Week 5

Auburn

• Well, that wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't a game I expected the Tigers to win, so I'll take a Top 25, SEC road win any day. 
• Stephen Garcia is by far my favorite Auburn player. Man just knows how to get the Auburn defense going and make big plays.
• In all seriousness, the defense really did look much better, but don't get carried away. There was really only one task for the game- stop Marcus Lattimore. If you can do that, the Gamecocks don't have much to fall back on, because Garcia is not a playmaker, and Alshon Jeffery can't make plays until the ball is in his general vicinity. Give credit to the formerly much-maligned Ted Roof for seeing and attacking this weakness. Roof schemed to stop the SEC's leading rusher, and put pressure on the nation's worst 4 year starter. Perfect game plan, pretty solid execution. The tackling looked much better, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
• Speaking of room for improvement, that offense. Woof! Barrett Trotter had far and away his poorest performance yet, the offensive line didn't help, and if not for those rock-solid, stumpy legs of Mike Dyer and the undying will to win of the man they call Lutz, the great defensive effort would have been for naught. 
• Dyer didn't have his best game (for some reason the off-tackle, pulling guard run that has produced most of his TD's was not to be found), but he helped Auburn dominate the time of possession for the first time this season and beat Marcus Lattimore at his own game. Those little legs just don't stop going, and that was huge for Auburn this week. Interesting that we saw that much Dyer and almost no Tre Mason. Shows how big the confidence gap of the coaches is. 
• Lutz's strip to cause the fumble after the interception may be the biggest play thus far in the season for Auburn. No, I haven't already forgotten the Utah State onside kick or late game heroics against Mississippi State, but this game was a huge for the Tigers as far as confidence goes, especially starting a streak of four games against top 25 opponents. Huge, heady, gritty play from Lutz at a critical point in the game. I know Dyer was great, but Lutz gets the player of the game for that play along with the go ahead touchdown.
• The discussion of the 1 second at the end of the game is absolutely moot. There is no way that South Carolina could have gotten the kicking team on the field, snapped the ball, and still had any shot of making the field goal, all in one second. Don't even get me started on trying to spike it first.
• Give huge props to the special teams again. The SEC did. Steven Clark was SEC Special Teamer of the Week after pinning the Cocks inside their fifteen yard line 5 times, with great hang time and perfect placement. With the exception of the missed PAT, Cody Parkey was again very solid, putting kickoff after kickoff in the endzone. Remember a couple years ago when people were calling for Jay Boulware's head. How quickly things change.

 SEC

• Wow, Alabama. I expected the Tide to take care of Florida, and I didn't expect it to be very close, but wow. Bama looked phenomenal in all aspects of the game. AJ McCarron wasn't great, but he didn't need to be, and he will never need to be. With Trent Richardson and possibly the best defense in the country, this team looks to be bound for New Orleans....
• Unless LSU has something to say about it. The Bayou Bengals had another impressive performance against Kentucky, but then again, who hasn't? A November 5th matchup in Tuscaloosa could very well determine the National Champion.
• Florida may be in trouble. If John Brantley misses significant time, the Gators could potentially lose three in a row. With LSU, Auburn, and Georgia in the next three weeks, things look a bit bleak for Will Muschamp and Co. 
• Speaking of Georgia, the Bulldogs season took a dramatic turn for the optimistic this weekend. Murray and the gang took care of Mississippi State and then watched both South Carolina and Florida fall, placing Georgia firmly in the driver's seat in the SEC East. As I said last week, Mark Richt may yet save his job.
• The Arkansas offense is quite good. The defense is not. Petrino's Hogs welcomed Texas A&M to the conference rudely with an impressive comeback win. Tyler Wilson passed for many football fields and Jarius Wright was 8 yards short of South Carolina's entire offensive output, and he only gets to touch the ball when Wilson says so.
• Tennessee and Ole Miss won games against Buffalo and Fresno State, as they should have. I suppose nothing is certain with Houston Nutt and the Bears errr Rebels these days.

Other, worse conferences

• Ok Wisconsin, I'm slowly coming around. Saturday's destruction of their new conference mate  Huskers was enough to get my attention. As I said last week, this is the best Badger team in recent memory, and they may actually deserve the praise they are getting this year. Looking at the schedule, Russell Wilson and Montee Ball shouldn't have too much trouble running through the rest of the Big 10(?) schedule, though others may have to fall for the Badgers to end up in the National Championship game.
• How bout a pretty great 3 weeks for the Fighting Dabos? Clemson knocked off a ranked opponent in impressive fashion for the third week in a row. This week, Virginia Tech was the victim. Not much more to say here. If the Tigers don't win the ACC, I'm not sure anyone will be surprised based on their track record. To say they are the conferences best team, however, would be an understatement.
• Remember what I said last week about not getting sold too quickly on South Florida? I am a genius. The bulls trounced by a mediocre Pitt team.
• Baylor fell to Kansas State, something I definitely didn't expect. Robert Griffin's interception late may have cost the Bears the game. Don't expect it to happen again. I swear, this time, Baylor really is good. I don't care if I said that every year since Griffin was a freshman. This time I really mean it.
• Big Red River Shootout coming up this weekend. I'm still not buying in on Texas, but I would like to see them at least give the Sooners a challenge.
• Conference USA football is not high quality.