NCAAF - SEC Bets - Week 8

10/16/2023

Week 7 was filled with storylines across the SEC. We'll begin with the injury to Georgia's star tight end Brock Bowers, who was a dark horse Heisman candidate before suffering an ankle injury in the first half of their win over Vanderbilt. Bowers has already undergone surgery to his ankle and is expected to recover in four to six weeks. But no one knows if he'll actually play another college game or if he'll save himself to be fully healthy for the NFL combine.

As far as on-field results from Saturday, we began the day with Alabama nearly choking away a 24-6 lead at home against Arkansas. This is clearly not the type of Alabama team we're used to seeing under Nick Saban, but we'll see if they're able to continue sneaking by as their schedule toughens up the next couple weeks.

The afternoon slot featured Tennessee getting an ugly, hard-nosed win against Texas A&M by a score of 20-13. It was Josh Heupel's first win at Tennessee while scoring fewer than 30 points, as well as the first time his team overcame a halftime deficit to win. It's a positive sign for the Vols that they were able to rely on their defense to win a big game where their offense never really got going, something that would have been inconceivable to imagine during last season.

Florida also got a massive win over South Carolina in the afternoon window in a 41-39 shootout in Columbia. The Gators scored two touchdowns in the final five minutes to knock off the Gamecocks. While neither team is particularly good, Florida has pieced together a solid 5-2 record at this point in the season. However, they'll be hard pressed to find many more wins on their schedule. Outside of a home game against Arkansas, their other remaining four opponents are all ranked in the top 20, including #1 Georgia and #4 Florida State.

As for South Carolina, Shane Beamer's seat has gotten even hotter (and his foot even sorer) after yet another loss. It's starting to look like their hot stretch to end last season was more of a fluke than an indication of their future. At 2-4 with two even tougher games upcoming, they're in danger of a 2-6 start to the season - not what South Carolina fans were picturing entering the year.

Now on to the night games, one of which I attended. First, Missouri took a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter at Kentucky and spent the final three quarters of the game on a 38-7 run. Kentucky has made themselves irrelevant for this season as far as I'm concerned after back-to-back blowout losses to follow their 5-0 start. The Tigers continue to trend in the right direction, but we'll get a better feel for them when they face Georgia and Tennessee in consecutive weeks after their next game.

As for the other two Tigers, they faced off against each other in Baton Rouge, and I was able to attend my first game in Death Valley. LSU dominated the entire game, and if their defense can continue to play like they did this weekend, they're a force to be reckoned with. Auburn was bad defensively and equally bad on offense, and the game was never really close. A night game in Death Valley was a cool experience for sure, but due to the nature of the game, the crowd wasn't quite as raucous as I had hoped. For now, I must say that Neyland Stadium is still the loudest stadium in which I've witnessed a game.

After all the drama of Week 7, here is how Ryne and I have ranked the 14 teams of the SEC:

On to our challenge now, the whole reason everyone is reading. Micah has overtaken Alex to gain the top spot through seven weeks. Alex predicted his own downfall by informing me of his uncertainty surrounding each of the games when he sent me his picks last week. There's still time for any of us to catch up, but it will be much tougher for the three of us behind Alex.

We have just five games to pick this week, four of which are SEC on SEC action. The biggest game by far is #17 Tennessee at #11 Alabama at 3:30 on CBS. It's a very highly anticipated rematch from last season's epic thriller, but should play out much differently than 52-49. I think it'll be decided by which defense forces more chaos - or which quarterback makes more mistakes.

Mississippi State will travel to Arkansas, South Carolina faces #20 Missouri, and #13 Ole Miss takes on Auburn. #19 LSU will host our beloved Army, but may not treat them with the respect they deserve. It's the game with the largest spread of the week by a wide margin.

Here are our picks for the Week 8 games. Follow the consensus and good luck to everyone's teams and their wagers.

Mississippi State at Arkansas (ARK -7.0, O/U 49.5)