Week 12 Picks

Yep for the first time this season Auburn is off for the weekend as they prepare for the end-of-season battle with Bama. Over at Track'em they are trying to raise hopes for the Bama game. Come on guys, come on. It is not going to happen but hey keep trying. However if Chris Todd were to lead an upset of Bama it would make the "Miracle on Ice" look like just another game. I will wait for the picks next week to elaborate but Auburn obviously does not match up with Bama at all. I have talked to Bama fans that say though that their coverage teams are really bad and Auburn might could get something there. I agreed with that since we will be returning a LOT of kickoffs in the game...

I would like to spend just a minute here getting one thing off my chest. You know it is great that taking a spin around most Auburn blogs is an exercise in never ending optimism. Optimism is good and what fuels fans of any type when their team is down. However when you turn to analysis and can't take off the orange and blue glasses or crimson glasses or whatever then you are not a good analyst. Also if you are prognosticating but your answer is always positive (or negative) then you are not really predicting anything. You are just cheerleading. Unfortunately that is about all I see written about Auburn, cheerleading. Let me be real clear here, if I don't believe Chris Todd is a good quarterback and I do not believe Gene Chizik is a good coach that does not make me one bit a worse fan than a sunshine pumping cheerleader.

I am a bit sick of people insinuating otherwise. I will compare my Auburn credentials with ANYBODY. First I "wear the ring" and my entire family does as well. I went to just about every home game from 1983 through 2001 (and a whole lot of away games). I am an Auburn man and I love Auburn. However that does not stop me from saying that I think Jay Jacobs is the worst athletic director we have ever had. That will not stop from saying that I do not think Gene Chizik is the second coming of Pat Dye or Shug Jordan but much more resembles Doug Barfield in my opinion. I also think Gus Malzahn and the entire staff is overrated at this point. I hope I am wrong but that will not prevent me from saying what I think. I thought that was what blogging was for.

I do not think we will win a championship at any point running this offense (and by the way Malzahn did NOT win an Conference USA championship either having the #1 offense in the country but lost BOTH years in the championship game). Our recent recruiting victories are genuine reasons to be more hopeful however if we do not bring in some serious beef on both lines all the skill players in the world will not matter. Let me say that again, unless we can bring in some big, strong talented offensive linemen and defensive tackles we will not have a chance at winning the West. I see things are looking up a bit on the offensive line recruiting and that is really the first thing in awhile that gets me excited. So there, I ended on a positive note...

To the picks. I went 4-1 last week to go to 36-9 for the season in games against BCS competition. I only missed on Auburn but correctly predicted that Ole Miss would take out Tennessee. Anytime Houston Nutt's back is against the wall and he is a heavy underdog you can almost guarantee he will get a big win. Here is what we have for this week...

OLE MISS OVER LSU... See above comments. LSU is still beat up from the Bama game and Ole Miss is playing much better.

GEORGIA OVER KENTUCKY... Georgia should hang on to take care of Kentucky although it will probably not be pretty to watch.

TENNESSEE OVER VANDY... Tennessee took a big loss last week but Vandy is back to being absolutely awful.

ARKANSAS OVER MISS ST... I look for State to continue to play better than expected but Ryan Mallett is the best player in the game and is at home.

In other action you will have Bama over UT-Chat and Florida over FIU. Auburn and South Carolina are open this week.