Hurricane Ike may have given us a brief stay of execution, but the dirty bastard did us no scheduling favors. The next four weeks of Razorback football —Alabama, at Texas, Florida, at Auburn — could be the hardest four weeks of the last few seasons, for player and fan alike.
• Playing Kansas on Friday night, South Florida coach Jim Leavitt found a way to win in the best comeback we’re likely to see this season, and that’s saying a lot coming from a Razorbacks fan.
• Tennessee Volunteers head coach Phil Fulmer pretty much lives on the hottest seat in the conference, but the Vols’ shaky loss to UCLA in week two only looks worse after the middling BYU put the hurt on the Bruins last Saturday. What for the Vols should have been a quality nonconference win turned into a tough loss. With the exception of USC, the Pac-10 looks dicey.
• Which means that we can’t know how good USC is until they’re playing an SEC team in the national championship.
• Who knew that you could get injured on a football field without ever having actually played the game? Charlie Weis will only look more hopeless on the sidelines from this point on…. I just hope he doesn’t end up in a wheelchair.
• Skip Holtz will have to do better than barely squeaking past Tulane if East Carolina’s gonna remain the story of the season. Maybe he should spend less time having uncomfortably staged chats with his daddy on ESPN’s College Gameday.
• We’ve all seen some bone-headed play-calling in our time, but Mississippi State’s inability to punch it into the end zone last week against Auburn had less to do with former Tiger defensive coordinator Will Muschamp’s leaving than Sly Croom’s lack of imagination. The Bulldogs are the only team in the conference that I’m absolutely sure we’ll beat. Meanwhile, the Tigers’ “spread offense” is becoming something of a running gag. If Tuberville really wants it to work, he’s going to need to start Kodi Burns. That Todd fellow couldn’t spread Country Crock. Leading your team to a 3-2 head-scratcher over Mississippi A&M might as well be a loss.
• Speaking of defense, South Carolina exposed Georgia this past weekend, holding the over-hyped Knowshon Moreno to 79 yards in 20 carries. When the Gamecocks defense emerged as a power last year, at least the John Updike look-a-like Blake Mitchell was capable of sporadic brilliance. This year, Spurrier’s offense couldn’t put points on the board if the Head Ball Coach himself got under center. Nota bene: Ellis Johnson was only defensive coordinator at Arkansas for about a month, but Petrino’s judgment looks pretty good from this angle, huh? Maybe there is hope for Willy Robinson.
• Chase Daniel is a lock for the Heisman. 23/28. 405 yards. 4 touchdowns. Wow.
• Former Hog Mitch Mustain got his first real playing time at quarterback since leaving the Hogs for USC in early 2007. He came onto the field to run down the clock while starter Mark Sanchez primped for the cameras.
• Damian Williams, on the other hand, made his debut as a stud, catching two touchdowns.
• When did breaking weather coverage become more intrusive than a map in the corner of the frame and a beeping line across the top of the screen?
• How has John Parker Wilson become the all-time leader in total offense in Alabama history? His 215 yards and two touchdowns last week apparently did that for him, but fans won’t be breaking out the Bama-banged bronze busts until he at least leads them to a BCS bowl. That path leads through Arkansas on Saturday, and I think we have a genuine shot at crumbling some dreams.