusing to come to an agreement over rescheduling their game postponed by Hurricane Mathew, the rest of the SEC moved ahead and staged another memorable week. While the twelve other schools in the league are moving forward, the Southeastern Conference has completely dropped the ball by not forcing the two schools to settle this in a timely matter. In the meantime, this weekend is the "ThirdSaturday in October" and Tennessee and Alabama fans all know what that means.
Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina and Texas A&M are idle this week.
Ole Miss at Arkansas
The Johnny Rebs have almost been forgotten with all the excitement created by Tennessee and Texas A&M the past few weeks.
This is a good football team, one that is still very much alive in the SEC West race. Arkansas is also a very good football team, but they're off to an 0-2 start in league play. Granted, those two SEC losses have been to Alabama and Texas A&M and I think the Hogs are too good to be 0-3 in SEC play. A lot of strange things have happened on the "Third
Saturday in October" outside Knoxville or Tuscaloosa. I see an upset in Fayetteville.
Arkansas 37 Ole Miss 34
Missouri at Florida
I hope the unintended week off helped the Gators get some rest for their injured players. Quarterback Luke Del Rio is scheduled to play this weekend against Missouri among others who have been out for a while. Missouri is trying to bounce back from a devastating 42-7 loss at LSU two weeks ago. They had a scheduled week off last week, and they could have some surprises in store for the Gators this week in " The Swamp." I would imagine every single U.T. fan out there will be pulling for the Missouri Tigers this weekend against the Gators. And with the loathing heard from other fans of other SEC programs, Missouri may have many more pulling for the upset.
Florida 23 Missouri 20
Vanderbilt at Georgia
The Bulldogs aren't counting themselves out of the SEC East title chase just yet. Though the 'Dawgs have a pair of league losses, there is still a lot of football to be played, and with Alabama being favored to beat Tennessee this weekend a win over Vandy and a Vols loss would bring the two teams to a tie in the standings. The Volunteers would get the nod as SEC East champs because of their win over Georgia, but as I already stated, there is still a lot of football remaining. Meanwhile in Nashville, the seat under Coach Derek Mason is getting hotter and hotter. Nothing would cool it off better than a Commodore upset win over the Bulldogs.
Georgia 27 Vanderbilt 14
Mississippi State at BYU (Friday)
The Bulldogs of coach Dan Mullen were soundly beaten last week at home by an improving Auburn squad. We all knew that this would be a rebuilding season for MSU with a lot of young players seeing playing time. Brigham Young is 3-3 on the year so far and both teams get the extra exposure of being the only game played on Friday night to start the weekend. The only bad part about this....the game doesn't begin until 10:15 EST. Still, it's a great opportunity for both schools. BYU is also riding a two game winning streak.
Mississippi State 31 BYU 30
Alabama at Tennessee
I ran across an Alabama fan last weekend while we were camping in the Smokies. I actually ran across several 'Bama fans but this one stopped to gloat when he saw my Tennessee cap. Out of the blue, he screamed "Roll Tide.....we're going to spank y'all next weekend." I responded by saying, "Y'all might beat us, but you're not going to spank us." This is the kind of overconfidence and cockiness that makes it very easy to dislike Alabama. Yes, the Crimson Tide has a nine game winning streak, but I imagine the Tide fans don't remember the Vols nine game streak in the 1990s. That's why they hated Phillip Fulmer so much. They couldn't beat him. Tennessee fans don't actually hate Nick Saban. Most of them have a lot of respect for him, including yours truly. (Lane Kiffin however is another story.) Saban has built an insanely good program on the Capstone, and they will be good for years to come. But Alabama is not perfect and every so often, they don't play as well as they should. They will make a key mistake every now and then in a close game against a good team and suddenly they have their backs to the wall. This what Tennessee fans are hoping for. Alabama is favored to beat those resilient Volunteers by ten points, but this is not the same Tennessee squad that blew a lead late last season and lost to the Tide by five points. A complete four quarter effort by the Volunteers is the only way I see a Tennessee win, and then again if Alabama continues to play almost perfect football it may not matter.
Alabama 34 Tennessee 31
Last Week: 4-1
Year to Date: 45-12
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.