{"id":19,"date":"2006-10-06T11:15:17","date_gmt":"2006-10-06T15:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/locustfork.net\/southerner.net\/?p=19"},"modified":"2012-08-03T02:37:17","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T02:37:17","slug":"college-football-preview-big-game-on-the-bayou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/2006\/10\/06\/college-football-preview-big-game-on-the-bayou\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Preview: Big Game On The Bayou"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Paul Rockne<\/strong><\/p>\n

When two of the top 10 teams in the nation, both undefeated, go head to head, it\u2019s always a big game and that\u2019s the case this Saturday night in Gainesville, Fla. In what is the showcase game of the SEC this week and one of the top games nationally as well, No. 9 LSU invades The Swamp to take on Coach Urban Meyers\u2019 No. 5 Florida Gators.<\/p>\n

LSU will be trying to beat Florida three straight seasons for the first time since 1980 and it will be counting on a stingy defense to get the job done. The Bayou Tigers are ranked No 1 in total defense and No. 2 in scoring defense \u2013 in the nation as well as the SEC.<\/p>\n

Those ranking should be challenged by the Gators. Florida ranks first in the SEC in total offense, led by quarterback Chris Leak, who is now executing Meyer\u2019s spread option offense with high efficiency.<\/p>\n

LSU\u2019s game plan will be to do what it did last year \u2013 put a hurtin\u2019 on Leak, thus crippling the Gator offense. The Tigers came close to completely shutting Leak down in last year\u2019s 21-17 LSU victory, sacking him four times and harassing him into an 11-for-30 passing day for a career-low 106 yards.<\/p>\n

LSU has also vowed to be a little more air-minded on offense. With its offense somewhat limited in early games by Coach Les Miles\u2019 stubbornness about running the ball regardless of the situation, the 7-3 loss to Auburn changed some minds \u2013 including Miles.<\/p>\n

Miles said earlier this week that while it was a painful and costly way to learn, LSU had learned its lesson and it was a learning experience that will pay dividends down the road \u2013 in other words, if you\u2019ve got a quarterback like JaMarcus Russell (who hails from Mobile), use him.<\/p>\n

Another big game this week in the SEC pits No. 13 Tennessee against No. 10 Georgia in Athens. This game will keep Tennessee in the East Division picture with a win or eliminate the Vols early with a loss. Some good news for Tennessee: the Vols lead the series 7-5 when both teams are ranked in the top 25.<\/p>\n

Alabama should easily improve to 4-2 Saturday as the Tide hosts inept Duke. The Tide is such a big favorite that the game is not on TV except for pay-for-view. Bama is a 28 point favorite.
\nThis week\u2019s college football TV schedule kicks off tonight, Friday, with Louisville vs. Middle Tennessee at 7 p.m. on ESPN2). Saturday\u2019s weekend TV lineup, other than pay-for-view is as follows:<\/p>\n

Arkansas at Auburn, 11 a.m. (CBS)
\nClemson at Wake Forest, 11 a.m. (ESPN)
\nPurdue at Iowa, 11 a.m. (ESPNU)
\nTexas A&M at Kansas, 11:30 a.m. (FOXSS)
\nVMI at Army, 11:30 a.m. (ESPNCLASSIC)
\nStanford at Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m. (NBC)
\nWashington at Southern Cal, 2:30 pp.m. (FOXSS)
\nTexas at Oklahoma, 2:30 p.m. (ABC)
\nLSU at Florida, 2:30 p.m. (CBS)
\nBowling Green at Ohio State, 2:20 p.m. (CSS)
\nMaryland at Georgia Tech, 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
\nMichigan State at Michigan, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
\nFurman at Coastal Carolina, 6 p.m. (CSS)
\nSouth Carolina at Kentucky, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
\nCentral Michigan at Toledo, 6 p.m. (ESPNU)
\nMissouri at Texas Tech, 6 p.m. (TBS)
\nTennessee at Georgia, 6:45 p.m. (ESPN)
\nOregon at California, 7 p.m. (ABC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Paul Rockne When two of the top 10 teams in the nation, both undefeated, go head to head, it\u2019s always a big game and that\u2019s the case this Saturday night in Gainesville, Fla. In what is the showcase game…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[83,196],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sec","tag-florida","tag-lsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2zaJq-j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3365,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions\/3365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southerner.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}