Every week the SEC produces a slate of games that's fascinating to watch, both purely for entertainment reasons and to see how the outcomes affect the fortunes of our Hogs. So, starting today I'll be using my carefully honed football knowledge (basically I read a few blogs) to predict the winner of each game and note what the optimal result for Arkansas will be.
(Also, I should note that while we're fortunate to have Rasputin as our in-house prognosticator for Razorback games, his unwillingness to use his powers to predict the results of other contests is legendary, so for my own safety I didn't dare ask him to assist with this exercise.)
So, follow me after the jump for the complete can't miss breakdown:
Mississippi State vs Auburn
Who Will Win: Obviously this game is already in the past, but I would have picked Auburn here. Honest.
Who We Want to Win: A victory by the Bulldogs would have been much better for our purposes. The Tigers are more of a threat to the Razorbacks in the SEC West, so saddling them with an early loss would have been great. Oh well.
South Carolina vs Georgia
Who Will Win: The consequences of this one are huge: the winner of this game will be in the SEC East driver's seat, and the loser will start to feel like their season is over before it even began. It'll be a hard-fought battle, but I'm looking for Georgia to pull it out in the end (even without the suspended A.J. Green, who I expect to be reinstated in time to play Arkansas).
Who We Want to Win: Definitely, definitely, definitely the Bulldogs. Beating Georgia in Athens will be hard enough without the Dawgs feeling like they have to make a furious last stand to save their season from an 0-2 conference start.
Penn State vs Alabama
Who Will Win: Nick Saban is probably licking his chops at the thought of Joe Paterno bringing a freshman QB down to Tuscaloosa. Even missing a couple of key players, the Tide should roll here.
Who We Want to Win: Alabama. We want the Tide to be a massively hyped undefeated #1 by the time they show up in Razorback Stadium later this month.
LSU vs Vanderbilt
Who Will Win: Les Miles might find a way to make this closer than it should be, but I don't see the Tigers losing this one.
Who We Want to Win: Vanderbilt (for the same reason we wanted Mississippi State to win), but don't get your hopes up.
Ole Miss vs Tulane
Who Will Win: The Rebels are ready to show the world they're not as terrible as they looked in the 4th quarter of the Jacksonville State game.
Who We Want to Win: Nutt haters, you need to suck it up and root for Mississippi here. Another early loss would only increase the odds of HDN pulling a vintage upset out of his bag of tricks when he faces the Hogs.
Tennessee vs Oregon
Who Will Win: Oregon, and it could get ugly.
Who We Want to Win: I know we're supposed to pull for SEC teams against non-conference opponents under any circumstances and all that, but I have a hard time ever rooting for the Vols. Sorry...blame it on 1998.
Florida vs South Florida
Who Will Win: I expect the Gators to fix most of the offensive ineptitude that plagued them last weekend and walk away with a fairly easy win here.
Who We Want to Win: See my above comments about Tennessee.
Kentucky vs Western Kentucky
Who Will Win: The Wildcats will make this look as easy as John Calipari scooting out of town to avoid NCAA probation.
Who We Want to Win: Remember at the beginning of this post when I called SEC games "fascinating"? Well, this one is the exception that proves the rule. Might as well pull for UK, though.